by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 10th December 2019
Early sepia-drenched photographs of Gladstone’s Library I have seen are curious. They are strange portals into a familiar but unfamiliar world. They can also be a bit like dusty moths, lifeless and flattened in the pages of history. I wanted to (amateurly) try and put a bit of colour in one.
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 22nd November 2019
John Moorman (1905 - 1989), Bishop of Ripon, was a leading authority on St Francis of Assisi and the history of the Franciscan Order. After his ordination in 1929, he was curate of Holbeck in Leeds before being appointed rector of Fallowfield in Manchester. During the Second World War, staying true to his pacifist beliefs, he worked as a farmhand in Wharfedale quite literally digging for victory.
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 19th July 2019
We are very lucky here at Gladstone’s Library to have access to around 130,000 printed items in total, including around 6,500 books printed before 1800 and some as early as the 15th Century. The majority of these older books come from a very small proportion of our collections: either our pre-18th Century collection, the Bishop Moorman Franciscan collection, or the Glynne-Gladstone collection. Many of these older books are kept in our Closed Access rooms in order to keep them in the best condition possible – but as a result, regular visitors to the library might not be aware of what treasures lie behind closed doors!
by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 15th May 2019
At Gladstone’s Library we rotate our History Room display every month to focus on a different aspect of our collection. This month we’ve dug out some of our best examples of works published in 1819, exactly 200 years ago, to give you a taste of what people were reading during the Georgian Regency period of British history.
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 05th April 2019
Today when we consider the word ‘romantic’ we think of love and sentimentality, but the term ‘Romanticism’ had a much broader meaning, historically. Romanticism was a period which spanned the late 18th and early 19th centuries, emerging as a response to the disillusionment with the Enlightenment values of reason and order in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789. It covered a range of developments in art, literature, music and philosophy and William Gladstone himself would have been witness to its peak during his lifetime.
by Rhian Waller | Monday, 01st April 2019
Many of our patrons will know that in January 2018, the Library embarked on a three-year project externally funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York under the title of Digital Gladstone. The project aims to fully digitise and catalogue 15,000 nineteenth-century manuscript letters and 5,390 annotated printed books.
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 29th March 2019
While researching for this blog, I found myself on all manner of websites, from the Telegraph to Clarion Review, and the websites of both Cadbury and Godiva.
by Rhian Waller | Monday, 04th February 2019
At Gladstone’s Library we rotate our History Room display every month to focus on an aspect of Gladstone the man, or our extensive library catalogue. This February I decided to give some of our lesser-known collections a little TLC by presenting a display on 'Tales of the Supernatural: The Library’s Hidden Creature Features!' Additionally, to give you all some extra background on this exciting topic, I’m writing this blog for our website.
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by Rhian Waller | Friday, 26th October 2018
Do you know the man behind the building of Gladstone’s Library? Possibly not. His name is John Douglas and he designed, during his life, more than 500 buildings. One of them was St Deiniol's Library, today known as Gladstone’s Library.
by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 18th October 2018
The month of Halloween is in full flow; the nights draw closer, the mornings mistier, and that black cat at the end of the street grows ever more ominous each time you pass. So, as every fancy dress lover’s favourite day of the year looms over us like a pumpkin-shaped apparition, there has never been a more appropriate time to look into the spookier side of our collections here at Gladstone’s Library…
by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 03rd October 2018
Benjamin Disraeli, statesman of the conservative party, novelist, twice-serving Prime Minister and, of course, William Gladstone’s political foe.
by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 25th September 2018
Although not Welsh himself, in 1894 William Ewart Gladstone decided to found his library across the Welsh border for good reason. The beautiful, remote countryside of Hawarden village, as well as nearby historic areas such as Ruthin and Mold, are steeped in culture and Welsh heritage. With an abundance of hills, forests and, of course, castles, as well as the mountain range of Snowdonia, Gladstone envisaged that rather than the congested streets of London, Liverpool or Manchester, North Wales would serve as the perfectly serene backdrop for his incredible legacy as well as provide the necessary air of tranquillity for study and contemplation.
by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 13th September 2018
You may have been on one of our Glimpses (our short tours of the library) before but, I promise you, you haven’t been told about these books yet!
by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 08th August 2018
At Gladstone’s Library we’ve been eagerly consuming the longlists for the 'Man Booker Prize', and its democratic counterpart, the 'Not the Booker Prize' (run by the Guardian), and we’ve spotted some familiar names!
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 06th July 2018
Have you ever wondered what the above symbol is? We use it everywhere - on our website, on our social media, our merchandise, even our business cards – it has, in time, become the symbol for Gladstone’s Library. But what exactly is it a symbol for? Where does it come from and what does it mean?
by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 01st May 2018
The items on show in our Display Cabinet this month have been curated by intern Alex Locke. Entitled ‘The Irish Answer’, the display concentrates on William Gladstone and Irish Home Rule, and shows not only the complexity of the issue, but the many different types of printed matter the subject generated. In this blog, Alex gives us more on one of the major political problems of the 19th Century…
by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 17th April 2018
Before World War II, when the library was only 30 years old, Alec Vidler, the then Warden of St Deiniol’s Library, was preparing for a 'decrease in the number of ordinary visitors', which he called 'inevitable' is his 1938 report to the board of trustees.
by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 15th March 2018
Beware the Ides of March; a saying that can often be heard around this time. But why? Why are we warned to 'beware the Ides of March' and what is the story behind it?
by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 07th March 2018
So, you’re visiting Gladstone's Library for the first time, fantastic! What’s the plan?
We recommend arriving around 11am. Our on-site café and bistro Food for Thought is open to the public (10am - 5pm), and a nice hot cup of coffee is the perfect start to your day.
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 23rd February 2018
In this blog, intern Alex Locke writes about our latest History Room display for the month of March. The display focuses on how our collections at Gladstone's Library – some on display for the first time – can help illustrate one of the most tumultuous events in Western history – the French Revolution. Read on to find out more about how the printed word played a part in this extraordinary event, and how its influence impacted Gladstone's time as much as our own...
by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 18th January 2018
Library Intern Katie Ruffley has curated this month's display which is on W.E. Gladstone's habit of marginalia, or writing in books. In this blog, Katie discusses some of the difficulties faced when trying to create a display about books – as well as the contentiousness of whether to write, or not to write, in the margins...
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by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 18th January 2018
In this blog, library intern Carla Manfredino considers the library used by one of her favourite writers, Argentine author and librarian Jorge Luis Borges, and asks how many of those books could be found on the shelves here in Hawarden...
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 15th December 2017
Gifting the perfect book to a person is one of the great joys of life; creating a perfect partnership which you can just feel in your bones will last.
With that in mind and as a little Christmas treat, the Gladstone's Library team have gathered together some of our books of the year and reading recommends perfect for stockings. If you are still looking for that perfect gift for someone special, we hope you can find inspiration within this guide!
by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 13th December 2017
Following Sarah Perry’s Gladstone Lecture on the subject of Gladstone, Hallam & Tennyson and the Idea of Friendship back in November, Intern Carla Manfredino ruminates on the close alliances between the three…
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by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 06th December 2017
Every month the library team curates a new display for visitors and everyone who uses the library, highlighting the many wonderful collections we have on our shelves. This month, Intern Elspeth Brodie-Browne reflects on our final display of 2017, co-curated with Intern Katie Ruffley, all about the many Christmas traditions here in Wales...
by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 08th November 2017
Every month the library team curates a new display for visitors and everyone who uses the library, highlighting the many wonderful collections we have on our shelves. This month, Intern Elspeth Brodie-Browne has put together an exhibit on one of the great figures of the French Revolutionary period, who died 200 years ago…
by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 24th October 2017
History is littered with bitter rivalries - Sparta and Athens, Lancaster and York, Tom and Jerry. But in recent centuries few have come close to matching the antagonism and divergence in styles that existed between two of Britain’s most significant leaders of the Victorian period, William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli. And what better way to learn about their rivalry than with the aid of every history student’s favourite source, (mostly because it beats sifting through mountains of unrelated papers), the satirical cartoon.
by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 19th October 2017
I know what you're thinking, the title ‘Class mark K’ is pretty vague, but I just didn’t know how else to describe this magical corner of the Annex, where I lost a good hour of my day because of the sheer number of books that I just wanted to delve into...
by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 24th August 2017
The contents of Mary Drew’s diaries have been something of a surprise to me! But the daughter of a four-times Prime Minister, whom later acquired the position of Private Secretary to William Gladstone, did not hide her love of music. So much so, she wrote reviews about the music she listened to, the orchestras she went to see, and her own public and private performances.
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 23rd June 2017
‘Looked into my papers on Homer: & I am strongly tempted to undertake something…’ wrote Gladstone on 7th July 1855, unaware that that ‘something’ would occupy his thoughts for much of the next three years. What began as a small project to be completed while out of office grew to a three volume work: Homer and the Homeric Age (1858).
by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 30th May 2017
Interns at Gladstone’s Library are encouraged to contribute periodic blogs on aspects of William Gladstone, the Library and its collections which really spark their interest or tie in with their own areas of expertise.
With the acquisition of the British Crime Writing Archives at Gladstone’s Library and our first ever Alibis in the Archive event taking place to launch that archive (now SOLD OUT!), Intern Danielle set about coming up with a murder mystery of her own to really get into the criminal spirit of things to come…
by Rhian Waller | Monday, 20th March 2017
My name is Jennifer, I’m 22 years old and I’m the current Swiss intern at Gladstone’s Library. But how did somebody from Switzerland get to work here? Long story...
by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 31st January 2017
1859 saw the publication of many literary works. Charles Dickens, for example, began to publish his journal All The Year Round in which Wilkie Collins’s novel The Woman in White would be serialised in the same year.
by Rhian Waller | Tuesday, 13th December 2016
Most people have heard of the poet Christina Rossetti, sister of the Pre-Raphaelite painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but fewer readers may be aware there was another sister, Maria. Fewer still may know that she was also a published author.
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 07th October 2016
Our founder, William Ewart Gladstone, was not the only famous figure connected to Flintshire. Thomas Pennant, a famous polymath, naturalist and traveller of the Eighteenth Century, was born and lived in Flintshire.
by Rhian Waller | Wednesday, 11th May 2016
I am asked frequently by visitors to Gladstone's Library, and by my friends, what it is that I do during my time here. This blog will give a bit of insight into my routine as the only non-residential intern currently on the team at Gladstone's Library.
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 18th March 2016
Welcome to a new series on the Volume blog, What We're Reading, in which members of the Library team divulge their current reads and what they think of them. This week, it's my turn: Kirsten-Rose Brooks, one of the three library interns, avid reader and aspiring writer.
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 11th March 2016
Dear W.E.G.,
Let me introduce myself: I'm Mary, the greenest Intern in Gladstone's Library, having begun 10 days ago. You may remember me from the 2am chat I had with you on the eve of my interview, when nerves stopped me sleeping and your portrait kept side-eyeing me. As I learn more about this place, I feel I'm getting to know you; let me reciprocate, then, by telling you about my first week here.
by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 17th December 2015
One of the most popular questions we're asked on our Glimpses is ‘did Gladstone live here?’ The answer is no, he didn’t. Sadly, although Gladstone worked so hard to leave his scholarly legacy behind, building his collection from the ground up and helping to design the very shelves within, Gladstone himself never walked through the Hogwarts-like library admiring the wood carving and the silence. That isn’t to say you can't sense his legacy though…
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 13th November 2015
Halloween is well and truly over, the embers of Bonfire Night have dwindled away and now that November is in full swing it’s time to start thinking about what you might like to buy your loved ones for Christmas. Unless you simply ask someone what they’d like, it can be very difficult to decide on the perfect gift. Of course, at Gladstone’s Library we suggest you can rarely go wrong with a good book!
by Rhian Waller | Friday, 31st July 2015
Intern Becky Marvin explores...
by Rhian Waller | Thursday, 06th November 2014
Within the first month of my internship, Siân (one of the previous interns) had embarked upon a day-long bookbinding course. Although I’d spent much of my life around books, as silly as it seems, the thought had never occurred to me that some books were made by human hands. I rather expected all books nowadays to be stamped into existence by a great, clunking, efficient machine. I thought that hand-bound books belonged to the centuries before industry charged into towns and cities and made flesh hands idle and cold metal grind.
by Gladstones Library | Wednesday, 15th October 2014
This is a rare opportunity to join the successful intern programme at Gladstone’s Library. We are proud to say that almost all previous interns have, as a direct result of their experience here,
