Three Centuries of a City Library / an Historical and Descriptive Account of the Norwich Public Library Established in 1608 and the present Public Library opened in 1857

by Geo. A. Stephen

NORFOLK AND NORWICH PHOTOGRAPHIC SURVEY.

A valuable adjunct to the Local Collection is the Norfolk and Norwich Photographic Survey Record which was inaugurated in January, 1913. Shortly after the disastrous flood in Norfolk and Norwich during August, 1912, the Committee favourably considered a report from the City Librarian on the collection of photographs of everything interesting, valuable and characteristic of Norfolk and Norwich. A conference was convened between a Sub-Committee of the Public Library Committee and representatives of the local learned and scientific societies on 13th January, 1913, and ultimately a comprehensive scheme was adopted. It is carried out by the Public Library in collaboration with the Norwich and District Photographic Society and other local scientific societies, with the following

object: “To preserve by permanent photographic process, records of antiquities, art, architecture, geology and palæontology, natural history, passing events of local or historical importance, portraits, old documents, prints, and characteristic scenery of the county of Norfolk.” The photographs contributed to the Survey become the property of the Public Library, under the care of the City Librarian, who is the Secretary and Curator of the Survey. The Public Library has undertaken the responsibility of the mounting, storage and cataloguing of the photographs. The Collection is increased by donations of prints, and the purchase of prints from money specially subscribed for the purpose.

With the view of stimulating public interest in the Photographic Survey, and of acquainting persons with the scope and methods of photographic survey work, Mr. L. Stanley Jast, who was then the Chief Librarian of the Croydon Public Libraries, and the Hon. Curator of the Surrey Photographic Survey, delivered a public lecture with lantern illustrations to a large audience at Blackfriars’ Hall on 24th January, 1913. The first exhibition of photographs illustrative of the work of the survey was arranged by the City Librarian, and was held in the new Exhibition Room at the Library during December, 1913. An illustration of the room, from a photograph taken during the exhibition, faces this page. The opening ceremony was performed by Mr. Russell J. Colman, D.L., J.P., the President of the Survey, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor of Norwich (Mr. James Porter) who was accompanied by the Lady Mayoress and the Sheriff (Mr. C. T. Coller). The collection of photographs, which commenced in May, 1913, increased at a rapid rate, and although the work of the Survey has been practically at a standstill since the beginning of the war, the collection numbers 1,847 mounted prints and 59 lantern slides. The technique of the photographs reaches a very high standard, the majority of them are platinotypes, and many are of whole-plate size. The collection will undoubtedly be of service to antiquaries, historians, architects, geologists, naturalists, photographers, artists, and all lovers of the beautiful in nature and art, and it will also be of inestimable value to posterity.

LECTURES, READING-CIRCLES, AND EXHIBITIONS.

For a long period lectures have been regarded as an important part of the educational or “extension” work of organised public libraries throughout the country, but in the case of Norwich lectures were instituted as a means of promoting the extension of the Library itself. As soon as the first stone of the building was laid the Committee in January, 1855, authorised the Secretary to make arrangements for a course of lectures at the Bazaar, St. Andrew’s Street, in order to promote the objects of the Library, and by the April meeting lectures had been given by the Rev. A. B. Power (twice), the Rev. A. Reed, the Rev. J. Compton, the Rev. J. Gould, Mr. J. Fox (twice), Mr. J. H. Tillett, and Professor Edward Taylor, of Gresham College. Charges were made for admission, in aid of the funds of the library, and the net proceeds amounted to about £10, the attendances having been “better than usual at lectures in Norwich.”

In October, 1861, a sub-committee was formed to arrange weekly penny readings, interspersed with lectures, in the large room at the Library on Thursday evenings, and in April of the following year the Secretary reported a net balance in hand of £9 : 6 : 0, which sum was spent on books for the Library. In September, 1863, the Committee evidently intended to continue the penny readings, as it was resolved that Mr. Dowson, a member of the Committee, should have full liberty to make arrangements for conducting the penny readings during the following winter session.

A course of popular lectures in connection with the Library by distinguished scientists was inaugurated by Mr. F. W. Harmer, J.P., F.G.S., F.R.Met.Soc., in the year of his mayoralty, 1888. (Parenthetically it may be remarked that he has the distinction of being the oldest member of the Public Library Committee, he having served on it continuously since 1880.) Hoping to place the scheme on a permanent basis, Mr. Harmer suggested the appointment of a Committee of the Corporation to carry out arrangements for a yearly series of similar lectures on science by distinguished men, under the provisions of the Gilchrist Trust, and the matter

was referred to the Library Committee. The first of these series, delivered early in 1889 by Sir Robert Ball, Dr. Lant Carpenter, Dr. Andrew Wilson, Professor Miall, Professor Seeley, and the Rev. Dr. Dallinger, were “crowned with complete success.” Under the management of the Committee another course was delivered during the following winter, when the lecturers were Sir Robert Ball, Dr. Andrew Wilson, Mr. Louis Fagan, and Mr. Henry Seebohm, and two lectures were given during the winter of 1890-91, by Sir Robert Ball and Dr. Andrew Wilson respectively. Unfortunately, for reasons of economy, these were supplemented by a series by local gentlemen (which were given in Blackfriars’ Hall), but the result was the reverse of successful, and led eventually to the abandonment of the original scheme. Lectures by Sir Robert Ball and Dr. Andrew Wilson, with others by local gentlemen were given, however, in the winter of 1892-93, and in the following winter by Sir Robert Ball, Dr. Andrew Wilson, and Dr. Drinkwater. No lectures were given in the winter of 1893-94 as the University Extension Lectures then inaugurated were regarded as sufficient, but these appealed to a different class, and never took the place of the others.

In that year the Committee-room was in frequent use by three public circles of the Norwich Branch of the National Home Reading Union, and by the Norwich Students’ Association, which again used the room in 1894-95. The National Home Reading Union continued to use the room for several years.

Lectures organised by the Committee were again revived in 1916 on the occasion of the Tercentenary of the death of Shakespeare, when the following lectures were delivered at the Technical Institute, the lecture room at the Library being too small for the purpose: “Shakespeare as National Hero,” by Sir Sidney Lee, D.Litt., F.B.A.; “Shakespeare and the English Ideal,” [84] by the Dean of Norwich (The Very Rev. H. C. Beeching, D.D., D.Litt.); “Shakespeare and Music,” by Mr. A. Batchelor, M.A.; “Dramatic Companies in Norwich of Shakespeare’s Time,” by Mr. L. G. Bolingbroke; and “The Plant Lore of Shakespeare,”

by Mr. Edward Peake. For the first two lectures one shilling was charged for admission, and the net proceeds were sent to the Jenny Lind Hospital in Norwich (£7 : 12 : 6) and the Camps Library (£8 : 5 : 6). The remaining lectures were free, but collections were taken on behalf of the Camps Library, and £3 : 19 : 6 was received.

The Shakespeare Tercentenary was also commemorated by an exhibition in the Reading Room, consisting of books, prints and other material illustrative of the life and works of Shakespeare. The prints were arranged in groups as follows: Portraits, Shakespeare’s country, Contemporaries, Actors, Costume, Music, Pictorial illustrations of Shakespeare, Elizabethan London, and Shakespeare Memorials.

In connection with the Gray bicentenary, which took place on December 26th, 1916, the Dean of Norwich, who is a member of the Public Library Committee, delivered a lecture on Thomas Gray at the Technical Institute on December 15th, when the Deputy Mayor, Alderman H. J. Copeman, J.P. (Chairman of the Public Library Committee), presided. A small exhibition of prints, and works by and about Gray was arranged in the Reading Room.

It is hoped that in future lectures on literary subjects or connected with classes of books in the Library may be arranged from time to time.