The Suicide Collection 7/12

This morning, we went to one of the most impressive institutions in the world, the British Museum. I spent the time before our tour revisiting the mummy collection (which always makes me think of The Mummy {“I am a librarian!”}), the clock collection, the early European collection, and the modern Africa collection. There is so much to see at the British Museum!

Then, we got a tour of the archives from Stephanie, the Archivist. The archives are located in the bowels of the British Museum, and we got to travel though some off limits part of the museum to get there, which was really cool.

I don’t know what I was expecting from the British Museum Archives, but it was smaller than I had anticipated. That makes sense, though because almost all of the documents held by the British Museum moved to the British Library when it was spun off. Now, the collection is made up primarily of the Trustee Minutes, which date back to 1753. Apparently these minutes talk about everything, from who’s showing up drunk to meetings, to who isn’t getting along with whom. An attached letter I got to look at described a very rude patron who was disrespecting attendants in the Reading Room.

So, the Minutes will often have letters written to the Director attached, but there’s also a set of letter books that collect transcriptions of everything the Director sent out of the office, so you can read the whole story. It must be fascinating to track some of the conversations about acquisitions or Museum problems.

 

The collection also contains about 12,000 photographs of the Museum and its collections. We got to see some photographs that were taken to be viewed through a stereoscope, which makes them 3D. See? Technology has always been around longer than you think.

Some of the pictures in the collection are of the Museum after a shell hit the coins gallery in WWII. Stephanie told us that during the bombings, the curators packed up most of the collection and stowed it away in country houses and quarries. The only objects left on display for viewers were those deemed less important or disposable. This was known as the “Suicide Collection.” Um, has anyone written the book on that? I would totally read that book!

 

The collection also contains records about the Museum’s exhibits, including the posters, leaflets, etc., and photographs and plans for the display. Some of the older folders even contained paint samples for the displays. It’s cool that the Museum makes a point of saving that information for prosperity.

There’s also a collection of paperwork concerning the building and the property, itself. We saw the building plans for the current Museum, and even saw the deed for the property when made out to its previous owners in 1694. Apparently, for each signature needed on the deed, a wax seal had to be affixed for each signature, or it wasn’t valid. The More You Know.

The other thing that the archives house are the signature logs from the Reading Room. They have the request form and signature of everyone who has requested to do research there, from 1790-1973. Some of the highlights that we got to see were Karl Marx, Bram Stoker, Beatrix Potter, and T.S. Elliot.

When we left, I couldn’t stop thinking about how cool it must be to be the librarian for such a unique collection.