| Admin History | The origin of the Collection lay in the acquisition by the Library, in 1928 and 1931, of duplicates from the Crawford Library of works on the French Revolution. Built up by the noted bibliophile and collector, Alexander William Crawford (Lindsay), 25th Earl of Crawford and Balcarres (1812-1880), the library had been housed before its dispersal at Haigh Hall, near Wigan, Lancashire. The French Revolution material was not included in the Bibliotheca Lindesiana (1910, 4 vols) as the 26th Earl had intended to devote a whole volume to it, but this was never in fact completed. The Collection has been maintained and extended since its acquisition, and now numbers over 3,500 items. |
| Custodial History | The collection was acquired for the University of Nottingham Library in 1928 and 1931 by the successive University Librarians Professor L.V.D. Owen (1928-1931) and G.E. Flack (1931-1958). |
| Description | The Collection, which is overwhelmingly in French, is primarily concerned with contemporary records of the revolutionary years, from the overthrow of Louis XVI. Its particular strength lies in its holdings of contemporary pamphlets, including journals such as Moniteur, Journal de Paris, and Revolutions de France et Brabant of Camille Desmoulins, and runs of Marat's L'Ami du Peuple. In addition to this core interest the Collection includes a small but interesting collection of works on Napoleon I. This includes the thirty-two volumes of the Correspondence along with many other volumes of letters, memoirs and works on Napoleon's marshals and on the exile at St Helena. Finally, a final small series of periodicals issued during the revolution of 1848 is also present. |