The library collection cared for by the National Trust is one of the most important in the world. These books and manuscripts are vitally important for understanding the ways in which people have acquired, read and treasured the written word over the centuries.
Still largely in their original condition, their undisturbed bindings, bookplates, inscriptions and inserts (letters, pressed flowers, locks of hair) show us how books have historically been used and shared over generations. And because they remain in the places for which they were originally acquired, they can be clearly linked with individual men, women and children, providing the books with personal and intriguing stories.
100 Books from the Libraries of the National Trust, which will be published in April, demonstrates how far the National Trust has come as a library institution in its relatively short history. Its first books arrived in 1909, with the acquisition of Coleridge Cottage and a handful of books donated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s grandson, among others. No one could have comprehended that from this humble beginning the National Trust would one day become a major library institution, with books and manuscripts held at over 200 properties.
It is a vast collection – approaching half a million items – so whittling it down to just 100
