The Salopian Summer 2023

34 SCHOOL NEWS
Notes from the Archives and Taylor Library
The Taylor Library has passed through many phases in its
over 400-year history and it continues to evolve steadily
as we make it a more lively part of the School’s intellectual,
cultural and academic life. It began active life in the early
17th century as the School’s working classical and theological
library and has grown over the centuries not only to reflect
the changing curricula, history and intellectual thrust of the
School but also to achieve wide national and international
recognition. We continually ask, how does it enrich the
cultural, intellectual and spiritual life of the School? How
does it reflect the life and history of the School? How can its
riches be nurtured and disseminated to best effect within the
School and beyond? How do we best honour and preserve
this precious legacy and history? These are questions asked
equally insistently by many other University and School
Ancient Libraries. When linked, as it is, with the School’s
fine modern and ancient Archives containing all manner of
precious materials right down the centuries to our founding
Royal Charter under the Royal Seal of Edward VI in February
1552, it amounts to a unique resource. We face in several
directions: into the School; out to a national and international
scholarly and academic community; to the wider Salopian
community; to other schools and our local community; and
to the public at large.
There have been a number of interesting initiatives in recent
months outlined below, that help us along this path.
Taylor Library Catalogue
Our cataloguing project of the Taylor Library Collections is
progressing steadily as we enter rare book details into our
main frame school catalogue system. By the autumn, we
hope to have completed the initial entries of approximately
20 per cent of the total of rare books in the Library, and at
that stage we plan to formally declare the catalogue ‘open’
so that it will be visible inside the School via the Library
catalogue terminals. The next step will be to open the
catalogue to public access via the internet. The main source
has been the eight volumes of handwritten 19th century
catalogues in various headmasterly hands and in several
languages (see below).
Exhibitions
We have staged a number of exhibitions and events within
the School. The latest of these include an exhibition to mark
the 350th anniversary of the birth in 1673 of John Weaver
(OS), renowned as the 18th century pioneer of Dance, Ballet
and Pantomime. I wonder how many Old Salopians know
this. Naomi Nicholas, Assistant Taylor Librarian and Archivist,
describes this exhibition below.
We are currently working on an exhibition about John Taylor,
Fellow of St John’s College Cambridge, Professor of Classics
and briefly Cambridge University Librarian, after whom the
Library is named.
Rare Books Summer School
Another exciting initiative is a collaboration with the
London Rare Books School (LRBS) at London University’s
Institute of English Studies. The idea of a residential
summer school based in the Taylor Library was conceived
this year following a lecture last October in the Library
by Professor David Pearson, the country’s leading book
historian. After some discussions, we met with Andrew
Nash (Director of the London Rare Book School), David
Pearson and Philip Walker (the School’s General Services
Manager) to explore the possibilities. It was decided to
proceed with an initial three-day Summer School in the
Easter Holidays from 10th – 12th April 2024. It will be
available to any member of the public, with probably
around 15 places, and hopefully a couple of free places for
our Sixth Form volunteers in return for helping host the
visitors. This promises to be an exciting new venture and
hopefully the first of many. In addition to providing a rich
learning experience in the Taylor Library, it will help us to
understand key parts of our own collections in more depth
and to make this knowledge more widely available within
the School and Salopian communities.
Pages from the 19th century MS catalogue, much of it in the hand of
Headmaster Butler
Alpha Academy
As part of the School’s emerging link with the Alpha
Academy in Stoke-upon-Trent, we hosted five Junior School
classes all on one day in February for a ‘Darwin-Themed
Experience’ in the Library and on the School Site. This was
brilliantly led by our excellent Upper Sixth volunteers, Mia
Wyatt, Orlando Bayliss and Sam Unsworth, who were greatly
appreciated by the visiting children and staff. We are gearing
up for another Alpha Day in June.
Mia Wyatt (Upper Sixth Archives Volunteer) teaches juniors from Alpha Academy