Bell's Poets Exhibition

Bell’s Edition 

The Poets of Great Britain Complete, from Chaucer to Churchill 

(109 Volumes).

Further to our previous post, readers of this blog now have an opportunity to see Bell's wonderful edition for themselves – at the University of Tasmania Library, Newnham campus – for a limited time. The Library is open seven days a week (afternoons only on Saturday and Sunday) and our exhibition is opposite the enquiry desk on the ground floor.

There are many remarkable things about this edition:

• Their diminutive size (12.5 x 8cm).
• The quality of the typography, printing, binding and illustrations.
• Their significance in the history of the British publishing industry.
• Their survival intact as a rare complete set after nearly 250 years of use, including 100 years on the shelves of a public library.

And a full appreciation of their beauty can only be gained from seeing them.

As an aside, the Bell's Poets are perfectly suited to display in our handsome travelling cabinet so superbly constructed by Tony Mitchell of TJM Woodturning and Joinery. We thank Arts Tasmania, and particularly the Lynne Stacpoole Caring for Your Collection grants program, for funding the travelling cabinet, which has more than earned its keep over the past three years.

We can enthusiastically recommend this grants program as an invaluable support for cultural heritage groups wishing to purchase capital items for the preservation or display of objects within museums and collections. The 2018 Grants round is currently open with a closing date of 1 October 2018.

Find us on Instagram

Our talented volunteer, Nienna Fontana, is developing a gallery of images which highlight the visual appeal of the wonderful Launceston Mechanics' Institute collection - the books, bindings, illustrations, typography, and even the bumps and scuffs gathered over the last two centuries.

You can now enjoy Nienna's superb photographs and follow her as she records her impressions of the collection on Instagram at:

https://www.instagram.com/lmi_books/

A Charles Darwin Miscellany... a travelling exhibition from the book collection of the Launceston Mechanics' Institute.

Where: Launceston LINC

When: until the end of April

The profound influence of Charles Darwin on all areas of nineteenth century thinking was the springboard for this exhibition.

It is a mark of the quality of the service provided to the Launceston community that its Mechanics' Institute acquired such a range of Darwin's works in early editions, and that its collection reflected contemporary thought and reactions to the twin theories of evolution and natural selection.

The select group of items in the exhibition all relate to Darwin with examples from his own writings, the works of his supporters and opponents, and from those who were influenced by his theories, including many noted authors.

  

The Institute collection offers a unique insight to the intellectual life of Launceston in the colonial era and to the openness of a small and isolated city to the ideas that were profoundly reshaping the world.

A Punch cartoon from 1861

All facets of the collection are represented in this selection - nonfiction, novels and periodicals - a tiny part of the 22,000 volumes which have survived from this remarkable library owned and operated by the people of Launceston for over one hundred years from its inception in 1842.

This travelling exhibition is proudly presented by the Friends of the Launceston Mechanics' Institute with the support of Arts Tasmania's Lynne Stacpoole Caring for Your Collection Grant Program.

This project was assisted through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts.