Reading the Room: Books, Access and Community in Heritage Spaces is a new John Fell funded collaborative project between the National Trust and University of Oxford running from June 2024 – May 2025. The project is led by Abigail Williams, Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at the University of Oxford. Tim Pye, National Curator for Libraries at the National Trust and Dr Alice Leonard, an expert in book history in physical spaces at Coventry University are co-investigators. They are supported by postdoctoral research assistant Dr Amy Solomons.
With over 140 historic house libraries across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the National Trust’s collections offer a unique insight into private book ownership and use across centuries of readers. In contrast to research libraries across the world, the Trust’s library collections are preserved in the places where they were assembled and read. In those locations they reflect a rich history of social exchange. This project seeks to explore the ways in which historic libraries can reflect a more diverse, more outward looking history than is often assumed.
For the next year, the team will work with three National Trust properties (575 Wandsworth Road in England, Erddig in Wales, and Springhill in Northern Ireland), and investigate international models of best practice to offer a fundamental rethinking of the intellectual, social, and cultural history of heritage library spaces, and the ways in which these spaces are interpreted today.
Find out more about Reading the Room.
