All Souls College Library, known until 2020 as the Codrington Library, is an academic library in the city of Oxford, England.[1] It is the library of All Souls College, a graduate constituent college of the University of Oxford.
| All Souls College Library | |
|---|---|
 The library as viewed from All Souls' North Quad  The interior of the library with statue of Christopher Codrington | |
 | |
| Location | All Souls College, Oxford, United Kingdom |
| Type | Academic library |
| Established | 1751 |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | Books, journals, newspapers, magazines, maps, drawings, manuscripts |
| Size | 185,000 items |
| Access and use | |
| Access requirements | Open to members of Oxford University and to external scholars by application. |
| Other information | |
| Director | Professor Peregrine Horden (Fellow Librarian) Gaye Morgan (Librarian in Charge & Conservator) |
| Website | Official website |
The library in its current form was endowed by Christopher Codrington (1668–1710), a fellow of the college who amassed his fortune through his sugar plantations in Barbados, an island in the British West Indies. These were worked by enslaved people of African descent.[2] Codrington bequeathed books worth £6,000, in addition to £10,000 in currency (the equivalent of approximately £1.2 million in modern terms).[3] The library, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, begun in 1716, was completed in 1751 and has been in continuous use by scholars since then. It is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England.[4]
The modern collection comprises some 185,000 items, about a third of which were produced before 1800.[5] The library's collections are particularly strong in Law, European History, Ecclesiastical History, Military History, and Classics. There is an expanding collection devoted to sociological topics and the History of Science.[5] Unusually for an Oxford college library, access to the Codrington is open to all members of the university (subject to registration).[6] The library contains a significant collection of manuscripts and early printed books, and attracts scholars from around the world.
The first woman to be admitted as a reader to the library was Cornelia Sorabji from Somerville College, at the invitation of Sir William Anson, 3rd Baronet in 1890.[7]
Renaming
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In November 2020, the college took the decision to stop referring to the library as the Codrington Library, as part of a set of "steps to address the problematic nature of the Codrington legacy", which derives from exploitation of slave plantations. While the library has since been renamed, a statue of Christopher Codrington remains in the center of the reading room. [8]
References
edit- ^ Simmons, John S. (1982). "A note on the Codrington Library, All Souls College, Oxford". Oxford: All Souls College. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011.
- ^ Walvin, James (17 February 2011). "Slavery and the Building of Britain". BBC. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
- ^ "National Archives Currency Converter". The National Archives. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ Historic England. "All Souls College, Codrington Library (1046762)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
- ^ a b "The Codrington Library". Oxford: All Souls College. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
- ^ "The Codrington Library Applications". Oxford: All Souls College. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
- ^ Pauline Adams (1996). Somerville for women: an Oxford college, 1879–1993. Oxford University Press. p. 114. ISBN 019920179X.
- ^ "All Souls College and the Codrington Legacy". Retrieved 16 November 2020.
External links
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- Official website
- The Unseen University: The Codrington Library(short film) Archived 16 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine