Library embarks on Samuel Butler project

Interested in Everything : drawing inspiration from the collections of Samuel Butler.

In 2011, St John's College Library will embark on an ambitious project to make the collections of Samuel Butler (1835-1902) accessible to both public and scholars, thanks to support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other benefactors.

Best known today for his satirical and utopian novels Erewhon and The Way of All Flesh, Butler was an artist, musician, photographer, and thinker whose controversial views on evolution and classical authorship challenged the Victorian establishment. This two year project will create a new and accessible catalogue of the Butler Collection, and an associated website including digital images of photographs, paintings, artefacts and manuscripts from the collections, with accompanying explanatory and evaluative text. Conservation work on fragile items in the collection will ensure that they are available for display and study by future generations. Open, free events both within College and outside will allow people to see the world through the eyes of Butler and his artistic, literary, and scientific contemporaries, and will challenge us to think outside the box, as he did.

"This project will help introduce Samuel Butler's rich treasures to a much wider audience, showing people how relevant they are to our understanding of past and modern day life.  This is a wonderful example of how historic resources can be opened up, with the help of Heritage Lottery Fund money, to create a project which can be enjoyed by everyone."

- Robyn Llewellyn, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund, East of England

"[I am] overwhelmed by the richness of the material and the interdisciplinary connections that could be made within it. There is really important documentation here, which could make a difference to our understanding of the period. It could also have a tremendous impact on the appreciation of the period by a much wider public. Plans for open days, and public access seem a great way of achieving that."

- Professor Mary Beard of the University of Cambridge

"The further enhancement of this Outreach Programme would be of enormous benefit to our school, and other local schools in our area.  It would enhance our curriculum further in school in a range of subjects and enable us to involve more year groups in engaging with the Library."