{"id":8112,"date":"2020-06-04T15:40:53","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T14:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theathenaeum.org.uk\/?p=8112"},"modified":"2020-06-04T15:41:01","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T14:41:01","slug":"story-of-the-athenaeum-p-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enda.studiodev.co.uk\/wp\/story-of-the-athenaeum-p-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Story of The Athenaeum p.5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the Library<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have looked at the early days\nof the Newsroom and now we ascend the elegant horseshoe stairs to the Library.  This occupied the two top floors of the\nbuilding.  On the first floor Church Street\nfrontage, over the main door was a large pedimented window with pilasters and\nswags to decorate it.  On either side it\nwas flanked by two plain rectangular sash windows, which in turn had over them decorative\npanels of scrolls and urns in the best Grecian manner.  The Library only occupied part of the first\nfloor, over the front portion of the Newsroom. \nTo the rear was the Librarians Room , this was his living accommodation\nand include a kitchen and a bedroom, though these are not evident on the plan\nwhich shows a single room with a fireplace, perhaps there was some sort of\npartition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The larger portion of this area of the\nbuilding was taken up by the Committee Room, a spacious apartment, lit by three\nwindows, as well as the table and chairs for Committee meetings,  it also contained the splendid mahogany book\ncase which still graces the Committee Room  today and is often ascribed, probably\nerroneously, to Gillow.  The construction\nof the case was proposed at a meeting in May 1801 when John Foster was asked to\nprepare a suitable design; this was presented at the next meeting.  In July the case had been ordered from Mr.\nHenderson, the leading furniture seller and upholsterer of Liverpool at an\nestimated cost of \u00a380.  But by February\nof 1802 the rising price of mahogany caused the Committee to decided that deal\nwould be sufficient.  Shortly after, the\ndecline in the price of the hardwood caused them to revert to the original plan\nand in 1804 \u00a312 was paid for glazing the cabinet.  It was agreed that the Committee Room was not\nexclusively intended for meetings but also could serve as a reading room.  To facilitate access to the books a stairway\nled from the room to the gallery on the second floor.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A feature of the Library was the\nfact that it occupied the second and third floors of the building.  The highest of these floors had a gallery to\ngive access to the upper stages of the cases [see illustration}.  The whole was illuminated by an overhead\nlight, always referred to as the dome, though it was actually a large dormer\nwith a Diocletian window, it is possible that the sides were glazed but that is\nimpossible to determine from the sources available.  This overhead lighting was supplemented by a\nlarge chandelier presented by Mr Edward Falkener, a principal share holder in\nthe Warrington glass works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good lighting was essential as\nthe bookcases, which extended from floor to ceiling, were all aligned along the\nwalls blocking the windows until they were rearranged in 1844. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stocking the Library was a major\ntask and one that was delegated to sub-committees charged with ordering books\nin a particular category, the clergymen being responsible for theological\nworks, the doctors for medical books and merchants selecting the works of\ncommerce and geography.  Book suppliers\nof the necessary quality were supposed not to exist in Liverpool and the\nvolumes were mainly supplied by the firm of Cadell and Davies who were major\npublishers and book sellers in London and who sent the orders by sea.  The local booksellers protested vocally, led\nby a John Jones, who possibly become Librarian in 1822. At this time books were\noften supplied in an unbound and uncut format to allow for customers to make\ntheir own arrangements.  The Committee\ndecided to have leather bindings embellished not only with the title on the\nspine but also with the word Athenaeum stamped in gold.  Much of the binding was to be done by the\nLibrarians but some was put out to local craftsmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On arrival and after binding the\nbooks were shelved.  At this time there\nwas no categorisation of subjects and the instruction was that the books were\nto be shelved in order of size, apparently regardless of subject, starting on\nthe right of the door and working round the room, leaving the bottom shelf\nunused.  This system is still used in the\nancient library of Trinity College Dublin, despite its obvious disadvantages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Library, under the charge of Harry Gearing, opened for business on the 1st<\/sup> May 1800.\u00a0 In our next instalment we will look at the staff who were in charge of the Library and the Coffee Room.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n