The National Motor Museum has received a generous financial donation to enable its research library to carry out important conservation work on a rare magazine collection held at the Collections Centre in Beaulieu.
The National Motor Museum tells us:
(All words and images from Beaulieu; photos © National Motor Museum)
The National Motor Museum has received a generous financial donation to enable its research library to carry out important conservation work on a rare magazine collection held at the Collections Centre in Beaulieu.
The National Motor Museum Trust Library Collection will use the donation of over £6000 to rebind thirteen volumes from the Historic Commercial Vehicle Society bound volume collection, which was itself donated to the Trust last year.
The donation has been given jointly by the Historic Commercial Vehicle Society (HCVS) and Richard Peskett, transport historian, vehicle restorer and a member of the Museum’s Historic Advisory Panel.
The thirteen volumes have been identified for the conservation work because the original bindings made them too heavy for handling resulting in fragile pages and covers.
Library Curator, Carina Taylor says, “We are delighted and grateful for the donation as it will ensure these early, rare items remain stable for years to come. They include important editions from Motor Traction and Motor Transport publications dating from 1915 to 1928 and provide a fascinating insight into the early history of larger vehicles through news articles, features and opinion pieces.“
The conservation work will be carried out by Lancefield Conservation, bookbinding and paper conservation specialists based in Durley, Southampton.
One of the largest motor heritage libraries in Europe
The Reference Library, or National Road Transport Library as it was originally called, was officially opened on 28th April 1961 by the late Edward, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, who recognised the importance of providing a motoring library and archive service for historians, researchers and members of the public.
From its unlikely location in the kitchens of Palace House, the Montagu family home, the library expanded quickly, relocating to larger premises at Beaulieu’s John Montagu Building in 1972, then to its current location in the National Motor Museum Trust’s Collection Centre in 1989. Today, it occupies five rooms over two floors.
The Reference Library tells the story of motoring in Britain and abroad. The service provides access to a wealth of research material including rare and out of print publications on everything from cars and motorcycles to commercial vehicles. The collection of over 310,000 items includes 14,000 books, 70,000 sales literature items, around 25,000 handbooks, 7,000 workshop manuals and over 9,000 event programmes and show guides as well as 7,000 bound volumes of periodicals and 100,000 loose periodicals. The collection continues to grow with over 2,000 historical and contemporary items added each year.
Highlights include early motor journals The Car Illustrated and Coach Builders Art Journal, early French motor journals, a rich collection of vehicles sales literature and brochures dating back to the 1880s, technical material and almost complete runs of The Autocar and The Motor.
The Motoring Library collection can be accessed by making an appointment in advance through the Motoring Research Service. For more information about the Reference Library, the Motoring Research Service and the National Motor Museum Trust collections, please visit www.nationalmotormuseum.org.uk