History of the Goldsmiths' Library

Introduction

The nucleus of the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature was formed by Professor H.S. Foxwell. He described the Library as

'a collection of books and tracts intended to serve as the basis for the study of the industrial, commercial, monetary and financial history of the United Kingdom, as well as of the gradual development of economic science generally '.

Foxwell sold the collection in 1901 to the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, when it was estimated to contain about 30,000 books. The Clerk of the Goldsmiths' Company at the time was Sir Walter Prideaux and it was apparently owing to his initiative that the Company decided to buy the library. Had it not done so, an earlier offer from the John Crerar Library in Chicago would have been accepted and the collection would have been lost to the nation.

In 1903 the Company generously gave it to the University of London, to be housed in Senate House Library. Further large gifts from the same source paid for binding and library furniture. Since then, with continued help from the Goldsmiths' Company, Senate House Library has maintained and developed the collection.

Foxwell, Goldsmiths and Kress

Professor Foxwell made four collections during his life time, two major and two minor. The first major collection is certainly the Goldsmiths' Library, sold in 1901 and the first minor collection presumably consists of the books added to the collection between 1901 and 1913.

The two other collections were ultimately combined to form the nucleus of the Kress Library of Business and Economics at Harvard University.

The Goldsmiths' Library and the Kress Library were partners in a project in the 1970's to microfilm the full text of the pre-1850 printed material in both collections.The resulting microfilms are known as the Goldsmiths-Kress Library of Economic Literature. These microfilms are available in Senate House Library.

A digital full text resource `The Making of the Modern Economy: the Goldsmiths’-Kress Library of Economic Literature, 1450-1850' has now been created. This is now available online 24/7 to all members of the University of London Research Library Services.
For further information about this major new eResource, go to the MOME product site www.galeuk.com/trials/mome

For direct access to the eResource, click here

 

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