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Significance Workshop - voyages and travel collections
Inviting you to our first Significance Workshop
As part of the Next Chapter Project we are conducting a Collections Review at the Devon and Exeter Institution. Though we have something of a reputation as a South-West Studies library, our collection is diverse and wide-ranging, encompassing areas of study such as Voyages and Travel, Natural History, Early Science, Arts, and Philosophy and Jurisprudence. When our founders set up the Institution in 1813, they intended the DEI to be a real place of learning and enlightenment, stocked with the latest important texts. As a result, our collection today still holds some items of particular historic value, and it is these items that we want to identify and explore further.
In order to complete our review we are consulting an expert in each field in order to build a bigger picture of the collections we hold. This involves the reviewer going through a section book by book, and assessing its historic significance, checking for provenance, commenting on the art and design and general appearance, and discovering whether the book was listed in the original catalogue of the DEI. The first stage of the Review, the Voyages and Travel section, comprising 580 volumes, has been completed by Paul Auchterlonie, and we have identified 15 books that we consider to be “star items.” Now we would like to see if you agree!
We will be asking for views and opinions on this selection at our first Significance Workshop, on Wednesday 29th March. As a collection that was compiled primarily in the nineteenth century, we are aware that some our Voyages and Travel volumes display unsettling colonial views and descriptions of indigenous peoples, and this is something that requires careful and honest handling. In order to evaluate our most “significant” items, it is imperative that we consult other viewpoints and opinions and take on board new interpretations. If you would like to help us build a bigger picture of the collection and its significance, please join us for an open discussion on Wednesday 29th March, between 10am and 12pm.