British Museum (Natural History): Director's Office: the Principal Librarian's Correspondence...

This series consists of papers connected with the building of The Natural History Museum in South Kensington and with the natural history departments and their staff, which were sent to the office of the Principal Librarian at Bloomsbury. An alphabetical series of bound papers for the years 1873-1885 includes three volumes containing incoming letters, reports and memoranda relating to the planning and construction of the new building in South Kensington and its furniture and fittings, prepared by Alfred Waterhouse, members of the Board of Works and others. A further ten volumes, entitled 'Original Papers', contain papers on every other aspect of the work of The Natural History Museum, including annual and monthly progress reports from the keepers, doctors' certificates and letters relating to illness, publication sales statistics, reports of offers of specimens for purchase, lists of duplicates distributed, and printers' estimates. Most papers were written by the keepers and other staff of The Natural History Museum. Few derive directly from Richard Owen, the Superintendent, though many of the keepers' reports are endorsed by him. Two final volumes contain copies of outgoing letters to the Treasury and Board of Works for the years 1880-1884.

Later filed papers relate to the appointment of directors in 1898, 1909 and 1919 and of the Keeper of Zoology in 1908, to the many disputes between the Director, E Ray Lankester, and the Principal Librarian in Bloomsbury, and to memorials concerning the Museum raised by the Royal Society and others between 1898 and 1908.

Series held at The Natural History Museum are catalogued more fully in its online catalogue (reference DF DIR/930). Online descriptions of some individual records can also be viewed on Discovery, see DF 930.

DF 930/23-24 are the precursors of the Reports and Letters series in DF 1000.

The bulk of the papers of the Chief Librarians of this period are held in the British Museum Archives, Bloomsbury.

Topics

Museums and galleries

The four Principal Librarians who served during the period covered by the series were John Winter Jones (1866-1878), Edward Augustus Bond (1878-1888), Edward Maunde Thompson (1888-1909) and Sir Frederic George Kenyon (1909-1930).