Reference
Li/LibB
Title
Bedford Library Archives
Date free text
1700-1974
Production date
From: 1700 To: 1974
Admin/biog history
Several histories of Bedford Library have been attempted; the first was probably by the antiquarian the Rev Thomas O Marsh c1810(Ref: :Li/Lib B 1/19/3 pp 1-46).
A detailed history of the Bedford Literary and Scientific Institute and its predecessors is in the 1892 library catalogue(Ref: Li/Lib B 1/8/20)together with a very useful time chart which has been reproduced in this introduction with additions.
A similar history appears in the Institute’s journal Our Columns (Ref: Li/Lib B 1/17/1-3)while a summary history compiled in 1943 is also useful(Ref: Li/Lib B1/14/38). A booklet produced to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the Public Library takes the story up to 1958(Ref: Li/Lib 6/4/8)when the Borough Library finally acquired the Bedford Rooms and the assets of the Bedford Literary and Scientific Institute and General Library. In the late 1960s negotiations were made to purchase the site of the old St Paul’s Wesleyan Chapel adjacent to the old library (then called the Bedford Rooms, now the Harpur Suite). The new Central Library eventually opened on 17th April 1972.
These records were received from Bedford Central Library’s Reference Section on 22 February 1993.
Scope and Content
They comprise the records of the Bedford libraries, reading room and other organisations which gradually amalgamated in the nineteenth century before acquisition by the Borough of Bedford Public Library in 1937, which was in turn taken over by the County. Council on local government reorganisation in 1974.
The archives include some early records of Bedford General Library (est 1700), Bedfordshire General Library (refounded 1830 on the nucleus of the old library)and the Bedford Literary and Scientific Institute and General Library. They also include some important manuscripts donated to the library in the 1830s as well as the papers of the Public Library opened by the Borough of Bedford on the 24th May 1937. Some of the records have been microfilmed(see mic 194-195).
External document
Level of description
series