Grants awarded in 2017

Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) is well known for his illustrated books British Birds and Quadrupeds, but in his work as a professional engraver over a 50-

John Napier, of Merchiston (1550-1617), A Plaine Discovery of the whole Revelation of Saint Iohn: set downe in two treatises.

‘Sold to the Griffith Institute!’: on 9 May 2017 the Griffith Institute acquired at auction at Sotheby’ an

Cambridge University Library is very grateful for the grant from the Friends of the National Libraries which enabled us to acq

The SS Great Britain Trust, based beside Bristol’s floating harbour, is the charity that owns and cares for Brunel’s stea

This is a collection of pre-eminent importance.

The Batten family have acted as solicitors in Yeovil since the early 18th century.

David Almond is one of the most celebrated British writers for children of recent decades.  His first novel Skellig (1998) achieved the rare distinction of win

Pusey House is home to the principal Anglo-Catholic library and archive in the UK.

West Sussex Record Office already holds th

With the generous help of the Friends, the Essex Record Office (ERO) has been able to acquire a collection of 11 late medieval deeds (

The Magna Carta has been called ‘a sacred text, the nearest approach to an irrepealable "fundamental statute" that England has ever had’ (Pollock and Maitland, His

The Friends of the National Libraries' generous grant of £2,500 has enabled us to buy a valuable book with a rare and proven Pembroke provenance.

Ms Liz Bregazzi writes: Charles William Vane-Stewart, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, (1778-1854) was a British soldier and politician, and half-brother to Lord Castlereagh.

The Bodleian Library has acquired  one of the last known volumes from the library of John Donne in private hands with the support of the Friends of the Nati

The collection contains 71 lantern slides showing the construction of the lighthouse, from the building of a coffer-dam to retain the sea to the lighthouse-keeper rela

Richard Greville Thonger (b.1861) was working as a pharmacist in Birmingham in the spring of 1882 when he attended a meeting at The Salvation Army’s Re

Martin Parr is a British photographer, photo-journalist, artist and curator with an international reputation.

The British Library is grateful to have received the support of the Friends of the National Libraries to purchase the Mostyn PsalterHours, a late 13th-century Psalter-Hours produced in London in th

The original 16-folio manuscript of Handel’s vocal trio, Se tu non lasci Amore, HWV 201a, scored for two sopranos, bass and continuo, and written in July 1708 shortly after Handel’s arriva

With the generous assistance of the Friends of the National Libraries, the National Gallery Resea

This plan was offered for sale to Durham County Record Office in June 2017 and purchased with the g

Drawn in 1664 by Robert Whi(s)tpaine from a survey of 1659 by Ralph Dowcett, the plan shows a farm in ‘Tollesbury’ (recte Tolleshunt D’Arcy) owned by t

Ada Clarke was the younger sister of D.H.

This extensive collection of family papers is comprised of a wide range of correspondence, photographs, drawings, prints and marriage documents, and is an important ad

Dr John Cherry writes: One of the most important documents for the history of Ludlow Castle to emerge in recent times, this heraldic roll appear

The soke of Conisbrough was no single-village manor; centred upon its celebrated chief messuage Conisbrough Castle (n

This large collection of mountaineering and climbing books is from the estate of Nat Allen, a founder member of the Rock and Ice climbing club.

Recently bought by Durham University Library Archives and Special Collections with the help of the Friends, this volum

Formerly displayed in the bar of a public house in the Cotswolds, this parchment pedigree of a prominent Welsh Elizabethan merchant was purchased privately by the Nati

The treatise is written in a single neat hand, laid out as if to be ready for the press and preceded by a spiritual autobiography, which identifies the author as

The generous assistance of the Friends of the National Libraries has enabled Peterhouse to acquire two lots at auction that derive from the collection of litera

Vivien Leigh is one of the most important film and stage performers of the 20th century and her profile attracts on-going visitor and global media interest.

Ben Jonson (1572-1637) is arguably the most important writer of the English Renaissance after Shakespeare.