We went to the British Museum on the eleventh. And it was lit. We got to go inside the Round Reading Room (which is currently not open to the public and hasn’t been since the 1990s (!!!!!!!)) and see all of their archival material.

The British Museum does not get much (if any at all) funding for archiving, so they are currently using the Reading Room as their archive space. There are so many documents that are, like, three to four hundred years old, and they don’t really have a proper space for them. Maybe this blog post will help get them some help!

We were incredibly lucky to be able to even see this room, let alone observe some of the treasures within. We got to see the signatures of Karl Marx and Oscar Wilde when they would come to the Library and do research!

There were a lot of boxes that held actual pieces of the Parthenon. It was very neat to discuss the legal implications of that (especially since George Clooney’s wife has been getting on the Library to return it, on behalf of Greece). All in all, the Library has the full legal jurisdiction to own those pieces. Quite interesting.

On the tenth, we went to the Blythe House. This is a sort of satellite library for the V&A Museum (it stands for Victoria and Albert… I had to Google it, too; don’t worry) and it currently holds lots of archival material that museums reserve and get to show off. We got to see the Beatrix Potter collection, which included some of her original paintings and sketches and lots of fun things. I was allowed to take pictures, but I am not allowed to post them for copyright issues. It’s a very beautiful building though, plenty old. I learned that the city is actually taking it over and replacing it with luxury apartments soon though, so Google it while you still can. Here is actually their Wiki page.

Yes, folks, the Stones!!!!! Here is a bunch of pictures detailing the trip.

We also went to Winchester, which is a little village about an hour away from Stonehenge. It was very cute and quaint! I didn’t take many pictures because it kept raining and my phone kept getting wet. Just use your imagination!

Friday was our trip to Oxford. Also quite an early start. We went to two libraries: The Bodleian and Christ Church, both of which are well older than the United States.

The Bodleian Library was technically opened in the 1300s in Oxford, but was reopened in the 1600s by Bodley, who invested lots and lots of money to have it available for Oxford students. The original library, opened by Duke Humfrey, had no heat and no lights because the flames always had the chance to burn the books down. There were only around 20 books in total then because the printing press hadn’t been invented and the books all had to be handwritten. The English Reformation led the library’s directors to burn most of the books because they were too Catholic, basically, and the newly founded Church of England did not like that. (Oxford still has 5 of those original manuscripts!!!!)

Once Bodley reopened the library, there were about 2,500 more books added and portraits of significant people in Oxford’s history put up on the walls. He then made an agreement with the state that the library should get a copy of every single book written in England to help make the library more full and aid the students. That agreement is still in place today. The library has had to expand a bunch of times to make room for all of its new books. There’s a total of something like 13 million books that belong to Oxford currently.

There were also a bunch of places in there that the Harry Potter crew filmed for the movies. It was super cool, basically.

Next we went to Christ Church (after buying an “Oxford University” sweatshirt, of course.) This library was amazing. I didn’t get to take many notes, but basically the building opened in the 1200s as a church and then a few hundred years later as a college of Oxford. The special collections there were incredibly fascinating. Our librarian/tour guide showed us things that most people on the planet don’t get to see, like this Bible that belonged to Queen Elizabeth I in the 1540s:

Or this score that was made for people all standing around a table (Sorry for bad quality):

Finally, we stopped in the office of our librarian/tour guide and learned that he had the same office that Lewis Carroll used to work in! We were shown some original Carroll drawings as well as the tree where he used to imagine the Cheshire Cat and the place where he first met Alice. Fantastic visit.

On the sixth we went to a town called Stratford-upon-Avon. It might not sound familiar, but if it does it’s because Shakespeare was born there! We had to wake up really early to go there, but it was worth it in the end.

The library group basically went to see a Shakespeare play at the Royal Shakespeare Company called “As You Like It.” I did like it, in fact. Before that, though, we had lots of time to explore Stratford, which holds many historical wonders and also other little shops and stuff.

We went to a couple of bookstores and did some other light shopping before heading over to the Shakespaw Cat Cafe… which did in fact have real cats.

I didn’t take any notes or anything because I was very focused on the cats and the theater, so this is about all I have. I did definitely enjoy myself!

The Royal Geographical Society focuses on the collection, digestion, and dissemination of geographical information from the history of the UK. It was very cool to go here and see all of their maps and other historical artifacts!

We learned about the British exploration of Africa, Antarctica, and Mount Everest. Each trip had documentation and some had photographs of the explorers! I am a nerd for maps, so this was one of my favorite days.

I also discovered that in England, people consider sleds “sledges,” so that was a neat little tidbit. Here is the website for the RGS.

After the RGS, a small group of us went to the Natural History Museum just down the street. It had an extensive exhibit on dinosaurs that I just found fascinating! Here is the website for that. Their main attraction is a skeleton from a giant whale.

We started off this day at Platform 9 3/4 in King’s Cross train station! A very cool sight to see. We posed with our wands and scarves in front of the trolley to pass through the wall. (Picture to hopefully be added later)

At the British Library, we were given two tours. The first was through the section of the building where they mainly focus on conservation, and the second was through the museum-type part.

The conservation tour was very interesting. We were told about the collaboration project between the British Library and the Qatar Foundation, wherein they work together to digitize some Middle Eastern history. The process of digitization is a complication one, which includes steps like selecting the content, conserving the item, cataloging it, taking the image, and translating the item into many different languages. There are lots of special programs used for this, but this part of the library gets lots of federal funding every year for projects just like this.

In the museum part, we were shown many priceless and treasured items that England has stored within its walls. We were told that the library houses about 200 million items and receives about 8,000 publications per day. The librarian who showed us around made sure to mention that “being a librarian means you know everything.” (And he is not wrong.) We were shown the system that the staff use to get items back and forth from the underground archives to the floor, and vice versa. It all seemed very complicated, but super interesting nonetheless.

I am actually not allowed to post any pictures from this trip because everything in the British Library is under strict copyright law, and therefore cannot be shared. Here is their website.

Monday was our first official day of class! We began the day by traveling to the Barbican (pronounced bar-bih-con) Library. This library has three main parts: general, music, and children’s libraries. Anyone that lives within the original “Square Mile” of London has access to the Barbican.

This tour seemed not unlike many other public libraries I have seen before. I suppose one fact that truly surprised me is that the Barbican does not get much funding. In fact, most of their funding goes towards their exhibitions and art shows, but not towards the library itself. This seems strange to me because it is quite a prominent library within the original city and therefore deserves a little more money to continue to serve its patrons. Here is their website.

Later on in the day, we also took a boat ride up and down the Thames river. Kayla and I took many beautiful photos, but here are just a couple.

The second of June was our orientation. We met in a lecture hall to learn about the do’s and don’t’s in England, like how you should actually be quiet on the Tube because other people will get mad at you.