FOR 140 years it has served as centre of knowledge for the people of Scotland's largest city.
And now a treasure trove of books and objects collected over that time are to go on display at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library.
The iconic venue is opening the doors of its archives with a new display of the rare tomes and unique items kept within its vaults to celebrate the 140th anniversary of its founding.
Items going on show range from the oldest book in the library - a 12th century Psalter - to a late 14th century French Book of Hours and the Kilmarnock edition of Robert Burns ‘Poems Chiefly in the Scots Dialect’
Also on display will be images and design competition plans of the original North Street building, and the first book donated to the library.
Opened in November 1877, The Mitchell Library was one of Europe’s largest public libraries.
It owes its existence, and name, to Stephen Mitchell who bequeathed the bulk of his fortune on his death to the Corporation of the City of Glasgow to: “form the nucleus of a fund for the establishment and endowment of a large Public Library in Glasgow, with all the modern accessories connected therewith.”
Councillor David McDonald, Chair of Glasgow Life, said: “This city is forever indebted to the generosity of Stephen Mitchell.
“His gift to Glasgow allowed our forefathers to open a large public library for the people of our city. Today, this bustling cultural and information hub holds over one million items of stock and is renowned as one of the best in the world.
“I’d encourage Glaswegians and visitors to the city alike to head to the Mitchell Library and experience these important treasures of our city for themselves.”
The first incarnation of The Mitchell Library was opened on the corner of Ingram Street and Albion Street with a collection of 5000 volumes.
By the time it moved to its temporary home in Miller Street in 1891 the library boasted more than 150,000 books and could accommodate 4,000 readers.
The library struggled at Miller Street and a permanent home was found in North Street with the doors of the current The Mitchell Library building opening in 1911.
Today, the library is home to more than one million items, and welcomes more than 500,000 visitors every year.
The early years also saw the foundation of the library’s two main special collections; the Scottish Poetry Collection and the Glasgow Collection.
Visitors Mitchell Library visitors will be able to view items from both collections today from 1pm. No booking is required.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here