The Brotherton Collection
The Brotherton Collection is the name of the private library of rare
books and manuscripts created in the 1920s by Leeds University Library's
great benefactor Lord Brotherton of Wakefield and presented to the
University after his death in 1930. With exceptional foresight, Brotherton
and his family also gave the Library funds to develop the Collection
in perpetuity. This endowment for acquisitions is still uniquely generous
for an academic library in the UK and has enabled the extensive, focussed
growth of the Collection, now containing over 50,000 printed books
and many more manuscript items.
Brotherton’s collecting began with disappointment. In February 1922 he hoped to purchase the Towneley manuscript of the Wakefield mystery plays for presentation to that city where his chemical manufacturing company had been founded. His bidding agent at auction was unprepared to do battle with the legendary American bookdealer Dr A.S.W. Rosenbach and the manuscript was lost to him. Brotherton’s attempt had been encouraged by his niece-in-law Dorothy Una Ratcliffe (“D.U.R.”) and, as a consolation for her, he bought a fine copy of Andrew Marvell’s Miscellaneous poems, 1681. Inspired by the experience, they began collecting books.
Brotherton soon realised that serious book-collecting needed professional
guidance and he engaged the services of J.A. Symington, a local bookdealer
and former librarian. A highly effective trio was formed, with Symington
providing expertise and contacts, D.U.R. contributing her infectious
passion for books, and Brotherton evolving an ambitious vision – with
money to support it.
In 1926 Brotherton published an account of the highlights of his collection as it then stood. We see that in barely four years he had acquired the four seventeenth-century Shakespeare folios and many other rare and celebrated works of English literature, a dozen superb medieval manuscript books of hours, numerous choice incunabula, manuscripts by the Brontės, hundreds of letters to Victor Hugo, and an array of bulging extra-illustrated books. All still feature in the Brotherton Collection.
The 1926 profile reveals much about Brotherton’s approach to collecting, which is otherwise poorly documented. English literature was always a priority, under D.U.R.’s influence, but Brotherton wanted a collection ranging widely. Following the example of other celebrated collectors, he acquired substantial collections already formed by others as readily as he purchased individual books. We know, for example, that all twelve medieval manuscripts (more came later) were bought simultaneously from one dealer. We also infer the influence of Brotherton’s contemporary Thomas James Wise, an associate of Symington. Wise’s later notoriety as an ingenious forger and thief tends to distract us from his pioneering ingenuity as a book and manuscript collector and his informal role as a supplier to others. All Brotherton’s Brontė manuscripts came through the Wise connection, as did the strength in Byron and much else.
Brotherton’s collecting energy was sustained until his unexpected
death. He continually acquired collections eclectically, developing
his ‘portfolio’ – an impressive Mendelssohn collection,
a Sheffield collection at least as good as his Leeds collection, books
on socialism in England, papers of the cross-dressing Chevalier D’Eon,
papers of the regicide Henry Marten, and many more as opportunities
came to his attention. There is a sense that once a subject was ‘covered’ satisfactorily
at a single stroke, Brotherton would move on to another, diversifying
his collection’s appeal - though English literature always stayed
at the heart of his collecting.
Brotherton took pleasure in welcoming scholars and other visitors to his private library and when he offered to build the magnificent Brotherton Library for the University, he undoubtedly saw it as the future public location for his collection, as it is today. When the new building opened in 1936, the presence of the Brotherton Collection transformed the Library’s standing as a centre for research and learning.
Using the endowment, additions have been made to virtually all of
the components of Brotherton’s collection since it came to the
University, with increasing concentration on acquiring the unique.
However, much the highest priority is given to English literary resources,
latterly with some emphasis on acquiring archives of recent and contemporary
authors. This is in the spirit of Brotherton’s own collecting
in the 1920s, when he purchased manuscripts and correspondence of authors
such as Swinburne, James and Hardy who had been living in the previous
two decades. The acquisition of the complete library of Herbert Read,
some 12,000 items, in 1996 was a major instance of following Brotherton’s
example in securing ‘ready-made’ collections.