Tuesday: St. Paul's Cathedral Library

Hi all,

Well I've been procrastinating this post because I did so much yesterday that I knew this would be a long one. In addition to all I saw I just have so many things to say about it!

This morning our class outing was to the St. Paul's Cathedral Library. It's not that big, small in fact, when compared to the rest of the building. Because I couldn't take pictures in the building (or I could and not publish them anywhere) I'm having to pull pictures off of and link you to the website, to get an idea of what I experienced. Probably better off that way anyhow, because I found there are virtual tours here, so you can actually see a moving image of what I did today.

Upon getting to St. Paul's, I realized that (like my adoration for Big Ben) I have a hard time limiting the number of pictures I take of this building. It's so large that it's impossible to grasp unless you're right up next to it. I have a ton of pictures of the sky and PART of the building, but in order to see the whole building, one would have to cross the river and take a picture. You can see me here, in front of the building...I'm a spec compared to only a few of the many pillars outside the main entrance.

(Oh, and the sky was beautiful today. When I took this picture of the dome next to the sun, I could not look directly into the camera, as the combination of the sun and the glare off of the gold cross on top of the dome made it almost impossible to see. )

At any rate, we first ventured up the Geometric Staircase, which some of you may recognize from Harry Potter. There is a virtual tour for that, too. It was scary- climbing up 90 steps that appear to be hanging in mid-air, though our librarian told us not to fear-- they're incredibly sturdy. Though the staircase itself is not recommended for people with a fear of heights OR bouts of vertigo. Ha! I managed to get up there unscathed and without losing my breakfast.

When we arrived at the top, we were taking into what was originally created as a Reading Room, evident by the plasters on the building walls: vines with quill pens, ink pots, books, etc. intricately woven into the design. In this room, Wren's original model of the building itself remains, made of oak and plaster, at about 1:25 scale. It's huge, so huge that I wondered how it ever got in and out of that room. The librarian working with us said it has only left the room a few times, one of which when it visited the States in the 90s...and then he mentioned that would NEVER happen again. Ha ha ha...

This entire time we were "behind the scenes" of this gorgeous church. the library itself (pictured above) was crammed full of books that had since been acquired after the fire of 1666, mostly by Henry Longdon/Henry Compton (a bishop who got a hold of other collections for aquisitions.) A plaque remains by a statue of his bust stating, "I came to it burnt down, and left when it built up."

I found numerous things about this library interesting. First off, most of the books are held together with binding wraps, as the boards are broken. The library itself is open to all who "can make good use of it", though I have a feeling they are selective in who makes "good use". Our guide is also the only librarian on staff there, and is currently embarking on a conservation project. I asked for his email address and am hoping to meet with him later this week to discuss this project, among some other things for a research paper I hope to write on U.S. and U.K. methods of preservation of print materials (mainly books).

At any rate, I love this building, and am excited to hopefully speak with the librarian again to get more information and more hands-on (or shall I say hands-off!!!) experience there and discuss conservation of materials that are apparently available to the public.

After this visit, we were left to explore on our own again. Rachel and I had been planning a visit to the Wellcome Collection, which is part of the Wellcome Trust. From their website:

"The Wellcome Trust is an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health. Established in 1936 and with an endowment of around £13 billion, it is the UK's largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research."

What intrigued us about these galleries, were adverts in the tube explaining just some of what's on display. There were three exhibits, The Heart, Medicine Man, and Medicine Now, all of which were free. (Bonus!) Strangely enough, Henry Wellcome (and his partner Mr. Burroughs) were Americans, who came to England after starting their pharmaceutical company in 1880. After Burroughs died, Wellcome set up some research facilities to study further medical related issues.

In addition to being a scientist of sorts (and obviously an entrepreneur) he was an avid collector of medical-related artifacts. The galleries we visited included The Heart (illustrates the evolution of humans' understanding of the heart in medicine, art and culture), Medicine Man (an exhibit that displays many of Wellcome's collection of artifacts) and Medicine Now (mainly an art exhibit that deals with medical-related issues of today).

Some of the things I enjoyed on display in The Heart Exhibit:

• A wooden table with entire (REAL) human veins/arterial system varnished into the wood work outlining a human body laying on top of the table. (Joannes Leonius 17th c.)
• Leonardo DaVinci's anatomical drawing of the heart, liver and arteries
• Rene Descartes L'Homme 1664
• Pacemakers throughout the years
• Speakers in the walls with songs about "heart" playing. Also speakers to listen to a normal heartbeat versus a mitral regurgitation.
• And She Had Heart painting by Lombardo, 1890
• Egyptian Book of the Dead
• Separate caskets made of lead and silver, for burying the heart away from the body.

The Medicine Man gallery had the strangest things, as it portrayed only a portion of the odd-collection Wellcome had created up until his death. Some of the things I saw and enjoyed there:

Torture elements/torture chairs (which are placed in the same exhibit space as a dental chair, ha!-- I can agree with that placement decision.) One of the torture chairs had blades all along the back and seat, with spikes on the arms.

• Over 5000 pieces of medical/scientific glassware from throughout history and the world
• Artificial limbs dating from 1500-1930s
• An impressive collection of bone-saws (I badly wanted a picture of this for my dad) and forceps (ick!)
• Napoleon Bonaparte's toothbrush
• Ivory dentures from the 1700s
• Tatoos on human skin from 1850-1900 (the skin looked like stretched leather, gross)
• A mummifed Peruvian man
• King George III's hair (had traces of arsenic in it...) You may remember me mentioning this King George, as his book collection is on display at the British Library.

After going through these exhibits, the last one was more contemporary/controversial art pieces reflecting medical concerns from today around the world. For example:

• a map on canvas with mosquitos sewn into it to outline countries- a commentary on the malaria problem
• Mosquito nets with malaria medicines sewn into them
• An enormous sculpture of fat, a blob if you will, with legs commenting on obesity.
• Many many pieces of art using EKG printouts and things representing the double-helix of DNA.

So the galleries alone were stunning and incredibly interesting.

And then we saw that the Wellcome Trust had a library. So we ventured in.

Gorgeous! A newer space, with beautiful wooden shelves in the first room. A librarian (roving reference?) approached us and asked if we needed help, and she told us there are three main collections: The History of Medicine, Clinical Medicine, and Science & Society. There is also a Rare Books area. The rooms we ventured through were stacks and stacks of beautiful old books, and in some of the rooms, they were stacked modern metal/glass shelving. There was an enormous amount of study-areas/tables. It was interesting to walk through the stacks and notice the different collections- titles outlining diseases, afflictions, solutions and breakthroughs in the medical industry.

This library is a working, full service library...all related to medicine. The main room was large, two stories (similar to St. Paul's Library) with names such as Nightingale, Mendel, Darwin, Hippocrates, Galen, Pasteur, etc. carved into the woodwork. Large anatomical paintings hung on the walls there. It was wonderful.

And it made me wish I were studying medicine. Haha. Can you imagine? But still, the space was so relaxing and well-laid out, I truly felt lucky to have happened-upon it.

So afterwards, when we finally tore ourselves away from this area, we went back to the Tube station, ate a quick lunch (bbq bacon chicken & tomato pita, if you're wondering) and then went to Leceister Square to see if tickets were available for Avenue Q. They were! So we purchased them and went later that night. The show was crude and hilarious. The music was fantastic and I laughed the whole time.

So I'm having a great time as you can tell. I'm also learning so much it's hard to keep it all straight. Today we have a "research day" so I'm catching up on things and getting started on my big papers for the end of this semester. I'm not really homesick, but I do miss my friends and talking to everyone. And I miss my library and library folk, mainly because I know so many of them would also find these things fascinating.

I hope everyone's well! I'll end with one more picture taken while walking to the show last night...