Inspired by discoveries made on a recent holiday to France, May’s item of the month is a look at a rare book from the Library’s collection. The Voyage of La Perouse round the world in the years by Jean-François de Galaup, Count of Lapérouse, is a finely illustrated account of an eighteenth-century exploration.

Eleanor (Head of Archive and Library)

As part of our ongoing work preparing for the move into the Sammy Ofer Wing, I was recently working with the collection of Vice-Admiral Sir William Hannam Henderson (1845-1931). These papers were arranged by Admiral Henderson himself and were presented to the Museum by his daughter, Mrs L.C. Dunne, in two installments in 1951 and 1955. They consist of several official service documents, a logbook, personal notebooks and letters dating from his schooldays to his death. There are also several scrapbooks, photograph albums and news cuttings, dating from 1847 to 1931.

Among his papers I came across an uncatalogued buried treasure, a book titled Cyclometrica Elementa Duo. It was written by Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609) the famous French philologist and historian whose works on chronology were among the greatest contributions of Renaissance scholars to revisions in historical and classical studies. Scaliger was a flourishing author whose many works were published in numerous different languages. Even between 2000-2005 an essay about him was published and four of his publications were reprinted posthumously.

The text of the Cyclometrica Elementa Duo (HEN/29/2) is chiefly in Latin; however, definitions, axioms, and propositions are in Greek. It was published in 1594 when Scaliger was a leading Leiden professor. In this very work it was claimed that p was equal to v10. The book has now been made available through the Archive catalogue and can be requested for viewing in the Caird Library.

Gregory (Library Assistant)

May’s item of the month is a rare English book, “The Relation of a Wonderfull Voiage”, written by the lesser known explorer William Cornelis Schouten.

This very rare English edition is part of the Archive and Library’s rare books collection and tells a story of a forgotten seaman who discovered the sea passage between Isla de los Estados and the eastern extremity of the Argentine portion of Tierra del Fuego.

Gregory (Information Assistant, Library)

It’s a bonus month for Archive and Library research as we’ve published two items this month, and they really couldn’t be more different.

In the rare books corner we have an introduction to one of the stars of our collection: Theodor de Bry’s A briefe and true report of the new found Land of Virginia. This is one of the first and most well-known titles in the Grand Voyages collection. The text and images published by the engraver de Bry form one of the earliest anthropological accounts of Native Americans.

And so from Roanoke Island in the sixteenth century to Gravesend Reach at the end of the nineteenth: from the archive collection we have a diary kept by the clergy of St Andrew’s Waterside Church Mission. The mission was responsible for serving the spiritual needs of those who worked or passed through the lower Thames area, and the diary reveals some interesting connections to other museum collections and key figures in the Museum’s history.

Renee (Digital Resources Libarian)

December’s item of the month is somewhat hard to categorise: part fiction, part autobiography and part instructional guide for sailors, William Falconer’s poem The Shipwreck is a must-read for Patrick O’Brian fans. Fair enough, there’s no Jack Aubrey character – but the combination of high seas drama and technical detail makes for a surprisingly compelling read.

If you’d like to take a look for yourself, stop in at the library (do check our Christmas opening hours) and ask staff to request it from the Rare Book collection. Or, you can read a digisitised version of the 1772 edition of The Shipwreck courtesy of Google Books.

Renee (Digital Resources Librarian)

Continuing our regular programme of Archive Journey sessions, November begins with Caird’s Treasure Chest on Thursday 5th.  Sir James Caird was one of the National Maritime Museum’s principal early benefactors and his donations helped to form the foundation of the Museum’s collections.  The talk will provide a rare opportunity to view some of the manuscripts Caird collected for the Museum including a spy book written in 1582 and a series of documents signed by Samuel Pepys.  The session promises to offer a glimpse at some of our rarest documents and we hope to see you there.

The events in full are:

5 November - Caird’s Treasure Chest
12 November – Pirates and Privateers
19 November – Nelson’s Women
26 November – Sailor Chic

All the sessions are free of charge and there is no need to book.  Just come along to the E-Library at 2.30pm.

Richard (Assistant Archivist)

This month visitors to the Museum will have the opportunity to attend a number of Archive Journey sessions.  Following the popular Polar Exploration sessions held in July we are holding 3 more events to coincide with the Museum’s North West Passage exhibition.  The sessions take place within the North West Passage Gallery and are a fantastic opportunity to see close up some of the manuscripts and rare books relating to Arctic and Antarctic exploration that are in the Museum’s collections. We’ll be showing a letter written by Ernest Shackleton and explaining why Thomas James decided to sink his own ship in 1631.  The sessions are being held on 16 September (15.00); 24 September (11.00) and 28 September (15.00) and are free of charge.

If you aren’t able to make it to a session at the Museum you can hear me talk about some of the items in a new podcast available here.

After a short break, I’m pleased to announce that our regular programme of Archive Journeys is also starting in September.  There is a different location for these weekly sessions as they take place in the E-Library.  On 17 September I’ll be talking about pirates and privateers and showing, amongst other things, an original 16th century document addressed to Sir Francis Drake.  Then on 24 September my colleague Renee will be discussing the women in Admiral Nelson’s life and displaying letters written by Nelson, Emma Hamilton and the mysterious ‘Mr Thompson’.  Both events start at 14.30 and are free of charge.  There’s no need to book and we hope to see you there.

The events in full are:

16 September (15.00) – Polar Exploration
17 September (14.30) – Pirates
24 September (11.00) – Polar Exploration
24 September (14.30) – Nelson’s Women
28 September (15.00) – Polar Exploration

Richard (Assistant Archivist)

To coincide with the Museum’s North West Passage exhibition members of the Archive team will be holding three Archive Journey sessions in July. We’ll be talking about items from our Polar Exploration box and there will be plenty of opportunities to view original documents up-close and ask questions about the things that you see.

The sessions will take place on 13 July at 3pm, 22 July at 3pm, and 30 July at 11am and are free of charge. You’ll find us in the entrance to the North West Passage gallery and there is no need to book in advance. So if you would like to know why Thomas James decided to sink his own ship in 1631 or what Sir Ernest Shackleton thought about the scenic beauty of Antarctica why not come along?

Regular readers of the blog may be familiar with our Archive Journey sessions but if not you can read a bit more about them by clicking on the tag at the bottom of this post.

Richard (Assistant Archivist)

The unexpected discovery always having been a favourite topic of mine, I was excited to see that Archives for London are holding an event tomorrow evening called ‘Serendipity in the Archives’, that will “look at the role of chance in what we find in London’s Archives”.

Coincidentally, the flyer for this event arrived in my inbox just a few days after I had been reading a blog post by Mary Beard on a similar topic – the unexpected discoveries afforded by ‘bound with’ rare books and pamphlets. These are occasions where you request to view one title only to find that another item, sometimes completely unrelated in subject, has been ‘bound with’ it in the same volume. We have many such items in our rare book collection, and they do always feel like discoveries waiting to happen – even if they can be a bit tricky for library staff to locate.
 
The Archives for London event is on at 6pm tomorrow (Thursday 4 September) at the London Metropolitan Archives, with speakers from The Women’s Library and Black Cultural Archives as well as professional researchers and historians.

Renee (Digital Resources Librarian)

September’s Item of the Month is an 1846 first edition of A Narrative of a Four Month’s Residence among the Natives of a Valley of the Marquesas Islands : or, a Peep at Polynesian Life, by Herman Melville, most commonly republished under the title Typee.

A first book from an unknown author, it sold much better than might have been expected, and was in Melville’s lifetime his most commercially successful title, far outselling what would come to be recognised as his masterpiece, Moby Dick (1851).

The narrative is presented throughout as “unvarnished truth”, and certainly the most basic aspects of the story are based on Melville’s own experiences in Polynesia. In 1841, he had joined the American whaleship Acushnet, but deserted with a shipmate in the Marquesas Islands. They lived in the Typee valley for up to a month, but his accounts in the book were long ago revealed as wildly exaggerated.

Intriguingly, Melville’s eventual return to America in 1843 was achieved by enlisting on the USS United States, the then somewhat aged veteran of an 1812 action seen here, where it vanquished the HMS Macedonian.

First edition, published by John Murray, London, 1846.
NMM library ref.: PBD4456.

Richard (Information Assistant – Library)