Conservation appeal
You have helped us preserve 4,000 years of history!
It’s not just the well-known items in our collection that record important moments in history. We tell the story of our world through the small things too – the letters. The photographs. And, of course, the books.
We've been overwhelmed by the incredible response to this year's conservation appeal. Thanks to your support, we've raised over £38,300. This will help us conserve even more items in our collection, including the recently acquired letters of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
This internationally significant collection of 131 letters gives many unique insights into the life of one of the few female writers to gain prominence in Victorian Britain. Recently acquired by the Library, their fragile paper is in need of repair before digitisation work can take place to allow more people to discover this pioneering poet. Alongside Elizabeth's letters, a manuscript of Don Juan handwritten by Lord Byron himself and a 1,000 year-old Anglo-Saxon Gospel-book leaf will benefit from vital conservation work thanks to the generosity of our appeal donors.
Watch the video below to find out more about another item we will conserve, accounts giving us amazing insight into the deluxe imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1584.
Thank you for your support, you have helped us save stories for generations to come. If you would still like to support our conservation work, you can donate via the button below.
Our sincere thanks go to Adrian K. S. Chan and Justin Zaremby, who have kindly supported the appeal as match funders.
We are also incredibly grateful to the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), British Library Collections Trust (BLCT) and Friends of the National Libraries (FNL) who supported the acquisition of the Elizabeth Barrett Browning collection.
£38,346.42
raised of £35,000 target by 357 supporters
Thank you to everyone who donated to this appeal. You helped us to conserve the most fragile items in our collection. If you would still like to contribute, click the button below.
For those in the US who would still like to give to this appeal, please click here to give via the American Trust of the British Library.
