Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
5-29-2024
Abstract
There’s an old saying that we plant trees whose shade we will never know and I believe this may be what the Reverend Francis John Stainforth was doing with his library of women's writing, which numbered in excess of 8,000 volumes and 7,122 titles. Sotheby’s sales catalog for Stainforth’s library states that “books are all in neat Bindings [sic], and in the best condition,” suggesting that his books were not regularly handled, and perhaps emphasizing that the physical books were working tools Stainforth used to produce his catalog. Unless otherwise specified, book sizes were noted in bulk at the beginning of each day’s sale as “octavo et infra” (octavo sized and below). Stainforth’s shelf marks show that he did not shelve books by author, either across the whole of the collection or within any given shelf, suggesting that his intent to collect was to curate a library that would stand as an intellectual monument to women’s writing.
This paper analyzes the physical formats, shelfmarks, and shelf contexts of three Stainforth library books acquired by Santa Clara University’s Archives & Special Collections, seeking insight into an overall organizing scheme and what we can learn in the knowing. Since the rectory no longer exists - but we know it was large enough to comfortably house Stainforth, his wife, four children, and three servants - determination of an organizational scheme may allow us to virtually reproduce the physical space(s) of Stainforth’s library. Did the entire library fit in one room or many? Were books shelved in built-in bookcases like those of a country estate; in custom built book presses like those commissioned by Samuel Pepys; in one or more book chests; on any available surface; or using one or all of these methods? And what new insights can we gain about Stainforth’s library of women’s writing by engaging in this intellectual exercise?
Recommended Citation
Nasr, Nadia, "Stainforth’s Library: Working Tool or Intellectual Monument?" (2024). Staff publications, research, and presentations. 230.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/library/230
Comments
Note: This paper was presented at Reproduction(s), the 2024 British Women Writers Conference at the University of Colorado, Boulder on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, as part of panel 4D. The Stainforth Library of Women’s Writing: New Findings after a Decade of Research (session 4D) with co-panelists Dr. Kirstyn Luner (Santa Clara University) and Deborah Hollis (University of Colorado, Boulder).