The special collections at Worcester College consist of early printed books, pamphlets, manuscripts (including the Clarke papers), prints and architectural drawings.
Successive gifts have built on the foundational bequest of books, manuscripts, prints and drawings by Dr George Clarke, to whose designs the Library building was completed in 1736. Our special collections have particular strengths in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English literature – with over 1,200 plays printed before 1750 – the English Civil War, and architectural history. There is also a large collection of nineteenth-century pamphlets collected by Henry Allison Pottinger (1824-1911) and an extensive set of the products of the Daniel Press, operated by C.H.O. Daniel (Provost, 1903-1919), together with some of Daniel’s manuscript correspondence.
The present Library has existed for almost 300 years, but there was also a library at Gloucester College, Worcester’s predecessor institution. According to the seventeenth-century antiquary Anthony Wood, a building was erected at the start of the 1420s by Abbot John Whethamstede, who presented a number of volumes. Unfortunately, the books were dispersed at the Reformation and only a couple of volumes remain in the Library today. Gloucester Hall succeeded Gloucester College in 1560, and several hundred books which once belonged to the Hall have survived in our collections.
Find out more
Catalogues
Further reading
Treasures of Worcester College
Explore the special collections through our blog, which shines a light on the interesting and unusual. These posts, with plentiful images and references, explore some of the key themes and holdings in both the Library and College Archives.
