The British Library is delighted to announce the digitisation of an important work for the study of the history of librarianship: P. R. Harris, 'A History of the British Museum Library, 1753-1973' (London: The British Library, 1998).
23 February 2026Blog series Knowledge Matters
Authors Dr Barry Taylor, Curator European Collections, and Susan Miles, Scholarly Communications Specialist
When the British Library moved to our current site at St Pancras in 1998, it was the start of a new chapter for the institution. But what about the history of our predecessor, the British Museum Library?
1998 also saw the publication of what is the comprehensive history of the British Museum Library, and now in 2026 we are delighted to announce that this important work has been digitised and is available to everyone via the British Library’s Research Repository: P. R. Harris, 'A History of the British Museum Library, 1753-1973' (London: The British Library, 1998).
Author Phil Harris on his retirement with a view of the Round Reading Room of 1857. Photo: BL Corporate Archive, PH 034/342
P. R. Harris (1926-2018) began what was to become a decade of research and writing after his retirement from over 40 years of service in the Library. He had held a number of roles including deputy superintendent of the reading room and deputy keeper in charge of acquisitions.
Mr Harris wrote that his aim ‘has been to produce a very detailed account of the library to help answer questions put by readers, and to record for posterity the way in which the library worked during the period of more than two centuries when it was in Montagu House and in Smirke’s British Museum building’ (A History, p. xvi).
This work is extensive, at 883 pages, as well as comprehensive – with six appendices listing senior staff, staff structures, some holders of readers’ tickets 1759-1939, glossary, approximate value of the pound 1750-1995 and a note on statistics. There are ten plans and 111 illustrations (one redacted for copyright reasons), a bibliography and source notes.
Each of the eleven chronological chapters is subdivided into: reading rooms, trustees and staff, catalogues and publications, collections, accommodation and, where appropriate, royal commissions.
The downloadable PDF is fully searchable, complementing the extensive indexes of the book. For example, you can search for mentions of famous readers such as Somerset Maugham, Virginia Woolf or Lenin and prominent donors such as Sir Joseph Banks, Thomas Grenville or Henry Spenser Ashbee.
Susan Miles and Barry Taylor with the hard copy of Harris’s A History of the British Museum Library 1753-1973. © Ilkay Holt
Mr Harris emphasised that his book was a work of reference, so facts are paramount. Those interested in the history of the British Museum or of librarianship will be fascinated by the depth of detail in each chapter, including the design and construction of the famous Round Reading Room which opened in 1857.
The curious reader will also find much to intrigue them with accounts of the rivalry of Panizzi (Department of Printed Books) and Madden (Manuscripts), of how the Museum Library coped with the threat of suffragette violence, or the Assistant Keeper in Philatelic, convicted of theft, who was replaced by one of the police officers who arrested him.
If you have any further questions please email eblj@bl.uk.
Libraries with the Library: The Origins of the British Library’s Printed Collections, ed. Giles Mandelbrote and Barry Taylor (London: The British Library, 2009)
Andrew Phillips, ‘Philip Harris: Accomplished Librarian and Acclaimed Historian of the British Museum Library’, Electronic British Library Journal, 2019, Article 6
This blog is part of our main British Library series, Knowledge Matters. Join us to look at the strategic bigger picture at the UK national library and get behind the scenes on a wide range of activities, projects and programmes. It features contributions by experts and managers from across the Library’s departments and locations.
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