Summer Scholars: Royal Pamphlets / HMB Endeavour

Summer Scholars: George III’s Political Pamphlets / Endeavour’s Archives
Monday 5 August, 12.30 – 13.30
Knowledge Centre. Free. Drop-in (no need to book).

Two British Library colleagues share their research into the political pamphlets of King George III and the archives of HM Bark Endeavour.

The Summer Scholars season of free in-person lunchtime talks explores the exciting and wide-ranging research into the Americas and Oceania collections at the British Library by Eccles Institute Fellows and Award winners and British Library members of staff. The talks are drop-in (no need to book).  Be sure to check out our other Summer Scholars events.

The King’s Political Pamphlets: Some Observations on North America, as Seen through the Private Library of George III
Dispersed across the private library that King George III put together at Buckingham House, are nearly 15,000 individually-bound pamphlets. Many relate to the social and political debates of the 18th century, with North America being at the forefront. In this talk, Adrian Edwards places the pamphlets into their context with the ‘King’s Library’ – now in the Tower at the heart of the British Library’s St Pancras building – and outlines some of highlights and themes that can be identified.

All the World’s a Stage: Encounters and Archives as Performance
Huw Rowlands considers how the 18th century experiences of those on HM Bark Endeavour were transformed into archives, and how such archives have been used in making histories. Focusing on the Endeavour’s encounters in Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa (the Pacific Ocean), he discusses libraries and their archives as sites of performance and explores implications for contemporary relationships.

Adrian Edwards
Adrian Edwards is the Head of Printed Heritage Collections at the British Library, where he has worked as a curator for nearly 35 years. His principal research interests relate to the history of heritage collections now at the British Library, and he has published on topics ranging from the King’s Library of George III to early printed materials in the Indigenous languages of north-east America. He represents the British Library internationally on topics such as collection security and cultural property matters.

Huw Rowlands
Huw Rowlands has had a varied career including environmental research, charitable project management, geography teaching, and leading a community samba-reggae band. He gained his PhD at Royal Holloway University of London in 2021. He is currently processing and cataloguing maps in the India Office Records Map Collection at the British Library.  

Image: British Library, Add MS 15508, folio 12