'Speeds unbefitting of a library' - by Guy Gardener
In our final blog this week, Guy Gardener, our third undergraduate from Exeter working on the pageants project, talks about the strange, reverential atmosphere of working in the British Library and his work on the 1911 Festival of Empire.
When entering the British Library, one is confronted with a vast, open space bustling with the buzz of the pursuit of knowledge. As every second passes, new knowledge is being acquired by the thousands of people studying individual endeavours at desks, benches, and general seating areas. A respectful atmosphere wraps itself around the space, no one raising their voice above peaceful volumes, no one moving at speeds unbefitting of a library. My first judgements when registering for a reader pass and learning about reading rooms, catalogues and general procedures was the esteem that the library itself perpetuated with stringent rules. I myself am an incredibly laid-back individual, so instinctively I resented the rigid structure the library enforced upon the members of the public, only allowing books to be accessed in certain rooms, assigning desks to members of the public looking for a space to study books they’d ordered; I admit, an open shelf format of the building would be an incredible experience, I believe.
A View of The British Library
However, I am aware of the type of concerns a vast organisation in a populous city would have with an open-shelf system, and I understand the structure they have established. The rooms themselves are a delightful space to work in, and I found myself occasionally distracted from work just marvelling at the architectural brilliance of some of the rooms. Truly, it was an ideal companion to a historian. My typical expectations of a historian before were that an academic’s research was fairly reclusive; I had not previously comprehended that a historian’s work might often take place in such a public space, surrounded by many that have no interest in his/her profession, but I was pleasantly surprised by this fact. Working in an environment such as this shed light on the constantly evolving world of public history. People who were clearly of all backgrounds tapped into the banks of knowledge offered by the library, and this more than anything reassured me of the public nature of history itself. Learning in a university environment as I have done for the past 7 months can envelop you in a purely academic world, and it was refreshing to work amongst people all happily studying individual endeavours, that may not feel comfortable doing so in ‘Higher Education’ environment.
The experience tied nicely into much of the work on public history I had done before. For example, the study of museums, libraries and their relationships to communities provided interesting food for thought whilst I was at the library. At no point while I was there did I feel a strong link to the organisation itself, or any sense of communal value. Whilst not surprising in some senses, it was a wakeup call into the real world where ultimately – you are left to your own devices, and (without sounding macabre) the organisation themselves is not too interested in your individual pursuits, rather that you study it without disturbing others!
The pageantry work itself was fascinating because, in strange naivety I had not considered that the organisers of the pageants themselves had agendas and biased viewpoints as all humans do, and these very much shined through in so many dimensions of the presentation of the pageant. I came into the project thinking I would be learning about the pageant itself. However, my research has shown me that this is merely a foundation to learn so much about what how the creators (and many of the people of the time) perceived the world around them, and the history of Britain itself.
Furthermore, the pageant of London in 1911 was so remarkably interesting because it was surrounded by The Festival of Empire going on at the time, which incorporated the pageant into its very fibre. Through my research I learnt that not only was this an honouring of the City of London and the British Empire, but a celebration of British identity itself. Moreover, I was encapsulated by the creator’s attempts to establish a firm sense of English identity in a country where, to me personally, concepts of patriotism and identity are too fluid and abstract, the countries heritage too rich, to comprehend in all of its entirety.
Guy Gardener
Below: an advertising poster for the Festival of Empire and Pageant of London