The National Art Library has about a million books in its collection. The coverage of the library's collection goes back to the 17th century. The most patrons that they have are students doing research. They have many pieces of books turned into different items, book art. They have 5000 items of book art. And certain items are created for the pieces.
The library is open five days a week closed to the public on Sundays and Mondays. The online collection has the entire collection on it. The library has 17 different storage areas. WOW. From the time a patron asks for a book it only takes about an hour and a half for a book to be retrieved. Periodicals are asked for a lot so they are closer to the reading room. They want to make the periodicals only online, which I think is a great idea. There are about 11,000 titles of periodicals. This library shelves by height like the British Library. A collection was lost recently because of horrible leaks.
The library's children's books are located at the Blythe House.
The National Art Library Archives collection has Charles Dickens manuscripts. They also have different versions of his books. They have 5 notebooks of Da Vinci's and 4 of Shakespeare's first folios. John Reed gave the library his collection of calligraphy.
The library specializes in the history of the book. It has lots of letters of artists and royalty to study handwriting.
The Great Exhibition of 1851 was on the second floor of the library. They have a collection of the exhibition.
The third-floor ceiling is glass painted over.
They have special collections exhibits that rotate every 9-12 months.
Lasting Thoughts: I would love to go back and finish looking at all of the amazing things. I did not spend a lot of time there but they seem almost as amazing as the British Museum.
More Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/be8N8DiTwy54JQV79
https://www.vam.ac.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAt_PuBRDcARIsAMNlBdqhr_gTpBA5oh9jHW0Aj1zoljrgcZ1A0QEhlJxH6eza3ypO-U4s-ZYaAs18EALw_wcB
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