The exhibition of the Bodleian Edgeworth Collection

Over the past year a project has been run to look at the Bodleian Edgeworth Collection – materials kept in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. ‘Opening the Edgeworth Papers’ is a one year project funded by Oxford University’s Fell Fund. Basically, the Library hopes to raise the profile of the Bodleian Edgeworth collection through public engagement and knowledge exchange.

There is an exhibition based on these materials currently on display. John  Beddoes (De Montfort University), a friend of the Edgeworth Society and descended from Anna Beddoes (a daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworths) reviewed this exhibition.

Here is a snippet from that review.

A rich and varied Edgeworth collection

The Bodleian Libraries hold a rich and varied collection of papers related to the Edgeworth family from the 17th to the 19th century. Only a tiny percentage of the material contained therein is available in print and even less has been subject to scholarly editing.

The Edgeworth collection is little known but of great significance, providing important manuscript evidence about the literary career of one of the most important novelists of the early nineteenth century, Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849); the educational, agricultural and political theory and practice of Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817); the ways in which the extended family with connections in Ireland, England, France and India, communicated and collaborated in the production of art, literature, and scientific knowledge; and the history of Anglo-Irish relations in a period of political contestation and transformation.

Read the full article here.