Day 9 – The Silent Zone

“I just love the days when you come out of the archives with half a dozen excellent descriptions or poignant accounts of personal experiences.” –Antony Beevor

Maughan Library/Special Collections at King’s College – https://www.kcl.ac.uk/library/visiting/maughan

The courtyard at King’s College exhibits beautiful examples of gothic architecture.  Upon entering through the archway, a statue of King Henry III can be seen at the top of the arch.  The buildings here have held records for 800 years.  The library itself is an example of Victorian gothic architecture.  This library may have a rich history, but today it functions well in the modern age with elements such as self-service book checkout machines.  The reading room, solemnly referred to as the silent zone, is circular and was modeled after the reading room at the British Museum.  This reading room houses the reference collection.  While they are not in use, the library also has the original cell shelving units.

We then saw some selected items from the Foyle Special Collections Library which contains about 200,000 items.  These items were sectioned into American themed topics, items that present archival challenges, and promotional archival items used for teaching and internships.  The item that most stood out to me was the Russian children’s anti-Nazi promotional book.  I never knew books like this existed.  While it is sad, it still is an important piece of history that can be learned from in many ways.  The staff working with the special collections at King’s College are doing a wonderful job and were so kind to us.