7th October 2009
Among the paintings bequeathed to his library on his death, Thomas Plume (1630-1704) included one which was for many years described as being a likeness of James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh (1581-1656). However, in October 2008 two members of the Plume Library staff, cataloguer Ian Kidman and conservator Tony King, saw a near-exact likeness of this picture in Pembroke College, Cambridge, where it was said to be of Ralph Brownrig (or Brownrigg), bishop of Exeter (1592-1659).1 Brownrig was a scholar and subsequently a fellow of Pembroke.
The Plume Librarian, Mrs Erica Wylie, took up the matter with the National Portrait Gallery, who confirmed that the Plume Library portrait is certainly that of Ralph Brownrig. We are left, therefore, with two questions: why did Plume own this portrait, and is it possible to say where it may have come from? Read more
25th June 2009
Recovery of documents from the site of the collapse
On the Third of March 2009, the building housing the Cologne City Archive (Kölner Stadtarchiv) collapsed killing 2 people and causing huge damage to the documents and books housed within. The building was a 6 stories, purpose built Record Office dating from 1971 and the cause of the collapse is thought to be the construction of an underground train line running alongside the building. Cologne City Archive’s holdings totalled 26 shelve kilometres and included a large number of important parchment charters, the earliest from 922 as well as being a repository for modern day government records.
In the weeks following the disaster Cologne City Archive appealed for volunteers to assist in the massive rescue operation and Thomas Plume’s Library sent their Conservator, Tony King. Tony travelled with a group of archivists from Essex Record Office who spent a week helping at the scene of the collapse and learning how to deal with a disaster of this scale. Read the rest of this entry »
