Frank & Patricia Herrmann Award

The Friends of Thomas Plume’s Library are pleased to invite entrants for the Frank and Patricia Herrmann Award. It has been made possible by a most generous donation from an overseas Friend who wishes to remain anonymous and who has requested that it should be named after Frank and Patricia Herrmann, who introduced him to the Library, in recognition of the work they have done for the Library and the community.

award-1

The purpose of the award is to bring the Plume Library, Maldon, which is relatively unknown as a resource for the study of the seventeenth century, to the attention of the academic world and to the wider public and to advance the study of it and the period of English history which it represents.

The award will be for the best essay of 3,000-4,000 words on a topic based on the Plume Library. This may be a study or critical assessment of a group of books by the same author, or related authors; or a particular subject or any other topic based on the Library of Thomas Plume, or on Plume himself.

The Library

The Library was established in 1704 by the will of Dr Thomas Plume, Archdeacon of Rochester and Vicar of Greenwich. The Library of some 8,100 books and pamphlets amassed by Plume in his life-time is still housed on the first floor of the fine building erected by him for this purpose in about 1699. In this the Library is a very rare survival. Plume was born in Maldon in 1630 and was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford and Christ’s College, Cambridge.

As one might expect from a career clergyman, the library is rich in bibles, prayer-books, commentaries and church history. Plume collected many works about the Civil Wars (which he regarded as a national disaster) and the religious controversies of his period. However, Plume always intended his library for the education of gentlemen as well as the local clergy and about half the collection covers such subjects as philosophy, chemistry, medicine, physics, mathematics, geography, history and astronomy. Rene Descartes and John Locke, both known as ancestors of the Enlightenment, are represented. Commerce and trade are in the collection as are exploration and the search for an accurate way of measuring longitude at sea, one of the great quests of Plume’s era. (He was the vicar of Greenwich during the establishment there of the Royal Observatory).

There are also atlases and books of travel. The Library is, therefore, a most valuable resource for students of the history of these topics. The Library also offers opportunities for students of bibliography and conservation.

award-2The Essay

Only essays written to a good academic standard will be considered and full use should be made of the scholarly apparatus such as is to be found in the MHRA Style Guide, London 2002 which is available at the Library or online at www.mhra.org.uk

Other style guides may, of course, be consulted.

The essay, of 3000-4000 words, should be correctly presented as follows:

  1. Three copies of the essay must be submitted;
  2. Each copy should be presented either comb bound or heat sealed or in a hard-backed spring binder;
  3. The paper should be A4 of good quality;
  4. The essay should be neatly typed in double spacing on one side of the paper only;
  5. A title page, which includes the date but not the author’s name, should be included.
  6. Footnotes may be at the foot of the relevant page or placed at the end of the essay with the bibliography and any appendices.
  7. Each essay is to be sent with a sheet giving full name and contact details of the entrant.

The essay should be sent to the Library at the address given overleaf.

The Adjudicators

The essays will be judged by:

  • The Chairman of the Trustees of the Plume Library
  • The Chairman of the Friends of  Thomas Plume’s Library
  • A senior member of the academic staff of Essex University

The judges decision will be final. Each entrant will be notified in writing of the decision in their case.

The Frank and Patricia Herrmann Award

We continue to invite entries for the Award, which should be submitted by 31st March 2012, the new closing date. The award of £500 will be made every two years, with a prize of £100 for the runner-up. A copy of any essay of sufficient merit will be lodged in the Library and the Essex Record Office. Consideration will be given to supporting the publication of the award winning Essay.

For further information or queries please contact either:

Tony Doe, Chairman, The Friends of Thomas Plume’s Library, 23, Wentworth Meadows, Maldon, Essex, CM9 6EH
Email: tony.doe@btinternet.com

or

Erica Wylie, Librarian, Thomas Plume’s Library, Market Hill, Maldon, Essex, CM9 4PZ.
Phone or Fax: 01621 854850.
Email: info@thomasplumeslibrary.co.uk

Library details