The Plume Lecture was established in 1975 by the Trustees of the Library, at the instigation of the Rev. Arthur Dunlop, to commemorate the life of Dr. Thomas Plume (1630 -1704) with a public lecture, held annually in the month of November. Speakers have been drawn from a wide range of disciplines, such as medicine, art, history, science and astronomy to reflect Plume’s own broad interests and the varied nature of the Library.
2019 – The Trustees of Thomas Plume’s Library are pleased to announce that this year’s Lecture will be given by Neil Pearson.
Neil Pearson is best known for his work in film and on television. However, he has also collected rare books for thirty years: his specialism is nineteenth and twentieth century first edition literature, with a particular interest in the expatriate literary movement of Paris between the wars. He is the author of Obelisk (Liverpool University Press, 2007), a history of the notorious Paris imprint which in the 1930s published the early work of, among others, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell and Anaïs Nin. In 2011 he researched, compiled and wrote They Were What They Were: A Catalogue of Early Gay Fiction, 1862 -1960. After buying books for so many years, he is delighted finally to be selling some.
In June 2017 he accepted the role of President of the Independent Libraries Association declaring “I intend to be very much a hands-on President, and look forward to visiting as many member libraries as I can in the coming months, to hear first-hand how members feel the Association can best represent them.”
The lecture will take place on Saturday 16th November 2019 at 7.30 pm in the United Reformed Church, Market Hill, Maldon, CM9 4PZ.
There is no entry charge but admission will be by ticket.
These will be available from 23rd September and details will be on this page from that date.
2018 – Setting up libraries in the long seventeenth century
by Giles Mandelbrote, Librarian and Archivist, Lambeth Palace Library.
2017 – Seventeenth-Century Saturday Kitchen, or Hanna Woolley’s Recipes for Queen-Like Living Every Day
by Dr Lisa Smith, Lecturer, Department of History at the University of Essex, Co-editor, The Recipes Project
2016 – The Idea of a University in the Age of Thomas Plume
by Dr Richard Serjeantson, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge University
2015 – The Church of England and the Home Front 1914 – 1918: Civilians, Soldiers and Religion in Wartime Colchester
Dr Robert Beaken parish priest of St Mary the Virgin, Great Bardfield and St Katharine, Little Bardfield in Essex
2014 – Cancelled
2013 – The Hidden Universe Revealed
Robert C. Kennicutt, Jr. FRS, Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy and Head, School of the Physical Sciences, University of Cambridge.
2012 – The Libraries of the National Trust
Mark Purcell, Libraries Curator, the National Trust
2011 – Censuses and surveys and the rise of the Information State, 1500-2011
Professor Edward Higgs, Graduate Director of the History Department, Director of the Centre for Historical Census and Survey Research, University of Essex
2010 – Witchcraft and Witchcraft Beliefs in England During the Lifetime of Thomas Plume, 1630-1704
Dr. Alison Rowlands, Senior lecturer in European history and Director of the Centre for Local and Regional History The University of Essex
2009 – Why do we need so many old books? The value of the Plume Library in the modern world
Dr David Pearson, Director of Libraries, Archives & Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London
2008 – “The Culture of Place-Making” – The Role of the Arts in Shaping Identity and Building Communities
Roy Clare CBE, Chief Executive of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
2007 – John Evelyn: Living for Ingenuity
Gillian Darley
2006 – By Permission of Heaven: The Story of the Great Fire of London
Adrian Tinniswood
2005 – Time Team St. Osyth Revisited: Documents and Buildings
Dr Christopher Thornton and Brenda Watkin
2004 – The Two Pepys
Claire Tomalin
2003 – Nautical tales from the archives: exploration and charting in the 16th and 17th centuries
Sarah Tyacke, Chief Executive of the National Archives
2002 – Mad about Travel
Michael Palin
2001 – Survival in Solitude
Terry Waite
2000 – No Lecture.
1999 – The Radical Tradition
Rt Hon. Tony Benn, M.P.
1998 – The 17th Century Time Machine: antiquarians and the discovery of the past
Professor Graham Parry
1997 – The Essex World of Thomas Plume
John Walter, Director of the Local History Centre, University of Essex
1996 – Robert Boyle and the Origins of Modern Science
Professor M. Hunter, Birkbeck College
1995 – Painting in Britain in Thomas Plume’s Day
Professor L. Herrmann
1994 – The Excavations at the Roman Town Heybridge
M. Atkinson
1993 – A Peculiar Collection: the Library of Westminster Abbey
Dr Tony Trowles, Librarian
1992 – 3rd Lord Rayleigh, Victorian Scientific Genius
B. Gruhn & A. Humphrey
1991 – To the Edge of the Universe
Professor A. Boksenberg, Director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory
1990 – Dr Plume & the World of Collecting
Frank Herrmann
1989 – Medical Practice in 17th & 18th Century Essex
Dr M. Neave
1988 – If Books could speak: Tales of the Old Town Library
Dr J. Blatchly, Librarian, Ipswich Town Library
1987 – Behind the Scenes at the BBC
Derek Robinson, BBC Engineering Information Department
1986 – Thomas Hooker: Father of American Democracy
Revd Deryck Collingwood
1985 – Pepys the Collector
R. Latham, Librarian, Pepys Library
1984 – The World of Books
Miss Christina Foyle
1983 – Exploring the Universe
Professor James Ring, Imperial College
1982 – Honey & Wormwood: the voice from the Pulpit in Dr Plume’s Day
V. Gray, Essex County Archivist
1981 – The Intentions of Thomas Plume
Dr W. J. Petchey
1980 – Dr Plume’s World of Science
Dr Ludmilla Jordonova, Essex University
1979 – Facts at your Fingertips
John Laidlaw, Librarian, Post Office Research Centre
1978 – Life without Gravity – Man’s Future in Space
Dr Heinz Wolff
1977 – Aircraft, Birdflight & Radar
Sir Eric Eastwoood
1976 – Stars & the Universe
Professor Martin Rees, Plumian Professor
1975 – Radio Waves
George Millington, FRS