‘Inlets of depravity’? Book lending and the commercial circulating library in Birmingham before 1850.
Thursday 19 May, 2022 | 18:30-20:00 BST | Zoom | FREE. but book is required
The commercial circulating library was a common sight in towns up and down the country with, by the 1820s, an estimated 1,500 in existence. In Birmingham their heyday was between 1750 and 1850 after which their numbers began to decline, a fact hastened by the arrival of the first free lending library at Constitution Hill in 1861. With reference to a number of Birmingham’s more successful circulating libraries, Steve Hewett, doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham, will be discussing how this type of library operated, by whom and for whom; what they chose to read and why this library type had such a reputational problem.
This seminar will be delivered online via Zoom with meeting details emailed 2 days before the event and again 2 hours before.