King's College London - Special Collections Library

Today we went to King's College London, which is an academic space. Specifically we went to their Special Collections Library which is part of their library services as a whole. There are about 200 staff in the library in general, with about 8 in special collections (they said this is the average number of staff to have!) Kings College London is a large research-led university, in the top 30 in the world. They have about 25,000 students total. They were founded in 1829 and are the 4th oldest university in England.

And best of all, they let us actually touch their collection! This was a first and it was a rare, amazing experience!

This is a 1671 first edition of America--which had the latest and most accurate description of the new world.

This was printed and sold by Benjamin Franklin, 1742. It's all about Pennsylvania (note his spelling of it)

It's believed this was Benjamin Franklin's own copy of the book, which is why he signed it! Also, I'm going to be honest: I smelled this book and it smelled like HISTORY.

This is one of the first maps to attempt to show every building in London. It was 32 single sheets to print, so it was expensive.

This is a 1542 first edition medical book--Vesalius, or "On the Fabric of the Human Body."

This is a bible from 1494 printed in the German vernacular. This was before the Reformation and Martin Luther when things were very strict still about religion in London, but Germany already heavily had the tradition of translating the bible into the vernacular.

This is an 18th century chapbook of fairytales, the page it's on is for Cinderella. These chapbooks were aimed at a semi-literate population. They were often on subjects such as simple history or fairytales, aimed at both adults and children.

And we also got a tour of the facilities!