R E Hart’s collection of about 800 items, including 400 incunabula and early printed books, as well as 22 medieval manuscripts, was donated to Blackburn Library in 1946, and has been part of Blackburn Museum’s collections since 1972.  An AHRC-funded project to display ten of the most impressive manuscripts and early printed books at the Senate House, London, throughout November 2013, will culminate in a colloquium on the past, present and future of the Blackburn collection, including a round table discussion on the role in general of collections such as Hart’s in local communities today.

We invite proposals for 20 minute papers on the past, present and future of such collections in their contexts.  Papers could explore late Victorian and early twentieth century collectors and their collections; they could also look at the items present in Hart’s collection, including important 13th century psalters (the Blackburn Psalter and the Peckover Psalter), 14th and 15th century English and Flemish Books of Hours, as well as Incunabula.  Finally, papers could address the future of small collections such as Hart’s, and their role in local communities in the digital era.
 Please email proposals of approximately 250 words to Courtnay Konshuh by August 15, 2013. We are offering Bibliographical Society Studentships for graduate students’ travel expenses– if you wish to apply for this, please indicate this in an email to us at hiddehartbooks [at] yahoo [dot] com.
For more information on this project, the exhibition and its contents, please see blackhartbooks.wordpress.com, and you can download the full CFP here: Download Hart_cfp