The British Library’s Online Gallery
by Rebecca Amerson
Woodstock High School
The British Library is the national library of the United
Kingdom and one of the world's greatest libraries. The collection
includes 150 million items, in most known languages. Many of
their greatest treasures have been digitized and can be viewed
in their online gallery. You will need the free Shockwave download.
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/homepage.html
- Turning the Pages™ allows you to leaf
through 15 great books. Turning the Pages allows you to virtually
'turn' the pages of manuscripts, zoom in, and read or listen
to notes explaining the beauty and significance of each page.
In the Leonardo da Vinci notebook, a button turns the text
round so you can read his famous 'mirror' handwriting. You
can listen to the music of Mozart. The illuminated manuscripts
are amazing. See the original Alice’s Adventures Under
Ground by Lewis Carroll. You can see the history of England
by Jane Austen, written in her own hand.
- The Highlights Tour contains 15 of the library’s greatest
treasures. You can see Handel’s Messiah, 1741,
written in the composer’s hand. There is a map of New York
dated 1664 and given to the Duke of York when he was asked for
permission to rename the town for him. The Diamond Sutra is the
earliest known printed book: May 11, 868 . You will find the
British Library’s 93 copies of the 21 plays by William
Shakespeare printed in quarto before the theatres were closed
in 1642. The library has two complete copies of Gutenberg’s
Bible, printed in the mid 1400’s. Four original copies
of the Magna Carta exist, two can be seen here.
- Features explores ideas and events using primary sources.
One example is a history of dictionaries.
- Showcases - Share “English Literature” with
your senior British Literature teachers. There is an amazing
collection of original manuscripts of great writers here.
- Don’t forget to send an e-card to
a colleague. There are even images taken from children’s
book illustrations!