It was to be made up of both textbooks relevant to subjects taught in the College (as it was) and books on teaching methods through the years. There were two main reasons given for the implementation and development of the collection. Firstly, so that students and staff could study the development of teaching on a subject over time and secondly, a more pragmatic reason: special collections like this were an area where colleges of education had/have traditional strengths and, as a new foundation, Christ Church College did not want to be excluded from this.

Development of the collection

Although the initial nucleus of the collection was purchased, the collection has subsequently grown through donations of items from a variety of benefactors.

There are many examples of nineteenth century books by well-known publishers in the field of education: Macmillan, Blackie, Longman, Routledge, Cassell, Warne and Nelson. There are also representations from several religious publishers: Religious Tract Society, SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge), the Sunday School Union, and the National Society.

The large representation of books published by SPCK is mainly because the collection has a large set of Mrs Ewing’s works in an edition published by them. Juliana Horatia Ewing was a writer of children’s books in the nineteenth century, who well-known for her Anglican faith.

The relatively large numbers of publications by the Religious Tract Society and the Sunday School Union are due to one donation having been from a Sunday school, the first rule of which was:

Library Guide - Historical Non-Fiction Collection