Quick Memorial Library

The Quick Memorial Library has as its core the Library of the Reverend Robert Hebert Quick (1831-1891), schoolmaster and writer on education. The Library was given to the University Library in 1929 by the Education Guild, formerly the Teachers' Guild of Great Britain & Ireland to whom it had been donated in 1900 by Quick's widow.

Books, pamphlets and periodicals are included, dealing with most aspects of education. The Library includes many early school textbooks; works, often in contemporary editions, of most of the major educational thinkers from the Renaissance to the mid-19th century; biographies; histories of schools and encyclopaedias of education. Material on the education of the poor and missionary education activities as well as the wealth of early editions indicates the breadth of the collection, extending its research interest beyond the history of education. The University Library has supplemented the original gift with items from its own collection relating to educational history and many examples of books for children.

Other collections in Senate House Library complement the Quick Memorial Library: the Prize Collection of books late 19th century childrens' fiction given as prizes, the Martin Collection of late 18th and early 19th century children's books and the De Morgan Library, for mathematical texts and books on calculation.

Examples of early textbooks in the collection:

The Italian Schoole-maister by C. Holliband, 1597.
Positions… by Richard Mulcaster, 1581.

There are works by Comenius such as Ianua aurea linguarum, 1642.

Other early items include:

The Boke named The Governour by Sir Thomas Elyot, in a 16th century edition.
The Scholemaster by Roger Ascham in a 1571 issue.
Ludus Literarius by John Brinsley. First, 1612, and second, 1627, editions.
Some Thoughts Concerning Education, John Locke, 1693.

The Quick Memorial Library is partially catalogued on the Main Catalogue and the rest is to be found on the Online Card Catalogue, accessible from the Main Catalogue menu.

shl.specialcollections@london.ac.uk 020 7862 8470