Much more than teaching... Marshall Library's extensive and eclectic research collections by Simon Frost, Deputy Librarian

 

It’s often asserted that the Marshall Library is a teaching library and, during Full Term, this is undoubtedly the case. To suggest, however, that it is solely a teaching library belies the contributions made – and being made – by it’s extensive and eclectic collections of archives and rare books to the work of the numerous researchers who visit the Marshall from all over the World. The majority of these visits occur during vacation and illustrate the way in which the focus of the library changes from teaching to research support with archival enquires, supervision and scanning occupying proportionately more staff time.

The Marshall Library archives consist primarily of the notes, correspondence and photographs of Professor Alfred Marshall (22 boxes) and Professor Austin Robinson (108 boxes). Other Cambridge economists – Pigou, Foxwell and Jevons – are also represented together with extensive lecture notes produced by various undergraduates in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. There are also some surprises. Mary Marshall, Alfred’s wife and economist in her own right, was also an accomplished water colourist and the collection includes numerous portfolios of her work. Austin Robinson became a pilot during the First World War and flew flying boats with the Royal Naval Air Service and later with Shorts Brothers as a test pilot. He was a keen photographer his archives contain hundreds of unique photographs early aircraft and airships.

Mary Paley's watercolour album                                                

Photos from Austin Robinson's papers

Accompanying these archival materials are many thousands of rare books which originated from the working collections of Marshall, Keynes and other prominent Cambridge economists. Many of these contain significant amounts of marginalia or inter-lea
ved notes. Again, there are surprises.  An inscription in one tome indicates that it was retrieved Herman Goering’s personal train at Berchtesgaden in 1945 and was donated to the library by Nicholas Kaldor who, at the time, was Chief of the Economic Planning Staff of the US Strategic Bombing Survey.

Nicholas Kaldor

For many years these archival collections were poorly organised and widely distributed throughout the Faculty of Economics until, in the late 1990s, the then Marshall Librarian, Rowland Thomas, secured funding from the National Bank of Italy for an archivist to undertake their organization and cataloguing. At the same time the rare books were subject to a programme of retrospective cataloguing in order to make them more accessible and to highlight any notable annotations.

The simple expedient of uploading pdf files of the newly created archival catalogues to the Marshall Library website in the early 2000s garnered considerable interest amongst economic historians worldwide and material in the archives has been used in the production of at least sixteen books ranging from biographies of Marshall, Pigou and Fay to books about flying boats in the Royal Naval Air Service. The most recent publication we’ve provided assistance with is Economics of Visual Art: Market Practice and Market Resistance / Amy Whitaker (2021). We’ve also identified numerous chapters in books and journal articles that have been produced using resources in the Marshall archives.

The Marshall Library has never really been solely a teaching library. The dichotomy between its teaching and research responsibilities has always been there and it’s what continues to make it an interesting place in which to work.

The Return of Alfred Marshall’s Book V, Ch.VII of Principles of Economics (annotated) from Japan

Prof. Shoichiro Uemiya visited the Marshall Library Archive on 9 March, 2017 to return a book that belonged to Alfred Marshall. The book appears to have been in Japan for some time and possibly since the 1920s. 

As Prof. Uemiya  explains in his own words:

“I am an Emeritus Professor of Kobe University in Japan. My major field is the history of economic thought. I studied for a year (1977-78) as an Honorary Research Fellow under the late Prof. R.D.C.Black at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Just before my retirement in March 2012 Mrs. Taeko Minakata, the wife of my supervisor the late Prof. Kanichi Minakata (1923-1985), asked me to return this book, which is part of Marshall’s Principles of Economics. The book contains pages with bound-in pages of written script – possibly in the handwriting of Marshall himself. Her husband told her that he received this particular book from his old-time supervisor Prof. Yasaburo Sakamoto (1894-1981). Prof. Minakata’s major field was Marshall’s Economic Theory. He came to Cambridge for a year (1962-63) to study and stayed at St. Edmund’s House. However, Mrs. Minakata has no idea when or where Prof. Sakamoto got the book. He did travel between 1919-1927 in England, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.”

The book comprises Book V, Ch. VII  pp. 449-610 of Principles of Economics. Many of the pages include handwritten insertions in coloured pencils and ink. There is also a stamp showing 15 Jan. 90, University Press, Cambridge. Clare Trowell, Marshall Librarian and Simon Frost, Deputy Librarian can confirm that the inserted pages are in Marshall’s handwriting as the Library Rare Books collections contain many examples of Marshall’s handwriting and it is clearly recognisable.

The Marshall Library Archive contains several photographs, including an intriguing picture of Mrs Mary Paley Marshall entertaining a Japanese visitor and his wife at her house, Balliol Croft, in 1928. This visitor is Prof. Tsunao Miyajima (1884-1965) who translated the Memoirs of Alfred Marshall (1925) into Japanese. Between 1919-1928 Prof. Miyajima was Prof. at the Kansai University, Osaka. In 1928 he also visited France. Between 1948-1952 he was Chief Director of Kansai University. There does not appear to be a link between Prof. Miyajima , Prof. Sakamoto and the mysterious annotated book that has just been returned to the Marshall Library Archives.

We plan to catalogue the returned book as a Rare Book and make it available to scholars of Alfred Marshall as soon as possible.

Prof. Uemiya also kindly donated a copy of his translation of the work:

The Scope and Method of Political Economy / J.N. Keynes    Marshall Library   20 F 18  http://bit.ly/2lZhbpu