Chris Brooks Collection

Professor Chris Brooks was one of Britain's leading cultural historians of the Victorian period, and was a former Chair of the prestigious Victorian Society. His library of primary and secondary source Victorian material was donated to the University Library in 2002. The collection strengths reflect Brooks's research and teaching interests in art and architecture, literature, topography, and history.

Born in London in 1949, his family moved to Devon when he was young and, after graduating from Manchester University in 1971, Brooks joined the School of English at Exeter as a tutor in 1974. He became a lecturer in 1976, took his doctorate from Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1979, and later became a professor in Victorian studies at Exeter, where he helped lead the establishment of the Bill Douglas Centre Museum, a museum and resource centre now administered through the University Library's Special Collections.

As Chair of the Victorian Society in 1993, he was instrumental in securing the restoration of the Royal Albert Memorial, London, for he took an active role in historic building conservation issues on a local and national level. Chris Brooks died in 2002.

His publications include The Great East Window of Exeter Cathedral (1988), Mortal Remains (1988), and The Albert Memorial (1995), but his 'masterpiece', according to Geoff Branwood, Chair of the Victorian Society, was The Gothic Revival (1999), which 'broke new ground in examining what the concept of the gothic meant at different times and places'.

Extent

Contains over 10,000 works.

Custodial History

Chris Brooks bequeathed the collection to the University of Exeter Library.

Scope and Content

Collection Strengths

The collection supports a wide range of scholarship within the field of Victorian culture, as collection strengths of literature, art, architecture, and topography overlap and complement one another, and are themselves supported by a good working collection of history books. The collection is therefore rich in primary source Victorian works, the significance of which is contextualised by later critical and historical works.

Adult and juvenile fiction of the Victorian and Edwardian period forms a major emphasis of the collection (c. 4,000 items). Supported by related periodical and poetry titles, this material forms a major body of works relevant to the study of Victorian publishing, writing, and reading. As befits Brooks's interest in visual representations, many of the fiction titles are illustrated and many retain their original binding. Collectively they form a valuable resource demonstrating the physical development of the book in the Victorian era.

The Periodical collection contains a complete set of Punch (Vol. 1, 1841 - Vol. 159, 1920). These volumes have been been indexed by Brooks and as such provides an insight into his research topics. Other titles include All the Year Round, The Boy's Own Paper, Cornhill Magazine, Fireside, and Good Words.

Reflecting his interest in conservation and historic buildings, there are also clear collection strengths in art and architecture (especially English church architecture and stained glass), and in topography (especially that of Devon and Cornwall). He was recording medieval stained glass in the South West peninsula for the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi when he died.

The collection complements other resources in Special Collections, including the Bill Douglas Centre collection, the South West writers' papers in the archives, and John Betjeman's working library, itself strong in Victorian poetry and architecture titles.

Chronological emphasis

The collection houses many nineteenth century publications, alongside a number of twentieth century publications that focus upon the Victorian period.

System of Arrangement

The collection is arranged using Dewey Decimal classification.

Accruals

The collection is open and occasional new acquisitions are made, mainly to develop further the fiction and periodical strengths of the collection.

Access Conditions

Usual EUL Special Collections arrangements apply.

Reproduction Conditions

Usual EUL Special Collections arrangements apply.

Finding Aids

The materials in the Brooks collection are available via the Library's online catalogue, and you can browse the titles by performing a 'local classmark' search on the library catalogue for 'Brooks'. Periodical titles are fully catalogued and can be searched using the term Brooks P in the 'local classmark' function.

Language

Chiefly English.

Subject Keywords

Architecture -- Nineteenth to Twentieth Century
English Fiction -- Nineteenth to Twentieth Century
English Poetry -- Nineteenth to Twentieth Century
History of Publishing -- Nineteenth to Twentieth Century
Topography -- Nineteenth to Twentieth Century

Links

Aspects of the Victorian Book (British Library)
17th-19th Century children's literature collection (University of Liverpool Special Collections)
Bodleian Library Opie Collection (University of Oxford)
Victorian Popular Culture Archive (Requires University of Exeter login)