Exploring and Recording Textiles in the British Library Collections

Frances Casey, PhD Research PlacementIt is perhaps not widely known that the British Library has a diverse and fascinating range of textiles which span all collection areas. These textiles range from fabric covers for Torah scrolls and silk escape maps of Berlin, to a Japanese children's book resembling a baby in a sleeping bag and Captain Cook's samples of bark cloth from the South Pacific Islands. Yet, despite the number of textiles in the collections, many of these have not been recorded or catalogued in their own right, although most have a Library shelfmark. If textile items have been catalogued in the Library, then their descriptions can be inconsistent.Following on from an investigation by the Library's Textile Conservator, Liz Rose, my role as part of the British Library's PhD placement scheme was to identify textiles in the Library and record information about them into a textile specific database. This involved referring to and searching the Library catalogues, as well as liaising with curators across collections to view textile items, photograph them, and input their details into the textile database using the Library's shelfmark system.Despite the wide variety of textiles in the Library, it is possible to identify three general forms that they take in the collections. These can be loosely termed: Textual Textiles; Associated Textiles; and Component Textiles – although some can be a combination of these.Textual TextilesAs the library is primarily concerned with written content as well as images and sound, books and manuscripts comprise the main part of the Library collections. In some cases, textiles can take the form of the text and image items. For example, the theatrical playbill shown here is printed on silk. This playbill is the 'textual' item of interest to the library.