Oxford - Radcliffe Camera - Salmon postcard

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Oxford - Radcliffe Camera
• Publisher:  J Salmon (2-34-01-30)
• Postally used:  no
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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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The Radcliffe Camera (Camera, meaning ""room"" in Latin; colloquially, ""Rad Cam"") is a building in Oxford, England, designed by James Gibbs in the English Palladian style and built in 1737–1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library. It is sited to the south of the Old Bodleian, north of St. Mary's Church, and between Brasenose College to the west and All Souls College to the east.

The Library's construction and maintenance was funded from the estate of John Radcliffe, a notable doctor, who left £40,000 upon his death in 1714. According to the terms of his will, construction only began in 1737, although the intervening period saw the complex purchase of the site. The exterior was complete in 1747 and the interior finished by 1748, although the Library's opening was delayed until 13 April 1749.

Upon completion, Francis Wise was appointed as its first librarian. Until 1810, the Library housed books covering a wide range of subjects, but under Dr George Williams it narrowed its focus to the sciences. Williams brought the Library from a state of neglect up to date, although by 1850 the Radcliffe Library still lagged behind the Bodleian. It was at this point that Henry Wentworth Acland, then librarian, laid out plans for the Radcliffe Library building to merge with the University and the Library's collection of books to be moved to the newly constructed Radcliffe Science Library, which were accepted by the Library's trustees and the University. It was at this point that the building became known as the Radcliffe Camera, serving as a reading room for the Bodleian.

John Radcliffe (c.1650–1714) attended University College from the age of thirteen, becoming a fellow of Lincoln College at eighteen.^[1] He had a successful career in medicine, serving a number of high-profile, wealthy patients including William III and Queen Anne. He built up a large fortune and died childless.^[2] He is buried in St. Mary's Church, Oxford.^[3]

It was known that he intended to build a library in Oxford at least two years before his death in 1714. It was thought that the new building would be an extension westwards of the Selden End of the Bodleian Library.^[3] Francis Atterbury, Dean of Christ Church, writing in December 1712 describes plans for a 90 ft room^{[citation needed]} on the site of neighbouring Exeter College, and that the lower storey would be a library for Exeter College and the upper story Radcliffe's Library.^[3] Radcliffe also dedicated £100 a year to furnishing his proposed library with books. Plans were prepared by Nicholas Hawksmoor and are now held in the Ashmolean Museum.^[3] By 1714, however, Radcliffe had settled on a different site for his new library, to the south of the existing Bodleian. William Pittis, Radcliffe's first biographer, ascribes the change of heart to excessive demands from the Rector and Fellows of Exeter College

Radcliffe died on 1 November 1714.^[3] His will, proved on 8 December, provided for the building of a new library on the new site, stating:

And will that my executors pay forty thousand pounds in the terme of ten years, by yearly payments of four thousand pounds, the first payment thereof to begin and be made after the decease of my said two sisters for the building a library in Oxford and the purchaseing the house the houses between St Maries and the scholes in Catstreet where I intend the Library to be built, and when the said Library is built I give one hundred and fifty pounds per annum for ever to the Library Keeper thereof for the time being and one hundred pounds a year per annum for ever for buying books for the same Library.^[5]

It also provided £100 a year to maintain the new library, but only once 30 years had elapsed from his death.^[6] The library-keeper was to be chosen by several influential figures: the Archbisop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Winchester, the Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary, the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench and the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and the Master of the Rolls.^[6] The first payment was to be made after the death of Radcliffe's two sisters, Hannah Redshaw and Millicent Radcliffe. The latter lived until 1736, although it appears between the death of Redshaw in 1716 and Millicent Radcliffe in 1736, much preparatory work was done acquiring the site for the library.^[6]

A number of tenement houses fronting Catte Street, built right up to the Schools, some gardens, Brasenose College outbuildings and Black Hall occupied the site required for the library. A number of colleges became involved in the development of the site. An added problem was that Brasenose required an equal amount of land fronting High Street in return for the land they were being asked to give up. As a consequence, the Trustees had to negotiate with the owners and the tenants of the houses. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1720 that enabled any corporations within the University to sell ground for building a library.^[5] The negotiations dealing with Catte Street took over twenty years, with the final payments being made to Oriel, Magdalen and University Colleges in 1737 (N.S.).^[7]

Radcliffe had placed four men in charge of his estate: William Bromley, sometime Speaker of the House of Commons; Sir George Beaumont, a Lord of the Admiralty; Antony Keck, a banker; and Thomas Sclater Bacon, a lawyer.^[7] There appears to have been some difficulty in getting the required majority to agree to work beginning before 1736, with the four split between Bromley and Beaumont wanting to start and Bacon and Keck set against them. Accordingly Bromley made plans for work to start not long after 1720, but they were never fulfilled. The early start was to be funded by the high share price of investments in the South Sea Company, which proved overly optimistic.^[8]

It was therefore in 1720 that the choice of architect was first considered. considered as early as 1720 - Christopher Wren, John Vanbrugh, Thomas Archer, James Thornhill, John James, Nicholas Hawksmoor, and James Gibbs were considered.^[5] By the time the Trustees began to consider the building project, however, their choice had been restricted: Wren had died in 1723, Vanbrugh in 1724, and Thornhill in 1734.^[9] In 1734 Hawksmoor and Gibbs were invited to submit plans.^[5] A model, believed to be to Hawksmoor's specification, was made in 1734 and presented to the University in 1913. The model was well-received and it appears to have only been Hawksmoor's death in 1736 that led the Trustees to appoint Gibbs as architect to the project.^[9] Gibbs was given a salary of £100 per annum ""for directing and supervising the building of the Radcliffe Library and drawing all plans that shall be necessary for completing that work and corresponding with the builders, and going down four times in every year to see the building"".^[10]

On 4 March 1737, the Trustees directed Gibbs along with Francis Smith of Warwick and William Townesend of Oxford 'to prepare Stones and things ready for building the library'. An early set of plans were engraved and prints delivered to the most important members of the town and University, no doubt to ensure that their opposition was dealt with swiftly. The University in particular seems to have influenced the Trustee's plan, although the Library would not form part of it. A second set were made a year later.^[10] A third set of prints, representing the final plans, were reprinted by Gibbs in his Bibliotheca Radcliviana of 1747.^[11]

type=printed postcards

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=england

county/ country=oxfordshire

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=unposted