Bob Henderson
@roberthenderson.bsky.social
Historian of the Russian revolutionary emigration. Formerly Russian curator at the British Library. Based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Latest book (pbk. ed.):
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/spark-that-lit-the-revolution-9781350344730/
Latest book (pbk. ed.):
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/spark-that-lit-the-revolution-9781350344730/
The British Museum Library was regarded by many, including Lenin, as the best in the world. This was due in no small part to the exhaustive collection of reference works available to readers on open access in its famous Round Reading Room.
(1912 plan showing arrangement of books.)
#libraryhistory
(1912 plan showing arrangement of books.)
#libraryhistory
![Plan of the Ground Floor of the Reading Room of the British Museum. "A Guide to the use of the Reading Room", London: [British Museum Trustees], 1912, p.50](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:yhefjacgfk6k2b5ctyllyuns/bafkreidt5unwpn6sy3cgeyzlo5iuedycsys6cshory73l6akxmvvia6l6e@jpeg)
June 30, 2025 at 7:04 PM
The British Museum Library was regarded by many, including Lenin, as the best in the world. This was due in no small part to the exhaustive collection of reference works available to readers on open access in its famous Round Reading Room.
(1912 plan showing arrangement of books.)
#libraryhistory
(1912 plan showing arrangement of books.)
#libraryhistory
After a lengthy spell of hospitalization in the marvellous Edinburgh Royal I was presented with this little beauty which my wife fell upon in a little 2nd hand bookshop in Bloomsbury. I'm sure it'll get me through the remainder of my stay!
March 29, 2025 at 7:50 PM
After a lengthy spell of hospitalization in the marvellous Edinburgh Royal I was presented with this little beauty which my wife fell upon in a little 2nd hand bookshop in Bloomsbury. I'm sure it'll get me through the remainder of my stay!
Posted earlier: the half-title page of the British Library’s copy of the first Russian translation of Das Kapital, (vol. II), published 1885.
March 14, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Posted earlier: the half-title page of the British Library’s copy of the first Russian translation of Das Kapital, (vol. II), published 1885.
Today made a trip to Dunfermline, Fife, birthplace of the great Andrew Carnegie, a man to whom library-lovers owe an enormous debt of gratitude!
#libraries
#libraries
December 27, 2024 at 6:31 PM
Today made a trip to Dunfermline, Fife, birthplace of the great Andrew Carnegie, a man to whom library-lovers owe an enormous debt of gratitude!
#libraries
#libraries
One of my favourite dedications: the half-title page of the British Library’s copy of the first Russian translation of Das Kapital, (vol. II), published 1885, i.e. two years after Marx’s death.
December 13, 2024 at 6:39 PM
One of my favourite dedications: the half-title page of the British Library’s copy of the first Russian translation of Das Kapital, (vol. II), published 1885, i.e. two years after Marx’s death.
Having spent many years behind the Readers’ Enquiry Desk in the British Museum’s famous round reading room, I would have to disagree. As Lenin said:
“Let me tell you, there is no better library than the British Museum. Here there are fewer gaps in the collections than in any other library.”
December 10, 2024 at 1:29 PM
Having spent many years behind the Readers’ Enquiry Desk in the British Museum’s famous round reading room, I would have to disagree. As Lenin said:
“Let me tell you, there is no better library than the British Museum. Here there are fewer gaps in the collections than in any other library.”
December 8, 2024 at 2:35 PM