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Formed Collections

Arthur William Davis (1763-1822), Portrait of Captain Wilson of Antelope c.1782, oil on canvas; 74.0 x 60.8 cm, Pictures Collection

George Keate, An Account of the Pelew Islands ... (London: G. Nicol, printer, 1788)

Both of these items are included in the Rex Nan Kivell Collection

The National Library of Australia has a number of collections gathered around a particular theme or by a particular collector or family—these are referred to as Formed Collections. They may have a specific focus, span a particular time period or simply be a miscellaneous group of material assembled by an enthusiast or an expert in a subject relevant to Australia’s historic and cultural heritage. Material from these formed collections is not always stored at the one location and often split across different formats, such as Manuscripts, Pictures and Maps.

The majority of Formed Collections are known by the name of the collector or family. Among the most well-known and largest Formed Collections are those of the New Zealand–born art dealer Rex Nan Kivell (1898–1977), judge and bibliographer John Alexander Ferguson (1881–1969) and bookseller and publisher Edward Augustus Petherick (1847-1917). But many of the lesser-known, smaller collections hold equally rare and fascinating items.

In this article, the first in an ongoing series about the Library’s Formed Collections, Graeme Powell and Julie Whiting provide a glimpse into the person behind and the treasures within the Alston Collection.

The Alston Collection
Robin Carfrae Alston (b.1933) was educated at Rugby School, England, and the universities of British Columbia, Oxford, Toronto and London. He was a lecturer in philology at the University of New Brunswick (1958–60) and the University of Leeds (1964–76). In 1977, he became a consultant to the British Library and from 1978 to 1989 he was editor-in-chief of the English Short Title Catalogue. From 1990 to 1998, Alston was Professor of Library Studies at the University of London.

The Alston Collection was purchased by the Library from Alston in 1974. The collection contains 1351 titles published before 1850 and about 500 post-1850 titles. It relates largely to philology and similar subjects, including spelling, grammar, phonetics, syntax, etymology, dialects, slang, rhetoric, elocution, belles letters, letter-writing and heraldry. There are a very large number of dictionaries and works on Anglo Saxon, Old English, Middle English, modern English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Danish and Swedish.

Printed materials
Among the many rare works, some of them the only copies known to exist, are the following:

Abd-oor-rusheed-e T'Hatvee, Moontukhub – ool – loghaut: Or a Dictionary of Arabic Words with a Persian Translation, Calcutta, 1808

Armauld, A. and Nicole, P., A General and Rational Grammar Containing the Fundamental Principles of the Art of Speaking, London, 1753

Ash, John, Grammatical Institutes, or Grammar Adapted to the Genius of the English Tongue, Worcester, 1760

Baretti, Giuseppe, Dissertacion Epistolar acerca unas obras de la Real Academia Espanola, London, 1784

Bembo, Pietro, Prose di M. Pietro Bembo nelle quail si ragiona della vulgar lingua, Venice, 1525

Bordley, S.G., Cadmus Britannicus: Or, the Art of Writing Improved, London, 1787

Encyclopaedia Perthensis: Or Universal Dictionary of Knowledge, 23 vols, Perth, 1796–1808

Entick, John, The New Spelling Dictionary, London, 1765

Gentleman, Robert, The Young English Scholar’s Complete Pocket Companion, Kidderminster, 1788

Hager, Giuseppe Explanation of the Elementary Characters of the Chinese, London, 1801

Komensky, Jan Amos, Lexicon januale, Frankfurt, 1656

Lane, A., A Key to the Art of Letters, London, 1700

Larramendi, Manuel de, El impossible vendico: arte de la lengua Bascongada, Salamanca, 1729

Lowth, Robert, A Short Introduction to English Grammar, London, 1762

Malcolme, David, An Essay on the Antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland, Edinburgh, 1738

Price, Owen, English Orthographie, Oxford, 1670

Worms, David, Eisagoge, hoc est brevas et summaria in linguam Italicam introductio, Jena, 1595

Young, Edward, The Compleat English Scholar, London, 1679.

In addition to the books, there is a large quantity of photocopies of linguistic works held in European libraries collected by Alston over a period of 14 years.

Manuscripts
The Alston Collection also contains an extensive body of manuscripts and other papers relating to Alston’s bibliographical activities in the 1960s. In particular, there are drafts of An Introduction to Old English, notebooks, call slips, draft entries and proofs of the Bibliography of the English Language from the Invention of Printing to 1800, and material for a proposed Dictionary of Tudor English. There are also files of correspondence with libraries and contributors, and drafts of lectures and academic papers written and presented by Alston. The papers are held in the Manuscripts Collection.

Graeme Powell and
Julie Whiting, Manager, Serials Collection Mangament & Standards Branch