Edward Edwards (librarian)

Edward Edwards (1812–1886) was a British librarian, library historian, and biographer. He was an important figure in the establishment of free libraries in the United Kingdom. He died and is buried in Niton on the Isle of Wight.

He was born in London, England on 14 December 1812. His father, Anthony Turner Edwards, was a builder. There is no record of Edwards' education and early employments, but in 1836 he appears as a pamphleteer on subjects of public interest, and his productions evince considerable information as well as mental activity and intelligence. He wrote on national universities, with especial reference to the University of London, whose charter was then under discussion; on the British Museum, at the time undergoing thorough investigation from Benjamin Hawes' committee; and, at a somewhat later date, on the reform of the Royal Academy. His attention was probably directed to the latter subject by the work he undertook in 1837, in connection with the patentees of the Collas system of engraving, on the great seals of England, and on the medals struck under the French Empire. His account of the latter extends from 1804 to 1810, but was never completed. He also about this time assisted William Macarthur in his account of New South Wales, though his name did not appear in connection with the work.

Meanwhile, his pamphlet on the museum and the evidence he had given before the museum committee had attracted the attention of the authorities, and in 1839 he became a supernumerary assistant in the printed book department, for especial employment on the new catalogue ordered by the trustees. Edwards was one of the four coadjutors of Anthony Panizzi in framing the ninety-one rules for the formation of this catalogue, the others being John Winter Jones, later principal librarian; Thomas Watts, later keeper of printed books; and John Humffreys Parry, then, like Edwards, a supernumerary assistant. On the commencement of the catalogue Edwards was assigned to the duty of cataloguing the collection of English civil war tracts, formed under Charles I and the Commonwealth by the bookseller Thomason, and containing more than thirty thousand separate pieces. These were entirely catalogued by him, and his titles are generally very good, sometimes perhaps overly detailed. The task seems to have absorbed his energies for several years, or any other literary work which he may have produced was anonymous. About 1846 he began to devote great attention to the statistics of libraries, collected returns supplied by foreign librarians or excerpted by himself from foreign publications, and published the results in the Athenaeum. Unfortunately these statistics were frequently fallacious, and Mr. Watts, in a series of letters published in the Athenaeum under the signature "Verificator," easily showed that Edwards's assertions and conclusions were little to be relied on. They had served, however, to make him a popular authority, and he was able to render very valuable service to William Ewart, whose committee on free libraries in 1850 originated the Public Libraries Act. It was natural that Edwards should be offered the librarianship of the first important free library established under Mr. Ewart's act, which he was the more disposed to accept as his engagement at the museum had from various causes ceased to be satisfactory to himself or the authorities.

...
Wikipedia