We are the trustee of over 100 trust funds, used to support academic activities at our member institutions, the central academic bodies and Senate House Library.
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Library Trust Funds
We are the trustee of over 100 trust funds, used to support academic activities at our federation members, the School of Advanced Study and Senate House Library.
The trust funds were established following generous donations from supporters. Some are almost as old as the University itself, dating back to the 1850s, while many others have been created since 2000. Please find details of our Library Trust Funds below.
Library Trust Funds
The Deller Memorial Library was established in 1941 and was followed by a series of further donations from Mr Troup Horne in memory of Sir Edmund Deller, the Principal of the University of London from 1929 to 1936. Sir Edwin was tragically killed by falling construction equipment whilst showing visitors around the half-finished Senate House in November 1936. The fund was to be used “for the purpose of enabling the Library to buy rare or beautiful books and MSS., or books of specialised interest which the Library might not be able to acquire from its book fund.” This fund has been used for the purposes initially intended, such as with the purchase of catalogues raisonné of artists, and in 2013, a Roxburghe Club volume.
In 1929 the University was informed that Lady Durning-Lawrence had bequeathed her large collection of valuable books alongside an endowment fund. The fund was intended to be used for the maintenance and care of the collection known as the ‘Durning-Lawrence Library’. The Durning-Lawrence Library is located within the Senate House Libraries on the 4th floor of Senate House. Aside for the maintenance of the collection, the endowment fund has been used to make purchases to add to the collection.
In 1931 the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of the City of London which received its first royal charter in 1327, made a donation to the University of London towards the cost of erecting and equipping the University Library in the new headquarters been constructed in Bloomsbury. The gift was given on the agreement that within the University Library, a Goldsmiths Library would be established. In 1958 the Goldsmiths’ Company agreed to donate a sum to the University over a five-year period for the purpose of purchasing books on economic literature for the Goldsmiths’ Library. The endowment fund is still used to purchase books in accordance with the agreement.
The Gridley Fund derives from a fund donated to Senate House Library in memory of Dr John C Gridley by his business friends after his death in 1968. Dr Gridley was Chairman of Mobil Oil Ltd, a member of the University Court from 1962-1968 and an Honorary Graduate of the University. The income from the fund is used to strengthen our collections for students in the field of economics, finance and labour relations. Current purchases are related very broadly to the profile of The Goldsmiths’ Library of Economic Literature, thus providing modern works to enhance the study of themes found in the historic material in the Goldsmiths’ Library. Items purchased from the Gridley Fund are classified and held in the modern research collections.
The Dr Seng Tee Fund for Cultural Studies was established in 2001. Dr Seng Tee Lee provided the funds so that the income could be used for the purchase of modern works on cultural studies for Senate House Library. These works are deliberately chosen to take a cross- and inter-disciplinary approach across subject boundaries. Around the same time the Lee Book Fund was created, Dr Lee also provided the University with another generous donation to refurbish rooms in the Senate House Library.
In 1937 Mr Harry Price offered the University to hold his library on permanent loan. Mr Price also agreed that he would fund the purchasing of further additions to the library, which at the time was comprised of over 14,000 books. The University accepted the offer and since then the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature has been housed at Senate House.
In 1940 the University were informed that Mr Price had bequeathed an endowment fund to the University for the purpose of maintaining the Harry Price Library in Magical Literature and for purchasing books of a similar character to those already held.
In 1945 Sir Louis Sterling agreed to transfer his library over to the University for it to be held in perpetuity. The Sterling Library, located on the 4th floor of Senate House, was opened in 1956 and following its opening Sir Louis made a further donation to the University so that further works could be purchased and added to the Sterling collection.
The Sterling Library is an acknowledged international resource in its area. The strength of the collection is its 18th to early 20th-century literary classics, but its holdings also include: all four Shakespeare folios, first editions of Milton’s Paradise Lost and Regained, and Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. Twentieth-century books include a notable collection of the works of John Masefield, enriched in 1971 by the bequest of presentation copies and first editions from his sister, Mrs Stockdale-Ross; of W B Yeats; and of Sean O’Casey, given by Mrs Eileen O’Casey. Included in the manuscripts are two important 14th-century texts of Piers Plowman, work by Byron and Tennyson as well as 20th-century writers such as H.E. Bates.
The donor of the funds for the Deller Memorial Library was Mr G.F. Troup Horne (d. 1953). the fund was opened in 1941, 1953 this had built up to an endowment fund of £2,100. The fund was to be used “for the purpose of enabling the Library to buy rare or beautiful books and MSS., or books of specialised interest which the Library might not be able to acquire from its book fund.” This fund has been used for the purposes initially intended, such as with the purchase of catalogues raisonné of artists and this year a Roxburghe Club volume.
Paragraph 22 notes that Mr Troup Horne “left to the University Library most of his personal library of nearly 2,000 volumes, including about 700 volumes of short stories and works on this genre, and some 400 volumes of Private Press books…”
Mr. G.F. Troup Horne, the Librarian was invited to select such books from Troup Horne’s own collection as were suitable to the Deller Memorial library and also such books “as suitable to form the nucleus of a collection illustrating the development of the short story in the English Language or in such other language as may be deemed relevant to the purposes of the collection.”
inscribed that they were presented as a memorial to “Margaret Cumming Troup Horne, 1841-1933”, income applied to the purchase of books appropriate for the “Margaret Cumming Troup Horne” memorial as mentioned in clause 4 hereof,…”
The Lovett Bequest was established in 2000 following the passing of Dr Albert Lovett. In his will Dr Lovett endowed a fund to the Warburg Institute in order for the Institute to purchase books and periodicals in electronic form for the Warburg Library. Dr Lovett noted that he greatly admired the Warburg Library and wanted to enable the Institute to remain at the fore of academic research.
