Summer Course 2024: Wren Library

On Tuesday afternoon we were treated to a brilliant tour of the Chapel and the Wren Library at Trinity College by Steven Archer, Trinity's Sub-Librarian. In the Chapel we saw marble statues of some of the distinguished figures of Trinity's intellectual legacy, among them Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson (and, as it was the 6th of August, we happened to be visiting on Tennyson's birthday). The absolutely stunning Wren library, designed by Christopher Wren who also designed St Paul’s Cathedral, was built over a period of five years, from 1676 to 1681, and by the 1880s it housed 90,000 volumes. The lovely Library staff had put together a display of books, letters, and archival ledgers that were significant to Virginia Woolf's intellectual circle. Among these were first editions of some of Woolf's most prominent works such as A Room of One’s Own, books by other members of the Bloomsbury Group such as Roger Fry and John Maynard Keynes, and a letter written by Robert Trevelyan to Leonard Woolf upon learning of Virginia's suicide, in the hours before they found her body. Robert and his wife Bessie were friends with the Woolfs, and Robert worked closely with Virginia publishing works at the Hogarth Press.

We had a wonderful time; thank you to Steven, Trinity College, and the rest of the Wren staff.

Haden Bell, summer course administrator
Magdalene College, Cambridge

Photos by Jeremy Peters @jezpete