| Description | The Bevan-Naish Library is a collection of books written by or about Friends and was originally formed by Paul Bevan of Tottenham and further enlarged by Arthur John Naish of Birmingham. On the death of Arthur Naish, the collection comprised c. 1800 volumes of which 150 were volumes of tracts or pamphlets. In 1890, Birmingham Friends raised funds so that the collection could be purchased by Birmingham Meeting and it was moved to Friends' Library at No 8 Dr. Johnson Passage, Birmingham, where it was cared for by Bull Street Preparative Meeting Librarians.
In 1938, with the agreement of Bull Street and George Road Preparative Meetings, the collection was subsequently transferred to the Library at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, Selly Oak. In 2016, it was discovered that a number of volumes which had been transferred to Woodbrooke Library in 1938 as part of the Bevan-Naish Library mistakenly included archival material relating to Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting and its predecessors which had been bound into volumes. It was decided by Woodbrooke Trustees and staff that the material should be re-united with the Warwickshire Monthly Meeting archives housed in Archives and Collections at the Library of Birmingham. The material was transferred to the Library of Birmingham in 2017.
Some material in this section may relate to material elsewhere in the catalogue. Where possible this has been indicated. |