The National Library of Wales
Leonardo da Vinci returns to Wales 70 years after WWII evacuation
Fri, 09 Jan 09 09:37:00
The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, is currently hosting a touring exhibition of 10 drawings by Leonardo da Vinci from The Royal Collection, Windsor. However delving into the Library’s own archive reveals that this is not the first visit for the Italian Master to the West Wales town of Aberystwyth, the works first came to Aberystwyth 70 years ago when evacuated on the outbreak of the Second World War.
The story of the evacuation begins in 1933 when the Right Hon. W A Ormsby-Gore (later Lord Harlech) in his role as Commissioner of Works in Stanley Baldwin’s Government, called together the Directors of all major cultural institutions, museums, libraries and art galleries, to consider a scheme for the safe storage of their most valuable collections in the event of a war in Europe.
Less than 3 months later on the 19th of January 1934 the then Secretary of the British Museum, Dr Arundell Esdaile, wrote to the Librarian of The National Library of Wales, asking if the Library “would be prepared to provide again the hospitality provided during the War of 1914-1918”.
The British Museum was the first of many cultural institutions who choose The National Library of Wales as their evacuation repository if war were to occur on the continent. Even before the Munich agreement of September 1938 10 other institutions applied for sanctuary at the Library – including The Royal Collection, The National Gallery, Corpus Christi Collage Cambridge and The Royal Society of Arts.
Within hours of the declaration of war in 1939, collections from many of Britain’s cultural institutions were crated up and sent via rail to Aberystwyth. The collections of the British Museum took up 25 containers with the material weighing over 90 tons. Many items had to be shipped minus their frames and glass to save on space and weight.
Keeping company to Leonardo da Vinci were the famous Greek Bibles, the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Alexandrinus, the Saxon Chronicles; the works of Wycliffe and Chaucer; and a large collection of Charters including the Magna Carta. Of the wealth of autographs letters, there were, in addition to those of the Kings and Queens of England, specimen by Wolsey, Cranmer, Raleigh, Drake, Bacon, Cromwell, the Trafalgar Memorandum of Nelson, and Scott’s Antarctic Journals. Literary documents included autographs and holographs of Shakespeare, Spenser, Bacon, Milton, Dryden and numerous other authors, as well as musicians, painters and persons of eminent in other fields of human activity.
Rare books also found a home in Aberystwyth including the Authorized Versions, the Folios and Quartos of Shakespeare, Paradise Lost and Pilgrim’s Progress. Artist included fellow Italians Michelangelo, Raphael, del Pimbo and other. English artists included Blake, Girtin, Cotman, Cox and Turner.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the evacuation was the decision taken by the Library to build an underground cave to house a portion of the evacuated material. During the war enemy aeroplanes flew over Aberystwyth on their way to Liverpool, Swansea or Manchester. Aberystwyth was not a target of strategic importance, the Library's prominent position on the hillside actually lent itself as the perfect navigation tool, but the risk of stray bombs dropped by aircraft chased away from the industrial centres of Eastern England or South Wales was an ever-present risk.
It was decided that the proper precaution against aerial bombing was to go underground. An underground repository was built into the rock side of Grogythan (“The hangman’s Hill”) located a few hundred yards from the Library building. The cave was built with specialised ventilation and heating systems to protect the valuable items placed inside and ensure that humidity and heat levels were kept at the optimum levels for protecting the valuable material. By August 1940 the move to the tunnel of priority material was complete.
The cave still exists today – although no longer used to house any of the Library’s material and collections. Delwyn Tibbot, whose father Gildas Tibbot was Deputy Librarian during the war years recalls, “every night my father, a policeman and a member of the British museum staff, would go down to the tunnel to ensure that everything was as it should be”.
But works weren’t the only things relocated and evacuated to Aberystwyth during 1939-1945. Staff members and cultural expert from the institutions also accompanied their collections to the Cardiganshire coast, some lodging in the town while others lodged within the Library building, working a security rota to ensure the collections were never left unguarded. Day to day task such as cataloguing the collections continued throughout the War. According to Jacob Leveen, Deputy Keeper, Department of Oriental Printed books and Manuscripts of The British Museum, who accompanied the museums collections to Aberystwyth, “The Torch of learning was far from being extinguished in Aberystwyth”. He continued, “ it was a pleasure to work under such admirable conditions in one of the most beautifully situated and appointed Libraries in the world… it is pleasant to recall the harmony and goodwill that prevailed between staff of the British Museum and their opposite numbers in The National Library”.
The National Library of Wales, being a relatively young institution at the time, was greatly honoured that many of the more older-established British institutions chose the building as their safe house in their hour of need. The loss or destruction of many irreplaceable items would have been felt not only by their owners but to civilisation also. The hospitality the Library provided was deeply appreciated by the authorities of the institutions concerned. Mr A.E.Popham, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at The British Museum dedicated his volume The Drawing of Leonardo da Vinci to “The Librarian and Staff of The National Library of Wales”.
By May 1946 all material housed in the Library during the war was returned by rail to their collective institutions and the Library cave has remained empty ever since.
According to Jacob Leveen, British Museum, “After so long a stay in Aberystwyth… the time of parting was a sad experience. The National Library of Wales will long retain an affectionate place in the hearts and memories of those Saeson (Englishmen) who met with so much kindness and hospitality from their Celtic colleagues and friends”.
According to Sir William Llywelyn Davies, the Library’s war time Librarian, providing a safe-house during Britain’s hour of need was “a form of National Service which it was a privilege to render in the years of crisis by caring for and preserving some of Britain’s artistic and cultural treasures”.
Ten Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci
8 November 2008 – 7 February 2009
Ten Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci: An Exhibition to Celebrate the Sixtieth Birthday of HRH The Prince of Wales.
The National Library of Wales
Aberystwyth
Notes
24 Jan 2009 11:00
Motions of the Mind: Leonardo's drawings for the Last Supper
A lecture given by Simon Pierse (Aberystwyth University)
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