Religious serials proliferated in the nineteenth-century, but were not collected widely by Lambeth Palace Library at the time; even the British Library does not have complete runs of many of them. Various volumes have from time to time been acquired by Lambeth, mainly by gift, but there are very large gaps in the holdings.

An example is the Religious Tract Society’s Tract Magazine and Christian Miscellany a series of which ran from 1848 to 1869 and a New Series from 1870 to 1891. A donor gave the Library 10 volumes from towards the end of its life, and we have added another dozen recently.

You would have thought that a serial called The Church of England Magazine would feature in the Library, but until recently it only held sixteen of the 79 annual volumes. Lambeth Palace Library now has 53.

Many more examples could be given; efforts will continue to amplify the Library’s collections in this area.

Cliff Webb, library donor