VOLUME 9, NUMBER 2 DECEMBER 2004

F.C. Morgan’s Life

F.C. Morgan was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on 29 June 1878 as one of13 children and because he was born onSt Peter’s day he was always known inthe family as ‘Peter’. The Morgans livedon the premises of his father’s combinedbookshop, lending library and stationer’sbusiness where Peter grew upsurrounded by books. He was a keenreader from an early age, and afterleaving school at the age of 13 to beapprenticed to a draper, he returnedhome after a few years to become hisfather’s helper in the shop and libraryuntil 1904, when he became the firstlibrarian of the new Carnegie-builtlibrary in Stratford. From 1910 to 1925Morgan was librarian at Malvern PublicLibrary, interrupted by service in WorldWar I, from 1916 to 1919. Whilst atMalvern he met and married EmmaJames, and their only child, a daughter,Penelope Ethel, was born in 1919. Shebecame a librarian as well, and herfather’s life-long helper.

In 1925 Morgan became librarianand museum curator in Hereford andupon retiring from this position in 1945took up the honorary librarianship ofHereford Cathedral, which became thefocus of much of his life. His daughter

This year, 2004, marks the 50thanniversary of the donation tothe University of Melbourne of

the Morgan Collection of Children’sBooks by F.C. Morgan (1878–1978), anEnglish librarian with strong antiquarianinterests.1

Although children’s books were byno means the main focus of hisactivities, Morgan retained a keeninterest in them all his life. By the timeof his donation to the University ofMelbourne in 1954, he had collectedmore than 1000 English children’sbooks dating from 1729 to just after1900.2 It was an extraordinarilygenerous gift, and correspondence withthe University of Melbourne makes itclear that he imposed absolutely noconditions on its use or upkeep.

The Nicest Place for Them to GoTHE MORGAN COLLECTION OF CHILDREN’S BOOKS

by Merete Colding Smith

The Library Journal marks the 50th anniversary of the Morgan Collection of Children’sBooks at the University of Melbourne 1954–2004

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Top: ‘Poor Dicky’s dead! — The bell we toll,And lay him in the deep, dark hole. The sunmay shine, the clouds may rain, But Dick willnever pipe again! His quilt will be as sweet asours, — Bright buttercups and cuckoo-flowers’. Kate Greenaway poem andillustration, Under the Window: pictures andrhymes for children, engraved and printed byEdmund Evans. (London, Routledge, 1879.)

Bottom: Githa Sowerby, Little Plays for LittlePeople. (London, H. Frowde, c. 1910.)

THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE LIBRARY JOURNAL • 2004 3

The King admonishes his daughter, ‘He who helped you in the time of your trouble, must not now be despised!’ in the classic fairytale, The Frog Prince,illustrated by Walter Crane. (London, Routledge, c. 1874.)

Penelope assisted him in this role from1953 and continued as honorarylibrarian in her own right until shortlybefore her death in 1990. Owing to hislack of formal education Morgan tookparticular pride in an honorary M.A.which was awarded by BirminghamUniversity in 1952.

Morgan was repeatedly honoured bythe City of Hereford. He was given hisown street (F.C. Morgan Close) in 1977,on his 99th birthday, and was awardedthe Freedom of the City just before his100th birthday and subsequent death in1978, but as the ceremony did not takeplace in time for him to attend, PenelopeMorgan accepted the honour on hisbehalf.

The 100th birthday of F.C. Morganon 29 June 1978 was naturally cause forspecial celebrations and invitations weresent far and wide, even to the Librarianat the University of Melbourne. TheFriends of the Baillieu Librarycommissioned Walter McVitty to write a

booklet on the Morgan Collection ofChildren’s Books. A copy reachedMorgan for his birthday, just a fewweeks before his death and it gave theold man and his daughter, Penelope, alot of pleasure to know that theircollection of children’s books, donatedin 1954, was being appreciated inAustralia.3 Unfortunately Morgan wastaken ill a few days before his birthdayand was unable to attend thecelebrations in person but he enjoyedthe presents and telegrams from hishospital bed before he died three weekslater, on 16 July 1978. F.C. Morgan, hiswife Emma, who died in 1967, andPenelope are all buried in the HerefordCathedral Close.

The Australian Connection

Initially it appears surprising thatMorgan should donate his collection toan Australian library. Morgan had neverbeen to Australia and had no family

connections here. Morgan was verystrongly involved in the history andcultural life of the area of Englandwhere he lived, bounded by Stratford-on-Avon, Malvern and Hereford. Hewas particularly attached to Hereford,and inscriptions in many of thechildren’s books he collected show thatthey were collected in and aroundHereford.

When Morgan decided in 1954 todonate his collection he was in his 70s,and as he was not in good health he wasanxious to find a good home for hiscollection of children’s books. He feltthat Britain had a wealth of suchcollections and decided instead to givehis to a Commonwealth country. He wasinspired by the example of anotherEnglish librarian, his acquaintanceEdgar Osborne (1890–1978), who hadthen recently (in 1949) given hissubstantial collection of children’sbooks to the Toronto Public Library inCanada. The Osborne Collection had

quickly become famous as unique in a

Commonwealth library, and Morgan was

inspired by this gift to donate his own,

similar but smaller, collection to another

part of the Commonwealth. The links

between Australia and England were

particularly strong in the 1950s, during

the Menzies era, both with respect to

trading and migration. In particular, the

coronation of the young Queen

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Above, left: ‘Saw the children of earth and thetenants of air’ is the caption to this delightfulillustration in the children’s story, TheButterfly’s Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast,by William Roscoe. (London, J. Harris, c. 1807.)

Above, right: The cover of S. Eardley-Wilmot’s The Life of an Elephant is a goodexample of the type of cloth cover that waspopular in the 19th century, of which there aremany in the Morgan Collection. (London,Seeley and Co., 1901.)

Right: ‘She reached the Garden, trampled onthe flowers’. Maria Elizabeth Budden, Rightand Wrong Exhibited in the History of Rosaand Agnes. (London, J. Harris, 1815.)

Elizabeth II in 1953 and her tour ofAustralia in 1954 brought on a rush ofpatriotic feeling in Australia as well asin England.

A more specific reason for choosingAustralia, and in particular theUniversity of Melbourne, to receive thecollection, was Morgan’s friendshipwith Francis James Rennell Rodd,Second Baron Rennell of Rodd(1895–1978), diplomat, merchantbanker and explorer and member of theHouse of Lords. He was a long-standingfriend of both Morgan and Sir JohnDudley Medley, Vice-Chancellor of theUniversity of Melbourne from 1938 to1951. Rennell had extensive tradeconnections with Australia and lived inthe Hereford area, where both he andMorgan were interested in local history,archaeology and natural history. Rennellhad been to Australia several timeswhere he spent extensive periods. Hetherefore suggested to Morgan that theUniversity of Melbourne might be asuitable place for his collection andMorgan, trusting his judgement, wasmore than happy for him to act asintermediary.

In February 1954 Rennell wrote aletter to Medley suggesting that Morgan,

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Above, left: One of many Australian titles inthe Morgan Collection, A Final Reckoning: atale of bush life in Australia, by G.A. Henty.(London, Blackie and Son, 1910.)

Above, right: Samuel Foote, The GreatPanjandrum Himself, illustrated by RandolphCaldecott. (London, Routledge, 1885.)

Left: The Gaping Wide-mouthed WaddlingFrog is an example of the earliest form ofchildren’s book, known as a chapbook.(London, J. Pitts, c. 1800.)

a friend of his, might be willing todonate his substantial collection ofchildren’s books to the University ofMelbourne, saying that he had suggestedthis to Morgan as, ‘perhaps the nicestplace for (the books) to go’. A samplelist of 160 books, which had been partof a travelling exhibition in Britain theprevious year, was included with theletter.4 The initial offer was of children’sbooks from 1729 to 1900 with a fewlater additions.

In Australia Medley forwardedRennell’s letter along with the list ofbooks to the new Vice-Chancellor, G.W.Paton (Vice-Chancellor from 1951 to1968). Paton was enthusiastic, as wasthe librarian Leigh Scott. By August1954 the collection had arrived in theUniversity of Melbourne Library, readyfor processing, the shipment havingbeen facilitated by Rennell via hisshipping connections.

The Collection

Morgan collected children’s books froman early age and the sample list sent tothe University gives a good impressionof the nature of the collection. It wasgathered, however, in two main stages.

These were the books read by Morgan

as a child and owned by him and his

family and the books collected by him

in adulthood, that is, mainly the early

publications. The childhood books were

those published after about 1865; they

included children’s picture books, in

particular many by Walter Crane,5

Randolph Caldecott6 and Kate

Greenaway.7 In addition, boys’

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Territory, 2nd edition, London, S. Low,Marston, Searle and Rivington, 1877.(First published 1876). This is anadventure story about Canada with furtraders, buffaloes, elks and Red Indians.

10 For example R.M. Ballantyne, The CoralIsland: a tale of the Pacific Ocean,London, J.F. Shaw, 191–?. (Firstpublished 1858). Black and whiteillustrations. This has a marvellouspictorial cloth cover of a British navalofficer.

11 By ‘antiquarian’ I mean old-fashionedeven at the time, not current booksbought new for children to read.

12 For example Robinson Crusoe, York, c.1810. (No. 3, ii on the sample list).

13 For example Ruth at Service, London,James Burns, 184–.

14 For example Mary Kilner,Perambulations of a Mouse, London,Marshall, c. 1790. 2 vols. (No. 8 on thesample list), and A Pretty Book ofPictures, London, J. Newbery, ca. 1790.(No. 11 on the sample list).

Correspondence, 1958, no. 982. Foldernamed ‘Morgan Collection of Children’sBooks’ (Hereford, 1950).

5 For example Walter Crane, Marquis ofCarabas’ Picture Book, London,Routledge, 1874. (No. 122 on the samplelist).

6 For example Samuel Foote, The GreatPanjandrum Himself: illustrated byRandolph Caldecott, London, Routledge,1885. (No. 126 on the sample list). Oneof the lesser known of Caldecott’sillustrated books. The ‘Panjandrum’ is aschoolmaster with cap and gown.

7 For example Kate Greenaway, Under theWindow: pictures and rhymes forchildren, London, Routledge, 1879. (No.115 on the sample list). This was KateGreenaway’s first picture book and madeher reputation.

8 For example G.A. Henty, A FinalReckoning: a tale of bush life inAustralia, New edition, London, Blackieand Son, 1910. (First published 1887).

9 For example W.H.G. Kingston, Snow-Shoes and Canoes, or, The Early Days ofa Fur-Trader in the Hudson’s Bay

adventure stories by such authors asHenty,8 Kingston9 and Ballantyne10

were not part of the sample list, butwere a substantial part of the originaldonation. Though he also collected suchbooks in his later life, many of thebooks collected by the adult Morganwere pre-1850 publications whichwould have been antiquarian even in hischildhood.11 These included chapbooks,that is, flimsy and ephemeral storybooks, often containing abbreviatedversions of popular stories.12 Religiousversions of such stories given out bySunday schools were common from the1840s onwards.13 There were also manyearly story books in the collection withattractive copperplate engravings,clearly intended for a more affluentmiddle-class market.14

The Morgan Collection does not endat a definite date, but the materialoriginally sent to Melbourne was largelypre-World War I. Nowadays thecollection has grown to approximately4000 volumes, partly by further

1 Throughout this year there has been arunning display in the SpecialCollections Reading Room in theBaillieu Library, highlighting differentaspects of the Morgan Collection.

2 The original donation consisted of 1086books. Morgan, for the rest of his longlife, and his daughter Penelope, until herdeath in 1990, remained in contact withthe University. They frequently addedbooks to the collection and sentbiographical and other relevant material.Recently the connection has been re-established to Paul Morgan, F.C.Morgan’s nephew now living in Oxford.

3 Walter McVitty, The Morgan Collectionof Children’s Books: An Appreciation,Melbourne, Hawthorn Press (forUniversity of Melbourne Library), 1978.There was also an article in The Age tocelebrate the birthday: Walter McVitty,‘Mr Morgan’s Hidden Treasure’, TheAge, 29 June 1978.

4 F.C. Morgan, ‘Children’s BooksBelonging to F.C. Morgan, F.S.A. Lent toVarious Libraries 1951’, in TheUniversity of Melbourne, Registrar’s

donations from the Morgans,partly by other gifts andincorporation of sections ofother collections, and partlythrough purchases by thelibrary. It is one of threecollections of children’s booksin the Baillieu Library. Theother two are the School FictionCollection of approximately2000 volumes, consisting ofmainly boys’ school stories andthe Australian fiction in theMcLaren Collection. In additionthere is a comprehensivecollection of contemporarychildren’s literature in theEducation Resource CentreLibrary.

Merete Colding Smith, formerly Curator ofRare Books in the Baillieu Library, is now apostgraduate student in the University ofMelbourne’s History Department where she isworking on a thesis about the MorganCollection of children’s books. This is anedited and condensed version of a talk givento the Friends of the Baillieu Library on 20July 2004.

Image from The Sleeping Beauty, illustrated by WalterCrane, engraved and colour printed by Edmund Evans.(London, J. Lane, c1897.)

NOTES