Women’s Peace Camp banner fixed to the perimeter fence of the US military base at Greenham Common, 1980s (TWL.2011.08.04) Source: LSE Library
The completion and opening of the Library’s new Exhibition Space this week marks the final phase of the investment and building work which the School committed to support the transfer of the Women’s Library here in 2013. The new space is a state of the art facility which gives us the capacity to properly showcase for the first time the best and most interesting items in our collections. It includes a striking video wall where we can project images along with two elegant and specially made cases in which we can display objects of all types.
Our inaugural exhibition focusses on the subject of campaigning, and explores connections between The Women’s Library @ LSE collection and the Library’s collections by looking at campaigns for the vote, for peace and for gay and women’s liberation. A selection of documents and objects shows the public face of campaigning, and the methods and tactics campaigners use to promote their causes. We then move on to look behind the scenes at the ‘hidden wiring’ of campaigning, the tensions that can arise between campaigners with different viewpoints and priorities, and the different ways that campaigning groups organise themselves.
Public engagement is one of the key parts of the School’s mission, and the Library seeks to support that with a strategic commitment to widening participation. For us, this means opening up our collections, physically and digitally, to the wider world and finding ways to encourage schools and groups from outside LSE to come in and engage with our resources. The Exhibition Space is an important step forward, and my new colleague Eleanor Payne (Education Officer) is currently developing an Education and Outreach programme to enable us to extend this aspect of our work.
Please visit the Library website for the Exhibition Space’s opening hours.
About Anna Towlson
Anna Towlson is Archives and Special Collections Manager at LSE Library.
