# Blackwell gives £5 million to Oxford's Bodleian Library

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/03/12/blackwell-gives-5-million-oxford039s-bodleian-library/
- Published: 2008-03-12T11:54:03+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Julian Blackwell has donated £5 million from his personal Trust to the Bodleian
Library at the University of Oxford, “the largest single cash donation ever made
to a university library in the UK” according to the University.**

The donation will help transform the housing of the Bodleian’s collections and will
open up its treasures to the public.

The entrance hall of the redeveloped New Bodleian Library will be named Blackwell
Hall in honour of Julian Blackwell. Blackwell is President of Blackwell’s, the bookshop
across the road from the library, which opened its Broad Street store in 1879. Blackwell’s
operates over 60 bookshops throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

## Advertisement

The donation launches the fundraising campaign for the redevelopment of the New 
Bodleian Library building into a major research centre, and a significant new cultural
centre, where scholars, citizens of Oxford, and visitors to the city can view some
of the University’s great treasures, and gain insights into the research activities
of the University.

The 400-year old Bodleian’s collections include the papers of six British prime 
ministers; a Gutenberg Bible; the earliest surviving book written wholly in English;
a quarter of the world’s original copies of the Magna Carta; the original manuscript
of Frankenstein; and over 10,000 medieval manuscripts.

www.bodley.ox.ac.uk