Announcing a New Partnership   The University of Manchester Library and The Dr Williams’s Library

27/10/2024

We are truly excited and honoured to announce a new partnership between the Dr Williams’s Library, previously based in London and The John Rylands Library at The University of Manchester, one of the acknowledged great libraries of the world. The new partnership will bring together inarguably the two finest collections of non-conformist religious social history in the world and situate them in Manchester, itself a renowned city of dissent and innovation. 

The new partnership draws upon the almost unlimited scholarly synergies between our existing collections, expertise in the management of special collections, powerful traditions of nonconformity, and a proven track record of impact and public engagement. Following a prolonged period of consideration and with the advice and input of many scholars and researchers, the Dr Williams’s Trust was unanimous in its decision to select The John Rylands Library at The University of Manchester as the institution best placed to fulfil the Trust’s ambition for the future. 

The University of Manchester’s Professor Christopher Pressler, University Librarian and Director of The John Rylands Library said; ‘There will be major benefits to researchers from the co-location of two internationally significant nonconformist collections. Dr Williams Library collections and staff, funded by the Dr Williams’s Trust, will be embedded in, and benefit from, one of the largest and most respected teams of Special Collections curators, researchers and other specialists in the world, currently comprising over 120 staff. The Dr Williams Library will now work alongside one of the great libraries of the world and in one of the most iconic buildings in Britain.’  

Echoing these sentiments the Chair of the Dr Williams’s Trust, Derek McAuley, emphasised how the Trust’s wish to have the legacy of British Protestant Dissent researched and celebrated would be well serviced in Manchester; ‘Manchester has been closely associated with nonconformity since the seventeenth century, in direct resonance with the Dr Williams Library’s own history. Indeed, the origins of both The John Rylands Library and The University of Manchester are rooted in Manchester’s radical, dissenting tradition.  The city was at the heart of the dissenting tradition and Unitarianism in particular.’ Mr McAuley observed that ‘the Trust’s collections would enhance holdings already at The John Rylands Library, notably the collection of Unitarian College, Manchester.’ 

Religion and theology have been a strength of Manchester’s special collections since the opening of The John Rylands Library in 1900. All the world’s major religions are well represented in the collections. The printed, manuscript and archival holdings relating to Christian theology and ecclesiastical history are exceptionally strong, spanning the entire history of Christianity from antiquity through to contemporary evangelicalism, and documenting its many strands, including the Armenian, Syriac and Ethiopic churches, as well Roman Catholicism and Protestant nonconformity. 

Looking to the future the Dr Williams’s Trust will continue to financially support the development and management of its richly varied collections of books, manuscripts and art works. It will promote an awareness of the legacy and ongoing contribution of dissent to the wider public across Great Britain and beyond and will actively promote scholars and researchers in the use of the collections. 

The John Rylands Library is one of the world’s leading centres for the study of Protestant nonconformity, as befits an institution founded by the Congregationalist Enriqueta Rylands. The Library is home to the internationally renowned Methodist Archives and Research Centre and there are major holdings of printed and archival materials relating to the Unitarian, Baptist, Moravian, Brethren and Congregationalist denominations, which ideally complement the strengths of Dr Williams’s Library. 

Bringing together the Dr Williams Library with the collections of The University of Manchester Library has now created the world’s most significant scholarly resource for the history of non-conformist traditions, comprising more than half a million printed volumes and manuscripts. 

Announcing the curator of the Dr Williamss Library

10:08am, 23/07/26

The Dr Williams's Trust is happy to advise that the University of Manchester has made the announcement of the appointment of Paul Carlyle to begin the process of care and opening up the great Dr Williams's Library collections. As curator Paul will lead on project management, cataloguing, and access for the Dr Williams’s collection, which comprises at least 135,000 rare books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and archival collections relating to the theology, history  and the religious culture of the British Dissenting tradition. Paul will also line manage new roles that will support the processing of the collection. read more …

We are hiring! Curator for the Dr Williams Library is now available

9:56am, 29/04/26

The Trustees of the Dr Williams's Trust & Library are delighted to announce, in partnership with the University of Manchester, that the position of Curator for the Dr Williams's Library is now available:    Please consult the following link for details or contact the Director of the Trust for further information: director@dwl.ac.uk https://www. read more …