George Bullen (librarian)

Last updated

George Bullen (1816,17 or 18 - 1894) was a librarian and Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum.

Contents

Early life

George Bullen was born in Ireland, probably at Clonakilty, one of three known sons (and three daughters) of Walter Bullen, a customs officer, and his wife, Anne. He is recorded as being born on the 27th November, 1816 or 1817, however the inscription on his gravestone has him dying in October 1894, aged 76.

He was educated at St Saviour's Grammar School, Southwark, in London and after initially giving private tuition he joined the British Museum in 1838 as a supernumerary assistant in the Department of Printed Books, where he would work for over fifty years. His arrival coincided with the Library's move into its new building in Bloomsbury and one of his earliest tasks was to assist in arranging the books on the shelves.

Career

Bullen became a Permanent Assistant in 1849, in 1866 he became one of two Assistant Keepers of the Department of Printed Books (also becoming superintendent of the Reading Room) and in 1875 he became Keeper of Printed Books, a post he was to hold for fifteen years. On his retirement as Keeper in 1890 he was succeeded by Richard Garnett.

Bullen was said to have had a genial temper. He was a regular contributor to The Athenaeum and was a vice-president of the Library Association, taking a prominent part in many of its annual congresses. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1877 and received an honorary degree from the University of Glasgow in 1889. He was created CB in 1890.

Personal life

Family Grave of George Bullen (librarian) in Highgate Cemetery Family grave of George Bullen in Highgate Cemetery.jpg
Family Grave of George Bullen (librarian) in Highgate Cemetery

He married Eliza Mary Martin (1823/4-1887) on 10 May 1851 at St George's, Bloomsbury and they had at least two sons, one of whom, Arthur (1857-1920), became a successful editor of Elizabethan works and a publisher. The year after Eliza's death he married Amy Reynolds (1862/3-1954), the daughter of a Bristol iron merchant.

Bullen died at his house, 62 Abingdon Road, Kensington, on 10 October 1894, and was buried with his first wife and one of his sisters on the east side of Highgate Cemetery.

Related Research Articles

Richard Bowdler Sharpe

Richard Bowdler Sharpe was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several monographs on bird groups and produced a multi-volume catalogue of the specimens in the collection of the museum. He described many new species of bird and also has had species named in his honour by other ornithologists including Sharpe's longclaw and Sharpe's starling.

Richard Garnett (writer)

Richard Garnett C.B. was a scholar, librarian, biographer and poet. He was son of Richard Garnett, an author, philologist and assistant keeper of printed books in the British Museum, i.e. what is now the British Library.

Edward Augustus Bond British librarian

Sir Edward Augustus Bond was an English librarian.

Advocates Library Llaw library of the Faculty of Advocates, in Edinburgh

The Advocates Library, founded in 1682, is the law library of the Faculty of Advocates, in Edinburgh. It served as the national deposit library of Scotland until 1925, at which time through an Act of Parliament the National Library of Scotland was created. All the non-legal collections were given to the National Library. Today, it alone of the Scottish libraries still holds the privilege of receiving a copy of every law book entered at Stationers' Hall.

Henry Ellis (librarian) English librarian and antiquarian

Sir Henry Ellis was an English librarian and antiquarian, for a long period principal librarian at the British Museum.

George Smith (publisher, born 1824)

George Murray Smith was a British publisher. He was the son of George Smith (1789–1846), who, with Alexander Elder (1790–1876), started the Victorian publishing firm of Smith, Elder & Co. in 1816. His brainchild, The Cornhill Magazine, was the premier fiction-carrying magazine of the 19th century.

Arthur Henry Bullen British publisher and Elizabethian literature scholar

Arthur Henry Bullen, often known as A. H. Bullen, was an English editor and publisher, a specialist in 16th and 17th century literature, and founder of the Shakespeare Head Press, which for its first decades was a publisher of fine editions in the tradition of the Kelmscott Press.

Humfrey Wanley

Humfrey Wanley was an English librarian, palaeographer and scholar of Old English, employed by manuscript collectors such as Robert and Edward Harley. He was the first keeper of the Harleian Library, now the Harleian Collection.

Frank Francis

Sir Frank Chalton Francis was an English academic librarian and curator. Almost all his working life was at the British Museum, first as an assistant keeper in the department of printed books, and later as secretary of the museum, keeper of printed books and, between 1959 and 1968, director and principal librarian of the museum.

Joseph Planta (librarian)

Joseph Planta FRS, aka Joseph von Planta, the Principal Librarian of the British Museum for the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

Henry Baber English philologist

Henry Hervey Baber was an English philologist.

Edward Hawkins was an English numismatist and antiquary. For over 30 years he was the Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum.

Sir William Hardy (1807–1887) was an English archivist and antiquarian.

Abraham Holland was an English poet. He was the son of the translator, Philemon Holland, and the brother of the printer, Henry Holland. His best known work is the Naumachia, a poem on the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

Rogers Ruding (1751–1820) was an English cleric and academic, known as a numismatist and the author of the Annals of the Coinage. He was the Vicar of Malden, Surrey from 1793 until his death in 1820. Prior to his marriage in May 1793, he was the Reverend Clerk at St George's, Bloomsbury, in London.

Robert Proctor (bibliographer)

Robert George Collier Proctor, often published as R. G. C. Proctor, was an English bibliographer, librarian, book collector, and expert on incunabula and early typography.

Lewis Hertslet (1787–1870) was an English librarian and editor of state papers.

Emily Rosaline Orme Scottish suffragist (1835–1915)

Emily Rosaline Orme (1835–1915) was a leader of the Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage. She was a noted campaigner for women's suffrage in Scotland.

Emily Augusta Patmore British writer, (1824–1862) icon, first wife of Coventry Patmore

Emily Augusta Patmore was a British author, Pre-Raphaelite muse and the inspiration for the 1854-1862 poem The Angel in the House.

Edward Dundas Butler

Edward Dundas Butler was a linguist, translator and senior librarian at the Department of Printed Books, British Museum.

References

    Sources

    Sidney Lee's article, revised by P. R. Harris, in the Dictionary of National Biography (2004) [1]

    1. Lee, S., & Harris, P. Bullen, George (1816x18–1894), librarian. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 30 Jan. 2022, from https://www-oxforddnb-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-3912/version/0.