Three Special Collections

Abstract

The British Library of Political and Economic Science, at present housed in the London School of Economics and Political Science's main building in Houghton Street, was founded by public subscription in 1896. In 1967 E. C. Blake described the Library's holdings in Library Materials on Africa (Vol. 5 No. 1). He surveyed at some length the books, periodicals, pamphlets and government publications held by the Library that are of special concern to the student of African affairs. However, in the years that have elapsed since the Library's foundation, as well as building up a very fine collection of printed material on the social sciences, it has managed to attract a considerable number of important special collections, of both printed and manuscript material, in its field. The Library's List of the More Important or Interesting Manuscript and other collections in the British Library of Political and Economic Science, published in February 1971 and which may be consulted in the Library, enumerates over seventy such collections.