Thomason Tracts
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The Thomason Tracts are a collection of more than 22,000 pamphlets, broadsides, manuscripts, books, and news sheets, most of which were printed and distributed in London from 1640 to 1661. The collection represents a major primary source for the political, religious, military, and social history of England during the final years of the reign of King Charles I, the English Civil War, the Commonwealth, and the English Restoration of King Charles II.
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[edit] Compilation and history of the collection
Bookseller and publisher George Thomason (d. 1666), who maintained a shop in the churchyard of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, methodically collected and preserved the works over two decades. The tracts consist of a broad range of writings, including sermons, songs, political speeches, debates, opinions, jokes, gossip, news reports, descriptions of the trial and execution of Charles I, accounts of Civil War battles, reports from Parliament, and several regularly appearing publications that historians consider the forebears of modern newspapers. Thomason's collection represents approximately 80 percent of the published works released in England during this period.
Thomason frequently made handwritten annotations on the tracts, providing such information as publication dates and the authorship of anonymous works. During the turbulent years of the Civil War and the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell Thomason reputedly moved the collection several times to protect the more controversial works from destruction by government or opposition censors.
Prior to his death in 1666, Thomason entrusted the collection to the care of Thomas Barlow, provost of The Queen's College at the University of Oxford and a future Bishop of Lincoln. Barlow and his agents attempted to sell the tracts to the university, the British government, and private collectors, but found that none were willing to meet their price.
Finally, in 1762, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute purchased the collection on behalf of King George III and that same year donated it to the British Museum. In 1973, the museum transferred the Thomason Tracts to the British Library.
[edit] The Thomason Tracts today
Many of the publications that comprise the collection are exceedingly rare. In fact, some are not known to exist anywhere else. The tracts are bound into some 2,000 volumes and housed at the British Library's main building at St. Pancras. Because of their rarity and fragile condition, the originals are not available to general researchers. However, the library maintains paper facsimiles in its rare books collection, and in 1977 University Microfilms International released a set of 256 microfilm reels containing the entire collection. The microfilms are available at research libraries around the world.
[edit] Resources
[edit] External links
The British Library, “Early Printed Collections: Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts.”
The Library of Congress, "British Government Documents in the Microform Reading Room."
