“On the Shelf”: Institute of Archaeology Library

“On the Shelf: 200 years of building UCL’s library collections” is the 2026 Main Library Exhibition. It focuses on eight different collections across UCL’s libraries. In this post, Dr Katie Meheux writes about the role the Institute of Archaeology Library played in rebuilding collections across Europe.

After the end of World War II (1939-1945), people in Europe, as in the wider world, faced rebuilding their devastated countries while finding ways to reconnect with former enemies. Amongst them were the archaeologists of Europe, once a small, close-knit community bound together by shared intellectual interests and personal friendships. Hungry for news of old friends and new discoveries, archaeologists broke the long silence imposed by war, firing off letters, both joyful and sombre as they learned the fate of individuals and institutions. Despite the devastation and division, they were keen to rebuild the networks that had once sustained them. In this they succeeded; European archaeologists created a strong, collaborative future for their discipline that still endures today.

The vital role of libraries in this process has long been neglected and deserves to be celebrated. A new future needed shared ideas and the latest information. Research provided a unifying neutral way for archaeologists to negotiate new post-war relations. Books and journals were vital, but in a continent with little money, stringent rationing, poor communication, and no international monetary exchange, obtaining and sharing them was challenging. Libraries and librarians rose to the task. Book and journal exchanges were established; gifts and unwanted duplicates were sent out across Europe by whatever means possible. The humble pamphlet, long used to facilitate academic research, became the hero of post-war communication. Short on expensive paper and cheap to post, pamphlets winged their way across Europe in their thousands, small hopeful messengers of reconciliation and unity.

The ‘Annual Report of the Institute of Archaeology’, the Institute’s in-house journal, and documents in the Institute of Archaeology Library archive reveal the key role of the Institute of Archaeology Library in this process of repair through research. They document the efforts that Institute Director, renowned prehistorian Vere Gordon Childe (1892-1957), and librarian Joan du Plat Taylor (1906-1983) made to help colleagues in Europe, whilst gaining access to important resources, as well as the ruthlessness, charm, and ingenuity required. Beneath the professionalism, we see the emotions that accompanied the books, journals, and pamphlets;  the ambivalent attitudes to former enemies, flashes of hostility, and distrust of growing Soviet power. Books could promote bibliographic reconciliation, but human forgiveness was harder to achieve. The journey to a shared future for European archaeology was not a smooth and rapid process, but one fraught with emotion and sustained by silence.