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Methodist Printed Book and Periodical Collections

Medium: Printed

Number of items: 70,000 items.

The Methodist Printed Book and Periodical Collections are part of the Connexional collection of the Methodist Church in Britain, the Methodist Archive and Research Centre (MARC). The Collections contain historical and modern texts spanning a range of materials including hymnals, periodicals and newspapers, pamphlets, former training college libraries and significant personal collections.

Of particular significance are the personal libraries of Charles Wesley and of John Fletcher of Madeley, and the rare books of a number of former Methodist training colleges including Richmond College, Didsbury College, Hartley Victoria College and Wesley College Bristol. There is a very fine collection of 18th-century anti-Methodist printed material consisting of several thousand items and a collection of 6,000 tracts and pamphlets dating from 1568 to 1933. The Collection also contains over 5,000 hymnals published between 1737 and the present, including the only complete copy of the Charleston Hymnbook.

Items within the Collection are not limited to Methodism, but include publications of the Anglican, Baptist and Congregationalist Churches. There are thousands of published items spanning the history of Methodism and related evangelical movements. There is also an extensive local history collection of over 4,500 monographs and pamphlets and a collection of over 10,000 pre-1932 circuit plans. The Collection also includes over 5,000 volumes of British Methodist periodicals including Connexional magazines and newspapers from every major Methodist denomination.

The MARC continues to expand through acquisition of materials from the Methodist Church in Britain and through the collection of modern published books relating to Methodism.

See also:

Further information:

  • Part of the Methodist Archives and Research Centre (MARC). For more information see our subject page for Methodist Collections.
  • Recorded in Library Search.
  • G. Lloyd, P. Nockles, Guide to Methodist Resources at the University of Manchester(pdf) (Manchester, 2015).

Location:


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