Saved from 'Oblivion': The Organization and Management of the Douce Collection at the Bodleian Library and the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, 1834–1934

Abstract This paper is an historical survey of the organization and management of the Francis Douce Collection at the Bodleian Library and the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, from its bequest in 1834 to the Douce Centenary Exhibition. Though certain portions of the bequest were overlooked during the first Douce catalogue project, Bodleian and Ashmolean administrators and staff brought this large, diverse collection into order by 1934 with invaluable assistance from local and visiting scholars, both paid and volunteer, from undergraduate assistants, and from their counterparts at the British Museum. They laid a broad foundation for subsequent catalogue-projects and management decisions involving the Douce bequest. In the absence of a comprehensive digital library and online-catalogue for the Douce Collection, knowledge of its physical arrangement and catalogue accessibility remains essential to researchers and research facilitators.