THE WILLIAM B. THOMPSON COLLECTION OF CLASSICAL TEXT-BOOKS AND TEACHING MATERIALS

It all began in a small way in a very small room. It was a personal collection but for the use of my Classics "method" students in the University of Leeds reading for the Graduate Certificate in Education. It had the good fortune to include older texts, text-books, and teaching notes bequeathed to me by my predecessor as Head of Classics at King Edward VI School, Southampton. My very small room in the late '50s and early '60s was in fact an attic, its window a glorified skylight. But the house itself, dating from the last year of the 18th century, not only had the distinction of being the oldest on the campus, but was also at its very heart, Great Hall and Cloth workers' Court on one side and Student's Union on the other.

Working daily in such cramped conditions, surrounded by these books, one came to realise that here was something in its infancy with a far wider potential usefulness than had first been imagined. With expansion it could in time become not merely an essential research tool in the history and methodology of Classical teaching, but, because of the long historical pre-eminence of Classics in our Schools and universities, a valuable source for research in much wider fields, for example, sociological and other aspects of British educational history. Sentences for translation into Latin are often astonishingly revealing!

Wider publicity was clearly needed, if the Collection was to fulfil these functions. Letters in educational and library periodicals made known the Collection's embryo existence and its readiness to receive offers of Greek and Latin textbooks. Classical teachers and departments were asked to contribute books they could spare. As a result the Collection grew rapidly, but not without consequences.

The University soon became worried about the safety of my colleague, whose room was immediately below my attic. The rafters and ceiling between us were not designed to carry the weight of a thousand or more extra books. I was naturally delighted to be asked to move down to one of the most

attractive rooms in the University on the ground floor of this elegant late-Georgian house. Before long even this much larger room had become something of an alcoved library, as the items in the Collection increased from some 2000 to nearly 6000.

The other important consequence of growth was the realization of the urgent need for a published catalogue, otherwise we were going to be inundated with unwanted duplicates, and our donors burdened with needless postage. There was already a card-index of what the Collection held, but also - this proved important - a parallel index of books known to have been published (since 1800), but not yet acquired. The printed Catalogue was therefore somewhat unusual in listing, but distinguishing, both categories, a feature much appreciated by users.

Part One, which appeared in 1970, covered Dictionaries, Grammars, Course Books, and Composition Manuals (Prose and Verse), as well as Readers and Selections (including so called "Unseens"). Part Two (Greek Texts, Notes, and Translations) followed in 1974. Part Three, covering the same field for Latin, only reached "Semi-final draft" stage.

What about the rest of the Collection? Of the text-books most deal with Greek or Roman History, Literature, Mythology, and Antiquities. And it's cheering to realize that the many new courses in Classical Studies (which we were

encouraging 40 years ago) have produced quite a spate of new text books at all levels. In addition there is a collection on the Teaching of Classics (and on Classical Teachers!), which includes professional journals, as well as local and school periodicals. Lastly there is a sample collection of foreign Classical text-books.

Perhaps most important is that I outline the nature and content of the extensive and varied Collection of "non-book material", not seen for many years now because no record has been available. Here are printed, typed, and manuscript materials, such as syllabuses, examination papers, minutes, handouts, personal teaching notes, correspondence, exercise books, students' notes and essays, as well as posters, advertisements, leaflets, tickets, and programmes of Classical events. The Collection includes all kinds of visual aids (slides, film-strips, cine-films, transparencies, videos, photos, and cartoons), aural aids (records, tapes, CDs), models (home-made and commercial in all sorts and sizes), clothing and armour, toys and games, etcetera. It also has many examples of classical motifs and language on dress and furnishing fabrics, as well as on merchandise packaging in paper, cardboard, plastic, wood, metal and glass - including an almost notorious collection of classically labelled winebottles!

My further collection of about 1000 Novels (in English) based on Classical History or Mythology (thought to be the world's largest) will join the main Collection later this year. (See "Classical Novels", 1969; Supplement 1975: ARLT.) Minor collections to be transferred in due course include "Classics on Postage Stamps" (a few of these stamps appeared long ago on ARLT, filmstrips) and finally slides, postcards, and some books illustrating the "Classical Continuum" .

Over the years many, including some of our most distinguished teachers and scholars, have contributed in one way or another to this Collection. I am immensely grateful to them for letting me - sometimes quite literally - take from their shelves what the Collection lacked. To all who accept the importance of this Collection, it now becomes a more open challenge to find ways of rendering it more available for future scholarship and research. This undoubtedly means not only donating books and materials, but helping to finance its cataloguing and (I greatly hope) modestly endowing it. Already a strong and enthusiastic group of "friends" has been formed, and I trust that, when they ask for our help, it will be generously forthcoming.

With such support we can all look confidently forward to

the fulfilment with regard to this Collection of that extraordinarily appropriate leonine hexameter carved as a motto among the foliage around the capitals which flank the entrance porch of Beech Grove House, in whose attic this rather special Collection began its life;

PORTA PATENS ESTO: NULL! CLAUDARIS HONESTO

W.B.T.