The Francis Place Collection is an important British Library

British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

 collection of press cuttings, leaflets, and ephemera about British politics and economics between 1770 and 1853 with some earlier material. The collection was created by the social reformer Francis Place

Francis Place

Francis Place was an English social reformer.-Early career and influence:Born in the debtor's prison which his father oversaw near Drury Lane, Place was schooled for ten years before being apprenticed to a leather-breeches maker. At eighteen he was an independent journeyman, and in 1790 was...

 (1771-1854). In 1844, Place suffered a stroke, and possibly a brain tumour, which left him with difficulty reading and writing. It was about this time that he began to organise his collection into guard-books as he was unable to be as active in political circles as he had been previously.
The original paper collection is in 180 volumes at the main St Pancras site and is not available to the public for conservation reasons but Microfilm copies are available at St Pancras and at the newspaper reading room in Colindale.

Scope

The collection reflects the political and social issues important to Place, including:

• The Corn Laws
  Corn Laws
  The Corn Laws were trade barriers designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846. The barriers were introduced by the Importation Act 1815 and repealed by the Importation Act 1846...
  
  
• Chartism
  Chartism
  Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
  
  
• Emigration
• Free Trade
• The Sanitary Laws
• King George IV and Queen Caroline
• The Luddite Movement
• Working conditions
• The Irish Famine
• Strikes
• Sedition

It includes important newspapers such as:

• The Anti-Corn Law Circular (Manchester 1839-1841)
• The Anti-Bread-Tax Circular (Manchester 1841-1843)
• Newspapers from 1770 to 1837, including illegal unstamped
  Revenue stamp
  A revenue stamp, tax stamp or fiscal stamp is a adhesive label used to collect taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, and many other things...
  
   papers

It also includes the complete published materials and minutes of the London Corresponding Society

London Corresponding Society

London Corresponding Society was a moderate-radical body concentrating on reform of the Parliament of Great Britain, founded on 25 January 1792. The creators of the group were John Frost , an attorney, and Thomas Hardy, a shoemaker and metropolitan Radical...

.

Further reading

• Rowe, D.J. Ed. London radicalism 1830-1843: A selection from the papers of Francis Place. (London Record Society publications. Vol. 5.) London: London Record Society
  London Record Society
  The London Record Society is a registered charity founded in 1964 whose objectives are to stimulate public interest in archives and similar historical material relating to London...
  
  , 1970. ISBN 0900952016 Free full text electronic version here.

External links

• Index of the Francis Place Collection microfilm reels.