The Pamphlet and Polemic project began in September 2000, following the award of grants under the second round of the Research Support Libraries Programme [RSLP], when the University of Wales Lampeter joined an existing project, awarded under the first round of RSLP, led by the University of St Andrews in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen and in association with the Birmingham-led CURL nineteenth-century pamphlets project.

The purpose of the project is to enhance access by researchers to the pamphlets in the Lampeter Tract Collection by upgrading over 9,000 existing records and by adding new records for about 1,800 printed and over fifty items in manuscript to the University's on-line catalogue. The project also includes conservation work on the pamphlet volumes which has taken the form of stabilising the collection in acid-free boxes and identifying individual items for further conservation in the future.

Scope of the project

The Founders' Library, which houses the University's pre-1850 collections, holds in its Tract Collection a rich resource of pamphlet material and ephemera for research in many fields of 17th -19th century studies. Its nucleus is the collection of over 9,000 pamphlets assembled by members of the Bowdler family over the period 1638 to 1785 which came to Lampeter soon after the death of Dr Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), its last owner,
better known as the editor of The Family Shakespeare (1818). Other pamphlets have
been added from the Foundation Collection, mostly assembled by the Founder of St David's College, Lampeter, Thomas Burgess (1756-1837), from 1809 onwards; from the donations of Thomas Phillips (1760-1851) over the years 1834-51; and from the library of Thomas Burgess himself who bequeathed his collection to Lampeter in 1837.

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