Bibliotheca Lindesiana

The Bibliotheca Lindesiana was the private library of the Earls of Crawford, and was housed at Haigh Hall. It has been described by historian Nicholas Barker as “the greatest of all private libraries. There have been larger, but none more systematically designed to contain all the best books on every subject and in every language.”

Within this library the 25th Earl’s vision was to collect, in his words  ‘the best and most valuable books, landmarks of thought and progress, in all cultivated languages, Oriental as well as European’.

Much of the library has been sold and dispersed worldwide, but these volumes remain within the Archives and Local Studies Service.