Featured Article Summary #13

The Private Case is a collection of erotica and pornography that was initially held by the British Museum and later transferred to the British Library. The collection started to form in the 19th century, consisting of books received through legal deposit and acquisitions from bequests and police seizures of obscene material. Initially, the British Museum served as the national library of Britain and received all published works in the UK, including pornographic material. The subversive and libellous material was separated into the Suppressed Safe collection, while the erotica and pornography were placed in a locked cupboard known as the Private Case. Access to the Private Case collection was restricted, and the catalogue was not available to the general readership. Over time, the contents of the collection changed as works were declassified, and new items were added through bequests and donations. In 1964, the library began to liberalise its approach to the Private Case, moving items onto the general catalogue for open access. The process was completed in 1983, and since then, all new erotic or pornographic material is put on open access. Currently, there are around 2,500 volumes still classified as part of the Private Case. The British Museum Act and British Library Act established the British Museum and British Library, respectively. The British Library is one of six legal deposit libraries in the UK and Ireland, meaning they receive copies of every printed work published in the UK. They also collect certain digital material, including websites and e-journals. The library has historically accepted controversial material, such as pornography, but does not make it publicly accessible. They also receive private donations and bequests from collectors, including erotica and pornography, which are also accepted but not made publicly available. The Private Case at the British Museum Library was established in the 19th century, although the exact date is unclear. The collection started with a small number of books and gradually grew over the years. Some publishers of pornographic material did not send their works to the library, so they had to be acquired later. In 1865, George Witt donated his phallicism collection, which went into the museum's Secretum and the printed matter went into the Private Case. By 1890, the collection had expanded significantly. The Private Case is a collection of erotica and pornography that was housed in a lockable cabinet in the library's basement. Over the years, various collectors and donors contributed to the collection, including Henry Spencer Ashbee, David Lindsay, Alfred Rose, Eric Dingwall, Charles Reginald Dawes, and Beecher Moore. In the 1960s, the library began to liberalize access to the Private Case, and today the collection is no longer being added to and is considered a historical collection. In 1913, the Bibliothèque nationale de France published a bibliography of its equivalent of the Private Case, causing a lawyer and writer to criticize the British Museum's censorship and segregation of books in an essay in 1915. The wider public remained unaware of the Private Case until the 1960s, and it was not until 1981 that a comprehensive bibliography was published, although it had limitations in terms of the collection it covered.