Crawford Library

The Crawford Library is a library of early books about philately formed between 1898 and 1913 by James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford. By the time of his death in 1913, Crawford was thought to have amassed the greatest philatelic library of his time. Today, the library is part of the British Library Philatelic Collections.

Crawford was a noted bibliophile long before he became interested in philately. The family library, the "Bibliotheca Lindesiana" located at Haigh Hall in Haigh near Wigan, had its origins in the sixteenth century and became world-famous among scholars for its scope and the many bibliographies of its stock which exceeded 100,000 volumes.

Not long after 1897, Crawford purchased the library of philatelic literature formed by John K. Tiffany of St. Louis, Missouri, the first president of the American Philatelic Society, and which was thought to be the most complete formed up to that time. Tiffany's library was particularly strong on United States philatelic journals and he was calculated to have 97% of everything published on American philately by the time of his death, including dealer's price lists, society records and even stamp related music. Much of Tiffany's library was included in the work which he produced for the Boston Public Library in 1874 entitled The Philatelical Library. (Free download of The Philatelical Library here.)

The Tiffany Library was acquired for Crawford by Charles J. Phillips, then Managing Director of Stanley Gibbons, who viewed it while travelling in America. He informed Crawford that the condition of the library was not good and the price of $10,000 (about £2,000 at the time) was too high but Crawford told him to buy it at that price anyway. The library consisted of 909 bound volumes and 136 unbound as well as an extensive card index to its contents which was valuable in itself. It was delivered to Crawford in 39 boxes at his London home of 2 Cavendish Square on 28 June 1901. Phillips charged a 5% commission for the negotiations.

After the purchase of the Tiffany Library, Crawford employed Edward Denny Bacon as curator of the collection. Bacon worked from Cavendish Square, sorting and cataloguing the works and he was assiduous in tracking down missing philatelic periodicals with the help of Stanley Gibbons.

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