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In memory
Enriqueta Rylands founded the library in memory of her husband
The John Rylands Library on Deansgate was founded by Enriqueta Augustina Rylands in memory of her husband, John Rylands. She bought the site in 1889 and commissioned the architect Basil Champneys. It opened to readers and visitors on 1 January 1900.
Like a church
It looks like a church but was meant as an Oxford college library
Mrs Rylands intended the library to be principally theological, and the building has the appearance of a church. The concept was an Oxford college library on a larger scale. She chose decorative elements, window glass and statues against the architect's wishes.
Red stone
Dark red Barbary stone from Penrith was an unusual choice in Manchester
The library is built of Cumbrian sandstone, with dark red Barbary stone from Penrith outside and Shawk stone from Dalston inside. Champneys believed the red sandstone had every chance of proving durable. It was an unusual choice in late Victorian Manchester.
Electric light
The library made its own electricity until 1950
Electric lighting was chosen as the cleanest and safest alternative to gas. The supply was generated on site, and the library became one of the first public buildings in Manchester to be lit by electricity. It generated its own supply until 1950.
The collections
The collections include a Gutenberg Bible and a papyrus of the Gospel of John
The special collections include medieval illuminated manuscripts, a Gutenberg Bible and the second largest collection of printing by William Caxton. Rylands Library Papyrus P52 is the earliest fragment of the text of the Gospel of John.
Day 1, midday
It comes after National Football Museum. Then Northern Quarter.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article John Rylands Research Institute and Library, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.