Quakers and non-Quakers from all around the world use the Library - all are welcome. In January 2007 the Library introduced a registration system. All users will have to complete a Reader Registration Form [PDF : 52.5kb- new window]on their first visit to the Library.
Welcome to the Library of the Religious Society of Friends
The Library is one of the largest collections in the world relating to Quakers and their activities. It is an inspiring resource for understanding peace, prison reform, humanitarian assistance, and the anti-slavery movement as well as Quaker history, faith, thought and practice.
How often have you gone to a website only to find that something you needed – which was there last time you looked – has disappeared? There is a danger that important material may be lost for future researchers due to the temporary or changing nature of many websites. The British Library’s UK Web Archive was established to ensure that this material is recorded and saved for posterity.
Cataloguing the temperance and moral welfare collections
The archives of the Friends Temperance Union and its successors are held by the Library at Friends House, along with a considerable body of related material – books, pamphlets, posters, ephemera and lantern slides for public lectures. With the support of a grant from the Wellcome Trust, this wealth of material has now been made more accessible to researchers worldwide.
Cataloguing work on the printed collections at the Library of the Society of Friends has revealed many more books and pamphlets than previously thought to be unique to the Society’s Library.
In June 1708 bookseller John Bagford, in an account of libraries in London for the Monthly Miscellany, remarked “The Quakers have been some years collecting a Library, but where it is erected I have not learned.” This was not surprising, since though the Society of Friends had been collecting books since 1673, the collection had no permanent home for many years - and it was not until 1926 when Friends House was constructed that the Society finally had a purpos
In June 1708 bookseller John Bagford, in an account of libraries in London for the Monthly Miscellany, remarked “The Quakers have been some years collecting a Library, but where it is erected I have not learned.” This was not surprising, since though the Society of Friends had been collecting books since 1673, the collection had no permanent home for many years - and it was not until 1926 when Friends House was constructed that the Society finally had a purpos
