The Centre for English Local History

The Nichols Archive Project

The Nichols Archive Project is providing scholars with an analytical guide to the correspondence and collected papers of the Nichols family of printers and antiquaries between the time of John Nichols (1745-1826) and the death of his grandson, John Gough Nichols, in 1873.  Although John Nichols’ magisterial History and Antiquities of the Town and County of Leicester 4 vols in 8 parts (1795-1812) continues to inspire local historians, he is equally renowned among book trade historians, scholars of literary history, art history and Renaissance culture through his role as a master London printer, editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine, friend of Johnson, biographer of Hogarth and historian of the court culture of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.  These panoramic interests led him to accumulate thousands of letters and manuscripts.  His family inherited his collections, shared his interests and continued his literary and antiquarian friendships.  Their correspondence, diaries, travel journals and collected papers are a rich resource for scholars in a range of disciplines. 

The Nichols Archive Project has generously been awarded two grants by the Bibliographical Society.  The second of these, in 2000, was associated with the name of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association.  In 2001 the Project was awarded a major grant by the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society.  Generous funding from the William Lambarde Memorial Fund of the Society of Antiquaries of London was awarded in 2004.  British Academy Overseas Conference Grants have been awarded for papers given to the Renaissance Society of America in New York in 2004 and the Johnson at 300 Symposium at Harvard University in 2009.

Julian Pooley is an archivist at Surrey History Centre and Honorary Visiting Fellow of the Centre for English Local History at the University of Leicester.

For further details contact Julian Pooley FSA c/o Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, Surrey, GU21 6ND jpooley@surreycc.gov.uk

 

• Project outline
• Progress
• Research
• The Nichols family
• Bibliography
• Links