Guille-Alles exhibition celebrates 140 years
GUILLES-ALLES Library is celebrating its 140th anniversary by opening an exhibition today to mark its rich history.
The exhibition – Boundless Curiosity – tells the story of Thomas Guille’s and Frederick Alles’ journey from their voyage to New York as 14-year-old bookworms, to their return to Guernsey to set up the library and museum.
Islanders will be able to experience this through letters, diary entries, artefacts from the library’s archive, informative panels and two illustrations from local artist Charlie Buchanan depicting the two friends while in New York.
Through this experience visitors can see how the library has changed over the its 140-year lifespan including information on the Occupation.
‘We’re bringing the story to life,’ said the library’s head of marketing and exhibition project manager Adam Bayfield.
Among the artefacts are a Roman oil lamp, a Polynesian shark tooth dagger, Chinese slippers and many others that some islanders may remember seeing at the library’s museum, which closed in 1979.
‘We’re delighted to be displaying some of these artefacts here again,’ said Mr Bayfield
The exhibition also has a room dedicated to rare books where original copies of famous books such as Le Theatre du Monde, the Nuremberg Chronicle and The Birds of America can be seen.
The latter is especially eye-catching due to its metre-long pages that contain 1,065 life-size illustrations of 489 bird species and requires two librarians to turn.
Every Monday, a page will be turned revealing a new illustration for visitors to enjoy.
For the children, there are a variety of activities such as a Victorian library experience, fancy dress, and a trail through the exhibition to make it accessible for all.
‘It’s really getting the children involved,’ said chief librarian Cornelia James.
The name ‘Boundless Curiosity,’ was chosen due to Guille’s and Alles’ values, which remain a large influence in the library’s goals today.
‘They started the library because they wanted to give islanders access to knowledge, and the opportunity to learn.
'140 years later, we’re still going strong, and still striving to live up to that vision,’ said Mrs James.
On top of the exhibition the library will be also be hosting a lecture with Mark Glancy, curator of the recent Birds of America exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland, on Wednesday 23 November.
Entry is free and the exhibition runs until 21 January.
