David Pearson (born 1955) is an English librarian who served as the Director of Culture, Heritage and Libraries at the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...

between 2009 and 2017; his brief covered

London Metropolitan Archives The London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is the principal local government archive repository for the Greater London area, including the City of London: it is the largest county record office in the United Kingdom. It was established under its pr ...

Guildhall Library The Guildhall Library is a public reference library specialising in subjects relevant to London. It is administered by the Corporation of London, the government of the City of London, which is the historical heart of London, England. The libra ...

, City Business Library,

Guildhall Art Gallery The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the art collection of the City of London, England. The museum is located in the Moorgate area of the City of London. It is a stone building in a semi-Gothic style intended to be sympathetic to the historic Guild ...

, and other institutions. He retired in early 2017 to focus on his work in book history and is now a Senior Member of

Darwin College, Cambridge Darwin College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded on 28 July 1964, Darwin was Cambridge University's first graduate-only college, and also the first to admit both men and women. The college is named after one of th ...

(from 2016); Honorary Senior Research Associate of the Department of Information Studies, University College London (from 2016); and Senior Fellow of the Institute of English Studies, University of London (from 2017). A member of the Faculty of the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, he teaches regularly at the London Rare Book School.

Education

Pearson was educated at

St Bees School , motto_translation = Enter so that you may make progress , established = (reformed 2015–2018) , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label ...

(1967–1973) and is a graduate of the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

(1974–1977, MA, PhD), and

University of Loughborough Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when ...

(1980–81, Dip.Lib).

Career

He was previously Director of the University of London Research Library Services (2004–2009), Librarian of the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glax ...

(1996–2004), Head of Special Collections at the

National Art Library The National Art Library (NAL) is a major reference library, situated in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), a museum of decorative arts in London. The NAL holds the UK's most comprehensive collection of both books as art and books about art, ...

(1992–1996) and a curator in the Eighteenth-Century Short Title Catalogue project at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

(1986–1992). He has lectured and published extensively on aspects of book history, with a particular emphasis on books as artefacts, and the ways in which they have been owned and bound. His books include ''Provenance Research in Book History'' (1994, new edition 2019), ''Oxford Bookbinding 1500-1640'' (2000), ''For the Love of the Binding'' (ed, 2000), ''English Bookbinding Styles 1450-1800'' (2005, reprinted 2014), ''Books as History : The importance of books beyond their texts'' (2008), ''London: 1000 Years'' (ed, 2011), ''Book Ownership in Stuart England'' (2021), ''Speaking Volumes: Books with Histories'' (2022). He was President of the

Bibliographical Society Founded in 1892, The Bibliographical Society is the senior learned society dealing with the study of the book and its history in the United Kingdom. Largely owing to the efforts of Walter Arthur Copinger, who was supported by Richard Cople ...

, 2010–2012. In 2017–2018, as J. P. R. Lyell Reader in Bibliography,

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

, he delivered the

Lyell Lectures The Lyell Readership in Bibliography is an endowed annual lecture series given at Oxford University. Instituted in 1952 by a bequest from the solicitor, book collector and bibliographer James Patrick Ronaldson Lyell (1871–1948the series has conti ...

on the topic “Book Ownership in Stuart England”.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, David English librarians 1955 births Living people Bookbinding