Why the British Library Is Awesome

Okay, it is a quantifiable fact that I am a bad tourist. See the lack of photos on my Facebook. I like learning about things, and that’s my record of a visit? Or maybe it’s just that I’m lazy and I figure everyone else is taking pictures anyway. (Note to self: bug people about Arthur’s Seat photos. Because we really did hike a volcano, I promise.)
This weekend, though, I’ve got to tell you, the British Library was the best, and it definitely brought out my inner tourist from the deep recesses of my mind, where it usually keeps company with my inner basketball player.
Some of the stuff in the British Library’s collection is amazing simply because it is beautiful. Especially with many of the religious texts, the decorative embellishments are beautiful in their own right.
Other things in the collection, however, gain their worth because they offer a glimpse of history. I mean, it’s one thing to learn about the Magna Carta in a textbook and read a copy online, but it’s quite another to think about it as a living, breathing document that meant a hell of a lot to people when it was written. It was one of the center pieces of a civil war, after all. Or the Folio, for another example, which isn’t just a collector’s item but the only way we have some of my favorite plays like Measure for Measure and Macbeth. The scraps of paper or journals from various artists and writers humanize otherwise untouchable figures. For a long time, the documents in this collection were living and breathing, not just showy, and seeing said documents really helps me to remember that.
Also, the comics exhibit was awesome. Both disturbing and super informational, especially because I find indie comics something I desperately want to know more about.