DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Armstrong Browning Library, right here on the Baylor University campus in Waco. Now, if you were to walk onto that campus and stumble across a magnificent building — and I do mean magnificent, built especially for what lives inside it — you might not guess that what you're looking at is the world's largest collection of books, manuscripts, artworks, and memorabilia pertaining to two married English poets. Two poets.
Robert Browning, born 1812, died 1889. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, born 1806, died 1861. A husband and wife, both poets, both English, both now the subject of a collection so vast it draws scholars from all over this world.
But how does something like that end up in Waco, Texas? Well, that story has a hero, and his name is Dr. Andrew Joseph Armstrong — Baylor English professor, husband to Mary Maxwell Armstrong, and a man who admired, deeply admired, the optimism and the spiritual values running through Robert Browning's poetry.
In 1918, Dr. Armstrong made a decision. He donated his own personal collection to Baylor University.
His own. The thing he'd spent years building, handed over. Now, that could have been the end of the story.
A nice gift, a shelf of books, a little plaque somewhere. But Dr. Armstrong and Mary Maxwell Armstrong were not the kind of people who stopped at nice.
Four decades. Four decades of creative fundraising efforts, reaching out across the world to pull in more items, more letters, more art, more manuscripts. And by 1925, the Times of London — the Times of London — had looked at what they'd built and called it, quote, the most important collection of Browningiana in the world.
For a time, it lived in something called the Browning Room, tucked inside the Carroll Library. That was its home. Until 1951, when the collection outgrew its room and moved into a new library building — one named for both the man who built it and the poet who inspired him.
The Armstrong Browning Library. What's inside goes well beyond books. Yes, there are Browning books, letters, manuscripts, and papers at the core of it.
But there are also paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and art objects — pieces that actually belonged to the Brownings themselves, or that relate directly to their work. Then, added into the university library system in the 1980s, came the 19th century collection: early editions of important works by other Victorian writers, John Ruskin among them, Charles Dickens among them. A minor English poets collection.
A women poets collection. And housed here too are the archives of Joseph Milsand — 19th-century French literary critic and philosopher, and a longtime friend of the Brownings. All of it together, under one magnificent roof, on one university campus in Texas, built through the stubborn, tireless, four-decade effort of a professor and his wife who believed that a couple of Victorian English poets deserved the best home in the world.
Turns out, they were right.
What the marker says
Located here on the Baylor University campus in a magnificent building created especially for it is the world's largest collection of books, manuscripts, artworks and memorabilia pertaining to the married English poets Robert Browning (1812-1889) and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861). This literary resource was established through the dedicated efforts of Baylor English professor Dr. Andrew Joseph Armstrong and his wife, Mary Maxwell Armstrong. In 1918, Dr. Armstrong, who admired the optimism and spiritual values in Robert Browning's poetry, donated his personal collection to Baylor University. Four decades of creative fundraising efforts by the Armstrongs resulted in the acquisition of more items located throughout the world, and in 1925, the Times of London called it "the most important collection of Browningiana in the world." It was housed in "The Browning Room" of the Carroll Library. In 1951, the collection was moved here to a new library building named for Dr. Armstrong and Robert Browning. In addition to the core collection of Browning books, letters, manuscripts and other papers, the library houses an impressive array of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and art objects that belonged to the Brownings or that relate to their work. The 19th century collection, added to the university library system in the 1980s, includes early editions of important works by other Victorian writers such as John Ruskin and Charles Dickens, a minor English poets collection, and a women poets collection. Also housed here are archives of 19th-century French literary critic and philosopher Joseph Milsand, a longtime friend of the Brownings. Together, the collections offer a literary resource valued by scholars worldwide. (2006)