Vilde Bentsen with letters from the Logan archive
Sir Charles Logan became Deputy Keeper of the Signet in 1887 and oversaw one of the most significant periods in the history of the WS Society. Coming into office just after the legal reforms of the 1870s which had removed almost all of the ancient privileges (if not responsibilities) pertaining to the Society’s lawyers, Sir Charles oversaw the planning and construction of the innovative steel-framed West Wing extension of the Signet Library, the writing of the 1890 History of the Society of Writers to HM Signet and the Society’s education and training reforms. His period of office saw the Society reach new heights of reputation and significance.
The Society is fortunate to hold a considerable archive of Logan’s papers and correspondence from his period in office, and over the past six months these have undergone a thoroughgoing process of reorganization, interpretation and cataloguing undertaken by the archivist Vilde Bentsen. Vilde’s completed project has output an extraordinary 110 pages of archival description, analysis and a schema which will be deployed to add the records to the WS Society online archive catalogue.
Much of the archive is of a technical and professional nature, and there is much to learn here about the role, almost entirely previously unstudied, of the figure of Deputy Keeper to the Signet. But human stories also abound. Some of these are profoundly moving: a constant theme is Logan’s care and concern for the Society’s great scholar-librarian Thomas Graves Law, stricken by his final, drawn-out illness. But there is also comedy, particularly in the letters regarding the great 1900 photograph of the whole Society. Instructed by the Clerk to present themselves at a portrait studio on Princes Street, members made it very clear that they did not appreciate being told what to do! But even here, and throughout the rest of the papers, the community and mutual support of the WS Society and Writers to the Signet shines through.
Vilde now goes on to new projects in Manchester. During her time here her warmth and good humour were much appreciated by her colleagues, and she very quickly became a part of the Signet Library “family”. We are very grateful to her for her remarkable work and she will be much missed.