Shells, Shorthand, and Skipping Classes: Documenting Prize Bookplates in the John Manning Collection of Children’s Books

Libfocus is delighted to present the winning post for the CONUL Training and Development Library Assistant Blog Awards 2025. The winning author is Claire Dunne who is a Library Assistant in UCD Library.

Growing up, I could never understand why my mother made me sign my books. “Just sign it” she’d say, pushing a pen into my hand, “and don’t forget the date!” Now as an adult, and especially one who works with old books, I see the value in this and how it can give a book its own story beyond the words on its pages. In the cultural heritage profession this is known as “provenance”; the story of an item, how it came to be here and who might have owned it in the past. 

In UCD Special Collections we look after many books with important provenance. Books signed by James Joyce? We got ‘em. 400-year-old tomes delicately annotated by priestly scholars? We got ‘em. Modern works of art with the signature of the artist? We’ve got those too. But sometimes it isn’t the prestigious origins or famous names that catch your attention. Rather it is the casual note of the ordinary person now forgotten to time, or the scribbles of a child, made 100 years ago but somehow still familiar. It was this sense of the ordinary person, and the desire to highlight their importance, that inspired the latest work on the John Manning collection of children’s books in UCD Special Collections.

Figure 1: Three colourful books from the John Manning Collection (45.0.14), (45.J.1c), (45.U.12), UCD Special Collections. 

John Manning was an avid collector of 19th and early 20th century children’s books and in the 1970s he generously donated his collection to UCD Special Collections. These shelves are now some of the most colourful in the storeroom. They tell stories of adventures and wonder, and open a window to childhood in the Victorian era. For this reason, they are important sources of social history during this period.

Figure 2: Books in the John Manning Collection on the storeroom shelves, UCD Special Collections.

Many of these books were gifted to children as prize books. This was the custom of awarding books, often for academic merit, with a dedicated bookplate commemorating the achievement. The presence of these bookplates, however, was not previously recorded on the UCD Library catalogue, which is the main way that our visitors find out about our collections. This wasn’t too surprising because despite the current recognition of the importance of provenance, traditionally this wasn’t something that was included on a library catalogue. Keeping our catalogue up to date with retrospective edits and additions is an important part of our job in Special Collections.

And so, we set about documenting these enigmatic bookplates so that they can be discovered and researched.

Figure 3: Book awarded to Mary Alice Boyd, 1883, (45.R.11), UCD Special Collections.

Step one: find the bookplates. Just like one of the treasure hunters in Edith Nesbit’s The Story of the Treasure Seekers, we opened each and every one of the books in the Collection. Opening the cover and finding a prize bookplate was like unearthing a little piece of history that had been forgotten until now.

Figure 4: Four prize bookplates. Top left: (45.H.1). Top right: (45.J.1c). Bottom left: (45.L.15). Bottom right: (45.C.17), UCD Special Collections. 

The next step was updating the records on the library catalogue. Cataloguing Special Collections books is a technical skill that requires the use of standardised language and formats. We decided to use three specific fields on the record, one to identify the book as being part of the Collection, another to detail any provenance information, and a final one that notes it as a prize book. By describing the books this way it allows users to easily find and cross reference them. Here’s what it looks like on the online catalogue:

Figure 5: Partial catalogue entry and images of (45.L.10), UCD Special Collections. 

It quickly became clear that we had more prize bookplates than we anticipated and some from much further afield than we thought too. We also discovered that some books had been missed when initially catalogued many years ago. About 50 books that were uncatalogued have now been recorded and this 'hidden' collection uncovered.

Figure 6: Prize bookplate in French (45.C.20), and prize bookplate from Edinburgh (45.H.17), UCD Special Collections.

The bookplates come in all shapes and sizes, from very simple to elaborate and colourful.

Figure 7: Three prize bookplates in different styles. Top: (45.D.25). Bottom left: (45.H.18). Bottom right: (45.J.14), UCD Special Collections. 

Many prize books were awarded for excellence in religious studies, others for practical skills like art, and shorthand. One charming example was awarded for collecting shells.

Figure 8: Prize bookplate awarded to John Stevenson for collecting shells, (45.G.3), UCD Special Collections

But it seems not all books were presented for merit, as the inscription below suggests!

Figure 9: Prize book inscription reading, "Harold Simpson was awarded this prize for being in late every morning in the year." (45.0.14), UCD Special Collections. 

Finally, old book flags that had become old and worn were replaced with new versions, and books that had become fragile were carefully wrapped with acid-free cotton ties.

Figure 10: Top: Old book flags ready for the recycling bin. Below: New book flags on the shelves. UCD Special Collections.  

In total, 67 prize bookplates were identified, each with its own story to tell. Beyond their historical value, these bookplates hold a special sort of emotional resonance, perhaps because they once belonged to a child, or maybe because they capture a snapshot in not only our own social history, but the history of an individual. One of the most endearing discoveries was uncovered in The Worst House at Sherborough by Desmond Coke. The inscription, in Latin, reveals that this book was awarded to John Manning himself, at the age of 13. We hope that he would have enjoyed this project as much as we did.

Figure 11: Prize bookplate awarded to John Manning for scholastics, 1S20. (45.F.28), UCD Special Collections.

Find out more:

Almack, Edward. Bookplates (London: Methuen & Co., 1904), SC/R 097 ALM.

Ex Libris: Bookplates in UCD Special Collections, UCD Cultural Heritage Blog

John Manning Collection of Children’s Books, UCD Special Collections

Warren, John Byrne Leicester Warren (Lord de Tabley), A Guide to the Study of Book- Plates (Ex-Libris) (Manchester: Sherratt and Hughes, 1900), SC/R 097 DET.

Search the catalogue for these books and more at UCD Library here. Make an appointment to visit UCD Special Collections here. Have a prize bookplate of your own? Share it with us on Instagram.