Rhodes House, Oxford
October 9, 2007 RJH
I will admit to being a sucker for any building that sports a portrait of HM the Queen in the foyer. Rhodes House in Oxford is one such building, and much more.
Part of the joy of living in Oxford is that you can chase obscure books in various faculty and college libraries. (Just ordering it from the Bod stacks is boring.) Yesterday I needed a book on slavery, and Rhodes House had a copy. So in I went, past the Queen, past the grand ceiling memorial to Rhodes men who died in the wars, past the various imperial antiques that decorate the polished floor, past the portraits of various dark-skinned Rhodes Scholars (just to prove Cecil Rhodes’ heirs have shared the lottery winnings beyond the white Englishman), and through to the library.
Any of you Yanks who fancy some time in Oxford should go for a Rhodes. Failing that, just come to Oxford. It’s a singular place.
October 9th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
It is indeed a neato place, even (especially?) on a rainy weekend in November.
October 10th, 2007 at 4:07 am
Go for a Rhodes? What next? Die of shame?
October 10th, 2007 at 10:08 am
This post made me remember how much I miss Oxford. Yes, the Rhodes House is wonderful, as is the Taylorian Institute Library, where I spent most of my time as a student there. Of course, it’s hard to beat the coziness of closer quarters that can be found in some tutors’ offices or the MCRs of certain colleges.
October 10th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Hellmut,
What do you have against Rhodes scholarships?
October 10th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
It’s blood money, isn’t it?
October 10th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
My Grandpa thinks the Rhodes scholarship is the gateway into communism. However, I also highly recommend the Rhodes house, though I spent most of my time in the Taylorian and in various reading rooms in the Bodleian, usually the Oriental reading room…
October 11th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Jordan,
I had a great time in the Bodleian as well, although I only went to the Oriental reading room twice.
But in addition to the Taylorian and Bodleian, I relished the simple joys of studying in St Peter’s in the East, the library at St Edmund Hall, despite its drafty gravestone floors. Reading staples of history and literature in an ancient church converted into a library has a deep romantic appea. The computer desks that inhabited the nooks and crannies of landings on the staircase up the tower were also a blast, as was heading up the tower to find certain Greek and German holdings.
I also remember some kind of basement library for Yiddish and Hebrew holdings at Exeter College — is that right? I never had any research of my own to do there but I remember you taking me down there to show me your haunts one time.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
very interesting topic, just had a talk by Prof. Beinart in the Rhodes house who partly specializes on Cecil Rhodes and he talked about the Legacy of Cicil Rhodes, and the interesting point he brought up was that - is it okey to forget about the history behind the trust (money) and continue with the persuit of knowledge, and funnily enough, most of the money is not going back to where it came from though as we all know, all he left behind has been spent up. As one of the african rhodees, I think it would be naive to claim that we forget about the history but we should think of the reasons C. R. left behind for electing the scholars which parallels how he aquired the wealth. What happened happened, like the Vickings invading england, should you go for compensation, you will look stupid.
No shame for Rhodeese, we will remain the Keeper of the gates of knowledge in our respective fields.
Jeff