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Pillars from a classical structure ;

De Beer Collection

The De Beer Collection comprises books from the library of Sir Gavin de Beer (1899-1972), Professor of Embryology at UCL and Director of the Natural History Museum. The collection contains a complete set of Darwin's publications from the first edition of 'On the origin of species' onwards, all in their original binding. The collection also contains works about Darwin and evolution.

Brightly coloured parrots
  • Number of items: 485
  • Date range: 19th to 20th centuries

Sir Gavin de Beer's papers, 1917-1947, are held in the College Archives.

Using Library Search

Records from all collections are available through King's Library Search.

Being signed in to Library Search gives the best functionality for searching and the homepage gives advice on how to narrow down your searches by using scopes and by filtering searches you have made. For full instructions please see both the Library Search homepage and also our 'Catalogues' webpage, available by scrolling down to the menu on the Special Collections homepage.

Using scopes

You can limit your search to Foyle Special Collections Library items by using scopes.

If you select the ‘Library Resources’ scope, only the print and ebooks, audiovisual material and journals held by the campus libraries and Foyle Special Collections Library will be retrieved in your searches

Using filters

For finding material related to specific collections or former owners, use the ‘Library Resources’ scope in the drop down menu and then filter by ‘Former owner’ in the Advanced search criteria to display records from a specific collection.

You can also use the Location drop down menu on the left hand side of the screen to identify items from specific named special collections.

Please do contact us for further advice on identifying material which will assist you with your studies.

Image from Georges Louis Leclerc, comte of Buffon. Oeuvres complètes de Buffon. Paris: Pourrat frères, 1839 [Gavin De Beer Collection QH45 BUF]

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