Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library is the primary research library of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England, and currently the largest repository of J.R.R. Tolkien's manuscripts and other possessions.
==History==
Though the building predates the 1600s, current incarnation of the library was founded in 1602 by scholar Sir Thomas Bodley.
While Tolkien studied at the University of Oxford and later while teaching there from 1925 onward, he used the Bodleian quite often amid his studies of medieval texts."Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth - A tour of the exhibition highlights"
Following his death, his family and the Tolkien Estate donated most of Tolkien's academic and authorial possessions and artwork to the library. These are kept in the Bodleian's Department of Western manuscripts. These include the original texts of all his classic children's tales (such as Roverandom and Smith of Wootton Major), much of his poetry, over 180 illustrations or miscellaneous doodles, his calligraphy, over three hundred of the books he owned, and his preserved papers from which he had given lectures, such as "A Secret Vice" and "English and Welsh".https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=21554 Access to certain material closely pertaining to Tolkien's family is restricted, while his manuscripts and artwork is accessible to scholars.
In 1987, the Bodleian held its first Tolkien exhibit, "Drawings for 'The Hobbit'". Its second occurred in 1992, called "Tolkien: Life and Legend", from which followed the book Tolkien: Life and Legend. In 2018, the "Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth" exhibition was held, encapsulated by Catherine McIlwaine's books Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth and Tolkien: Treasures. This exhibit included such rare features as a large, 3D interactive map of Middle-earth.
McIlwaine is currently Tolkien Archivist at the Bodleian. As of 2010, the university's group of twenty-six libraries was renamed "The Bodleian Libraries", and the original library is referred to in particular as the "central" library or the Bodleian Old Library.
The entry in Michael D. C. Drout's J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia concerning the Bodleian and its relation to Tolkien was provided by David Bratman. The next most significant repository of Tolkien manuscripts in the U.S. is Marquette University.
==External links==
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*Official website of the Bodleian Libraries
**Webpage for visitors
**Explore Tolkien
==References==
Category:Real world locations
Category:Sites of Tolkien exhibitions or collections
Category:Places in England