For the next three months, we are giving free copies of our past Volumes to any current member who requests them. Simply write to Claire Ó Nualláin our Executive Administrator at admin@walpolesociety.org.uk and she will organise things.
It can't be that simple...
There's no catch, but:
while the books themslves are free, we do ask you to pay for postage, the packaging materials and a small handling fee. We emphasise that these are simply costs we are passing on. We are not seeking to profit from this, but we don't want to be left out of pocket. The exact costs are set out below.
most past volumes are available, but there are a few gaps. Scroll down for the full list.
this is an offer for current members of The Walpole Society only. It's very easy to join online in only a couple of minutes. We'd be very glad to welcome you as a member if you'd like to participate in this offer.
How can I take part?
Please write to Claire Ó Nualláin our Executive Administrator at admin@walpolesociety.org.uk stating the following:
the volumes you are asking for (please just state the volume numbers)
your name and the address you would like the volumes to be sent to
We will then submit this order and send you a Stripe.com link to make an online payment via your debit or credit card. Orders will take up to a fortnight to fulfil.
It will cost £2 for every single volume packed and sent, plus postage. We can only calculate the postage cost once the order is received as it depends on the weight, but to give an indication: it will cost £3.50 to send out one volume weighing under 2kg within the UK, and £12.50 for a carton of several volumes weighing up to 20kg, again within the UK. When submitting your order, you are agreeing to pay these costs.
Which volumes are you offering?
We are offering copies of all the volumes we have in storage, other than our most recently-published volume (vol 84). These are the volumes available:
vols 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 15, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 28, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82 and 83.
If you're unsure what is in each volume, please either consult the index on our website, or JSTOR's own listing.
Which volumes don't you have?
We don't have any copies of vols 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 25, 26, 27, 29, 32, 36, 37, 39, 40, 45 or 62. This means we have no copies remaining of:
Vertue vol V (vol 27)
the Vertue Index (vol 29)
The Memoirs of Thomas Jones (vol 32)
the Jonathan Skelton volume (vol 36)
Oliver Millar's Van der Doort's catalogue of Charles I's pictures (vol 37)
Garlick's catalogue of Sir Thomas Lawrence (vol 39)
Summerson's volume on John Thorpe's Book of Architecture (vol 40)
Our most recently published volume (vol 84) is not part of this offer.
Why are we doing this?
Over many decades the Society has built up a substantial archive of past annual Volumes, which it offered for sale to members and non-members alike. We have well over two thousand copies in all, stored in the premises of our printer, Henry Ling in Dorset.
In years past, maintaining an archive like this was a necessary and valued service, for the Walpole Society's research was available only in the form of a hardback book. Over the past decade the Society has been considering how to adjust to a new world of digital publishing, in which electronic facsimiles of our volumes are widely available, such as on archive.org and JSTOR. For years we have sold almost no copies of our archive volumes, meaning that the cost of storing them significantly outweighs the income from sales. We think it is a very poor use of our members' funds to continue to maintain an archive of this size.
Last year, therefore, we decided to do two things. Firstly, we paid to create our own digitised copies of all the past volumes in our possession - not quite a complete run, but we can fill the gaps from other sources. This means we are well positioned to make use of their contents ourselves in the future. Secondly, we decided to destroy a portion of our archive, to bring the costs of storage down to a reasonable level. We will retain a number of copies for future sale.
Last summer we distributed copies to specialist libraries who had gaps in their runs of annual Volumes, including to the National Art Library, the National Portrait Gallery, the RIBA , and the Tate. We are now making this same offer to our members. If any current member would like a copy of the Walpole Society, please simply get in touch with us admin@walpolesociety.org.uk.