Biographical dates - Period of existence1843 – 1908
Other InformationEnriqueta founded the John Rylands Library, in memory of her husband. She negotiated the purchase of the 2nd Earl Spencer's library, built up by Thomas Dibdin, which the 5th Earl Spencer put up for sale in 1892. The library purchase was for the record price of £210,000 and she commissioned the Manchester academic Alice Cooke to index it. The library was inaugurated on 6 October 1899, the anniversary of her marriage. On the same day, she was admitted to the Freedom of the City of Manchester, the first woman to be so honoured. She was committed to many philanthropic and missionary causes and bequeathed much of her wealth to educational and medical institutions (including the Victoria University of Manchester and the library she had founded). In 1901, Mrs Rylands paid £155,000 for more than 6,000 manuscripts owned by James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford of Haigh Hall. The Bibliotheca Lindesiana was one of the most impressive private collections in Britain at the time, both for its size and the rarity of some of its contents.
Biographical dates - Period of existence1843 – 1908
Other InformationEnriqueta founded the John Rylands Library, in memory of her husband. She negotiated the purchase of the 2nd Earl Spencer's library, built up by Thomas Dibdin, which the 5th Earl Spencer put up for sale in 1892. The library purchase was for the record price of £210,000 and she commissioned the Manchester academic Alice Cooke to index it. The library was inaugurated on 6 October 1899, the anniversary of her marriage. On the same day, she was admitted to the Freedom of the City of Manchester, the first woman to be so honoured. She was committed to many philanthropic and missionary causes and bequeathed much of her wealth to educational and medical institutions (including the Victoria University of Manchester and the library she had founded). In 1901, Mrs Rylands paid £155,000 for more than 6,000 manuscripts owned by James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford of Haigh Hall. The Bibliotheca Lindesiana was one of the most impressive private collections in Britain at the time, both for its size and the rarity of some of its contents.