Wardrop Collection: the collections of Marjory and Oliver Wardrop relating to Georgia together with their personal papers

The most important collection of Georgian manuscripts in Europe. It comprises:

• manuscripts collected by Sir Oliver and Marjory Wardrop, including important literary, ecclesiastical, historical and legal texts
• Personal papers, correspondence and photographs of the Wardrops, ca. 1880-1950. Both siblings were enthusiastic correspondents, and Marjory maintained contact, in Georgian, with many of Georgia's leading writers, poets, and scholars of the time.

Sir Oliver Wardrop (1864-1948) was a British Consul and orientalist. His sister Marjory Scott Wardrop (1869-1909) accompanied him in all his consular posts. Both brother and sister developed a strong interest in Georgia and her culture after Sir Oliver's first visit to the country in 1887, which gave rise to his Kingdom of Georgia (London, 1888). The Wardrops' interest in Georgia became widely known in the country when the poet Ilia Chavchavadze published a letter from Marjory requesting permission to translate his poem, 'The Hermit', in his newspaper Iveria on 8 September 1894. Marjory translated several works of Georgian literature, notably Rustaveli's 'The Man in the Panther's Skin'. After Marjory's death, Sir Oliver established the Marjory Wardrop Fund in her memory, for the encouragement of the study of the language, literature and history of Georgia. See Who Was Who for details on Sir Oliver Wardrop.

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card (for admissions procedures see http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk).

The majority of the Wardrop Collection was presented to the Library by Sir Oliver Wardrop after the death of his sister Marjory in 1909. Sir Oliver continued to donate items to the collection until 1944.

Collection level description created by Susan Thomas, Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts.

David Barrett Catalogue of the Wardrop Collection and of other Georgian books and manuscripts in the Bodleian Library (Oxford, 1973) provides an introduction to the collection, brief descriptions of the manuscripts, and an index. Barrett also includes references to articles which describe select manuscripts more fully.

The most recent addition to the collection was made by Nino Wardrop, Oliver Wardrop's daughter, who donated her own biographical notes on Marjory and Oliver Wardrop to the Library in 1991 (MS. Wardr. c. 31). No further accruals are expected.

The Wardrop Collection also includes the books collected by Oliver and Marjory Wardrop.

D M Lang 'Georgian studies in Oxford' Oxford Slavonic Papers, vol. 6 (1955).

Nino Wardrop 'Oliver, Marjory and Georgia' Bodleian Library Record, vol. XIV, no. 6 (April, 1994), pp. 501-23.