Inscriptions: Former Public Library
This engraving is over the entrance to the former public library (now the Museum of Oxford) on the corner of St Aldate’s and Blue Boar Street. The motto (from Francis Bacon’s Essay Of Studies) reads:
STUDIES SERVE FOR:
DELIGHT, FOR ORNAMENT:
AND FOR ABILITIES
The first Oxford public library opened in 1854 (full report in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 3 June 1854). It moved into the building on the corner of the new Town Hall in 1897. The library moved to the Westgate Centre in 1973.
The above inscription is inside the Central Library in the Westgate Centre, but can be seen on the right if you look through the door. It reads:
This Library was opened by
HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH
THE QUEEN MOTHER
On the 31st October 1973