The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) was founded with the opening of Cecil Sharp House in 1930. Originally called the Cecil Sharp Library, it housed Sharp’s collection of approximately 1,000 books, which he bequeathed the English Folk Dance Society. Its first librarian was Sharp’s daughter, Joan.
The amalgamation of English Folk Dance Society and the Folk-Song Society in the early 1930s, plus the subsequent bequests, donations and purchases since that time, saw the library grow considerably over the years, most notably with the addition of other media, including sound, audio visual, moving image, pictorial and manuscript collections of many of the most eminent folklorists and collectors of the twentieth century.
The library is now named in honour of the composer, song collector and President of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Ralph Vaughan Williams, who died in 1958.
Today, the VWML is a truly multi-media library. As well as our extensive collection of sound recordings and film, we now have a large digital collection. Our Take Six and Full English projects paved the way towards creating what is now the world’s biggest free digital archive of English traditional folk songs, music and dance tunes. In 2018, a project in collaboration with The American Folklife Centre, The Elphinstone Institute and AHRC, made the digitised collections of James Madison Carpenter available to the public for the first time.
Takedown policy
To the best of our knowledge, the content on our website is either out-of-copyright, copyright to the English Folk Dance and Song Society, or has been cleared with the appropriate rights holder.
If you are concerned that you have found material on our website for which you have not given permission, or which contains sensitive personal data, then please contact the Library and Archives Director: [email protected]
We champion the folk arts at the heart of England’s rich and diverse cultural landscape.
Our London-based HQ plays host to a whole range of events as well as the Library.
