Longtime Byron Society member Jacqueline L. Palmer cherished her Byron books and autograph material collected over a lifetime, and she often expressed her hope that the collection would remain permanently together. When she died unexpectedly, Marsha M. Manns and Leslie A. Marchand, the co-founders of the Byron Society of America, considered how best to honor her wishes. After some discussion, they decided to form a living collection where Society members and individuals interested in the literature of the Romantic period could donate their own collections. Individually, one collection might be difficult to place. But collectively, and well integrated with the collections of others, something unique and quite valuable was promised.

Thus it was, in 1995, that Manns, a University of Delaware alumna, and Marchand co-founded the Byron Society Collection at the University of Delaware with commitments of their own Byron collections. The collection was instituted as a partnership between the Byron Society and the University of Delaware and housed within the English Department with oversight by Charles E. Robinson, Professor of English. Its founding principles establish, through donation and bequest, a living collection that presents a material history of Byron literary studies and cultural studies from the nineteenth century to the present day. The collection integrates the traditional elements employed in the study of a literary figure (e.g., rare books and autograph materials) together with visual representations of the poet (e.g., statuary, mezzotints, and engravings) and with other decorative arts and material objects that demonstrate the impact of Byron’s life and works on his readers, both past and present.

By nature, the collection is interdisciplinary and is situated at the institutional intersection of the library and the museum. It is being developed for scholars, students, and individuals interested in the Romantic period in literature, in the Greek Revolution, in publishing history, in the decorative arts, and in cultural studies. A board of eighteen individuals—nine from the Byron Society and nine from the University—oversee the development of the collection, with Marsha M. Manns, chair of the Byron Society, co-chairing for the Society and Charles E. Robinson, executive director of the Byron Society, co-chairing for the University.