Collecting the Taboo: Library Practice and the J.B. Rund Collection investigates how the British Library and similar institutions have historically collected and managed material considered ‘taboo,’ using the J. B. Rund Collection as its primary case study. It explores changing academic, cultural, and institutional attitudes toward material containing erotic content, such as comic books, magazines, novels, and other printed texts, and the impact of research libraries on how such material has been collected and managed.

Since 1971, the British Library has received donations from J. B. Rund, an American book dealer and publisher. The Rund Collection is a rich archive of erotic material, ranging from catalogues of Victorian erotica to 20th century American fetish cartoons and underground comix. Rund’s donation reflects the importance of the Library’s history in collecting erotic material: Rund relied on the Private Case, the collection of erotica and pornography established at the British Museum in the 19th century, during his years in the book trade, which informed his choice to donate his personal collection to the Library. Beyond its impressive size – totalling over 1,000 individual items – the Rund Collection’s metadata offers archival snapshots of how curators and cataloguers have handled such material over time, and how the Library itself has evolved across the 50 years of Rund’s donations.

By investigating the collection’s cataloguing, including shelfmarks containing under-catalogued items of historical significance, the project’s main purpose is to investigate how items dealing with sex and sexuality have been collected and managed by the Library. While this research builds on existing scholarship relating to the Private Case, its focus on the Rund Collection directs the research towards 20th century librarianship and collecting practices: the period in which the Library began to change its approach to such materials.

Further information and details of how to apply can be found in the ‘Information for HEI Applicants’ document made available as part of this call.

The application deadline for this call is Friday 27 November 2026. Further information and details of how to apply can be found at
https://www.bl.uk/services/research-collaboration/collaborative-doctoral-landscape
awards

The award is funded through the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Collaborative Doctoral Landscape Awards scheme. The awards are designed to support the next generation of arts and humanities researchers through partnerships between higher education institutions (HEIs) and non-HEI organisations such as galleries, libraries, archives and museums. The training partnerships aim to identify and address short and long-term skills challenges and foster interdisciplinarity between the cultural, creative and heritage sectors, academia and other employers.