CLYDE TAYLOR: AN APPRECIATION

Turnbull Library Record, Volume I, Issue 1, 1 March 1967, Page 30

CLYDE TAYLOR: AN APPRECIATION

A. S. Helm

It is given to few fortunate men to find their livelihood in a beloved hobby. Yet this is what happened to Clyde Taylor, the greater part of whose working life was spent as Chief Librarian among the books of the Alexander Turnbull Library, and who now enjoys his merited retirement among a well-stocked personal library at Tawa. Clyde Romer Hughes Taylor was born in Havelock, Marlborough, in 1905. He inherited his love of books from his grandfather, an Auckland merchant who possessed a good library, and his literary ability from his father, a journalist who followed his vocation in many cities and towns. As a result of his father’s wandering, Clyde attended no less than eleven schools.

In 1923 he commenced his public service career as a cadet in the Christchurch Branch of the Lands and Survey Department a department which has trained many prominent civil servants. By a striking coincidence, the same department, in the same city, had trained Mr Johannes C. Andersen, whom he was ultimately to follow as Chief Librarian of the Turnbull Library. While in the Lands and Survey Department, Mr Taylor attended Canterbury College as a part-time student, obtaining his m.a. degree with honours in an arts course featuring economics, and also a Diploma of Journalism. At the university he met his future wife, who also holds an m.a. degree. Finding that his particular degrees did not seem to be appreciated in his department, in 1929 he applied for and obtained the position of Librarian in the Department of Agriculture in Wellington. Then in 1933 came the opportunity which was to change his life, when he was selected as Assistant Librarian in the Alexander Turnbull Library. A year later he was awarded a Carnegie Fellowship, on which he attended the University of Michigan Library School, and visited outstanding libraries and rare book collections in the United States, Great Britain and European countries.

Back at the Turnbull Library in 1935, he served for a further two years as Assistant Librarian before taking over as Chief Librarian from Johannes C. Andersen in April 1937. At that time the staff consisted of four members when Mr Taylor retired in August 1963 the number had increased to twentyfour. It was in the light of his overseas experience that he made some of the key changes in library practice. These basically meant making the library more accessible, and building up a staff to make the collections more available to the general public. The simplest yet perhaps most striking step was to leave open the front door! Until then it had been closed, and few students had worked in the library. A small reading room was

fitted out, and modern library techniques and processes were introduced in various departments of the library. The late winter of the depression was still casting a shadow on public expenditure in these first years. Mr Andersen had been greatly hampered in purchasing, having to list each book and its price before permission would be granted. Mr Taylor was successful in building up a broadly based acquisition policy, all operations of which he undertook personally for many years. At first he was allowed to spend jCio a month, but this amount was later increased to .£4OO a month. On this sum the Turnbull Library could not acquire as many literary and allied treasures as Mr Taylor would have liked, but the limitation made for shrewd buying. Mr Taylor endeavoured to strike a balance between the main sections of the Library, on the lines commenced by Alexander Turnbull. His efforts successfully carried the Library into the modern age, and he knew its holdings better than any individual staff member before or since.

It was his concern for expanding the limited resources of the Library, together with the necessity for a publication programme which led to his encouraging the establishment of the Friends of the Turnbull Library in 1939, for he had seen how successful such an organisation could be in the case of the British Museum. During Mr Taylor’s lengthy and faithful service, numerous collections were bequeathed to the Library, notably the McLean papers and the Hogg and Trimble collections. All accretions to the Library’s shelves in both new and antiquarian categories contributed to the unique value of the ‘Turnbull’ as a centre for research. During Mr Taylor’s term of office and since, scholars have come from all over the world to study in the small, crowded building at the foot of Bowen Street. Some of these visitors are world-famous men and women who spend weeks or months in the institution pursuing their particular field of study, others are students completing a thesis. Although the Library has tended increasingly to become a New Zealand centre for historical studies in the New Zealand and Pacific subject fields, it is due to Mr Taylor’s insistence that the balance of interest in Turnbull’s original collection has been retained in at least English literature. During the time he was in charge it doubled its holdings and extended many times over, its manuscript resources. With vigour and consistency he opposed the inclusion of the Turnbull Library in the National Library, for he feared that the specialised collections of the Turnbull might be swamped in the larger organisation, and that the Turnbull would lose its special place among scholars, as a first class research institution. diol

During his long association with the Turnbull Library there would be few literary personalities in New Zealand who did not make the acquaintance of Mr Taylor and benefit by his knowledge and wisdom. Book selection was only one field of librarianship in which he excelled.

Others were as bibliographer, book-binder and repairer, and in his detailed knowledge of typography and paper. Often he was called upon to confirm or deny the authenticity of books or manuscripts for members of the public.

His reputation as a first class bibliographer won him an award of a Nuffield-Rockefeller United States Government Travel Fellowship in i 960 which enabled him to carry out further research abroad, and in 1962 he was elected a Fellow of the New Zealand Library Association.

Although the Turnbull Library was his main centre of interest he found time for many other associations to which he gave assistance. Only a few other equally dedicated men have had such a long service with the Polynesian Society as has Mr Taylor. Joining the Society in 1936, he became Secretary in 1939 and served in that capacity until 1958, then on the Council until 1963. As editor from 1949 until 1957 part of the time jointly with Garth Roydhouse he revived and extended the Society’s programme of publication and arranged its library. In 1942 he prepared and published the Index to the Journal of the Polynesian Society, and since his retirement has been working on bringing this up to date, a task but recently completed and shortly to be printed.

Stemming from his interest in the Polynesian Society and the Turnbull Library’s related concern for Oceanic materials, Mr Taylor was led to undertake the tremendous task of compiling A Pacific Bibliography of ethnology. This work, first published by the Polynesian Society in 1951, and the second edition of which appeared in 1965 under the Oxford imprint, is Mr Taylor’s most enduring contribution to bibliographic scholarship.

His keen interest in numismatics led to his being elected a Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand in 1939, and his appointment as editor of the Numismatic Journal in i 960. For twenty years he has served as New Zealand Secretary of the Hakluyt Society. Joining pen in 1936, he served a term as President in 1952-53. During World War II he saw service overseas in the Army Education Service as a Sergeant in the Fiji Defence Force from 1943 to 1944 in Fiji, New Hebrides and New Caledonia.

The Government availed itself of his expert knowledge in another field, when it called upon him to serve as Assistant Film Censor, in which capacity he worked part-time for fourteen years.

It can thus be seen that Clyde Taylor has spread his talents widely, but his achievements in the Turnbull Library would give him most satisfaction on his retirement. Few public servants can claim to have been in charge of their organisation for a period of twentysix and a half years, yet that is the term he served as Chief Librarian. It was a time of tremen-

dous change. He joined the Turnbull Library when, although it had a great name, few could enjoy its amenities, when he left it was open to all to benefit from its riches, and its friends and admirers were legion. All who use the Library will join with the Friends in wishing Mr Taylor a long and happy retirement. Our best wishes are extended also to Mrs Taylor who so ably supported him at many official occasions.