Enriqueta Augustina Rylands

The John Rylands Library carries her husband's name, but Enriqueta founded it as his memorial. She commissioned Basil Champneys to design the building and assembled collections for a library that opened to readers in 1900. Its later incorporation into the University of Manchester's library created another phase of its life. This is an unusually clear case of a founder's work becoming less visible than the institution: follow the collecting decisions and sustained expenditure as closely as the remarkable architecture.