This bookplate of the Hartley bequest 'for a public library' barely hints at the long, involved saga around the establishment of the Hartley Institution and its transformation into the University of Southampton. Henry Robinson Hartley bequeathed money and property with a view to establishing a cultural centre. An imposing building on lower High Street on the site of his former residence was opened by the then Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, in 1862. The public library, however, was not founded until 1887; by then, the political will in the town had run a very different course.
