Stephen Gaselee

Stephen Gaselee

The project of interwar internationalism reflected and sustained new ideas on data gathering, storage and retrieval. This explains why librarians have played such a prominent though often neglected role in international affairs. Sir Stephen Gaselee (1882-1943), a British author and bibliophile, is an interesting example. Following a scholarly career as classicist, Copticist and Pepys Librarian at Magdalene College in Cambridge, Gaselee became Librarian and Keeper of Papers in the Foreign Office, succeeding Alwyn Parker, co-ordinator of the British delegation at the Paris peace conferences, in 1920. Under Gaselee’s direction, the Foreign Office library became one of the world’s most important centres of information and calculation on international relations.

Walter Stoneman / NPG x167762, National Portrait Gallery, London / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Bassano Ltd / NPG x34907, National Portrait Gallery, London / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0