The latest volume in the Society’s Camden Series of primary editions is A Collector Collected. The Journals of William Upcott, 1803-1823, edited by Mark Philp, Aysuda Akan and Curtis Leung.
William Upcott (1779–1845) rose from humble origins to become a major collector of coins, prints, drawings, and, above all, autographs.
His journals, from 1803 to 1809, chronicle his time as a lowly bookseller’s assistant in London and then as an assistant at the London Institution. They offer a detailed, non-elite account of a London life, interspersed with forays into the provinces to visit relatives in Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire, and to pursue his trade as a cataloguer and organiser of people’s collections, most notably in Shugborough Hall, Staffordshire.
His later ‘Tour of the Peak’ in 1823, evidences his growing expertise and his open acceptance by his fellow enthusiasts.
Upcott’s diaries are lively and engaging narratives of his life and activities in a world that he increasingly made his own, overcoming his deficiencies to become an accomplished bibliophile and collector.
A Collector Collected: The Journals of William Upcott, 1803-1823 is now available online and in print Cambridge University Press. Fellows and Members of the Society may order print copies at the reduced price of £16 per volume. To order a copy please contact: [email protected], marking your email ‘Camden’.
To accompany publication of this new volume, Mark, Aysuda and Curtis have also written about the life and work of William Upcott on the Society’s blog.
About the Camden Series
The Society publishes new volumes in the Camden Series each year.
Two further volumes were published in 2025: The Papers of Admiral George Grey, edited by Michael Taylor (June 2025) and The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (1489-1541), edited by Helen Newsome-Chandler (August 2025).
The Royal Historical Society’s Camden Series is one of the most prestigious and important collections of primary source material relating to British History, including the British empire and Britons’ influence overseas.
The Society (and its predecessor, the Camden Society) has since 1838 published scholarly editions of sources — making important, previously unpublished, texts available to researchers. Each volume is edited by a specialist historian who provides an expert introduction and commentary.
Today the Society publishes two new Camden volumes each year in association with Cambridge University Press. The complete Camden Series now comprises over 390 volumes of primary source material, ranging from the early medieval to late-twentieth century Britain.