Noel Denison: romantic explorer or "faithful servant of the state"? A portrait of a British colonial officer through the study of his private library

• Main Author: Xu, Lu-Anne Ru'En
• Other Authors: Brendan Luyt
• Format: Thesis-Master by Coursework
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Library and information science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/171058
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The 1886 catalogue of the Perak Government Museum states that 90-95% of the titles in the library were from the personal collection of a Noel Denison who was Superintendent of Lower Perak. These books were purchased by the government for the new museum and library in 1883. There is little information to be found about Noel Denison, whose collection of books was remarkable enough to serve as the foundation of Malaysia's first museum library. While he has been mentioned in passing by other colonial officials, as well as by scholars of the region, a more comprehensive account of his life is missing. Noting this gap in the available literature, I would like to try to decipher the man through a close examination of the books he chose to collect.