AustLit

'On his extended trip to Britain and Ireland in 1908, Edmund La Touche Armstrong was given a number of requests by the Trustees of the Melbourne Public Library Board. Armstrong was to travel – partly on extended leave and partly for health reasons– firstly to London to arrange a meeting with Sir Edward Maunde-Thompson, head of the British Library (then part of the British Museum), with a view to discussing some of the finer features of the plans for the Domed Reading Room for the new Melbourne Library building and to get some feedback from the head of one of the world’s great heritage institutions. The Domed Reading Room project, for which Armstrong will chiefly be remembered, was initiated by him and strongly supported by the Trustees. By the time of his trip in 1908, building was well under way. Armstrong’s second major task was to report on the current state of library practice in Britain, Ireland and America, and the trip enabled him to visit some of the great libraries in these countries as well as make an extended visit to European institutions. But the journey was also recreational leave; a large part of the time was spent visiting aunts and cousins in Ireland and Britain and working on the La Touche Armstrong family history, much to the amusement of his mother, then residing at the Public Library, and who had scant curiosity about such things.' (Kevin Molloy, Introduction)