Onions Collection

The Onions Collection holds 3,099 books & pamphlets, plus modern facsimile editions of medieval manuscripts. The strength is English philology, including English dialects. Also Greek, Roman and Anglo-Saxon literature, Old English, English poetry and novels, French and German literature, literary criticism, English grammar, English history, religion and botany.

Key items in the collection

Highlights from this collection demonstrate its historical significance and variety.

The Onions Collection contains 3099 books and pamphlets, and also a number of journals and modern facsimile editions of medieval manuscripts. The great strength of the collection is English philology, including English dialects.

There are also many books on:

Greek and Roman literature
Anglo-Saxon literature
Old English
English poetry and novels
French literature
German literature
literary criticism
English grammar
English history
religion
botany.

About 130 of the books were published before 1800. The following are examples of rare imprints held in the collection:

Francis Bacon, New Atlantis, [London, 1628]
Gilbert Burnet, A Discourse of the Pastoral Care, London, 1692
Euripides, Scholia in septem tragoedias, Amsterdam, 1544
Henry Fielding, History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, [London], 1799
Thomas Gray, Poems by Mr Gray, London, 1788
Francis Grose, Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, London, 1785
James Harris, Hermes: A Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Language and Universal Grammar, London, 1751
Blaise Pascal, Provinciales, Francfort, 1716
William Peryn, The Godley and Notable Sermons, London, 1548
Ambrose Philips, Pastorals, London, 1710
John Rider, Riders Dictionarie as it was Heretofore Corrected, London, 1626
Anthony Shaftesbury, Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, London, 1727
A Sparrow, A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer, 1676
Gerard Vossius, Latina Grammatica, Amsterdam, 1639.

The papers of Onions consist of:

research materials for dictionaries and other books
manuscripts and galley proofs
undergraduate notebooks
correspondence
circulars
committee papers
newspaper cuttings
Onions' copies of various dictionaries.

There is a considerable quantity of slips that formed the basis of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology and other books. The correspondence extends from 1921 to 1964 and includes many letters from:

RW Burchfield
Kenneth Sisam
DM Davin
Henry Fowler
RW Chambers
other staff of the Oxford English Dictionary.

There are also photocopies of letters, dating from 1903 to 1948 to Onions from eminent writers such as:

Sir James Murray
George Bernard Shaw
John Buchan
Hilaire Belloc
John Galsworthy
Rudyard Kipling
Dorothy L Sayers.

The largest group of papers relate to the journal Medium Aevum and comprise:

letters from the publisher Basil Blackwell
letters from contributors
draft articles
proofs.

They extend from the establishment of the journal in 1932 until 1956.

About Charles Onions

Charles Talbut Onions (1873–1965) was born in Birmingham, England, and was educated at King Edward VI School and Mason College, Birmingham.

Onions joins Oxford – Dictionary work

In 1905 he was invited by James Murray to join the staff of the New English Dictionary on Historical Principles at Oxford and he was to live at Oxford for the rest of his life. He initially worked under the supervision of Henry Bradley and WA Craigie and in 1913 began independent editorial work on some of the later sections of the Dictionary, which was completed in 1928.

In 1922 he was commissioned to revise and complete the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. It was published in 1933 and he continued to revise and augment it until 1959. His magnum opus was the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966).

Academic and collegiate roles

Onions became a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1923 and was the College librarian from 1940 to 1955.

Scholarly contributions and publications

Onions was:

president of the Philological Society (1929–1933)
director of the Early English Text Society
editor of Medium Aevum (1932–1956).

Among his other publications were:

An Advanced English Syntax (1904)
A Shakespeare Glossary (1911)
Shakespeare’s England (1916)
An Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse (1922).

Background to the collection

The Onions Collection was purchased from the family of Onions in 1966.

Further items were acquired from GB Onions, the son of Onions, in 1970 and 1973.

The bulk of the books in the Onions Collection have been integrated in the general collection. They have been individually catalogued.

A manuscript listing of the titles is available.

The oldest and rarest works, consisting of 113 titles, are kept together as a collection within the Rare Books Collection. Their call numbers have the prefix 'RB ONI'.

The manuscripts and personal papers are held in the Manuscripts Collection. They occupy 37 boxes. Use the finding aid.

Sets of journals in the Onions Collection that were already held in the Library were transferred to Flinders University Library in 1968.

This guide was prepared using these references:

JAW Bennett, Charles Talbut Onions, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol 41, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004, pp 871–2.
A List of the Published Writings of Charles Talbut Onions, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1948.
Obituary of CT Onions, The Times (London), 12 January 1965, p 11.