Robinson (Henry Crabb) Autograph Album

Autograph album, 1802-1805, with verses and notes from fellow students at Jena University.

Henry Crabb Robinson was born at Bury St Edmunds on 13 March 1775. After education at small private schools, he was articled in 1790 to an attorney at Colchester. Coming into an inheritance in 1798 he went travelling, mainly in Germany, and acquired a thorough knowledge of the German language. He settled at Jena and entered the University there on 20 October 1802. He left Jena in the autumn of 1805 and returned to England. He took a post at 'The Times' as a correspondent, which involved him travelling a good deal. In 1809 he joined the Middle Temple and was called to the Bar on 8 May 1813. He joined the Norfolk circuit. In 1828 he retired. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1829. He died at the age of 91 in London. Apart from his posthumous 'Diary', letters and memoranda, Robinson wrote little that is noteworthy, but he had acquired the friendship of the most notable men in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. He was involved in founding the Athenaeum Club and University College London.

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Found in the Library at University College London.

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University College London Special Collections also holds ten letters, 1835-1846, from Henry Crabb Robinson to Henry Brougham, Baron Brougham and Vaux (Ref: BROUGHAM HB); ten letters from him concerning University College London, 1828-[1850] (Ref: COLLEGE CORRESPONDENCE); five letters to the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1834-1843 (Ref: SDUK); four letters among the papers of Samuel Rogers, 1847-[1851] (Ref: SHARPE 16); letters relating to the Flaxman Gallery at University College London, 1860-1865 (Ref: MS ADD 105); two letters to Maria Denman [1840s], 1860, a letter to James Yates, 1851, a letter to Sir William Pollock, 1855, and a letter to Charles Dinne, 1863 (Ref: MS MISC 3R); a letter, 1852, to George Offor relating to Offor's 'The triumph of Henry VIII ...' (1846) (Ref: MS ADD 61); his signature in Kant's 'Vermischte schriften' (Halle, 1799), presented to him by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Ref: OGDEN A385); two medals presented to him by Goethe, with a note from Goethe, 1828 (Ref: STRONG ROOM MEDAL COLLECTION).