Adopt a book

We know the value of books, new and old. Restoring old books preserves the future of civil engineering knowledge.

Sir Humphrey Davy's WorksWith your help we can restore some of the historic books, paintings and maps in the ICE library collection.

A donation of between £60 and £450 allows us to completely restore an artefact, but any amount is greatly appreciated.

If you make a donation, your name will be inscribed onto the book, map or painting you have helped to save.

For a complete list of materials up for adoption please contact Carol Morgan.

Up for adoption

Sir Humphrey Davy´s Collected Works - £150 per volume to restore.

Davy, inventor of the miners´ lamp and member of ICE, has his name inscribed at One Great George Street. Published in the late 1830s and early 1840s, these seven volumes were presented to ICE in 1852.

Plans of public works in Canada 1889–1890 - £150 to restore cloth case.

Received in December 1891 this album of civil engineering schemes has generally been preserved well, but the cloth case needs restoration. The plans are an excellent record of work carried out in Canada at the time.

Remarks on the present system of road marking, 3rd ed 1820 J McAdam - £150 to restore.

The design and construction of harbours, 1874 Thomas Stevenson - £75 to restore.

Notes on docks and dock construction, 1894 C. Colson - £75 to restore.

Recently Adopted

Lives of the Engineers, 5 volumes, Samuel Smiles

Britannia tubular bridge. vol 2, 1850, Edwin Clark

Iron Roofs, A.T Walmisley

Lectures on water supply, James Mansergh

Telford's entry on civil architecture in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia. vol VI, 1830

Hydroelectric Practice, 1908, Von Schon, HEC

What the adopters say

"Although written in the Victorian era and tinged a little with virtuous moralising, Smiles' volumes on the lives and work of the early civil engineers, of which this is the first, are still a key source of background reading and well worth re-binding.

"They were the first books I purchased when developing my interest in civil engineering history more than 40 years ago and I refer to them regularly."

Roland Paxton, Vice Chairman ICE Panel of Historical Engineering Works (PHEW)