te Mrs. Elizabeth Russell Hillen, of King's Lynn, for
the advancement of local archaeology, etc., on condition that the name of
Hillen should be permanently associated with the use of the money. The
Norwich Castle Museum also received a similar bequest. Mrs. Hillen was
the widow of Mr. Henry James Hillen, a native of King's Lynn, who died in
1910. After retiring from the profession of schoolmaster he devoted much
of his time to historical and archaeological research, and subsequently
published the fruits of part of his work in local newspapers, several
brochures, and his monumental "History of the Borough of King's Lynn," 2
vols., 1907. Mr. Hillen made considerable use of the Local Collection,
and his wife's bequest was no doubt partly in recognition of the services
it had rendered.

For many years the Committee has tried to make the collection as complete
as possible, its wise object being to collect everything local: it has
endeavoured to obtain all books, pamphlets, prints, plans and maps, and
important manuscripts relating to Norfolk and Norwich, all books and
pamphlets printed locally until about 1850, all books and pamphlets by
authors associated with the county either by birth or residence,
portraits and biographical publications relating to Norfolk people, local
newspapers, election literature, early theatre bills, broadsides,
book-plates, reports and proceedings of local authorities and societies,
etc.

When the present Librarian commenced his duties in 1911 the collection,
as recorded in the stock-book of the Library, comprised 5,129 volumes and
6,362 pamphlets, since which time by purchase, spontaneous donations, and
systematic application for local publications the collection has
increased to 6,364 volumes and 8,126 pamphlets. In addition there are
about 7,900 topographical prints and photographs, 950 portraits, and 380
maps, exclusive of the Photographic Survey Collection.

The collection contains extremely valuable files of local newspapers,
including a rare volume of "Crossgrove's News or the Norwich Gazette" for
the years 1728-32, the "Norwich Gazette" 1761-64, a long file of its
successor the "Norfolk Chronicle" from 1772 with a few gaps to date, the
"Norwich Mercury" 1756-60, 1771-80, and from 1802 to date, and "The
Eastern Daily Press" from 1875 to date. Recent features introduced in
the Local Collection are files of obituary notices of Norfolk people,
extracted from various papers and mounted