William Stirling-Maxwell and
the KU Cervantes Collection

In 1958 the University of Kansas acquired a large portion of William Stirling-Maxwell’s library, consisting of a Cervantes collection and his working collection of Spanish historical sources from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. William Stirling-Maxwell was born at Kenmuir, Scotland, in 1818. He completed a degree at Cambridge in 1839, and then traveled through Europe. Renewed visits to Spain stimulated a growing interest in Spanish art, a subject which at that time was little explored in England. His Annals of the Artists of Spain (1848) was the first scholarly treatment to appear in English. Stirling-Maxwell’s most notable work was The Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles V, which was published in 1852 and saw three subsequent editions. In 1847 he succeeded to his father’s estates and during the next four years devoted himself to the task of remodeling the ancestral home and turning the ancient hall into a vast library. He also spent a good part of each year in London where he possessed a large house in Grosvenor Square. Here he established another large library and entertained his literary and political friends in great style. From 1848, Stirling-Maxwell was one of the best known figures in London literary and artistic society. He continued his scholarly labors in his later years, much of his time spent in the British Museum where a specific chair was always reserved for him. He was a trustee of both the British Museum and the National Gallery, and in 1862 was elected Rector of the University of St. Andrews. He died in 1878.