The National Year of Reading 2026 is a UK-wide campaign designed to help more people rediscover the joy of reading. As such, we have been inspired to take a look back at some of the book lovers in the Rothschild family, and their role in supporting and encouraging literacy.
The English Rothschilds and the Jews' Free School, London
The Jews' Free School (now JFS Comprehensive) is the largest Jewish school in Britain. It was founded in 1732 as a charity school for orphaned boys. In the nineteenth century Dr. Joshua Van Oven found a permanent site for the school in Bell Lane, Spitalfields, London. The new school opened in 1817, to provide basic education to the poor Jewish community in London's East End.
The School was financed by benefactions and subscriptions, notably from the Rothschild family. Nathan Mayer Rothschild (1777-1836) was an early benefactor, and his widow, Hannah (1783-1850) established an accumulating fund for the permanent endowment of the school in memory of her husband. From 1822 until her death in 1850, Hannah gave a benefaction of £500 for the provision of a new outfit of clothing for the 500 boys and girls each year. For over 100 years, the Rothschild family provided four successive Presidents of the School: Sir Anthony de Rothschild (1810-1876); Nathaniel, 1st Lord Rothschild (1840-1915); Leopold de Rothschild (1845-1917) and Anthony Gustav de Rothschild (1887-1961).
For 51 years the headmaster was Moses Angel, one of the most influential figures in Jewish education in the nineteenth century. Female members of the Rothschild family also exerted an influence on the curriculum; Louise, Lady Anthony de Rothschild (1821-1910), together with her sisters-in-law Juliana, Baroness Mayer de Rothschild (1831-1877) and Charlotte, Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild (1825-1899), sat on the Ladies' Committee, supervising tuition in the school. Baroness Charlotte and the daughters of Lady Louise, Constance, Lady Battersea (1843-1931) and Annie, Mrs Eliot Yorke (1844-1926), taught classes, all three subsequently publishing the texts of their lessons.
James and Henri de Rothschild, bibliophily and the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Encouraged by his father who gave him money to buy books, James Edouard de Rothschild (1844-1881) built an impressive library from the age of 12. As an adolescent, he devoted much of his leisure time to the study of history and bibliography. James combined a prodigious memory with technical knowledge, becoming an expert in the field of ancient French texts and bibliophily. James' library was left to his son, Henri (1872-1947), who made his own additions, and when, in 1946, he bequeathed it to the Bibliothèque Nationale, it consisted of 24,000 volumes, with printed books, drawings, engravings and folios of songs.
Hannah von Rothschild and the free public library in Frankfurt
A foundation for a free public library in Frankfurt was established by Hannah Louisa von Rothschild (1850-1892) in 1887. Named in memory of her father, Mayer Carl von Rothschild, the library was modelled on the free public library system which Hannah Louise had seen in England. After her death in 1892, her mother, Louise, donated one million marks to ensure the perpetuity of the library. The library's first home was on Bethmannstrasse, but in 1907 the library took over 15 Untermainkai, the former Rothschild residence in Frankfurt. In the 1930s, the entire stock of the library was absorbed by the Frankfurt City and University Library.
Victor and Victoria Rothschild, manuscripts and the ‘Give a book’ charity
Victor, 3rd Lord Rothschild (1910-1990) built up an important collection of 18th-century books and manuscripts. He began collecting in 1932 while he was studying at Cambridge, and he then gave to the library of his former Cambridge college. His daughter, Victoria, set up a charity called ‘Give A Book’, which promotes books and reading in difficult environments, operating in prisons and with disadvantaged children.
