Mary Pollard

Mary "Paul" Pollard (5 June 1922 – 24 June 2005) was a librarian at the Library of Trinity College Dublin and a specialist in early printed books.

Early life and education Mary "Paul" Pollard was born in Essex, England on 5 June 1922. She was the eldest of the three daughters and a son of Richard Payne Pollard and his wife (née Wilkinson). Her father was an Irish emigrant. Pollard attended Hawnes School before going on to study medicine for a number of years, abandoning that just before completing her studies to take up librarianship. She took a position at Southlands Teacher Training College, now a part of the University of Roehampton while she studied for the associateship of the Library Association.

Career Pollard came to Dublin in 1957 to take up two part time positions, one at Marsh's Library and the Library of Trinity College Dublin. Marsh's Library could not pay her a full salary, instead provided her with a flat under the library, which was notoriously cold, where she lived for the rest of her life. She kept these two jobs for 8 years, until she took up a full time post at Trinity. Throughout her career her specialism was in early printed books, becoming the designated rare book librarian at Trinity in 1964. Her research and dissertation for the fellowship of the Library Association was titled The woodcut ornament stocks of the Dublin printers 1551–1700 with lists of unsigned works identified as from their presses for which she received distinction. and A dictionary of members of the Dublin book trade, 1550–1800 (2000). The first volume was based on her research as Lyell Lecturer in Bibliography at the University of Oxford in 1986-1987. In the early 1960s, Pollard established her own hand press in a disused room in Marsh's Library with the help of Liam Miller. Over the course of 20 years, she published very limited editions of prose squibs and verse satires on contemporary events.

Pollard died on 24 June 2005. She had an extensive collection of 11,500 pre-1914 children's books at her flat, which she collected over the course of 50 years. She had a particular interest in books for Irish material and books for girls. This collection, known as the Pollard Collection, was bequeathed to the Library of Trinity College Dublin, along with her collecting notebooks.