The Radcliffe Camera, Oxford for Tolkien Reading Day

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One archive to rule them all. A Tolkien archive to rule them all

For Tolkien Reading Day, we're featuring Oxford University's Radcliffe Camera, home to the world's largest archive of JRR Tolkien's original manuscripts and drawings. While Tolkien never worked in the Radcliffe Camera (Latin for 'room'), he studied at Oxford (graduating in 1915 with a first-class honours in English language) and taught here as a professor. During his years at Oxford, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and its sequel, The Lord of the Rings, along with other books and research.

In 2003, the Tolkien Society organised the first Tolkien Reading Day to celebrate and promote the writer’s works. Why pick 25 March? It’s the day in Lord of the Rings that the Dark Lord Sauron was finally defeated and his fortress, Barad-dûr, destroyed.