Thomas Gray was born on 26 December 1716 and died on 30 July 1771. On 15 February 1751, one of the leading contemporary publishers of literary works, Robert Dodsley, hurried into print an edition of an Elegy wrote in a Country Church Yard, which subsequently became one of the most reprinted, anthologised, translated, and imitated poems in any language. It was one of barely more than a dozen poems that Gray allowed to be printed in his lifetime.

This exhibition considers Gray’s life and work from the perspective of the holdings of the two Cambridge Colleges with which he was associated from 1734, when he entered Peterhouse, until his death, which occurred shortly after he was taken ill at dinner in Pembroke.

The exhibition focusses on three defining themes in Gray’s life and reputation: his relationship with Cambridge and the effect on him and on his work of the friends and enemies he made at the University; his activity as a reader, in particular as a user of the libraries of his two Colleges; and the publishing phenomenon of the ‘Elegy’, his most significant poem and one steeped in his appreciation and emulation of classical tradition, as well as his sense of place and of English history and the history of English poetry.

The Master and Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge, for the loan of items to the exhibition and for allowing photography.

A Sussex collector and Gorringes Fine Art Auctioneers, Lewes, for the loan of an item.

Donors to Peterhouse whose generosity has enabled the enhancement of the College’s collections relating to Thomas Gray, in particular Jeffrey Byrne, Scott Mandelbrote, Joel Poznansky, the Friends of the National Libraries, and the late Tony Kinnie.

Roger Lonsdale for translations from his edition of The Poems of Gray, Collins, and Goldsmith (London: Longman, 1969).

Daniel McKay for mounting the virtual exhibition.

Bridget Mitchell for conservation support for the physical exhibition.

Pat Aske, Lizzy Ennion-Smith, and Genny Grim for extraordinary support at the library and archive of Pembroke College.

Sarah Anderson, Jeremy Boyd, Elisabeth Leedham-Green, Ephraim Levinson, Roger Lovatt, Ryan Martins, Saskia Murk Jansen, Philip Pattenden, James Smith, Marie Turner, Jodie Walker.