Lockdown Project number 36

Tidying up the garage (Lockdown project number 36).I came across this metal sign which I have had since 1976. It came from a Devon County library, not sure which, but possibly Bovey Tracey. It was removed to be replaced by a new sign symbolising the new dynamic Devon Library Service in 1974. I worked for them at the time and rescued it from the skip. I asked permission first. I didn’t want to see this little bit of library history disappear, and I have kept it safe.
Ever since then I have been meaning to restore it (lockdown project number 37), but maybe it is best as it is, in the same condition it was when it was taken down, weathered by the Devon wind and rain, a witness to all the thousands of people who entered the building seeking light. The sign was designed in 1928 by Phil Colman, then aged 16. He won a competition for a new sign for County Libraries organised by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust.When he left art college he worked for Punch magazine drawing cartoons. It measures 13“ x 17“ and has an angled piece on one side so that it can be fastened to project from a building, and be seen from a distance.In 1928, the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, which since the war had turned its attention to supporting libraries in rural areas, began providing all libraries in county library systems with this sign. It was eventually installed outside 15,000 library centres, many of them humble buildings not primarily used as libraries. Light, (and especially the phrase Let there be Light ) was used as a symbol to promote the public library ideal. I had forgotten all about it.
Not the public library ideal, but the sign.