Mary Eccles, Viscountess Eccles
Mary Morley Eccles, Viscountess Eccles was a book collector and author. She was renowned for establishing one of the largest private collections of 18th century literature with her first husband, Donald Hyde (1909-1966). This includes works from Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. She also created an Oscar Wilde Collection which was bequeathed to the British Library in 2003.
The Hyde Room at Houghton Library, Harvard University
Samuel Johnson, often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography calls him "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history".
Portrait by Joshua Reynolds, c. 1772
Johnson's birthplace in Market Square, Lichfield
Entrance of Pembroke College, Oxford
Elizabeth "Tetty" Porter, Johnson's wife