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Full length marble portrait statue of Mrs Rylands surmounting polished granite pedestal.

According to Stephen Tennant, Mrs Rylands brother, the Governors of the library, feeling the need for something of a "personal nature" to connect the library with its founder, explored the posssibility of commissioning a protrait of Mrs Rylands. However, the founder (who could not be present at the inauguration because of illness) suggested that she commission a statue instead from John Cassidy, whose work she had chosen some years before for the library interior. The Vice Chancellor of the Victoria University, Professor Hopkinson, said that they owed the founder a great debt, not only for endowing the library but also for her generosity in "filling it with those treasures which could only be got by lavish and princely generosity and by direct personal care and interest in the work." The library, he said, had been her conception, and transcended the mere practicality which was thought to be the guiding principle of Manchester architecture. Instead, it appeared that Mrs Rylands had said to herself, "'Here, in this home of utility, I will build something that is absolutely and perfectly beautiful, so far as choice of materials and workmanship can do it." Dr Adeney of the Lancashire Independent College spoke of the artist's success in rendering Mrs Rylands' dignity, simplicity and intelligence, through which shone "none of the mere superiority of social position, but the true dignity of a woman who has realised that her mission in the world is not to live to herself."(2)

Enriqueta Augustina Rylands, (d. 1908) founder of the Rylands library and wife of textile magnate John Rylands. She was born in Havana, the son of merchant Stephen Cattley Tenant. She was educated privately in New York, Paris and London, and became companion to John Rylands first wife. Although the Manchester Guardian described much of her life as "quiet and uneventful," Mrs Rylands had a long involvement with philanthropic projects in Manchester, and founded the John Rylands library in Deansgate as a memorial to her husband. She took a close interest in the design and construction of the project, and bought many valuable collections and works for the library.(1)

circa

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At risk

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Statue

Marble

172 cm high approx

pedestal

granite

58 cm high

No damage

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