The National Museum Science and Technology of Catalonia (mNACTEC) has received at its Jordi Nadal Documentation Centre two new and major bibliographical collections courtesy of donations made by Miquel Palou i Sarroca and Josep Tomàs i Cabot.
The Miquel Palou i Sarroca collection is dedicated to the world of railways, and is one of the most significant holdings to deal with this topic anywhere in Catalonia or Spain. Miquel Palou i Sarroca, an apothecary from Sant Joan Despí, developed an enthusiasm for trains and the railway world as a young man, ultimately prompting him to build up a very substantial bibliographical collection.
The holding comprises antique and modern books, non-book materials, documentation, images (photography and video), maps and reports from companies connected with the different sectors and spheres of the world of railways, including public transport (trams, metropolitan rail, buses and trolleybuses). The content of the holding is the result of the work performed by Miquel Palou through monographs that he himself wrote about the subject, as well as the material that he collected over the years, in order to conduct his research and preserve railway heritage. The collection covers the whole world, while focusing in particular on Catalonia and Spain.
In order to prevent this valuable documentation from becoming scattered or lost, Miquel Palou donated his collection to the people of Catalonia via the mNACTEC, which among other topics specialises in the world of transport.
The second collection received belongs to the philosopher, historian, journalist and doctor Josep Tomàs i Cabot. It is his personal library, the result of the professional career of one of the pioneers and leading lights of scientific journalism in Catalonia specialising in scientific research and dissemination. Aside from his specialisation in scientific research and dissemination, as early as the 1950s, as the editor of the magazine Historia y Vida and as a regular science contributor to La Vanguardia and Destino, Tomàs i Cabot published more than twenty books and novels, all connected with knowledge, discovery and scientific explanation.
The donation of these collections substantially enriches the documentation held at the mNACTEC's Jordi Nadal Documentation Centre in two of the Museum's specialist fields, science and transport, and corresponds to the mNACTEC's mission to preserve and study the evolution of scientific and technical advances in Catalonia.
23 May 2016
