Administrative history:
Born in 1913 in West Bromwich, Keith Gale became a technical journalist, and from the late 1940s, he began recording the rapidly disappearing iron and steel industries of the Midlands. His growing expertise led him to write several scholarly books, including The Black Country Iron Trade (1966), The Iron and Steel Industry: A Dictionary of Terms (1971), Boulton, Watt and the Soho Undertakings (1952) and a History of the Pensnett Railway (1969).
Contents:
This comprises 1288 books, photographs, catalogues and company brochures reflecting the research interests of the man who assembled it: W.K.V Gale, F.R.H.S
Technical and historical books on the iron and steel trades figure large in the collection, but it also contains many general books on the history of the Black Country and the Midlands.