institutions (including the Victoria University of Manchester and the library she had founded). She received the honorary degree Doctor of Literature (D.Litt.) from the Victoria University in February 1902, in connection with the 50th jubilee celebrations of the establishment of Owens College. In 1901, Mrs Rylands paid £155,000 for more than 6,000 manuscripts owned by James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford of Haigh Hall. The Bibliotheca Lindesiana was one of the most impressive private collections in Britain at the time, both for its size and the rarity of some of its contents. A full-length statue of Mrs Rylands, by Manchester sculptor John Cassidy, was commissioned by supporters of the Library and unveiled on 9 December 1907, a few months before her death. Later life In later life she was affected by rheumatic symptoms and spent frequent periods convalescing overseas. In 1894, she purchased a villa in Torquay where she died 14 years later on 4 February 1908. Following her funeral in Stretford, Manchester, she was cremated and the ashes interred in the vault where her husband had been buried twenty years earlier in the Southern Cemetery, Manchester. References Bibliography — (2006) "Rylands, Enriqueta Augustina (1843–1908)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, online edn, Oct 2006. Retrieved 20 August 2007 (subscription required) [Gow, Elizabeth] (2008) Enriqueta Rylands: who do you think she was? discovering the founder of the John Rylands Library. Manchester: John Rylands University Library 1843 births 1908 deaths History of Manchester English philanthropists People from Havana Burials in Greater Manchester 19th-century British philanthropists British people of Cuban descent Cuban people of British descent John Rylands Research Institute and Library Women founders