Alfred Tennyson is known throughout the English speaking world for poems such as The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Lady of Shalott and Ulysses. He is also the most quoted poet after Shakespeare, with phrases such as ‘better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’ and ‘nature, red in tooth and claw’.

The grant, awarded to Lincolnshire County Council by the Heritage Lottery Fund, will help celebrate the poet’s bi-centenary in 2009 with its centrepiece being a summer exhibition in The Collection, Lincoln, of many unseen items from the Tennyson Research Centre.

Alfred Tennyson’s family connections with Lincolnshire are strong: he was born in Somersby in 1809 and spent his school years at Louth Grammar School.

The Tennyson Research Centre has one of only four known albums compiled by a collection of miniature prints by Julia Margaret Cameron, a pioneer of Victorian photography. The project will also allow for the preservation of a collection of the proofs to the illustrations to Tennyson’s poetry published in 1957 which is now one of the most collectable illustrated works of the period. Added to this will be engraved designs by Rossetti, Millais and Holman Hunt.

A professional paper conservator and experts on Tennyson will be consulted to assist Lincolnshire curators in creating the exhibition and volunteer community groups will also be involved. In addition, there will be a programme of activities that will use Tennyson's poetry to inspire craft and sculpture and there will be a Tennyson Trail with information points on sites associated with the poet.

Emma Sayer, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in the East Midlands said: “Tennyson has a very special place in the hearts of Lincolnshire people. This project will allow them to open up a personal history of the famous poet.”

Grace Timmins, Collections Officer at The Tennyson Research Centre in Lincoln Central Library said: “We are so excited to receive the Heritage Lottery funding. For far too long, we have had this precious archive but resources have concentrated on Tennyson’s library, letters and manuscript material and we have been unable to preserve these marvellous illustrations properly and display them. Over the past four years since we increased our opening hours, we have had increasing interest and appreciation in the archive from visitors who were previously unaware that it existed. With the bi-centenary of Tennyson’s birth coming up next year, it is the perfect time to celebrate him as one of our most popular English poets.”

In all, the project will cost £72,000 and the Heritage Lottery Fund grant will be supplemented by £20,000 from partners such as the University of Lincoln and the Tennyson Society.