Environmental advocacy and European politics: The instrumental work of Ken Coates
December 9, 2025
This is a guest blog by Claire Crompton, a Geography undergraduate student undertaking a placement with Manuscripts and Special Collections, with a response from Tony Simpson, former assistant to Ken Coates MEP. Claire Crompton: During my placement with the Manuscripts and Special Collections team, I worked on the local environmental files of Ken Coates. Coates …
TC Hine: Victorian Autograph Hunter
December 4, 2025
TC Hine is best remembered as the architect of many notable buildings in Nottingham and around the East Midlands, including the Shire Hall, which today houses the National Justice Museum. For all his achievements as an architect, this scrapbook shows that Hine was possibly even more prolific in another field: autograph hunting! This volume, which …
Nottingham Theatre Archives Revealed
November 28, 2025
Manuscripts and Special Collections was recently granted Archives Revealed funding from The National Archives to catalogue and make accessible the archives of two theatre companies who both made an impact on children and communities in the Nottingham region and beyond. Nottingham Youth Theatre was established in 1988 and based at the College Street Arts Centre …
House of Many Names: Tracing the Evolution of Paton House
November 17, 2025
Paton House, a late-Victorian brick building featuring a large canopy over the opening, a conservatory adjoining the library and a Baroque interior, was designed in 1881 by Robert Evans and William Jolley, both of whom were Nottingham-based architects who had been trained by Thomas Chambers Hine. The property, which went on to be built in …
Luddites: Gangs of Loughborough?
November 3, 2025
Not a fan of AI? People might describe you as a ‘Luddite’, a term which is widely used today to describe people who are resistant to new technologies, but which actually has its roots in the early 19th century, as textile workers took action against mill owners who had acquired machines which threatened their status …
Researching historic documents of climate, weather, and health
October 28, 2025
This is a guest blog by Jamie Wright, a second year Archaeology student undertaking a paid placement with Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham in the summer of 2025. As a part of the Faculty of Arts, Summer Research Placement Project, I got to spend four weeks working in the Manuscripts and …
Death of the Author: Newspapers in the French Revolution
October 20, 2025
Did you know that Manuscripts and Special Collections holds a collection of over 3500 printed works relating to the French Revolution? While there are a range of dates covered by the material, pamphlets from the revolutionary period itself are particularly well represented. These publications can give us valuable insights into the unfolding of the revolution: …
Charlotte Sutton’s Scrapbook
October 16, 2025
Meet Charlotte Sutton, nineteenth-century nature enthusiast, though the intricate pages of her scrapbook… Although scrapbooking has its origins in the commonplace books of the fifteenth century, in the nineteenth century, several factors combined to bring about an explosion in the popularity of this delightfully eclectic hobby. The Industrial Revolution led to the widespread availability of …
The Leen: Nottingham’s River
September 25, 2025
Ask anyone to name a river they associate with Nottingham, and they will likely say the Trent. Our latest exhibition at Lakeside Arts puts the lesser-known River Leen at the centre of the story and examines its role in shaping modern Nottingham. Co-curated by Dr David Beckingham and Dr Rachel Dishington of the School of …
Back to School with Dinah Holt
September 22, 2025
Following on from our previous blog, which explored the arduous process of midwifery training in the mid-20th century through the letters of Dinah Holt, nurse and midwife extraordinaire, as she undertook her examinations in 1948 and 1949, today we’re stepping even further back in time to Dinah’s first term of nursing training in 1944… In …
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