Audrey Beecham: Warden, historian, poet, anarchist, feminist, and champion of the underdog
March 1, 2024
Helen Audrey Beecham (1915-1989) came to the University of Nottingham in 1950 having been appointed warden of the newly built Nightingale Hall, which at the time was a women-only hall of residence. She served as warden and also lecturer in social and economic history for 30 years until her retirement in 1980. Before coming …
International Women’s Day: Alice Selby
March 8, 2022
A creative, individual and superb teacher, Alice Selby was a force to be reckoned with when she joined University College Nottingham in 1918 after completing her studies at Cambridge University. She was one of only four academic staff in the English Department, and rising to become Senior Lecturer and Head of English. She taught …
The Cold War in the Cold Store
January 22, 2020
In the week before Christmas Manuscripts and Special Collections’ staff carried out an internal relocation of material and repackaging exercise that involved the entire section. To make this happen we decided to close the library to the public, freeing all staff to work in the library’s archival store. That week we donned warm layers and …
MRI Collections Project: Slides – A reversal in fortune
March 22, 2019
This is a guest post by Jonny Davies, Digitisation Assistant for the MRI Collections Project, funded by the Wellcome Trust Research Resources Awards. For the past few months I’ve been working with the MRI archives at the University of Nottingham which contain nearly 18500 slides produced between the 1970s and 1990s. These slides are in …
MRI project gets under way
October 17, 2018
This is a guest post by Zoe Ellis, MRI Project Archivist. Manuscripts and Special Collections recently started work on an exciting 12 month project entitled ‘Development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at the University of Nottingham’. This project is funded by a Wellcome Trust Research Resources award of just under £100,000. The project will catalogue, …
Manuscripts & Special Collections Achieves National Accreditation
January 9, 2017
The New Year is off to a good start for Manuscripts and Special Collections, which is delighted to have been awarded Archive Service Accreditation by The National Archives. Mark Dorrington, Keeper of Manuscripts & Special Collections, explains what this means. Accreditation is the UK quality standard which recognises good performance in all areas of archive …
Happy birthday KMC!
August 29, 2016
Happy 10th birthday to us! Ten years ago today, the Reading Room at The University of Nottingham’s then-newest campus at King’s Meadow welcomed its first visitors. The Basement Since 1973, Manuscripts & Special Collections had been based in the lower level of Hallward Library on University Park Campus. The lack of space had been a …
Beyond the Reading Room: Document Production
August 26, 2016
It’s 10 years this month that Manuscripts & Special Collections moved to King’s Meadow Campus! Many people have visited the Reading Room over the years, but this is only a small part of the department. As part of the celebrations, we’re giving you a look at what goes on Beyond the Reading Room, continuing with… …
Beyond the Reading Room: 5 Minutes With Debbie Crookes
August 3, 2016
It’s 10 years this month that Manuscripts & Special Collections moved to King’s Meadow Campus! Many people have visited the Reading Room over the years, but this is only a small part of the department. As part of the celebrations, we’re giving you a look at what goes on Beyond the Reading Room, starting with… …
The life and times of a Victorian gentleman in Nottingham
March 7, 2016
This is a guest post by Matt Heald, volunteer and Document Production Assistant at Manuscripts & Special Collections. When I began my time as a volunteer with the department of Manuscripts and Special Collections in November 2013, my first task was catalogue and summarise diaries and letters of William Parsons, solicitor of Nottingham, whose entries …
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