Kathryn Steenson
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You May Now Turn Over Your Papers
January 16, 2017
Term begins this week and many students will be plunged straight into exams. We’ve had a look through the University Archives to find out what the students of yesteryear faced when they turned over their papers. Music, 1939 Prior to 1948, University College Nottingham had no power to confer degrees. All qualifications (and therefore, examinations) were …
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 …
Come Hail or High Water
December 19, 2016
Swimming, sunbathing or sweating through a heatwave, or sledging, skating or getting stuck in the snow – extremes of weather provide people with strong memories of past events. Now, our new exhibition at the Weston Gallery, Nottingham Lakeside Arts, will showcase three years of research into these reactions. Many of the historical records and original archival documents …
Singing from a different Hymn sheet
December 8, 2016
‘While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night’ is one of the best-known Christmas carols. It is based on the Annunciation to the shepherds, as described in the Gospel of St Luke. An angel appeared to the shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem and told them of the birth of Jesus in a scene that has …
A spoonful of spermaceti helps the medicine go down
November 21, 2016
It’s that time of year when coughs, colds and flu are doing the rounds. But how did our ancestors cope with ill-health, before the days of ready-prepared pills and potions from the local shop? Manuscripts and Special Collections holds a number of works with useful recipes to be made at home – some possibly more efficacious …
Fragments of a Saint
October 20, 2016
Tucked away in a bundle of 17th century natural history illustrations was a single page of comparatively plain-looking handwritten text that was obviously out of place. It began abruptly in the middle of a sentence and the edges were slightly more battered- not surprising, considering it was about 200 years older than the rest of the pages. …
Take a Gander at Goose Fair
October 6, 2016
The first week in October can only mean one thing: the annual Goose Fair has opened on the Forest Recreation Ground! Here are a few images of previous Goose Fairs, mainly taken from old picture postcards, to get you in the mood before you go. Originally fairs were …
It’s All Fun and Games
September 26, 2016
Did you play Snakes and Ladders, hopscotch and draughts as a child? The chances are you did, as did your grandparents, and possibly generations beyond that. These games are simple and fun, and for those reasons have become classic childhood staples. Many more games which have not survived the passage of time, for equally valid reasons. …
Pirates!
September 19, 2016
Ahoy there readers! No, this is not a post about digital piracy or illegal file sharing, but the sea-faring pirates of old, to mark that most frivolous of parody holidays, International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Originally started in America as an in-joke between friends, it has become an annual charity fundraising day, where participants …
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 …
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