Kathryn Steenson
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“Macaroni looks like serpents”: A Victorian arm-chair traveller’s guide to Europe
April 20, 2015
“Superficial, incomplete, trifling! Such is the true character of this book. Inaccurate we hope it is not…the world, old as she is, would not sit still for her picture.” So begins the 1849 book ‘Near Home, or The Countries of Europe Described’ by Favell Lee Mortimer, nee Bevan (1802-1878). Now almost forgotten, Mortimer wrote 16 …
Happy Easter from Manuscripts and Special Collections
March 30, 2015
As this weekend is Easter, it seems appropriate to share some Easter-related images from one of our treasures: the 15th century Wollaton Antiphonal belonging to St Leonard’s parish church. An Antiphonal is a book of liturgical music. It contains the words and music to the sung portions of the Divine Office, and had to be large enough to …
Lifting the Lid on North Wheatley Manor
March 10, 2015
My name is Hannah and I am a Masters History student at the University of Nottingham, specialising in Medieval English history. I decided to do some voluntary archive work as I am considering a career as an archivist and so applied to Manuscripts and Special Collections. My research interests mainly involve manorial documents and so I …
Gongster and the ‘Gay News’ poem
February 25, 2015
Since its inception in 1939, The University of Nottingham student newspaper Gongster (now Impact) has often been used as a platform to rally against oppression and censorship, even when the paper itself has come under scrutiny and dictates. In 1978, however, the paper became a victim of censorship itself; in this particular case by their …
Rhymes and ‘Rithmetic
February 9, 2015
Earlier this month the Government announced that all children in England will be expected to know up to the 12 times table by the time they leave primary school at age 11. It has been touted as an old fashioned approach and a return to traditional educational values, so we thought we’d share with you some …
A Toast to Temperance
January 30, 2015
Are you one of the thousands of people participating in the January ‘Dryathlon’ and giving up alcohol for the month to raise money for charity? If so, then congratulations – the end is in sight! Focussed, month-long charity campaigns such as Stoptober and Dry January seem to have risen to prominence over the last few years. …
Playing Around with Archives
January 16, 2015
Our first exhibition of the year opens today at the Weston Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre. ‘Playing Around: Taking Theatre to Communities across the East Midlands‘ explores the history of two local theatre companies, New Perspectives Theatre and Nottingham Playhouse’s Theatre-in-Education company, Roundabout. Their extensive archives have recently been added to The University of Nottingham’s collections. This exhibition …
Christmas Closure
December 19, 2014
Manuscripts and Special Collections will be open up to and including Christmas Eve, Wednesday 24th December. We are closed from Thursday 25th December 2014, and will re-open at 9am on Monday 5th January 2015. During this period the Reading Room will not be open for visitors and we will be unable to answer enquiries. To find opening times …
Our Autumn/Winter Collections
December 15, 2014
Earlier this year, we asked some of our volunteers and regular readers for suggestions about how we could improve our service. One of the most frequent requests was to publicise new acquisitions. Occasionally we will share information about large-scale projects, such as when we collected and catalogued the Water and Medical School records, but those …
Rapping At My Chamber Door
October 31, 2014
Happy Hallowe’en! Whether or not you love all things ghostly and ghoulish, I hope you’ll enjoy this report of a poltergeist that we came across in the Nottingham Journal dated 7 March 1883: “Mysterious Affair At Worksop. Spirit Rapping Extraordinary. The town of Worksop was in uproar on Saturday, consequent on the circulation of a …
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