Kathryn Steenson
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Welcome Back Part 2: The Re-Re-Opening
March 29, 2021
For the last few months, only University of Nottingham staff/students have been able to visit the Reading Room, but as of the 13th April, we plan to reopen to the public, in line with Government advice. If you haven’t visited before or it’s been a while, here’s what to expect: Booking a Sit-and-Study space in …
Highlighting the History of Sutton Bonington
March 22, 2021
Originally, Sutton and Bonington were two settlements, probably originating in Anglo-Saxon times. The two villages gradually grew together and by 1340 had become “Sutton Bonynton”. Today, the villages host to the University of Nottingham’s rural campus. An insight into 17th century Sutton Bonington is provided by a presentment bill dating from 1632, which forms part …
Lenton Priory
March 9, 2021
Did you watch The Great British Dig last week? Fronted by Hugh Dennis, a team of archaeologists excavated the gardens of homes built on the site of the long-gone Priory of Lenton, situated between the University Park and King’s Meadow Campuses. Lenton Priory itself is not exactly a mystery: this map clearly shows the site and there have been several …
World Book Day 2021
March 4, 2021
Happy World Book Day! None of the staff here fancied dressing up (we can’t all wear a dressing gown and pretend to be Arthur Dent) so instead we’ve picked out a few of our favourite books from our collections. Abigail (Document Production Assistant) chose what we refer to as the Poisons Scrapbooks: a set of …
Unlocking the DH Lawrence Collection
February 23, 2021
This is a post by Amy, D H Lawrence Project cataloguer. After a delayed start due to Covid, work is currently underway on a two-year project aimed at making our D H Lawrence collections accessible to a wider audience. The project will incorporate a number of different elements, including the digitisation of Lawrence’s correspondence and …
Simple Medicine
February 9, 2021
Post by Library Assistant Safiya Williams. There is a great pleasure, and sometimes amusement, in reading through old texts that cover topics of the human body and cures for its many ailments. Books on herbalism and herbal remedies give us an idea of those who came before us – without the support of modern medicine, …
Vaccinations
January 27, 2021
Vaccines. They’ve been headline news for weeks, and earlier this month the Covid 19 Vaccination Centre at KMC opened its doors. Vaccination was explicitly legalised and made free of charge in the UK in 1840. At the time, smallpox, which had killed, disfigured and disabled people since antiquity, was the only disease that could be …
Year In Review
January 12, 2021
It might seem a little late to be doing a ‘year in review’ post, but as this year shows every sign of being a continuation of 2020, I think we can pause to look back over what Manuscripts and Special Collections did over the previous 12 months. Here’s a look at last year in numbers: …
A Tale of Scales and Slippers
December 17, 2020
Pantomime is as part of a British Christmas as mince pies, tinsel, and repeatedly losing the end of the sellotape when wrapping presents. Nottingham Playhouse‘s Christmas panto this year is Cinderella, and despite the novel presentation of On Demand performances and plans for socially-distanced theatre audiences, the storyline will remain comfortingly familiar. The panto plot …
Calendar Adventures
November 30, 2020
Sometimes the simplest of questions are the most difficult to answer. In archives, that question can often be ‘what date is this document?’. Georgian/Julian calendars, regnal years, and feast days are all recognizable dating systems for people who use historic documents regularly (even if we do have to double check how to convert them into …
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