The Advantage of Fairy Tales
March 17, 2016
This is a guest post from Samina Rickards, a second year Classical Civilisation student. These past weeks I have been conducting a placement at Manuscripts and Special Collections, as part of the Nottingham Advantage Award’s ‘Experience Heritage’ module. In writing a blog post on my time here I wanted to highlight something I’d found interesting, …
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 …
Five Minutes With…. Ursula Ackrill
February 6, 2016
Happy National Libraries Day! To celebrate libraries and librarians, we’re borrowing the ‘Five Minutes With…’ format from the Library Matters blog and talking to our librarian Ursula, who is responsible for the ‘Special Collections’ part of Manuscripts & Special Collections. German speakers may also be familiar with her as the author of Zeiden, im Januar. What …
Mapping a Career in Conservation
February 1, 2016
This is a guest post by Kelly Grimshaw, former volunteer and University of Nottingham English graduate who approached us with an interest in a career in heritage. In the summer of 2015 I volunteered with the Manuscripts and Special Collections Department for two and a half months. I was involved in three projects: sourcing archival …
Nottingham Advantage Award Placement: Working on Westacott
November 30, 2015
This is a guest post by Sophie Burton, an undergraduate student in the Department of History. For the Nottingham Advantage Award ‘Experience Heritage’ module I have been conducting a weekly placement at Manuscripts and Special Collections. The placement has informed me about the different roles within the heritage sector. I have undertaken digitisation work on …
Doodles and Divinity
July 20, 2015
This is a guest post by Ashleigh Fowler, student from the School of English. Since November 2014 I have been cataloguing the Ashby de la Zouch Parish Library as one of three student volunteers chosen to work on the collection. The library is, unsurprisingly, largely theological texts with a large helping of classical Greek literature, but …
How does it feel now you’ve won the war?
June 3, 2015
Guest blog by Dr Richard Gaunt It’s the name of a bridge and a railway station in London, an island in the South Shetland Islands, several townships and cities across Australia, a region in Ontario, Canada and – for good or ill – the title of the most famous song ever to have won the …
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 …
A love of letters
February 14, 2015
Guest blog by Ellen Hart – Subscriptions Manager at The Letters Page and third year English Language & Literature student. In keeping with the season and its sentiment, this is a blog about love and correspondence (and a love of correspondence). In my job as Subscriptions Manager at The Letters Page I spend a lot …
Windows on War – guest blog by Laura Todd
April 12, 2013
Among the archives of Manuscripts and Special Collections, is the University’s rare collection of Soviet war propaganda posters, dating from 1943-1945. The collection was a gift from one of the University’s Professors of English, Vivian de Sola Pinto (1895-1969). The collection of posters is the largest in the UK and covers an array of different …
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