TC Hine: Victorian Autograph Hunter
December 4, 2025
TC Hine is best remembered as the architect of many notable buildings in Nottingham and around the East Midlands, including the Shire Hall, which today houses the National Justice Museum. For all his achievements as an architect, this scrapbook shows that Hine was possibly even more prolific in another field: autograph hunting! This volume, which …
Nottingham Theatre Archives Revealed
November 28, 2025
Manuscripts and Special Collections was recently granted Archives Revealed funding from The National Archives to catalogue and make accessible the archives of two theatre companies who both made an impact on children and communities in the Nottingham region and beyond. Nottingham Youth Theatre was established in 1988 and based at the College Street Arts Centre …
Maurice William Partridge: Chemist and Accomplished Artist
June 17, 2025
This is a guest blog by Tinashe Chipawe, a Conservation student who completed a placement with Manuscripts and Special Collections in 2025, working on the records of the Maurice William Partridge. When I first encountered the Maurice William Partridge Collection during my conservation placement at the University of Nottingham’s Manuscripts and Special Collections, I was …
The British Cotton Growing Association
May 13, 2025
This is a guest blog by Alejandra Ponce Martorell, an undergraduate student who completed a Conservation placement with Manuscripts and Special Collections in 2025 working on the records of the Cotton Research Corporation. The cotton collection contains the papers and library of printed material of the British/Empire Cotton Growing Corporation. Founded in 1902, the corporation …
Manuscripts and Special… Experiences!
March 25, 2025
This is a guest post by Hannah Gregg, second year Classics and Archaeology student at the University of Nottingham, who recently completed a placement at Manuscripts and Special Collections. My expectations… Like going into any new environment, I was extremely apprehensive before starting, especially as I’d never had experience in the archives before. Moreover, my …
Exploring the Archives: A summer placement at Manuscripts and Special Collections
October 31, 2024
This is a guest post by Arwen Jenkins, a University of Nottingham student, who recently completed a Summer Research Placement at Manuscripts and Special Collections. How does working in archives and with manuscripts go when you’ve had no prior experience? For so many humanities students, analysing and exploring primary sources are essential parts of our …
Dear sisters: Have you seen this feminist zine?
October 28, 2024
Is it a collage? Is it poetry? Is it a meditation in pink rice bran-based ink? The zine Dear sisters is all of the above. Each page prints a response by a woman living in Notts to second wave feminism. In the 1970s-1990s hundreds of feminist magazines and newspapers circulated in the UK. They rallied …
Photographing artefacts for the dear sisters exhibition
August 27, 2024
This blog post, written by Digitisation Assistant Catherine Martin, highlights the digitisation team’s role in preparing for a new exhibition. Before an exhibition is installed in the Weston Gallery, the digitisation team at Manuscripts and Special Collections photograph every item which has been selected for display, to create images which can be used in publicity, …
Feminist Footnotes
August 9, 2024
This is a guest post by Chiara Rebora, a University of Nottingham student, who recently completed a Summer Research Placement at Manuscripts and Special Collections. Expectations of my role? When I began this placement, I felt under-qualified and completely out of my comfort zone. I had to remind myself I was selected for this placement …
The phoenix in early modern print woodcuts
June 4, 2024
This blog post was written by our Special Collections Librarian in the course of her work on an upcoming exhibition at the Old Rectory Museum, Loughborough, where facsimiles of books from the Loughborough Parish Library collection will be displayed. The early Christian writer St Isidore of Seville described the phoenix in his Etymologies: ‘The phoenix …
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