The Canterbury Tales
August 23, 2019
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340s – 25 October 1400) is widely considered the greatest English poet and author of the Middle Ages. He played a significant role in legitimising the use of the Middle English vernacular in literary works in an age when many authors in England wrote in French and Latin. He died in 1400 and …
Look at our new Digital Gallery!
August 8, 2019
Around 1,500 digitised images from our collections are now available on the Manuscripts and Special Collections Digital Gallery. We have arranged the photographs, cartoons, portraits, maps, manuscripts, and pages from books into collections based on themes. These themes can be browsed from the front page of the Digital Gallery. Click the thumbnail to get to …
MRI Collections Project: the papers of Raymond Andrew
August 5, 2019
Professor E. Raymond Andrew was one of the early founders of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) research at the University of Nottingham, and Manuscripts and Special Collections (MSC) are fortunate to have his papers amongst our collections. As part of the MRI Collections Project which is currently under way, Archivist Zoe Ellis describes how the team …
To the Moon! Descriptions of Lunar Travel in the Special Collections
July 20, 2019
In 1947 a University College Nottingham student wrote an article for student newspaper The Gongster called “Operation Lunar, or, Why go to the Moon?”. The lunar voyage is imagined as a perilous affair with little hope of the intrepid explorer returning alive, due to cosmic ray intensity, the unknown effects of zero-gravity on the body, …
Mapping Modules
July 12, 2019
This is a guest post by Sasha Gardner, undergraduate student undertaking a placement to identify rare books and archives useful for students taking modules in Classics and English. As a first-year English student, discovering the vast array of books and journals available at Hallward and other libraries on campus was an exciting moment. But many …
Rain Rain Go Away!
June 20, 2019
One of the main topics of conversation over the last week or so has been the truly atrocious weather, and even as I type this the raindrops are pattering against the office windows. This is in stark contrast to last year’s heatwave, which officially began on the 22nd June and lasted until the 7th August …
MRI Collections Project: the papers of Brian Worthington
June 13, 2019
This is a guest post from Rachael Orchard, Archives Assistant for the MRI Collections Project. Professor Brian Worthington’s papers form part of theWellcome-funded MRI Collections Project currently under way in Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham. He was a radiologist who was heavily involved in the development and use of magnetic resonance …
Lady Chatterley’s Cuttings
May 24, 2019
This is a guest post by Frankie Denton, an English student at UoN. Undertaking a placement at Manuscripts and Special Collections has been a great experience. I hoped to learn some practical skills in an interesting field while completing my degree, and to gain some inkling as to what career path I would follow after …
War work in the water archives
May 8, 2019
This is a guest post by Geography student placement Natalia O’Cleirigh The University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections holds a collection of resources from the River Trent Catchment Board. I was tasked with cataloguing a section of the archive as part of my placement which focused on the Engineers’ files. The organisation was responsible …
MRI Collections Project: Sir Peter Mansfield’s research papers
April 26, 2019
A significant proportion of Sir Peter Mansfield’s papers, as held by Manuscripts and Special Collections, relate to his own studies and research. Like many academics, Sir Peter kept his A’Level and undergraduate notebooks, and these provide illuminating insights into Physics education in the 1950s. Sir Peter did his undergraduate degree in Physics at Queen Mary …
Find, follow, join us
