What’s in a name?
July 11, 2014
It was Zsa Zsa Gabor who said “I call everyone ‘darling’ because I can’t remember their names”. Perhaps she had never been introduced to people blessed (or cursed?) with creative, unique or downright strange names. Here, in chronological order, are fifteen genuine examples of people’s names taken from the manuscripts that we have come across: Original Steele, of …
Maths, Myths and Mines: What’s New in Manuscripts & Special Collections
July 1, 2014
It’s a rare week that passes for Manuscripts & Special Collections without something new arriving. The new accessions range from a single book or manuscript, to a van-load of boxes. Some are gifts, others are deposited (i.e. loaned), and a small minority are books or manuscripts we have bought. There is inevitably a delay between …
‘Why I changed my name and did my duty’
June 23, 2014
This Wednesday sees the second of our lunchtime talks held in connection with our current exhibition ‘All Quiet in the Weston Gallery’. In “Why I changed my name and did my duty”-one family’s experience of World War One, Emeritus Professor Malcolm Jones tells the fascinating story of the three Vince brothers who all enlisted …
Thirty minutes of your time; a lifetime to someone else
June 14, 2014
Today is World Blood Donor Day, organized by the World Health Organization to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank voluntary unpaid blood donors. Appeals for public donations have been made for over sixty years, and the NHS Blood and Transplant service estimates that currently 4% of the …
Chilwell Shell Filling Factory Explosion
June 3, 2014
On 1st July 1918, a huge explosion ripped through the National Shell Filling Factory at Chilwell, killing 134 workers and injuring twice as many more. The vast majority of the dead could not be identified and were buried in a mass grave in St Mary’s Church, Attenborough. Astoundingly, the factory was back in production the …
Finding your Family
June 2, 2014
Within the 4 million documents held in Manuscripts and Special Collections are the names of hundreds of thousands of people from Nottinghamshire and the broader East Midlands. Catalogues can never list every person named in documents, so one of the major challenges of family history research is finding which records may refer to your ancestors. …
All Quiet in the Weston Gallery: The First World War in the University Of Nottingham’s historic collections.
May 20, 2014
2014 is the hundred year anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War and a nationwide programme of events is planned to commemorate the conflict. As part of this, last week saw the opening of our First World War exhibition in the Lakeside Arts Centre’s Weston Gallery. The exhibition examines different perspectives on the …
Maps, Military and More at Mayfest 2014
May 14, 2014
Manuscripts & Special Collections staff were kept busy at The University of Nottingham’s annual community open day, Mayfest, on Saturday 10th. We were again fortunate that enough staff are prepared to help out for us to keep two stalls running for the whole day. This year’s theme for our Portland Building stall was maps. Two …
Rock ‘n’ Roll at the Students’ Union
April 9, 2014
Originally posted October 14th, 2011 Manuscripts and Special Collections have recently finished digitising a series of Nottingham Students’ Union posters advertising gigs and events in the 1970s. The posters were carefully preserved for posterity by alumni John Bailey (Agriculture/Horticulture 1972) and Richard Stark (Chemical Engineering 1971), who were involved in booking bands for the Students Union. …
Money in Manuscripts & Special Collections
April 7, 2014
It’s not an anniversary many of us care to celebrate, but yesterday saw the start of the new tax year, and so it seems appropriate to post about some examples of historic money that we have in our holdings. Although we come across many unusual and surprising things when processing uncatalogued documents, it’s rare that …
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