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 …
House of Many Names: Tracing the Evolution of Paton House
November 17, 2025
Paton House, a late-Victorian brick building featuring a large canopy over the opening, a conservatory adjoining the library and a Baroque interior, was designed in 1881 by Robert Evans and William Jolley, both of whom were Nottingham-based architects who had been trained by Thomas Chambers Hine. The property, which went on to be built in …
Luddites: Gangs of Loughborough?
November 3, 2025
Not a fan of AI? People might describe you as a ‘Luddite’, a term which is widely used today to describe people who are resistant to new technologies, but which actually has its roots in the early 19th century, as textile workers took action against mill owners who had acquired machines which threatened their status …
Charlotte Sutton’s Scrapbook
October 16, 2025
Meet Charlotte Sutton, nineteenth-century nature enthusiast, though the intricate pages of her scrapbook… Although scrapbooking has its origins in the commonplace books of the fifteenth century, in the nineteenth century, several factors combined to bring about an explosion in the popularity of this delightfully eclectic hobby. The Industrial Revolution led to the widespread availability of …
The Leen: Nottingham’s River
September 25, 2025
Ask anyone to name a river they associate with Nottingham, and they will likely say the Trent. Our latest exhibition at Lakeside Arts puts the lesser-known River Leen at the centre of the story and examines its role in shaping modern Nottingham. Co-curated by Dr David Beckingham and Dr Rachel Dishington of the School of …
Back to School with Dinah Holt
September 22, 2025
Following on from our previous blog, which explored the arduous process of midwifery training in the mid-20th century through the letters of Dinah Holt, nurse and midwife extraordinaire, as she undertook her examinations in 1948 and 1949, today we’re stepping even further back in time to Dinah’s first term of nursing training in 1944… In …
Botanists and Businessmen: meet the residents of Highfield House
August 21, 2025
Although it is today part of the university campus, when Highfield House was built at the end of the 18th century it would have been surrounded by pasture, and home to little more than a herd of cattle. Although the area would soon become well known as the site of luxurious homes for the wealthy businessmen …
Results Day Special: Midwifery Exams in the 1940s
August 14, 2025
Dinah Holt trained and then worked as a nurse and midwife between 1944 and 1986, working at various hospitals in the East Midlands and as far afield as Switzerland. A lot has changed about nursing education since she undertook her training – the NHS would not come into existence until part way through her training, …
Croquet Lawns and Coach Houses: Echoes of Lenton Mount
August 7, 2025
Today known as The Hemsley, the building originally called Lenton Mount is named for its original owner: William Sidney Hemsley. Hemsley was a prosperous lace manufacturer in Nottingham who purchased the plot of land on which his house was built from the Lenton Hall estate in 1904. The property was designed by Nottingham architect William …
Discovering the digital
July 29, 2025
Exploring ways to enhance access to our collections At Manuscripts and Special Collections, we are always striving to increase opportunities for our community to access our collections digitally as well as physically. We also continually seek to make our platforms easier to use to increase discovery of our collections. Late last year we embarked on …
Find, follow, join us
