Marginalia in a Medical Manuscript
October 25, 2023
This is a guest post by Tabitha Gresty, who volunteered at Manuscripts and Special Collections between April and September 2023, cataloguing medicinal herbs and their uses in remedies from material held here at Manuscripts and Special Collections. Since working on the Early Modern Recipes Research project, I have been constantly amazed by the breadth of …
Advocates for animal welfare: The Three Rs
June 30, 2023
Debate has long raged about the use of animals by humans, both as food and for the advancement of science. The National Anti-Vivisection Society was founded back in 1875 and the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection in 1898, by Frances Power Cobbe, campaigner for women’s suffrage and anti-vivisection activist. The Cruelty to Animals …
Reading the correspondence of the Duchess of Portland
May 18, 2023
This is a guest blog by Arts Faculty Placement student Nabiha Iqbal, who in 2023, worked on cataloguing the papers of Dorothy Bentinck, Duchess of Portland (1750-1794). I was granted the unique opportunity to revisit the lives of the noble men and women of 18th century England through their primary means of communication: letters. Each …
Matt Marks archive collection: ‘The Bridge’ and how it came to be
July 21, 2022
This is a guest post by Aldea Toth, 2nd year English undergraduate at UoN who completed a student placement working on the archive of Matt Marks. When I was volunteering at the Manuscripts and Special Collections Department, I had the pleasure of archiving the works of the late Matt Marks, who was once a student …
Last Orders at the Weston Gallery
June 7, 2022
This is a guest post by Dr David Beckingham, co-curator of the Last Orders exhibition, which opens at the Weston Gallery, Lakeside Arts in June. Last Orders examines cultures of alcohol consumption and abstinence in the East Midlands, with a particular focus on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ubiquitous though pubs and drink may have …
Say Cheese!
September 13, 2021
We may be approaching the end of picnic season, but we’re not quite ready to abandon buffet style finger foods just yet. We recently tried out an 18th century recipe for cheese rolls from one of the household recipe books in the archive as part of the 2021 Heritage Open Day theme of Edible England. …
Carry on Collecting: Tri Campus contemporary collecting during lockdown
April 27, 2020
Manuscripts and Special Collections (MSC) may be WFH and unable to access the collections in our manuscripts store, but we’re still busy improving our catalogues, promoting our resources, and we’re also still busy sourcing material to add to our archives. The University’s new digital preservation system allows us to manage and preserve digital items such …
Georgian Delights
January 6, 2020
When King George IV died in June 1830, The Times asked, ‘What eye has wept for him? What heart has heaved one throb of unmercenary sorrow?’. George was a controversial figure throughout his lifetime (1762-1830). As Prince of Wales, after 1783, George became notorious for his frequent love affairs and lavish self-indulgence, spending wildly on …
Meet our German manuscripts and Special Collections
October 11, 2019
Have you ever wondered what DIY books were available to borrow from an East German public library? Is the distribution of pigs in 1930s Germany a persistent niggling gap in your knowledge? Do you worry that when the 18th century dispute between the Houses of Hesse-Homburg and Hesse-Darmstadt comes up in casual conversation, you won’t …
Exhibition Fully Fashioned: Archival Remnants of the Textile Trade
September 24, 2019
Manuscripts and Special Collections’ latest exhibition entitled Fully Fashioned: Archival Remnants of the Textile Trade was officially opened by Professor Andy Long, Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor. The exhibition showcases the University of Nottingham’s business archives relating to lace and hosiery. Both of these industries were a major source of employment in the East Midlands and …
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