Inky Fingers and Flyaway Footprints
May 14, 2015
It’s not every Saturday you run into Roman hairdressers and chain mail-clad Vikings, but that’s exactly what happened to MSC staff at a rather breezy Mayfest last weekend! It was the first year that the Humanities building had been used as a venue for the University’s annual community day, and we were based in the …
The German perspective on the First World War
July 23, 2014
The final lunchtime talk held in connection with our current exhibition ‘All Quiet in the Weston Gallery’ takes place tomorrow. With the nation gearing up to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the First World War, through exhibitions, tv and radio programmes, books and articles, debate is, unsurprisingly, focused on British involvement in the war. …
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 …
Chekhoviana: Marketing a Foreign Classic to British Audiences
January 28, 2014
Our first exhibition of the year opened last week in the Weston Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre. Visitors may notice a few changes, as the space has been decorated to reflect recurrent images of birch trees and seagulls found in the British marketing Chekhov; an appropriately visual setting reflecting the highly visual exhibition of Chekhovian theatrical ephemera …
Papers of a ‘Professional Revolutionary’
September 5, 2013
The next exhibition at Lakeside Arts Centre’s Weston Gallery features the papers of a local activist and Communist Party officer, Fred Westacott. Flyers, pamphlets and speeches in his personal archive document a lifetime of campaigning, as a supporter of a variety of local and international causes, from the Miners’ strikes to the Vietnam War protests. …
“Hitler is kaput!”: Soviet war poster victory celebrations
May 9, 2013
As Victory Day (Thursday 9 May) is marked across Europe, the celebratory sentiments of some of the Soviet propaganda posters featured in the online exhibition Windows on War, are still powerful, even though almost 70 years has passed since the war ended. The posters appeared almost daily in the windows of TASS, the Central Telegraph …
Windows on War – guest blog by Laura Todd
April 12, 2013
Among the archives of Manuscripts and Special Collections, is the University’s rare collection of Soviet war propaganda posters, dating from 1943-1945. The collection was a gift from one of the University’s Professors of English, Vivian de Sola Pinto (1895-1969). The collection of posters is the largest in the UK and covers an array of different …
Water! is turned on
January 28, 2013
Water is an essential part of our everyday life, but most of us take the ability to turn on taps and flush away waste for granted. Water also has the power to destroy, which we were reminded of recently when floods caused damage and disruption to our local communities. A new exhibition, Water!, opened at …
Balls, Boots and Players goes live
October 11, 2012
Visitors to the Weston Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre, on University Park have a rare opportunity to see the stunning foundation charter of Nottingham High School, dating from 1512 and signed by Henry VIII. The charter gave Sir Thomas Lovell and Dame Agnes Mellers permission to found a school in Nottingham, ‘ever more to endure’, for …
Displaying D.H. Lawrence
September 13, 2012
Residents and visitors to Nottinghamshire are enjoying a fortnight of activities and events related to D.H. Lawrence, featured as part of Broxtowe Borough Council’s annual Lawrence Festival, which was launched on Wednesday 5 September. The 1920s themed opening event included a preview of this year’s Festival exhibition, entitled ‘D.H. Lawrence Controversy on Canvas, The Warren Gallery, London, …