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 …
Cataloguing Connie, Part 2
August 9, 2021
Connie Ford – veterinarian, poet, supporter of the arts, traveller, political activist, correspondent, sailor – left behind an enormous personal and literary archive. We are pleased to announce the completion of the Connie Ford catalogue which is now open to view on our website. Over the next few months our blogs will highlight specific aspects …
Live on Campus! – the 1970s
April 7, 2020
This guest blog was written by student placement Jessica Clarke, 2nd year Music. Jess trawled through our holdings of student newspapers, the Entertainments Committee minutes, and Students’ Union ephemera, to research bands and performers who played at the University of Nottingham. The 1970s were a different time: almost no one had a computer, most music was played from vinyl and the internet was not yet available to the public. It …
Medieval Christmas Mass
December 13, 2017
It’s entirely possible that the clerk who ripped the pages out of the 15th book of Roman Catholic liturgical music was just old enough to have attended church services in pre-Reformation England, but in truth we don’t know. These parchment leaves, MS 12/6-7, contain parts of masses for Christmas Day and the Feast of St Stephen …
Ballads at KMC
December 1, 2017
This is a guest post by Clare Clarke, a former volunteer librarian. As a volunteer I have had the privilege to work with a range of fascinating collections, including material from the French Revolution, Fred Westacott pamphlets and works on or by D.H. Lawrence donated by the family of Emile Delavenay, a French academic. My …
Volunteering and all that jazz
April 20, 2017
The University Photographic Collection contains an enormous number of photographs taken by the University of Nottingham and its predecessor colleges over the past 120 years. We are gradually cataloguing them with the help of students like Sophie Pegum, who volunteered at Manuscripts & Special Collections as part of a placement from the Department of Music. …
Singing from a different Hymn sheet
December 8, 2016
‘While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night’ is one of the best-known Christmas carols. It is based on the Annunciation to the shepherds, as described in the Gospel of St Luke. An angel appeared to the shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem and told them of the birth of Jesus in a scene that has …
The Sound of Lincolnshire Folk Song
November 10, 2016
The Lincolnshire Folk Song Collection was established in the early 1960s at Pilgrim College, Boston, Lincolnshire, and was transferred to Manuscripts and Special Collections in the 1990s. It has recently been given a new lease of life with the help of a student on a placement with us from the Department of Music, Lydia May. …
Our Autumn/Winter Collections
December 15, 2014
Earlier this year, we asked some of our volunteers and regular readers for suggestions about how we could improve our service. One of the most frequent requests was to publicise new acquisitions. Occasionally we will share information about large-scale projects, such as when we collected and catalogued the Water and Medical School records, but those …
Manuscripts feature in University’s Impact Campaign
October 24, 2011
On Monday 17 October, Manuscripts and Special Collections featured as one of the projects in the first day of the University’s new fundraising campaign. The launch took place on University Park, at the East Midlands Conference Centre. Guests were introduced to “The Nottingham Experience” theme, which is one of five campaign themes being launched in …
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