Victory in Europe Day

Today is Victory in Europe Day, marking the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender to the Allies in World War II. Adolf Hitler had committed suicide on 30 April once it became clear that Germany’s military forces were on the brink of collapse. He was succeeded by Karl Dönitz, formerly the Supreme Commander of …

The Cold War in the Cold Store

In the week before Christmas Manuscripts and Special Collections’ staff carried out an internal relocation of material and repackaging exercise that involved the entire section. To make this happen we decided to close the library to the public, freeing all staff to work in the library’s archival store. That week we donned warm layers and …

Lady Chatterley’s Cuttings

This is a guest post by Frankie Denton, an English student at UoN. Undertaking a placement at Manuscripts and Special Collections has been a great experience. I hoped to learn some practical skills in an interesting field while completing my degree, and to gain some inkling as to what career path I would follow after …

Dead Man Found in Coffin

What are Horseshoehead, Purples, Tissick, and Rising of the Lights?  If you guessed along the lines of an equestrian accident, a colour, a small village in the Home Counties, and perhaps an indie band on the verge of greatness, then you’d be very wrong. These are just a few of the bizarre-sounding medical conditions that …

Early Boots Adverts

“Gorgeous”. “Colourful”. “A real trip down memory lane”. These are just some of the comments from the 7000 people who have visited the Inspiring Beauty exhibition at Weston Gallery in Lakeside this year. As the quotes suggest, it is a gorgeous, glittering exhibition of advertising used by Boots to promote their No7 range of cosmetics, …

Rapping At My Chamber Door

Happy Hallowe’en! Whether or not you love all things ghostly and ghoulish, I hope you’ll enjoy this report of a poltergeist that we came across in the Nottingham Journal dated 7 March 1883: “Mysterious Affair At Worksop. Spirit Rapping Extraordinary. The town of Worksop was in uproar on Saturday, consequent on the circulation of a …

Chilwell Shell Filling Factory Explosion

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 …