Through the Lens: A Victorian Travel Album
March 19, 2025
Following on from our previous blog, which unravelled the mystery surrounding a collection of 19th century slides depicting buildings and landscapes in India, this week we’re exploring another collection of Victorian photographs, following in the footsteps of Carrie S. North as she travels around France, Monaco, Algeria and Italy in 1891… Unfortunately, very little is …
Stunning slides saved from skip
March 13, 2025
Here at Manuscripts and Special Collections, we hold many visually striking items, but an intriguing set of over 300 glass slides showing views of India – which depict monuments, landscapes and people – stand out even against this tough competition. The photographs date to approximately the 1860s and 1870s, but unfortunately, we can’t be certain …
Temples, tombs and troglodytes: the mythical origins of Nottingham’s caves
January 16, 2025
Upon encountering Nottingham’s caves, it was clear to many early antiquarians that these mysterious and little-understood structures must have deep roots, stretching back millennia into the distant past. An early proponent of this theory was the Elizabethan travel writer William Camden (1551-1623), who claimed in his landmark survey, ‘Britannia’, that the caves had been …
Einstein a Go-Go: When Albert Gave a Lecture at University College Nottingham
January 9, 2025
In a teaching room within the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham hangs a blackboard, protected by a perspex sheet. This blackboard contains theoretical equations written on it by legendary physicist Albert Einstein during a lecture he gave at the University (then University College Nottingham) on 6 June 1930. Using archives, articles …
Unearthing the Secrets of Vesuvius
December 17, 2024
It might nearly be Christmas, but today’s blog marks a holiday of a different kind as we continue to follow Dr Edward Wrench on his European tour in 1876. Last time we saw Dr Wrench, he had emerged from the Catacombs of the Capuchins at Rome, and, having satisfied his more superstitious impulses by drinking …
George Green Library: Then and Now
June 18, 2024
To commemorate 60 years since the opening of George Green Library, Tracey O’Sullivan, Library Advisor, shares her memories and photographs from working there since 1985. Imagine the scene: no computers, no mobile phones, no Wi-Fi, no laptops, no self-service machines, just lots of books, journals and the like; card index cabinets and photocopier machines that …
A Peek Behind the Iron Curtain
March 19, 2024
This is a guest post by Samantha Brinded, a volunteer at Manuscripts and Special Collections. Several months ago, upon expressing my interest in volunteering for the archives, I received an email inviting me to contribute to a project involving the School of Geography. The task would involve collating metadata for hundreds of slides, and subsequently …
Images of India
June 24, 2021
Around 100 years ago, Professor Henry Hurd Swinnerton learned that 300 old glass plate negatives were about to be thrown out. Glass plate negatives are thin sheets of fragile glass coated in light-sensitive chemicals, and by the late 1930s they were becoming obsolete. These particular negatives of 19th century India were a little damaged and …
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 …
Monday Mystery: Celebrity Scrapbook, 19th century style
February 3, 2020
The Manvers family of Holme Pierrpont were one of the most influential families in Nottinghamshire in the second half of the 19th century. The men held high-ranking positions in various Army regiments, served as local MPs, and held other important civic offices, such as magistrates or Master of the Hunt. The archives we hold very …
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