Advocates for animal welfare: The Three Rs

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 …

Doctoring Derbyshire

Dr Edward Wrench is so far best recognised for two reasons, firstly, his travel exploits to Europe and America, and secondly, from the earlier University of Nottingham blog post ‘Doctors, Diaries and Descendants’ which concentrated on his time in the Crimea and Indian Mutiny [some of his letters from India are currently on display in …

Top 10 Tips: Visiting Manuscripts & Special Collections (pt 2)

Exams are over; the next semester doesn’t start for several months; and the sun is shining (possibly). For final-year dissertation students and academics it can only mean one thing: it’s time to start planning summer research trips to the archive. Hopefully these Top Tips will help first-time visitors to Manuscripts & Special Collections, although some of …

Top 10 Tips: Visiting Manuscripts & Special Collections (pt 1)

Exams are over; next semester doesn’t start for several months; and the sun is shining (it is somewhere!). For final-year dissertation students and academics it can only mean one thing: it’s time to start planning summer research trips to the archive. Hopefully these Top Tips will help first-time visitors to Manuscripts & Special Collections, although some …

Rain, Records and Research

January has been declared the ‘wettest month since records began‘ in parts of Britain by the Met Office, with many towns in Wales, the South West and Home Counties flooded and facing yet more storms. Several thousand miles away, the USA shivered as the Polar Vortex brought temperatures as low as -26C, and at least nine states recorded …