Explosives: a Shaw-fire way to get students’ attention!
December 16, 2021
The Department of Chemistry has kindly entrusted over a century of records to Manuscripts and Special Collections, with thanks to Dr Samantha Tang for all her help and guidance. This fascinating collection contains a wealth of material relating to personalities within the department, the early days and development of the courses, class reunions, and lots …
An almost entirely cow-free post about cows
July 15, 2021
You may have seen the recent news that the University of Nottingham has been trialling medication to make cows less gassy and, potentially, reduce methane emissions in the dairy industry. The research is being carried out at Sutton Bonington, and it’s part of a century-long tradition of research carried out there. The Sutton Bonington Campus …
Horticulture
August 12, 2020
As the grounds of stately homes and houses begin opening up after lockdown, we’re taking a look at horticulture, which can be broadly defined as “the art or practice of garden cultivation and management”. Horticulture features prominently in the estate papers of local aristocratic families, who had the space and resources to create extensive gardens …
Planning the Trent Building
May 22, 2020
Guest blog by Emelia Dengel and Oliver Lack, Geography undergraduates who completed a work placement at Manuscripts and Special Collections. For our placement at MSC we were tasked with cataloguing and repackaging a group of over 150 architectural and engineering plans of Trent Building dating from the 1920s to the 1990s. The Trent Building opened …
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 …
The Canterbury Tales
August 23, 2019
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340s – 25 October 1400) is widely considered the greatest English poet and author of the Middle Ages. He played a significant role in legitimising the use of the Middle English vernacular in literary works in an age when many authors in England wrote in French and Latin. He died in 1400 and …
MRI Collections Project: the papers of Raymond Andrew
August 5, 2019
Professor E. Raymond Andrew was one of the early founders of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) research at the University of Nottingham, and Manuscripts and Special Collections (MSC) are fortunate to have his papers amongst our collections. As part of the MRI Collections Project which is currently under way, Archivist Zoe Ellis describes how the team …
Rain Rain Go Away!
June 20, 2019
One of the main topics of conversation over the last week or so has been the truly atrocious weather, and even as I type this the raindrops are pattering against the office windows. This is in stark contrast to last year’s heatwave, which officially began on the 22nd June and lasted until the 7th August …
MRI Collections Project: the papers of Brian Worthington
June 13, 2019
This is a guest post from Rachael Orchard, Archives Assistant for the MRI Collections Project. Professor Brian Worthington’s papers form part of theWellcome-funded MRI Collections Project currently under way in Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham. He was a radiologist who was heavily involved in the development and use of magnetic resonance …
MRI Collections Project: Slides – A reversal in fortune
March 22, 2019
This is a guest post by Jonny Davies, Digitisation Assistant for the MRI Collections Project, funded by the Wellcome Trust Research Resources Awards. For the past few months I’ve been working with the MRI archives at the University of Nottingham which contain nearly 18500 slides produced between the 1970s and 1990s. These slides are in …
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