Guest post written by Alyssa Walker (BA Ancient History and History), as part of a student placement hosted by Archives & Special Collections for the 2nd year History module, ‘Working with History: The Heritage Field Project’.
The Event, 21st March 2026
A recounting of my placement experience in the University of Leicester’s Archives & Special Collections.
Step back in time and rediscover the stories that shaped your childhood!
Join us for an enchanting journey through rare books and archives, featuring beloved classics such as Black Beauty and The Jungle Book, the iconic comic magazine Bunty, and treasures from Leicester’s own literary legends Sue Townsend (The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾) and Ann & Reg Cartwright (Norah’s Ark).
Alyssa Walker, Second Year (BA Ancient History and History)
Starting in February, I was given the task to curate and select a collection of books to display at an event in just under two months as part of the Literary Leicester festival. The name of our pop-up display was ‘Classics from my Childhood’, a theme based around “classic” books from childhood throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. To find said books, my search began in the rare bookstore at the University of Leicester Special Collections. I completed background research on the kind of literature children of the 19th and 20th centuries were exposed to and searched through the extensive catalogue of rare books in the store to gain a feel for the breadth of material I could work with.
Once I had identified a broad number of books to search through, I then spent many days pouring through the books, looking for artwork, illustrations, doodles, and scribbles – anything that gave the books a sense of childhood nostalgia. I wanted to produce a mix of work that people would recognise and relate to, but also a number of slightly more abstract children’s works that were especially fascinating or special. Naturally, several quintessential books stuck out to me: The Jungle Book (Rudyard Kipling), Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), Bunty, Black Beauty (Anna Sewell), and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (Sue Townsend). These books, I thought, would be instantly recognisable and nostalgic for the expected audience at the event. A number of books that I had never heard of but my supervisor Sarah suggested were predominantly nineteenth century picture books and Victorian manuals, populating the tables with some amazing imagery and stories that were moralising and educational.
Soon with less than a month to go I began to curate the tables, drawing out plans on scraps of paper and making mock tablescapes to picture how the event would unfold in the room. I needed to come up with a way of displaying the books with somewhat limited resources and in a conservation-friendly manner, using foam blocks and cushions to support spines and book pages. Moving even closer to the time of the event I created table graphics and conducted further research into a select number of the authors behind the books, finding out some fascinating things along the way (Mary Lamb, co-author of ‘Tales from Shakespeare’, killed her mother at their dining room table!).
On the day of the event, we packed the tables with books and archival material. We pulled bits from the Sue Townsend, Rose Griffiths and Reg and Ann Cartwright archives, bringing in tangible and personal elements to the tables. With each of the four tables bursting with stories and images, I would say we successfully brought the ‘Classics from my Childhood’ theme to life, providing an enriching and fun session for members of the public as part of the festival.
This placement has opened my eyes to life within a library and specifically within an archive, and it has been incredibly enriching and informative for me – I would recommend this experience to anyone who has the chance!
Finally, I would like to thank Sarah, for putting up with me in this placement so far and for helping me at every stage of this process, and for everyone in the University of Leicester Special Collections team who helped to pull out resources and provided support along the way.
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