Join us for Hoskins Day 2026
Join us this Saturday 27 June for Hoskins Day 2026, Leicester’s annual celebration of local and landscape history. This year’s keynote lecture is about coastal landscapes of the Second World War and will be delivered by Robert Liddiard (UEA). We will also have: – spotlight on new research from the Centre for Regional and Local […]
Lest We Forget: Remembering George Eades
1 On 11th November 2025 Archives and Special Collections hosted a visit from Steve and Sheron Wilkinson. Steve and Sheron travelled down from Cheshire in order to attend the Remembrance Day service at Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth College (WQE) and lay a wreath at the school’s war memorial. They then crossed over to the University […]
World Digital Preservation Day 2025: Why Preserve?
To celebrate World Digital Preservation Day 2025, we are posting about the recent project to identify, take in and preserve material relating to the discovery and identification of Richard III. This work was completed by Assistant Digital Archivist Ruth Maguire. In August 2012, University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS), in collaboration with the Richard III […]
From Berlin to Leicester: A Looted Book’s Tale
Please note that this post contains content relating to suicide and the Holocaust. If you are affected by this topic, please be aware of our available support information for students and support services in the community. e During the summer of 2024 Special Collections received a new book to be added to the library catalogue. Nothing particularly unusual about […]
Letters from the archives
Although today they have fallen out of fashion, letters were once one of the easiest, quickest and most popular methods of communication. They were also used to inform, educate and inspire – and occasionally to cause mischief! From spoofs to student life, royals to rationing, the small display case in the basement of the David […]
Eight Weeks with Ghost Signs
by Grace McWeeney As part of a Museum Studies 8-week work placement program, I worked with the Ghost Signs Collection at the University of Leicester. These are a few things I learned along the way. Ghost signs are not a new phenomenon. As defined by our collection parameters, a ghost sign is a ‘hand-painted advertisement […]
Archives and Special Collections Team Pick!
To mark International Archives Day, which falls on 9th June, I asked my colleagues in Archives and Special Collections to choose one of their favourite collections from our holdings. We hope that this will give you a flavour of our collections and some indication of their range. We really do have something for everyone! i […]
D-Day in the East Midlands Oral History Archive
The 1980s saw many oral history projects start across the UK. At that point there were plenty of people who had lived through both World War One and World War Two, so many recordings featured memories of these conflicts. While many recordings just cover D-Day as a brief memory, some are detailed accounts of people […]
Celebrating National Tea Day in the Archives
Since 2016, 21st April has been designated as National Tea Day, a celebration of all things British. In particular it is a celebration of tea – long held in popular culture to be the nation’s favourite beverage, although some (including the Head of Archives and Special Collections!) might argue that it has now been overtaken […]
Women and their books
To mark World Book Day (7th March) and International Women’s Day (8th March), Archives and Special Collections is showcasing books from our holdings written by women, as well as highlighting some of the women who have links to Leicester and its University. The books shown here range in date from the nineteenth century to the […]