Supporting teaching in Special Collections
Supporting academic colleagues with teaching is an important part of our work in Special Collections. Semester 1 has been a busy time for us, with visits from students on eight different courses at the University of Leicester and one from our friends at De Montfort. In an age where so much primary source material is […]
‘A photographic revolutionary’
‘Next to printing, photography is the greatest weapon given to mankind for his intellectual advancement,’1 Peter Henry Emerson wrote in Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art, first published in 1889. This book, described at the time as ‘a bombshell dropped in the midst of a tea party’2, passionately argued that photography should be ‘naturalistic’, […]
Seditious works in Special Collections: the case of William Prynne (1600-1669)
One of our current projects in Special Collections is to identify material that could form the basis for undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations. To do this I’m getting the opportunity do one of the things that I enjoy most about my job: exploring our collections. Despite having worked here for two years, there’s still much that […]
Special Collections in the News
While we may be tucked away in the basement of the David Wilson Library there are plenty of exciting discoveries to be made in Special Collections, as recent media interest in our collections demonstrates. We had a busy week last week launching our new exhibition celebrating the life and work of Leicester author Sue Townsend. […]
Playwright Kevin Laffan
‘God alone knows why I keep trying to get a play on. I must be out of my mind, for I’m even toying with the idea of a new one! I know I’ll be wasting time and effort but I can’t get it out of my mind,’ Kevin Laffan wrote in about 2001, when he […]
The many languages of Sue Townsend
The Special Collections team has been joined for the last couple of weeks by Claire Preval, an undergraduate intern from the Department of the History of Art and Film. Claire spent her first few days doing a great job of sorting our extensive collection of foreign language editions of works by Sue Townsend and has […]
Joe Orton exhibition runs until 31 August 2014
Our current exhibition in the Library, ‘Joe Orton in 1964’, which runs until 31 August 2014, commemorates the 50th anniversary of Orton’s first major success, Entertaining Mr Sloane. The Joe Orton Archive was purchased by the University in 1997 and can be viewed by appointment in the Special Collections reading room. When I was working […]
Our current exhibition ‘Joe Orton in 1964’
When Joe Orton’s play Entertaining Mr Sloane was performed in the West End in 1964, it provoked both virulent criticism and glowing praise – he enjoyed both in equal measure. The critic W.A. Darlington was particularly disgusted. ‘Not for a long time have I disliked a play so much …’ he wrote. ‘I feel as […]
Penny Bloods on display in the Library
Penny Bloods, popular from the 1840s to the 1860s, were so named because of their preoccupation with the gory and sensational. As the name suggests, these serialised novels, published either in periodicals or in weekly autonomous numbers, sold for only one penny – affordable by the growing ranks of the literate working-class. By contrast, novels […]
Joe Orton’s ‘Entertaining Mr Sloane’
Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloane was first performed at the New Arts Theatre Club 50 years ago today. When he was asked to provide a 200-word biographical note for the programme, he responded: ‘Here is the biography of Joe Orton. He’s too dull for 200 words. I hope 58 is enough,’ and offered the following […]
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