It is almost impossible to conduct academic research today without at some stage needing to access information on the internet. For this reason, many researchers will have had experience of consulting websites containing valuable evidence that are there one week and gone the next. The fragile nature of web content has been in the headlines […]
In a previous blog post, I talked about the early days of Leicester Fosse Football Club. The Fosse, or ‘The Fossils’ as they were known to their supporters, eventually became Leicester City in 1920. Some intriguing details of their early history can be found in The Wyvern, a Leicester-based Victorian periodical, for which the Special […]
It’s well known that David and Richard Attenborough, along with their brother John, spent part of their early lives living on the campus of what was then University College, Leicester. There are stories of Richard locking David in one of the padded cells that remained in the Fielding Johnson Building from when it was a […]
My original intention to write a blog post to mark the 2016 Euros in June has been completely hijacked by Leicester City’s truly amazing performance in the Premier League this season – especially when I found that The Wyvern, a rare Leicester-based Victorian periodical published between 1891 and 1906, contains some fascinating details of the […]
Laying May branches Whilst many associate traditional celebrations of May Day with maypoles and Morris dancers, one early nineteenth century custom featured ‘Mayers’ (those included in May Day celebrations) arising at dawn to place branches of May outside neighbouring dwellings. Performed as a symbolic gesture, the larger the branch placed at the door, the greater […]
Since today is Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday, Special Collections Assistant Ian Swirles has been searching the University Archives for photographs of Her Majesty visiting the University. Among the highlights are a series of images from May 1958, taken when the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were on campus to open the Percy Gee Building. […]
For all the Easter traditions that have been passed down to us over the centuries, there are a few that are have fallen by the wayside. Writing on the subject of “Ancient Customs” in the July 1783 issue of the Gentleman’s Magazine, the correspondent H.T. noted, A custom, which ought to be abolished as improper […]
By Rebecca Couchman-Crook, Archives Assistant I applied for the Graduate Gateways scheme that the University’s Career Service runs for students who graduated that year, after I had just graduated from Geology. One of the many internships listed was the one offered by the Archives and Special Collections within the Library, which seemed a great fit for me, having […]
![Plate illustrating the delights of Sussex, including Brighton Pavilion. From: SCM 06517, Reuben Ramble, pseud., Reuben Ramble’s Travels Through the Counties of England, (London, [1845?])](https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/specialcollections/files/2015/12/SCM06517p12amended-150x150.jpg)
Prompted both by some research I am doing for an exhibition on the early history of the British in India and by a recent visit to the extraordinary Brighton Pavilion (in which, of course, the ‘Mogul’ style is very much in evidence) , I wanted to investigate some 19th century reactions to the building, as […]
‘The weather continuing intolerably severe,’ John Evelyn wrote on 1 January 1684, ‘streetes of booths were set upon the Thames; the aire was so very cold and thick’.* This was by no means the first time the Thames had frozen over. The bed of the river was much wider than today, so ice tended to […]
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