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Posted by Margaret Maclean in Library Special Collections on May 5, 2015
From my reading of The Wyvern: a Topical, Critical & Humorous Journal published in Leicester around the turn of the century, I was shocked to learn that serious outbreaks of smallpox continued to be a problem in the city right up until 1902-4. During the second half of the 19th century, the corporation struggled with […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Leicester, poll books, The Wyvern, Victorian Periodicals |
Posted by Margaret Maclean in Library Special Collections on April 29, 2015
The forthcoming local council and mayoral elections in Leicester have made me wonder what issues were preoccupying our local administration during the period when The Wyvern, a rare local Victorian periodical, was in circulation. This short-lived but fascinating Topical, Critical & Humorous Journal appeared between 1899 and 1906. It was published from ‘18 ½’ Belvoir […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged elections, Leicester, politics, The Wyvern, Victorian Periodicals |
Posted by Simon Dixon in Library Special Collections on April 22, 2015
With a General Election campaign in full swing, it seems like a good time for some blog posts about the sources we hold on the history of British parliamentary elections. As we all head off to our local polling stations on 7 May, one thing that we will take for granted is that when we […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Leicester, Leicestershire, Newark, Nottinghamshire, poll books, rare books, William Gladstone |
Posted by Margaret Maclean in Library Special Collections on January 7, 2015
In 1627, at the age of only 21, Sir Thomas Herbert travelled to Persia and India as a low-ranking member of Charles I’s embassy to Shah Abbas I. His account of his experiences, Some Years Travels into Divers Parts of Africa and Asia the Great …, first published in 1634, was a great success and […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged rare books, seventeenth century, travel literature |
Posted by Simon Dixon in Library Special Collections on December 18, 2014
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 […]
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Posted by Margaret Maclean in Library Special Collections on November 21, 2014
‘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’, […]
Posted in Uncategorized |
Posted by Simon Dixon in Library Special Collections on October 10, 2014
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 […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Civil War, Puritanism, rare books, Robjohns, William Prynne |
Posted by Simon Dixon in Library Special Collections on September 11, 2014
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. […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged media coverage, rare books, Sue Townsend |
Posted by Margaret Maclean in Library Special Collections on September 3, 2014
‘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 […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged archives, Emmerdale Farm, Kevin Laffan, playwrights, screenwriters |
Posted by Simon Dixon in Library Special Collections on August 22, 2014
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 […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Adrian Mole, rare books, Sue Townsend |
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