The Works of John Gould
Guest post by Ian Swirles, Special Collections Assistant. My name is Ian and I am the Special Collections Assistant at the University of Leicester Library. I support the Archives & Special Collections team by getting books and archive material ready for visitors and groups to view in the Special Collections Reading Room. My role involves […]
Special Collections MA Placement – Charlotte Daynton
Guest post from Charlotte Dayton, MA Museum Studies student working with the Special Collections team for her work placement. Hello, I’m Charlotte and I having been doing a placement with Special Collections in the Library as part of my MA in Museum Studies. The aim of my placement has been to create a learning resource […]
May Day: Early 19th Century Traditions
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 […]
Death’s Doings
While working on some book moves we are presently carrying out, I rediscovered the rather wonderful Death’s Doings illustrated by Richard Dagley, first published in 1822. This volume belongs to a long tradition on the Dance of Death theme, which dates back to medieval times, when death from war and violence, disease, poverty, childhood mortality […]
East Derbyshire Election, 1868
Our look back at past elections in Special Collections is rounded off today with a gallery of from an impressive volume of East Derbyshire Election Cartoons, 1868. The book was printed and published by Richard John Smithson of Chesterfield. Shown here are 21 political cartoons. Numbers 1-18 (Liberal Cartoons) were drawn by J. Priestman Atkinson, […]
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