Book Covers and Robinsonades: Exploring the Crusoe Collection
This month’s blog post was written by Chloe Wallaker, a final year BA English Literature and Film student at the University of Reading. Chloe has been researching our Crusoe Collection as part of her Spring Term academic placement based at Special Collections. Today marks the 299th anniversary of the publication of one of our favourite […]
Return of the Red Rose
The Gild of the Red Rose was a literature and theatre society founded in 1897, by W.M. Childs. The group was open to staff and students, hosting dramatic performances and readings for many years. The group was not disbanded until the late 1980’s. The Gild was built on customs, titles and phrases that may be […]
From Artistotle to Anatomy and the tongue of a woodpecker… Digitising the Cole photographic records
In today’s blog post, Tim and Ceri discuss their progress in digitising the glass lantern negatives created by Professor F J Cole(1872-1959), F.R.S., Professor of Zoology in the University of Reading from 1907 to 1939. Tim Jerrome – Graduate Trainee Archive Assistant Though I am admittedly fairly new to work in archives, I already have the belief […]
Michael Mitchell (1939–2017)
We were sad to hear that Michael Mitchell, one of England’s most noted fine typographers, passed away last week. Founder of the Libanus Press, Mitchell quickly became a leading typographer, most known for clear, yet aesthetically pleasing publications. Libanus Press originally began as a letterpress, and it was his skills in typography that Mitchell was […]
Sex, Scandals and Censorship: Mirabeau’s Errotika Biblion
Written by Erika Delbecque, Special Collections Librarian Inconspicuous amongst the venerable old tomes on the shelves of our rare book store, an unassuming binding contains one of the most infamous texts of the Ancient Regime: Errotika Biblion, Ancient Greek for The Erotic Book, by Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti, Count of Mirabeau. On the occasion of Valentine’s Day, we […]
New Exhibition: The John and Griselda Lewis Printing Collection
The John and Griselda Lewis Printing Collection consists of over 20,000 examples of printed documents covering several centuries and a wide variety of research subjects –from Fifteenth Century religious texts, Nineteenth Century love tokens to Twentieth Century book design. It complements other important printing and publishing collections held at the University’s Special Collections Service and the Department of Typography […]