JAMES JOYCE: A LOVE OF LANGUAGE EXHIBITION
The Solange and Stephen James Joyce Collection was bequeathed to the University of Reading in 2020. To coincide with the opening of James Joyce’s library of books and objects for public access, the Special Collections team have created a display to celebrate James Joyce’s love of language. This first exhibition of items from the Solange […]
‘Embellish’d With Gold’: Crafting an Online Exhibition of Premodern European Manuscripts
Blog post written and online exhibition curated by Joanna Hulin, Reading Room Assistant. The European Manuscripts Collection held at the University of Reading’s Special Collections currently amounts to 143 items in total. When planning for the digital version of ‘Embellish’d With Gold’, I had thought that choosing just 15 items from the original 29 shown […]
New Exhibition: Embellish’d with Gold.Treasures from the European Manuscripts Collection
During 2018 the University was fortunate to make an important new acquisition, the European Manuscripts Collection. The collection consists of 141 folio illuminated manuscripts and 2 volumes: a seventeenth century Italian manuscript prayer book and a fifteenth century French Book of Hours. The strength of the collection comprises the number of Book of Hours folios […]
New exhibition: “Colours More Than Sentences”: illustrated editions of ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’
Text by Michael Seeney, abridged and adapted with additional text by Fiona Melhuish, UMASCS Librarian. “I wish I could draw like you, for I like lines better than words and colours more than sentences”. – Oscar Wilde to W Graham Robertson in 1888 In 1895, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years of imprisonment with […]
Forthcoming pop-up exhibition: ‘Embellish’d with gold: treasures from the European Manuscripts Collection’
Written by Fiona Melhuish, UMASCS Librarian To celebrate the arrival of the European Manuscripts Collection earlier this year, we are very pleased to announce that we will be holding a launch event as part of the November Extended Hours of The MERL and the Special Collections reading room. The pop-up display, entitled Embellish’d with gold: treasures from […]
New exhibition: ‘Hi-tiddley-hi-ti’ : echoes of the Victorian music hall
Written by Fiona Melhuish, UMASCS Librarian The Spellman Collection of Victorian music covers is one of my favourite collections, and looking through the many boxes of covers never fails to fascinate. The cover designs can be beautiful, imaginative, funny, the height of Victorian kitsch and sometimes just very strange, so it was a difficult, but enjoyable, […]
Celebrating 50 Years of Bringing Children and Books Together
The Federation of Children’s Book Groups is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Founded in 1968 by parent, teacher and television producer Anne Wood CBE, the organisation is passionate about bringing children and books together, working at both national and local levels. This exhibition traces the history of the Federation of Children’s Book Groups including […]
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 […]
New exhibition: From Italy to Britain: Winckelmann and the spread of neoclassical taste
Although Johann Joachim Winckelmann may not be a household name today, his influence on British art, design, and architecture was profound. Our new exhibition, ‘From Italy to Britain: Winckelmann and the spread of neoclassical taste’, tells the story of his contribution to the revival of classical arts and culture in Britain in the 18th and […]
New exhibition: Ex libris – marks of ownership in rare books from the University of Reading Special Collections
Rare books often contain a variety of features which make them important and interesting historical artifacts beyond their texts. Marks of ownership and provenance can reveal not only who once owned a book, their profession and an indication of their interests and character, but also where they acquired the volume, what they paid for it […]