Travel Thursday – Egypt and Nubia
Written by Louise Cowan, Trainee Liaison Librarian This Travel Thursday post features the masterful landscape illustrations of Scottish painter and traveller, David Roberts. Presented in six volumes, both ‘The Holy Land’ and ‘Egypt and Nubia’ [OVERSTONE–SHELF LARGE 34I/07] were published between 1842 and 1849 by F.G. Moon. These hefty tomes contain detailed drawings alongside historical […]
Travel Thursday: Farthest North
Written by Louise Cowan, Trainee Liaison Librarian In honour of Christmas and the annual travels of Santa Claus, this week’s Travel Thursday features an expedition to the North Pole! The explorer in question is Fridtjof Nansen; scientist, adventurer and humanitarian who was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 1922. Having previously survived a dangerous trek across […]
Travel Thursday: John Arrowsmith
Written by Louise Cowan, Trainee Liaison Librarian Born in 1790 in County Durham, John Arrowsmith moved to London at the age of 20 to work under the tutelage of his uncle, Aaron Arrowsmith, a cartographer known for his outstanding accuracy. Having learned the arts of map making, engraving, and printing, Arrowsmith set up his own […]
Emma: a heroine whom no one but myself will much like
Written by Louise Cowan, Trainee Liaison Librarian This month celebrates the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma.’ One of Austen’s more comedic novels, ‘Emma’ follows the eponymous heroine as she meddles unsuccessfully in the romantic lives of her friends and neighbours. Although Austen is known for describing Emma as, ‘a heroine whom […]
Travel Thursday – Thursday’s Child Has Far To Go
Written by Louise Cowan, Trainee Liaison Librarian On alternate Thursdays for the next few months we will be exploring some of UMASCS collections’ fascinating atlases, maps and travel journals. The author, William Coxe, a historian and Church of England clergyman, who was born in London on 6 March 1748, travelled frequently during the period of […]
Delightful and Useful Verities: Rider’s British Merlin
Written by Louise Cowan, Trainee Liaison Librarian The Rider’s British Merlin is a charming almanac featuring a variety of ‘delightful and useful’ information. Important calendar dates; notes on the weather, phases of the moon and advice on farming and health are noted by month, while historical timelines and lists of members of the house of […]
Magic and the Occult – Agrippa: De Occulta Philosophia
Written by Louise Cowan, Trainee Liaison Librarian Happy Halloween! To celebrate the spookiest day of the year here is a special find from our collections: The ‘De Occulta Philosophia Libri III’ or ‘The Three Books of Occult Philosophy’ was written by Henrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (Agrippa), a German writer, famous for his works on […]
Behind the scenes: digitisation of East German WW2 propaganda films
Ramona Salzgeber from the Centre of Eastern German Studies is working with us at Special Collections as an intern. For research purposes she is working to digitise propaganda films from WW2 and films from the DDR from the CEGS archival collection which will later be transferred to Special Collections for storage. Working with old film material can be very […]
In the spotlight: Robert Hooke’s Micrographia (1665)
This year marks the 350th anniversary of the publication of Micrographia : or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses. With observations and inquiries thereupon (London : Printed by J. Martyn and J. Allestry, 1665). This ground breaking book of microscopy was written by Robert Hooke (1635-1703). Today is the 380th anniversary […]
Favourite finds: Eric Partridge and his war of words
This post comes from Brian Ryder, one of our volunteers here at Special Collections. Brian’s history with Reading collections is a long one; he used to be one of our project cataloguers and is now working his way through the Routledge & Kegan Paul archive. From September 1943 until January 1945 A/C [Aircraftman] Eric Partridge was […]