Baskerville’s marbled papers
by Anna Murdoch, Graduate Trainee Library Assistant. The Department of Typography & Graphic Communications’ teaching sessions always involve a swath of fascinating material from early medical texts to astronomy. One day I was setting up a large volume on some foam rests for students to peruse. Upon opening it up, I saw an endpaper quite unlike […]
Aubrey Beardsley, the author: ‘Under the Hill’
Written by Fiona Melhuish, UMASCS Librarian. Aubrey Beardsley, who died on this day in 1898, is well known as one of the most talented, and most daring, of the artists of the 1890s, with his exquisite, highly imaginative, and frequently risqué, black and white drawings. However, Beardsley also aspired to be a ‘man of letters’, […]
“Guardian angel” of the Cole Library: Dr Nellie B. Eales
Members of the Library staff came rapidly to recognise her sprightly, bright-eyed figure making its way to the Cole Library for a quiet and productive morning’s work. She had a cheerful greeting for all her friends, acquaintances and colleagues and many came to admire the astonishing vigour with which she laboured day after day to […]
LGBT History Month: Publishing pacifism, ‘perversity’, and prosecution
Written by Anna Murdoch, Graduate Trainee Library Assistant. You never quite know what you could find browsing the shelves in the rare book store, and how you could reach into the archives of both Special Collections and the MERL to find connections to a particular work. As a former English Literature student, I particularly enjoy the […]
Best lookers rather than best sellers: Gaberbocchus Press
Written by Fiona Melhuish (UMASCS Librarian) “There is a madness about various Gaberbocchus books which is the spice of life, an ingredient somewhat lacking in the world of impeccable book production”. (Ruari McLean in ‘Quarterly News Letter of the Book Club of California, Summer 1956) Gaberbocchus Press was founded in 1948 in London, by Stefan […]
Buried Treasure on Campus? A closer look at the Overstone Library
Currently working at the University of Reading as Staff Engagement and Communications Officer, Jeremy Lelean previously worked as a dealer in antiquarian and collectable books. In today’s blog, Jeremy takes a closer look at the Overstone Library, the foundation collection of the University Library. I work in science communication, most recently with research into soil, and when […]