Eighty years of bad jokes: the UL’s rag mag collection
The practice of holding “rag weeks” or “rag days” in Universities to raise money for good causes seems to have started in the 1920s. In […]
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Henry Bradshaw: an Irish book collector?
This post is by Dr Nora Moroney, Munby Fellow for 2022-23. Nora is working on the book collection of Henry Bradshaw (University Librarian 1867-86) at […]
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Magnus Hirschfeld & sex reform
Post by Alina Wanitzek (Assistant Librarian, Department of Psychology) In October 2022, San Francisco–based queer public historian and book dealer Gerard Koskovich came to Cambridge […]
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Simon Armitage on Ukraine: a new acquisition
Private press books have been acquired by the Library since the late nineteenth century, when William Morris’s Kelmscott Press (active 1891-98) led to the flourishing […]
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Seventeenth-Century Catholic Philosophers in Cambridge University Library: guest post by Niall Dilucia
In this guest post, Cambridge PhD student Niall Dilucia writes about his research into early modern intellectual history, examining the relationship between philosophy, theology, and […]
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From ‘Register of Readers’ to online requesting
Eagle-eyed users of the Library’s iDiscover catalogue may have noticed a new feature when they log in and search for Rare Books; a small but […]
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Book sales catalogues now listed
In the course of our work as curators we receive hundreds of booksellers’ and auctioneers’ catalogues every year, many now in digital form, but plenty […]
Continue reading »Blackout: war time school life
On 25th August 1939, the German pre-dreadnought battleship Schleswig-Holstein, under the pretext of making a courtesy visit, sailed into the Port of Gdansk, anchoring 150m from […]
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Conservation for a Legendary Exhibition
Cambridge University Library is home to one of the pre-eminent collections of Japanese material outside of Japan, including one of the first Japanese books ever to reach British shores. In […]
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A unique treasure: Johann Wansleben’s Ethiopic notes and letters
The manuscripts written in the Ethiopic language held in Cambridge University Library number fewer than seventy volumes in all, and for the most part, these […]
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