Illustration – Cambridge University Library Special Collections

Word & image in a sixteenth-century prayer book

Posted on 8 February 2021 by Liam Sims

We all put things in books. Whether it’s bookmarks (old train tickets, receipts or some other bit of paper no longer required), related ephemera (magazine […]

Collectors and collecting, Illustration, Library history, Rare Books, Special Collections

Digitisation of the Polonsky Foundation Greek Manuscripts Project: a reflection on digital technologies and collective memory

Posted on 1 June 2020 by Special Collections

My name is Raffaella Losito, and in March 2020 I had the great privilege to join the Digital Content Unit team as a Digitisation Technician […]

Cambridge Digital Library, Digitisation, Greek, Illustration, Manuscripts, Medieval manuscripts, Polonsky Greek

Erotica comes to Cambridge

Posted on 4 February 2020 by Liam Sims

When one thinks of the great collections which Cambridge University Library has built up over its six centuries, erotic literature is probably not very near […]

Acquisitions, Collectors and collecting, French, Illustration, Rare Books, Special Collections

Watercolours of 19th-century Australia, Canada, Gibraltar, Mauritius and the Channel Islands

Posted on 5 February 2019 by John C.

The Royal Commonwealth Society department has published a detailed on-line catalogue for one of its largest and most historically significant art collections, RCMS 40. It […]

Cambridge Digital Library, Illustration, Royal Commonwealth Society

Start them young: close encounters with movable books

Posted on 8 June 2018 by Emily Dourish

As Special Collections curators and subject specialists we’re all used to hosting visits to the University Library for academics, students and members of the adult […]

Illustration, Rare Books

Smelly Remedy: Womb Fumigation Illustrated in Seventeenth Century Print

Posted on 12 March 2018 by Special Collections

Swelling, shifting and releasing noxious vapours, the Early Modern womb was deemed to be an unruly organ and the cause of numerous ailments. The symptoms […]

Exhibitions, Illustration, Medicine, women

Talk on the Liberation Collection, 22nd February

Posted on 14 February 2018 by Special Collections

On Thursday 22nd February Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey will give a talk to the Cambridge Bibliographical Society on ‘The power of the image in liberated France, […]

Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Collectors and collecting, Events, Illustration, Rare Books, Recent acquisitions

Tower House, Kensington, London: perspective of the library (RIBA Collections)

Living the Gothic Revival: William Burges and Tower House

Posted on 18 December 2017 by Special Collections

William Burges (1827-81) identified himself throughout his prolific career as an ‘art-architect’1. Richard Popplewell Pullan (1825-88) was also an artist and architect, and like Burges […]

Architecture, Illustration, Photographs, Rare Books, Recent acquisitions

#ColorOurCollections

Posted on 7 February 2017 by Emily Dourish

Looking for an outlet for your creativity, or a stress-relieving pastime with a cultural twist? This year the University Library is taking part in the […]

Cambridge Digital Library, Illustration, Manuscripts, Rare Books

A Christmas Carol in Pictures

Posted on 21 December 2016 by William Hale

Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol was first published in December 1843, with coloured engravings by John Leech. This post is based on an exhibition put […]

Christmas, Illustration