Curious Cures: the making of a medieval folded manuscript
This post is by Beckett Thornber, an MA Conservation Studies student, specialising in books and library materials, at West Dean College. He spent six weeks […]
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Correspondence of Walter Buchanan-Smith from Borneo and Nigeria
Walter Buchanan-Smith (1879-1944) was in many ways an archetypal British colonial administrator: privately educated, a keen sportsman, a lover of dogs and ponies, and quickly […]
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Newnham College Christine de Pizan manuscript digitised
This post is by Dr Charlotte Cooper-Davis, Learning and Research Engagement Officer at the University Library. She has been researching and writing about the fifteenth-century […]
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Lessons from Lesotho
‘It’s in our hands as librarians, as archivists and library directors […] It’s in your hands.’ This was the call to action issued by Dr […]
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Cucumbers for Constipation and Vinegar for Verrucas: Curious Cures from the 21st Century
The University Library’s new exhibition – Curious Cures: Medicine in the Medieval World – delves into the intriguing, strange and sometimes improbable medical recipes from […]
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A Tudor Medical Manuscript: Winchester Geese, Bullet Extractors, and Cataplasms from the Court of Henry VIII
Followers of the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries project who also listen BBC Radio 4 comedy show The Unbelievable Truth may have heard some very […]
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“Messing about in boats”: four Cambridge University Cruising Club logbooks, 1888-1902
Post by Sam Evans (Assistant Archivist, Archives & Modern Manuscripts) The Cambridge University Cruising Club was founded on 20 May 1893 ‘to encourage amateur sailing, […]
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Francis Fry: Maker of Chocolate … and Catalogues
This post is by Dr Harry Spillane, Munby Fellow in Bibliography for 2024/25. His research project, entitled ‘Collecting and Correcting: Histories of the English Bible […]
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Archives and Modern Manuscripts Image of the Month: John Wolley’s great auk egg
In 1858 two ornithologists, John Wolley and Alfred Newton, travelled to Iceland in the hope of seeing a flightless seabird, the elusive great auk. Both […]
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Ladies in the Library
January 1855. The British coalition government was in crisis over accusations of mismanagement in the Crimean war. In the literary world, the final installment of […]
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