Cambridge University Library Special Collections

Surgeons at war: the Fairbank papers

Posted on 5 July 2016 by Special Collections

Sir (Harold Arthur) Thomas Fairbank (1876-1961) and his son Thomas John Fairbank (1912-1998) were orthopaedic surgeons and each saw service with the Royal Army Medical […]

Archives, Cambridge Digital Library, Digitisation, Photographs, Recent acquisitions

Collecting Brexit

Posted on 1 July 2016 by William Hale

In 1915, Francis Jenkinson placed an advertisement in the Cambridge Magazine appealing for material relating to the unfolding war, adding “Such flying pieces as those […]

Archives, Special Collections

A serendipitous Riddell: discovered by chance in the UL’s manuscripts collection

Posted on 27 June 2016 by Special Collections

I have been researching the history and men of the Cambridgeshire Regiment for over twenty years now and the Library has been an invaluable source […]

Proof of a Cambridge degree, ancient and modern

Posted on 21 June 2016 by Jacky Cox

Undergraduates flushed with success in final examinations are about to be admitted to their degrees in a ceremony in the Senate House called General Admission. […]

Archives, Cambridge University Archives

First pop-up talk in Rare Books – Come and hear about the first images printed in colour in England

Posted on 15 June 2016 by Sophie Defrance

The Book of Saint Albans (or Boke of Seynt Albans) is the common title of a 1486 book, a compilation of matters relating to the […]

Events, Historical Printing, Rare Books

Manuscripts Image of the Month – the Illustrations of James McBryde

Posted on 8 June 2016 by Frank

James McBryde came up to Cambridge in 1893 from Shrewsbury. Whilst at King’s College he joined the circle of friends surrounding the scholar M.R. James […]

Archives, Manuscripts, Manuscripts Image of the Month

Sir Harold Smedley Collection

Posted on 7 June 2016 by John C.

The Royal Commonwealth Society Library has just published an on-line catalogue for one of its most significant recent acquisitions, the papers of the diplomat […]

New on Janus, Royal Commonwealth Society

New Old Books: May 2016

Posted on 1 June 2016 by William Hale

Acquisitions in the Rare Books Department this month focussed mainly on popular literature for young and old, also including several items of Irish interest and […]

Rare Books, Recent acquisitions

Towel-Related Literature in the Holdings of Cambridge University Library

Posted on 25 May 2016 by William Hale

A towel … is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it […]

Anniversaries, Exhibitions

Manuscripts Image of the Month – The Maxim Airplane

Posted on 4 May 2016 by Frank

In 1894, Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, American born engineer and inventor of, amongst other things, the first machine gun, completed the construction of a ‘flying […]

Archives, Manuscripts Image of the Month, Photographs