Cambridge University Library Special Collections

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

New Old Books: April 2016

Posted on 2 May 2016 by William Hale

Additions to the stock of the Rare Books Department this month include a nineteenth-century book of College verse, a satire from the period leading up […]

Rare Books, Recent acquisitions

John Fisher (ca 1469-1535), martyr (and archivist)

Posted on 27 April 2016 by Jacky Cox

John Fisher’s principled opposition to Henry VIII’s divorce from Katherine of Aragon resulted in his conviction for treason and execution in 1535. Everyone remembers the […]

600th anniversary, Archives, Cambridge Digital Library, Cambridge University Archives, Exhibitions, Library history