Behind the scenes – Collections – Special Collections

Steam engines and Samuel Beckett: My Experience as the Graduate Trainee Archive Assistant

Written in September 2022 by Rebecca Keddie, Graduate Trainee Archive Assistant 2021-2022 My time as the University of Reading Graduate Trainee Archive Assistant is drawing to a close. The last […]

‘Embellish’d With Gold’: Crafting an Online Exhibition of Premodern European Manuscripts

Blog post written and online exhibition curated by Joanna Hulin, Reading Room Assistant. The European Manuscripts Collection held at the University of Reading’s Special Collections currently amounts to 143 items […]

Publishing and Printing in Milan

In late June, members of the archive and library team at UMASCs travelled to Milan for staff training under the Erasmus+ scheme. The aim of the trip was to visit […]

Cat sketches and cataloguing: Final thoughts of our Archive Graduate Trainee

Special Collections offer year long graduate trainee schemes in both the Archive and Library. In this month’s blog, our departing Archives Graduate Trainee Timothy Jerrome looks back on his year with us. […]

From Artistotle to Anatomy and the tongue of a woodpecker… Digitising the Cole photographic records

In today’s blog post, Tim and Ceri discuss their progress in digitising the glass lantern negatives created by Professor F J Cole(1872-1959), F.R.S., Professor of Zoology in the University of Reading from […]

Finding one of the oldest examples of printing in Britain: the story of the Caxton leaf

Written by Erika Delbecque, UMASCS Librarian, as part of the 2017 Being Human festival: Lost and Found. The leaf on my desk was stained, torn in places, and fairly unremarkable. Unlike […]

Ladybird: Art from the Auction House

Clare Plascow (Collections Officer) describes her exciting auction experience, a rare opportunity to see examples of John Berry’s work for Ladybird during MERL’s extended hours tonight… and her love for kippers… […]

Recently Acquired Ladybird Artwork- Extended Hours Exhibition

Don’t miss this special opportunity to view our recently acquired additions to our Ladybird Archive! Thanks to our partnership with Ladybird Books Ltd, Special Collections will be displaying a total […]

Archive or Objects: Cataloguing Ladybird Artwork

Written by Clare Plascow, Collections Officer How do you catalogue an artwork? That is the question I’ve been trying to solve over the last few days. Usually the answer would […]

An interview with Nitisha, Archives Assistant

One of our volunteers,Whitney, has been interviewing MERL & Special Collections staff about their roles. Today she talks to Nitisha, a Law graduate who now works as a Conservation & […]