Collection focus – Page 6 – Collections

From Devon to Derbyshire, the Shell Guides to Great Britain

This blog post first appeared earlier this week on Our Country Lives: the new MERL blog. The Shell Guides we already hold mentioned below are part of our Printing Collection. Written by […]

‘What does a poet need to be successful?’: Alun Lewis (1915-1944) in the spotlight

This post comes from Brian Ryder, one of our volunteers here at Special Collections. Brian’s history with Reading collections is a long one; he used to be one of our […]

Yeats at 150

This Saturday 13th June is the 150th Anniversary of the birth of William Butler Yeats, with events taking place across the UK, Ireland and beyond. Here at Special Collections we […]

‘Come to the Farm’ and ‘William the Dragon’: sharing stories from our Children’s Collection

What better way to celebrate May being National Share-a-Story Month and 15 May being the International Day of Families – than a chance to look at some of the highlights of […]

Some early printing finds from the John Lewis Printing Collection

Written by Fiona Melhuish, UMASCS Librarian Whilst retrieving an item for a reader, I came across a wonderful selection of illuminated manuscript leaves and original leaves from books by early […]

In the spotlight: Coins continued – Gloriana to Victoriana

Georgia Charitou, intern from Greece, shares some further highlights from her work on the Stenton Coin Collection, which spans the 7th to the 20th century. Previously: Bloodaxe, Vikings and other early coins. […]

In the spotlight: Bloodaxe, Vikings and other early coins

I am Georgia Charitou, and I am an intern from Greece, where I study at the University of Thessaly. For the last couple of months I’ve been working on the […]

Not strictly ballroom: Kon-Tiki and dancing the hula with Princess Margaret

This post comes from Brian Ryder, one of our volunteers here at Special Collections. Brian’s history with Reading collections is a long one; he used to be one of our […]

Celebrating 100 years of Ladybird

100 years ago in 1915, jobbing printer Wills & Hepworth published the very first Ladybird book in Loughborough. They soon registered an official logo and devoted themselves creating ‘pure and […]

12 Days of Christmas roundup

It’s almost Christmas! That means good cheer, Christmas spirit and….a fight to the death competition?! Although technically the 12 days of Christmas begin with 25 December, we won’t be around […]