Exhibitions – Collections – Special Collections

‘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 […]

New Exhibition: Embellish’d with Gold.Treasures from the European Manuscripts Collection

During 2018 the University was fortunate to make an important new acquisition, the European Manuscripts Collection. The collection consists of 141 folio illuminated manuscripts and 2 volumes: a seventeenth century […]

New exhibition: “Colours More Than Sentences”: illustrated editions of ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’

Text by Michael Seeney, abridged and adapted with additional text by Fiona Melhuish, UMASCS Librarian. “I wish I could draw like you, for I like lines better than words and […]

Forthcoming pop-up exhibition: ‘Embellish’d with gold: treasures from the European Manuscripts Collection’

Written by Fiona Melhuish, UMASCS Librarian To celebrate the arrival of the European Manuscripts Collection earlier this year, we are very pleased to announce that we will be holding a launch […]

New exhibition: ‘Hi-tiddley-hi-ti’ : echoes of the Victorian music hall

Written by Fiona Melhuish, UMASCS Librarian The Spellman Collection of Victorian music covers is one of my favourite collections, and looking through the many boxes of covers never fails to fascinate. […]

Celebrating 50 Years of Bringing Children and Books Together

The Federation of Children’s Book Groups is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Founded in 1968 by parent, teacher and television producer Anne Wood CBE, the organisation is passionate about […]

New Exhibition: The John and Griselda Lewis Printing Collection

The John and Griselda Lewis Printing Collection consists of over 20,000 examples of printed documents covering several centuries and a wide variety of research subjects –from Fifteenth Century religious texts, Nineteenth […]

New exhibition: From Italy to Britain: Winckelmann and the spread of neoclassical taste

Although Johann Joachim Winckelmann may not be a household name today, his influence on British art, design, and architecture was profound. Our new exhibition, ‘From Italy to Britain: Winckelmann and […]

New exhibition: Ex libris – marks of ownership in rare books from the University of Reading Special Collections

Rare books often contain a variety of features which make them important and interesting historical artifacts beyond their texts. Marks of ownership and provenance can reveal not only who once […]

Cliveden House Exhibition

At the end of February, staff from Special Collections were joined by students of the history department at Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire to showcase material from the Nancy and Waldorf […]