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  1. Richard Johnson, the First Librarian: No Surplus Surplice?

  2. Chetham’s Librarians: Lives and Legacies

  3. Humphrey Chetham’s Dinner

  4. New Librarian announced

Archive: 2015

  1. The Duke of Bridgewater’s Canal

    Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater Chetham’s Library cuttings collection We are lucky to have recently received on loan a book of accounts for the Bridgewater Canal compiled between 1760...

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  2. Gerald Iles at Belle Vue

    We begin the week with an ending, a final posting from Courtney Stickland. Courtney, whose previous posts A Fresh Look at Belle Vue and the Guidebooks of Belle Vue you may remember,...

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  4. A fifteen-year-old boy’s VE Day

    In 2013 the Library was donated a remarkable set of diaries written between 1939 and 2012, chronicling almost the whole of a man’s life. John Reed decided at the age...

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  5. The conchologist’s daughters

    We’ve been looking at some of the library’s early books on conchology (the study of shells) and musing on the art of scientific illustration. In Robert Hooke’s words, a successful...

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  6. W/Op Hickling, R.I.P.

    Although many of our books may be seen lining the shelves in the historic Library, thousands more are kept on the rolling stacks in our store rooms. These rooms are...

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  7. St George’s Day – but who he?

    A mildly fraudulent title for this ep of the blog, in that solving the problems around George’s legend are a bit of a tall order for this modest organ. However,...

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  8. Cup of coffee anyone?

    Enjoying a mid-morning break recently reminded us that the library has some interesting items relating to the history of coffee and coffee houses. One of our earliest sources, published in...

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  10. Law and order

    Another new addition to our collections is a quarto manuscript notebook containing, amongst other items, the constitution and minutes of a Lancashire-based Prosecution Society. The society was founded by “Matthew...

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