Archive: 2016

  1. A History of Manchester Fiction

    We are thrilled to have acquired a collection of North West fiction that was put together by the scholar and bibliophile Eddie Cass. Cass collected books on many subjects –...

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  2. Dame of Dialect

    ‘I have laboured in the field of Lancashire literature for over half my life-time, and have tried to bring forth the pure gold hidden beneath the surface of the people’s...

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  3. Seventeenth Century Crowdfunding with Knyff and Kip

    ‘Knyff and Kip’ sound like a nineteenth-century vaudeville act, but were actually artists and engravers from the Netherlands, born in the mid-seventeenth century. Leendert Knyff and Johannes Kip were responsible...

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  4. The Bees

    Apiarists are keeping bees on city roofs and the bee is a recognisable Manchester icon that symbolises the industry and vibrancy of our city. We find bee images across the...

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  5. Cats vs Dogs

    The University Library of Leiden was divided into two rows of bookcases for folios, with the smaller books arranged at the back. On the left is mathematics, philosophy, literature and...

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  6. Calendar Girls… and Boys

    Whilst it is true that the collections at Chetham’s were built up in a very deliberate, conscious manner, with each book being selected by governors and librarians because it fulfilled...

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  7. Fashionable Amusements

    One of our wonderful Manchester scrapbooks is always referred to as ‘Cambrics’ – a rather curious name which simply describes the original fabric which covered the scrapbook. Within the book...

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