Archive: 2023

1. 

   — 4th December 2023

   An interview with Fergus Wilde, the Librarian

   Librarian Fergus Wilde has worked at Chetham’s Library for close to thirty years and in May he will begin his well-deserved retirement. Before he leaves to start this new adventure,...

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2. 

   — 30th November 2023

   ‘Strange Knowledge of a Crow’: A Yeoman Farmer Annotates Holinshed’s Chronicle

   One of the most striking annotated books in the collection of Chetham’s Library is a copy of Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, annotated by a yeoman farmer from...

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3. 

   — 3rd November 2023

   A Bluestocking Influencer – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

   A BLUESTOCKING INFLUENCER – LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU One of the most influential English women of the 18th century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762), lives on at Chetham’s library in...

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4. 

   — 18th October 2023

   A Tale of Manchester Life: The City’s Most Famous Literary Woman and Her First Novel

   Recently, this blog has featured several posts about the literary women featured in Chetham’s Library’s current exhibition, A Woman’s Write. However, one figure not included in this exhibition is an individual...

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5. 

   — 8th September 2023

   Oldham Coat of Arms

   Recently we were cleaning the gallery space in the Library and came across a painting of a heraldic achievement, generally knowns as a coat of arms. It bears the date...

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6. 

   — 2nd August 2023

   Matilda Betham: An (un)Celebrated Woman

   Above: Matilda Betham, unknown artist, image taken from Wikimedia Comms. Mary Matilda Betham (known as Matilda to her friends and family) was a diarist, poet and author in the last...

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7. 

   — 13th July 2023

   The Accedence of Armorie: Sixteenth-Century Paint by Numbers

   The top shelf of the last press in Chetham’s Library, press Z, is home to a copy of Gerard Legh’s Accedence of Armorie (shelfmark Z.1.64). Having accessed the book in this remote...

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8. 

   — 22nd June 2023

   An English Renaissance Feminist: Cancelled

   Above: Portrait by Lady Mary Wroth, by John de Critz 1620. Just before International Women’s Day 2023, there emerged from the shelves of Chetham’s Radcliffe collection a rare copy of...

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9. 

   — 11th May 2023

   A Woman’s Write: Searching For Chetham’s Published Women

   Visitors to the library have been asking the same question for some time “Are there any books written by women”. Whilst the answer has been yes, it has often been...

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10. 

    — 10th May 2023

    Lucy Hutchinson and the Civil War

    Given our recent theme focusing on women in the library, the time seems right to tell, if only in brief, some of the remarkable stories of their lives and achievements....

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