Blog

1. 

   The Cross Dressing Chevalier d’Eon

   The first article in the June 1810 copy of the ladies’ magazine La Belle Assemblée is described as being one in a series of biographical sketches and is entitled ‘Memoirs...

   31st May 2017 • Read more

2. 

   Slightly Foxed – whig politics and a fine gift

   The Heywood family have recently made a very generous gift of family documents to the library.  One of items in this collection is an album containing 33 items of correspondence received by members...

   27th April 2017 • Read more

3. 

   Eu(have got to be)clid(ding me)

   The first English translation of Euclid was brought out by the printer John Daye in London in 1570. The translation was made by Henry Billingsley, (d.1606), a rich merchant who...

   29th March 2017 • Read more

4. 

   Letter from Waterloo

   Guest blog by Library volunteer, Paul Carpenter Transcript of letter by Visitor Services Officer, Carlotta Dewald On 21 June 1815, three days after the Battle of Waterloo, Private James Wilson...

   23rd March 2017 • Read more

5. 

   Brass Art & Chetham’s Library – Meeting Point 2

   We are delighted to announce that we will be working with collaborative art practice Brass Art as part of Arts Council England’s Meeting Point 2 project, which aims to equip...

   15th March 2017 • Read more

6. 

   John Browne’s Mycrographia Nova

   Mycrographia Nova: or, a graphical description of all the muscles in the humane body, as they arise in dissection (1697) is a glorious work of medical illustration. The work consists...

   15th March 2017 • Read more

7. 

   Amusement Microscopique

   One of the most interesting and attractive of the Library’s collection of illustrated books is a three-volume work entitled Amusement Microscopique by Martin Frobenius Ledermüller (1719-1769). The book appeared between 1764 and 1768, a...

   8th March 2017 • Read more

8. 

   Belle Vue News – John Bullock, first manager of the New Elizabethan Ballroom

   We recently received the following from Simon Bullock, who had been having a look at our ‘Virtual Belle Vue’ website : “My father, John D J Bullock originally from Burnage...

   7th March 2017 • Read more

9. 

   Digiti-Lingua

   or the most compendious, copious, facile and secret way of silent converse ever yet discovered Published in London in 1698, Digiti-Lingua is a milestone in the history of sign language....

   1st March 2017 • Read more

10. 

    The wondrous transformation of caterpillars and their remarkable diet of flowers

     ‘In my youth, I spent my time investigating insects.’ Maria Sybilla Merian (1647 – 1717) died 300 years ago this month. This remarkable woman, who was born into a 17th...

    19th January 2017 • Read more