Blog

1. 

   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

2. 

   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

3. 

   information as material

     It’s always a thrill to add a collection to the Library, whether this is an archive or a set of printed works. Individual items have their place but we...

   19th January 2017 • Read more

4. 

   The Ancoats Brotherhood

    You will do the greatest service to the state ‘If you shall raise, not the roofs of the houses, but the souls of the citizens; for it is better that...

   5th January 2017 • Read more

5. 

   Early bindings at Chetham’s library – part 2 (Leather)

   For much of the early history of printing, books were distributed unbound by printers due to the high costs involved with book binding. This expense was often passed on to...

   13th December 2016 • Read more

6. 

   Early bindings at Chetham’s library – part 1 (Vellum)

   This afternoon’s blog post is the first of two that are a part of the work done by Nathan Shipstone, here with us this year as part of a highly...

   25th November 2016 • Read more

7. 

   Chetham’s Library Announced as Arts & Heritage Meeting Point2 Museum

   We are delighted to announce that we have been named as one of the ten museums taking part in the Meeting Point 2 project run by Arts&Heritage and funded by...

   16th November 2016 • Read more

8. 

   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 –...

   9th November 2016 • Read more

9. 

   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...

   6th October 2016 • Read more

10. 

    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...

    28th September 2016 • Read more