Blog

1. 

   — 7th December 2018

   Weird and wonderful: Edwardian Christmas cards

   It’s at this time of year, when the annual festivities are almost upon us, that Library staff are inspired to consult the collections in search of something that captures the...

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2. 

   — 15th November 2018

   Belle Vue Miniature Railway – a beloved attraction remembered

   We’re grateful once more to Jon Cocks, our Special Correspondent Belle Vue ‘insider’ for taking time and trouble to write – and to illustrate with his original photos (no reuse...

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3. 

   — 19th October 2018

   Robert Rose, the Bard of Colour

   For a brief period in the nineteenth century Manchester’s leading literary watering hole was the Sun Inn, a timber-framed building located opposite the entrance to Chetham’s on Long Millgate. In...

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4. 

   — 5th October 2018

   An unusual acquisition

   Every so often the Library is compelled to acquire a book or a manuscript because it is so unusual and quite unlike anything else that we have. This large broadside,...

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5. 

   — 27th September 2018

   Accidental heroes – getting in on the act

   We’re in the midst of the digital portion of one of our current projects, putting swathes of material from our Salford and district collections online. With the help and support...

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6. 

   — 2nd August 2018

   The Pringle Collection

   Our volunteer Paul Carpenter writes about the collection of the late Ian Pringle: The Library is always making new acquisitions. One of the latest and certainly the largest this year,...

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7. 

   — 30th July 2018

   The Belle Vue Scenic Railway – our Special Correspondent writes

   Today’s blog post is a guest contribution from Jon Cocks, who not only worked on various of Belle Vue’s attractions, but (luckily for us) took his camera with him. We’re...

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8. 

   — 29th June 2018

   Dr Dee at Chetham’s – a view from illustrator Catherine Booth

   We often host classes of one kind of another at the Library, and it’s always intriguing for us as staff to see how people respond to aspects of the collections,...

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9. 

   — 22nd June 2018

   Hulme Trust Archive: Manchester through the ages

   Thanks to a grant from the Hulme Trust in 2015, we’ve been working on cataloguing and conserving the substantial Hulme Trust Archive held at Chetham’s Library, to make it more...

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10. 

    — 8th June 2018

    Sweated industries: “almost ceaseless toil, hard and unlovely to the last degree”

    ‘… earnings barely sufficient to sustain an existence; hours of labour such as to make the lives of the workers periods of almost ceaseless toil hard and unlovely to the...

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