Blog

1. A backhanded compliment…

   An entry from the diary of John Reed, Jun 6th 1951. At this time Reed was a second year undergraduate at Magdalen College Oxford, reading English under C.S. Lewis. After...

   6th June 2014 • Read more

2. Sad songs say so much

   Although it’s fair to say that most Victorian comic songs remain completely baffling and unfunny to modern ears, sad songs from the nineteenth century often retain a strong emotional pull....

   5th June 2014 • Read more

3. A Thril a minute

   We recently picked up this splendid commemorative medallion from Turnstock Collectables, one of our favourite sources of ephemera. Dating from 1894 and toasting success to the Manchester Ship Canal and...

   5th June 2014 • Read more

4. Beautiful book covers

   More from the Asheton-Tonge collection today in the form of these most attractive book covers from the 1850s. The artist responsible for The Gold Worshippers is unknown but Pictures of...

   30th May 2014 • Read more

5. Museums Showoff

   Here’s Jen singing ‘The Testimony of Patience Kershaw’ at Museums Showoff at the People’s History Museum last night, in an incredibly powerful performance which made us all very proud. Thanks...

   30th May 2014 • Read more

6. Dear Prudence

     This beautifully decorated volume is part of the Asheton-Tonge collection and is one of a number of late-Victorian novels held at the Library. Prudence: A Story of Aesthetic London,...

   29th May 2014 • Read more

7. Fattò comes to the Library

   Deliveries are are a routine occurrence at Chetham’s, but there was something decidedly unusual about the small lumpy package that arrived in today’s mail. Even before we opened it, the...

   28th May 2014 • Read more

8. Plugging the gaps

   Inevitably, there are significant gaps in the Library’s collection of early printed books, which is understandable given the limited resources available to the trustees, as well as their very deliberate...

   21st May 2014 • Read more

9. Private Lives?

   A new exhibition of diaries from the collection is now on display at the Library during normal opening hours. The exhibition looks at personal journals, travel diaries, war memoirs and...

   15th May 2014 • Read more

10. The Gullinge Sonnets

      Today’s post is guest-written by Dr Joel Swann, who completed his collaborative doctorate here at Chetham’s Library in 2012, working on the Farmer-Chetham manuscript which contains a copy of...

    14th May 2014 • Read more