Blog

1. Several curious performances…

     Everybody loves a circus at Christmas, so here’s another poster from the Cambrics collection for you, this time from December 1787, featuring the nimble Mr Wilkinson in ‘several curious...

   18th December 2013 • Read more

2. ‘A truly original machine’

   This splendid broadside of 1819, published by William Cowdroy, advertises an exhibition in Manchester of a velocipede or swift walker, a forerunner of the bicycle. It was produced for the...

   18th December 2013 • Read more

3. Grains of gold

     These little Christmas books were a recent gift to the Library from bookseller John Worthy of the Rochdale Book Company. They belonged to the library of Victor Tomlinson (1908-1996),...

   12th December 2013 • Read more

4. Culture in Manchester

     Culture in Manchester: Institutions and Urban Change since 1850 is a new book published by Manchester University Press which will be launched on Monday. The cover features a delightful...

   21st November 2013 • Read more

5. Dear Diary…

     Diaries and life writing is the subject of this week’s 101 Treasures page, which is newly updated today. We have a large and growing collection of diaries dating from...

   15th November 2013 • Read more

6. Mr Chambers and Persephone

   Whilst browsing through the Pickles Collection* recently, we came across a small book called Mr Chambers and Persephone. Written by Christopher Whitfield, it was published in 1937 by the Golden...

   14th November 2013 • Read more

7. The Diaries of Dora Turnor

     What do The Times Top Twenty Hotels for Christmas have in common with our new exhibition? Easy! Stoke Rochford Hall near Grantham in Lincolnshire, which is now a luxury...

   13th November 2013 • Read more

8. Manchester Poets

   This photograph shows the Sun Inn on Long Millgate, now sadly demolished but once known as Poets’ Corner owing to the regular meetings of writers and poets which were held...

   8th November 2013 • Read more

9. Beware the Basilisk

   One of our volunteers brought these two volumes to our attention recently, having removed them from the shelves for conservation work and discovered that they had been rather extensively eaten....

   8th November 2013 • Read more

10. The Political Apple Pie

    We recently acquired from the bookseller Christopher Edwards a collection of fifteen pamphlets, mainly the work of William Hone, published between 1817-1821. The Library already holds examples of a number...

    7th November 2013 • Read more