Blog

1. Happy International Workers’ Day!

     As many of you will already know, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels studied together at Chetham’s Library in the summer of 1845, working together in the now-famous window alcove...

   1st May 2013 • Read more

2. Sarum Missal

   The Library’s extremely fine fourteenth-century Sarum Missal was bought from William Clayton in 1712 for £1-01-0. It is believed to date from the reign of Richard II, and there is...

   26th April 2013 • Read more

3. Delights for the eyes and the mind

   These beautifully hand-coloured engravings are taken from Les delices des yeux et de l’esprit, ou collection generale des differentes especes de coquillages que la mer renferme by Georg Wolfgang Knorr...

   25th April 2013 • Read more

4. …said the gynaecologist to the Bishop

   Visitors to the Library’s Reading Room may not be aware that there are more books contained there than initially meet the eye, for in the corner by the donations box...

   24th April 2013 • Read more

5. Eighteenth-century birds

     These two beautifully illustrated eighteenth-century ornithological works came off the shelves recently and we took the opportunity to photograph some of their exquisite hand-coloured plates. The images above and...

   18th April 2013 • Read more

6. Walker’s Croft Burial Ground

   The redevelopment of Manchester Victoria has meant that bodies from the former Walker’s Croft burial ground are being exhumed and re-buried in Southern Cemetery. Walker’s Croft was in use from...

   12th April 2013 • Read more

7. The Strange Case of the Belgian Tarts

     When in 1885, a French antiquary in Louvain noticed some curious writing on the paper being used by a baker to wrap his tarts, he bought the lot and...

   12th April 2013 • Read more

8. Isaac Newton: The Last Magician

   BBC2 is showing an hour-long programme about Isaac Newton tonight (Isaac Newton: The Last Magician, Friday 12th April, 9-10pm). We are proud to own several works by Isaac Newton, including...

   12th April 2013 • Read more

9. Living without working

   This radical manifesto addressed to “the Electors and Non-Electors of the Borough of Oldham” was produced by Thomas Micklethwaite, who proposed to stand for election for Oldham in the General...

   11th April 2013 • Read more

10. M-m-m-m-m-m-m-my Pomona…

    Pomona Gardens was one of the most important pleasure gardens in nineteenth-century Manchester. Pomona was opened in 1845 by William and Joseph Beardsley who leased land in Stretford from Sir...

    10th April 2013 • Read more