Blog

1. The magic of Belle Vue

   In recent months we have had four masters students from Manchester University working on the Belle Vue collection as part of their placement. Find out what they’ve been up to...

   10th April 2013 • Read more

2. John Reed at Oxford

   John Reed (whose diaries we have recently acquired)was at Magdalen College in the early 1950s where he was a diligent if rather anxious student. He enjoyed all the usual activities...

   5th April 2013 • Read more

3. How manifold are thy works!

     We have recently acquired this beautiful panoramic representation of the 104th Psalm illustrated by Susan Maria ffarington of Leyland in Lancashire.  The work measures 10cm by over three and...

   4th April 2013 • Read more

4. Reminiscences of MOSI

   We are very pleased to make available a pdf of Richard Hills’ new work The North Western Museum of Science and Industry: Some Reminiscences. This is only available through Chetham’s...

   3rd April 2013 • Read more

5. The Great Herbal

     Basilius Besler’s ‘Great Herbal’ is one of the largest books in the Library and certainly the heaviest. The enormous large folio volume is full of beautiful engravings of the...

   27th March 2013 • Read more

6. A Rochdale Pioneer from Chetham’s

   A query from a reader this morning revealed that one of the famous Rochdale Pioneers was educated here at Chetham’s in the early years of the nineteenth century. John Bent...

   27th March 2013 • Read more

7. How the Library got its books

   This week on our 101 Treasures Page we take a look at two manuscripts of great significance. These are the Invoices Book and the Accessions Register, kept in the early...

   8th March 2013 • Read more

8. Ishe Komborera Africa

   Library staff travelled down to Oxford last night for the launch of Terence Ranger’s book Writing Revolt: An Engagement with African Nationalism 1957-67. The book is dedicated to the memory...

   6th March 2013 • Read more

9. Diaries of John Reed

   The Library has recently been given a large number of diaries belonging to the academic and political activist John Reed (1929-2012), a gift from his brother, Alan. John Reed made...

   27th February 2013 • Read more

10. It was a dark and stormy night…

    This atmospheric image of Manchester Town Hall on a moonlit night was produced in the early years of the twentieth century and is part of a large album of postcards...

    22nd February 2013 • Read more