Blog

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. James Crossley

   This week our 101 Treasures page is devoted to the fascinating character of James Crossley, Manchester man of letters, prolific book collector, antiquarian, founder of the Chetham Society and Honorary...

   20th February 2013 • Read more

8. Let us together be bound!

     If this Valentine’s Day sees you short of ideas for a suitable declaration of your love and respect, you could do worse than take inspiration from one of the...

   14th February 2013 • Read more

9. In defence of Richard III

   The current excitement about the discovery of the body of Richard III prompts us to draw attention to the Library’s copies of the two earliest published defences of the king....

   13th February 2013 • Read more

10. A Cure for the Winter Blues

    What with some of the staff trapped in the snowy North (i.e. Oldham), others gridlocked in icy South Manchester, and the weather forecast, according to the Metro,set to be the...

    5th February 2013 • Read more