What's on
Access to the Institution from July 2024-December 2024
Information on our temporary entrance in the final phase of building works...
Women’s Travelogues: Harriet Martineau and Alison Carmichael
History MA student Isabel Moon has been exploring the works of the 19th-century women who feature in our Voyages and Travels collection. This is as part of an ongoing project […]
Women’s Travelogues: Elizabeth Caroline Johnstone Gray and Amelia Blandford Edwards
In the first of a special edition three-part Book of the Month, history MA student Isabel Moon explores the works of the 19th-century women who feature in our Voyages and […]
The Folklore of Cornwall (1975): Exploring the Tradition and Legacy of Cornish Folklore
For March's Book of the Month, library volunteer Mela Moseley delves into our modern South West collection to discuss Tony Deane and Tony Shaw's The Folklore of Cornwall (1975). Continuing in the tradition of the Victorian folklorists who first began to document the mythology of the region, Deane and Shaw combine anthropological research with engaging storytelling. The result is a detailed exploration of Cornish legend which remains a valuable resource for those interested in the subject.
Captain John Cooke: ‘a public character and John Bull tradesman’
Amber Flood has written about some works relating to Captain John Cooke for February’s Book of the Month. This piece focuses on Cooke’s 1819 pamphlet titled “Old England For Ever” […]
Feeding the Victorian Invalid: Sarah Sharp Hamer’s Diet and Cookery for Common Ailments (1894)
For January’s Book of the Month our Library Assistant Fiona Schroeder discusses Sarah Sharp Hamer’s Diet and Cookery for Common Ailments (1894). This interesting volume, written under the pseudonym ‘Phyllis […]
A Seasonal Story: Charles Dickens’ Christmas Books
Many of us are familiar with Charles Dickens chilling festive tale, A Christmas Carol. Since its publication in 1843, it has been released in numerous editions and been adapted many […]
Mary Bulteel Ponsonby, a Radical Maid of Honour to Queen Victoria
For November’s Book of the Month our volunteer cataloguer Paul Auchterlonie appraises an unusual find from the travel section, detailing the life of Mary Ponsonby, (1832-1916), a woman who lived […]
New table-top display: Myths and Monsters
This exhibition explores the speculations and fears surrounding fossils and zoological matter in the early to mid-nineteenth century, and considers how contemporary gaps in knowledge lent themselves to stories of […]
“Digging up” James Parkinson’s Organic Remains (1804-1811)
James Parkinson’s lengthily-titled Organic Remains of a former world: an examination of the mineralized remains of the vegetables and animals of the Antediluvian world; generally termed extraneous fossils was published […]