Robert Chapman and his plea to the bishop of Durham

Simona Martorana is one of a small group of intrepid Durham University students wrestling with medieval handwriting. They are guided by Michael Stansfield, Senior Manager of Archives and Special Collections, normally in person, but over the last few months online. During these palaeography sessions, students catch a glimpse of a past world through the many stories that surface in our archival sources. Simona discusses a document from the Durham Cathedral Archive, which our staff look after at 5 The College.

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July 15, 2020 0

RLUK Collections: a virtual tour of our shared treasures

Durham University Library and Collections is a member of Research Libraries UK (RLUK), a consortium of the most significant research libraries in the UK and Ireland. As many members entered lockdown in March, Dr David Prosser (Executive Director of RLUK) took a virtual tour of RLUK member’s special collections via Twitter (#RLUKCollections), including those at Durham University, to highlight just a small selection of the extensive, diverse, and unique collections held within the member libraries and archives.

We have (with permission) highlighted here Durham’s brief entry, and provided links to each of the others, as an opportunity to quickly sample some of the many treasures held within the British Isles.

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June 30, 2020 1

#Colourourcollections (2)

This week we’re introducing you to a historic magazine for Durham University students, which we hold in our archives and special collections.

The Sphinx was a magazine produced by the students of Durham University between March 1905 and June 1922 (it did not appear between July 1914 and the end of 1918). It contained short pieces, parodies, cartoons and accounts of sports and other social events.

The image below shows a view that hasn’t perhaps changed much over the last century or so! Right-click and save the image, or download a PDF version to colour in at your leisure. Why not share your efforts with us via Twitter (@dulib or @PalaceGreenLib)?

View of Durham Cathedral across the Wear from The Sphinx, volume 1 issue 9 (June 1906)

June 15, 2020 0

Whose book is it? Books owned by the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre

The following post, by our rare books cataloguer Dr Aya Van Renterghem, first appeared in a longer form on the Early Modern Female Book Ownership blog in May 2020. We are grateful to the blog’s moderators for allowing us to share the content.

When considering the many shapes and forms in which early modern female book ownership appears, thoughts and discussions usually turn to the various types of books owned by different women or focus on the difference in ownership between social classes of women, for instance. It is, however, possible to broaden this view and also think about gradations of ownership and about the level of agency female book owners had. I mean by this that we could think about questions such as how much control early modern women had over their choice of books or over the type of books they owned. The Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre collection, currently being catalogued at Palace Green Library, Durham University, presents an interesting case study in this regard and is worth exploring here. Continue reading “Whose book is it? Books owned by the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre” →

June 11, 2020 1

#Colourourcollections (1)

Fancy a bit of colouring in? Get your crayons, paintbrushes, or favourite digital colouring app out and join us in making Durham Cathedral’s famous sanctuary door knocker more colourful!

You can click and save the image below to print off, download the PDF version or create a digital copy.

We’d love to see the results, so do share your colourful creations with us via Twitter (@dulib and @PalaceGreenLib), using the hashtag #colourourcollections. But most importantly, have fun!

If you’d like to see more old drawings of the Durham area, have a look at our Pictures in Print pages: http://valentine.dur.ac.uk/pip/index.html.

Find out more about the Sanctuary Knocker on the Durham World Heritage Site website: https://www.durhamworldheritagesite.com/architecture/cathedral/intro/sanctuary-knocker.

June 4, 2020 0

Learning Online #MuseumFromHome

In a pre-coronavirus world, we at the Learning and Engagement Team spent our days engaging school children; families; community groups and those with access requirements to enjoy and use the truly amazing collections of Durham University. We were able to work with all walks of life in amazing buildings – with equally amazing collections – Durham Castle, Palace Green Library and the Oriental Museum and hopefully, raise aspirations for young people in our region to go to university and have as much fun with researching collections as we do.

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May 6, 2020 2

International Women’s Day: In celebration of (Clara) Enid Robertson.

Back in December 2019, the open access team here at the library received a very special request from Jeremy Durward, a Psychology student from Deakin University in Australia. He was researching his great great aunt, (Clara) Enid Robertson, as he had discovered they had a shared interest in Psychology. We helped Jeremy locate Dr Robertson’s thesis, “The psychology of musical appreciation: an analysis of the bases and nature of the experience of listening to music” – which you can also read in our etheses repository.

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March 8, 2020 0

Escape From Durham University Library

Last Friday – Valentine’s Day – Durham University Library and Collections welcomed a class of 35 year 10 pupils (and 3 teachers) from Southmoor Academy in Sunderland. The pupils were there to learn about who we are and what we do, as well as sampling a little of what life at university is like when it comes to finding and using resources.

book-3998252_1920 — A visit to an academic library on Valentine’s Day – whats not to love?!

This was my first experience of accompanying a group of this age. As the Faculty Librarian for the Business School I work with undergraduates, postgraduates and staff. But not schoolkids. I have two teenagers of my own. I come to work to get away from them…!

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February 19, 2020 0

Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre library: spotlight on archives and special collections (1)

From medieval manuscripts to an extensive archive of materials relating to the Sudan via the historically important 17th-century Bishop Cosin’s Library, in this series of posts we focus on an archive or book collection held at Palace Green Library. In this first instalment, we travel to 17th-century Liège to take a closer look at the library of the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre.

Pamphlet written by the foundress of the English community of Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre as a justification of their existence and an advertisement for other English Catholic women to join the community.

Continue reading →

February 17, 2020 1

Learning to judge a book by its cover: HLF bookbindings workshop at Palace Green

I entered David Pearson’s bookbindings workshop at Palace Green in November as a complete novice, as I know next to nothing about rare books and even less about bindings. However, any anxieties I had were allayed as a varied group of attendees assembled: librarians, binders and enthusiasts, many of whom had travelled to Durham from Scotland and all over England.

A late 17th-century binding of black goatskin with gilt “tooling” or decoration. R. Perrinchief, *The royal martyr or The life and death of Charles I*. London : printed by J. Macock. for R. Royston, bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty, 1676. (DUL SB 1139)

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January 23, 2020 0

Category: Archives and Special Collections