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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Tag yourself- which schoolgirl cover is your #backtoschool mood? With the return to the classroom already in full swing, we’re highlighting some of the rare books from our Children’s Collection!

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

How does the solar eclipse connect Wilfred Owen and the University of Reading? ‌ In our new blog, Dr Rhi Smith reveals the story of early 20th-century Reading botanist Dr Mabel Rayner, her friendship with Wilfred Owen, and their shared love of plants and poetry. 👇

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

What can our University History Collection tell us about the history of relations between the University and the local people of Reading - "Town and Gown" as it's traditionally known? Check out our latest blog, “A Century of Town and Gown”, by Project Archivist Amanda Knight. Link down below!👇

📸 Image: Photograph of the construction of the Great Hall, London Road and the workmen who built it, c.1905 (UHC PH3/4/1/2)

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

“Welcome, O life! I go to encounter…” A new chapter begins for our Solange and Stephen James Joyce Collection later this year. Watch out for more in the months ahead 👀

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Happy #Bloomsday! On this day in 1904, Ulysses’ Leopold Bloom began his journey around Dublin. In celebration, we’re highlighting items from our Solange and Stephen James Joyce Collection. 🧵

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Today is #WorldBeeDay ! 🐝 Did you know that Special Collections is home to our Bee Collections? Full of vivid illustrations, the 3000+ volumes explore bee anatomy, behaviour and hives. 🍯

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

The MERL is delighted to be a project partner for "Relocating Filmstrips, Remapping Europe". This major collaborative project investigates the role of filmstrips in shaping European history.

Common Ground strip textbook cover, Autumn 1948

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

📖 The books within our Children’s Collection contain a range of personalised bookplates due to the way the collection was accumulated. 📖 We hold many books with the intricate Marjorie Moon bookplate, but another bookplate above suggests the book was given as an award for good attendance.

Bookplate found within CHILDREN’S COLLECTION 823.7 MOR

Bookplate found within CHILDREN’S COLLECTION 839.813 AND

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

📢 Call for Applications 📢 Writer in Residence: Blooming Bloomsbury and the Modernist Archives Publishing Project -Creativity and Community Co-Curation (2026) 📅 Application deadline: midnight, Monday 18 May 2026 For full details and to apply, please visit the link below. 👇

📸 Image: Virginia Woolf sitting in an armchair at Monk’s House. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

We’re thrilled to see Stephen Dwoskin make the BFI “10 great British films of 1976” for his film “Central Bazaar”. The University of Reading Special Collections holds Dwoskin’s archive, a wealth of material covering all aspects of his film-making work, his personal life, and the period he lived in.

The image of Dwoskin above is linked to an article possibly titled “Disabled” for the magazine ‘Design and Environment’. The photographs taken depict Dwoskin using crutches, as he did throughout most of his adult life. The filmmaker often focussed on the theme of disability, alongside an ongoing look at the experience of pain and pleasure.
[DWO B6/1]

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Our latest blog post explores the process behind compiling a brand new section of our History Dissertation Subject Explorer, focusing on the history of enslavement. The blog by Georgie Moore (Student Engagement Officer) explores reading archives ‘against the grain’ to uncover hidden histories.

📸 Image of pamphlet “Groans of the plantations” (1689) pamphlet bound into a volume within the Overstone Library (OVERSTONE–SHELF 9E/28)

📸 Image of the Overstone Library, the foundation collection of the University Library in situ in the store of University of Reading Special Collections.

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

🗂️Our archivists have been hard at work cataloguing our vast university history collection, and now they’d like to hear from you!👇 This Honours list for female graduates was created by Clarice Lord and Gwendoline Mary Roberts, possibly dated to around 1929.

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

In advance of tomorrow, happy #worldpoetryday ! 🎉 Here, we’ve chosen some rare book highlights from our Matthews-Shelley collection, celebrating Percy Bysshe Shelley’s prominence within the English Romantic movement, and his radical political influences (as well as some striking marbling!)

Title page for MATTHEWS/SHELLEY COLLECTION--S3/007

Marbled endpapers of MATTHEWS/SHELLEY COLLECTION--S3/007

Title page of MATTHEWS/SHELLEY COLLECTION--S10/006 2

Mythical illustration from MATTHEWS/SHELLEY COLLECTION--S4/005

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Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

We maintain that there is NO SUCH THING as a boring record - just an archive that hasn't yet found its (probably very niche) researcher 📜

National Coal Board report with the archivally provocative title 'Some methods of supplementing boring records'.

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Today, 17th March 2026, we proudly mark an incredible milestone - 100 years of @uniofreading.bsky.social To mark our centenary, we’ve created a Centenary Wall of Wishes where everyone in our global community can share memories, congratulations and messages for the next century. Write a message!👇

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University of Reading @uniofreading.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

We’re 100 today. On 17 March 1926, the University of Reading was granted its Royal Charter. Now, we wake up 100 years later as a global university, shaped by generations of students, staff, alumni and partners who have built something extraordinary together. Happy 100th anniversary to us. #UoR100

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

What can sheet music teach us about gender, race, class and disability in Victorian England? Student Engagement Officer Georgie Moore explores how gender was performed and explored on the music hall stage through the illustrated sheet music covers in our Spellman Collection. 🔗 Link to blog below!

📸 Don’t It Do Your Eyesight Good! (1895), written by E. W. Rogers and published by Francis, Day & Hunter. Performed by Vesta Tilley, the most successful male impersonator in Victorian Britain

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

In a new blog, Vic Pickup shares ten surprising stories from the archive of one of the world’s best-known romance publishers, Mills & Boon, held here at the University of Reading Special Collections. Link in the comments!📚💕

📸 Cover of "Love Him or Leave Him" (1950) by Mary Burchell, the pseudonym of Ida Cook. This was one of over 150 romance novels the author published with Mills & Boon (Mills & Boon Collection – 1950/017).

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Within our Cole collection lies "Episodes of insect life". Published 1850, it includes a range of crickets and grasshoppers parading as Victorian gentlefolk. Under the pseudonym of Acheta Domestica (Latin for house cricket), Martha Reeve, or L.M. Budgen, wrote and illustrated this work.

Insects pictured playing string and percussion instruments.

Gentlemen pictured riding insects and falling off them.

A maid pictured trapped in a spider’s web.

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Have you ever been 'attacked' by an 'absorbing passion' for natural history? Find it 'materially modifying' your 'whole course of existence'? You may be in luck with this helpful 1897 essay from amongst our varied museum studies selection👇

Book cover: “Essays on museums and other subjects connected with natural history”.

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

To mark Joyce's birthday this week and the final chance to see our 'James Joyce: Enigmas and Puzzles' exhibition, Fiona Melhuish, Librarian (museums and collections), introduces some of the early editions of Joyce's publications. Check out the blog post!👇 collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll...

collections.reading.ac.uk

Festivals of the Imagination: early editions of novels and poetry by James Joyce | Special Collections

In 2020, Stephen James Joyce, Joyce’s grandson, bequeathed the Solange and Stephen James Joyce Collection to the University of Reading Special...

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Happy Birthday to James Joyce!🎉 🎂 Joyce was born on 2nd February 1882 in Rathgar, Dublin. Joyce loved having a big celebration for his birthday. Come and catch the exhibition of James Joyce’s personal archive at University of Reading Special Collections @themerl.bsky.social !

A telegram to James Joyce in Paris on his 49th birthday, sent from Dublin by Samuel Beckett. Beckett wishes James Joyce a happy birthday using a quote from ‘Work in Progress’  (later known as Finnegans Wake). [SSJ A/1/2/1]

A fountain pen with a gold charm given to Joyce on his 57th birthday in 1939 by his family to celebrate the forthcoming publication of his book ‘Finnegans Wake’. [SSJ-OBJ/002]

The first edition of the groundbreaking novel ‘Ulysses’ was published on Joyce’s 40th birthday, in France in 1922.

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What's On Reading @rdgwhatson.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Have you caught the James Joyce: Enigmas and Puzzles exhibition from @uorspeccoll.bsky.social at @themerl.bsky.social? You've not got long to check it out - it closes on 9 February. whatsonreading.com/venues/museu... 1/

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

🔎In our next set of online exhibitions ahead of the University Centenary, we're exploring the history of Whiteknights. From 18th century Whiteknights Park, through to the campus we know today, make sure you check out the story behind these great photos via the link in the comments! ⬇️

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

‘A history of hand-made lace’ by Mrs. F. Nevill Jackson sits within our Cowie Collection, and contains 12 specimens of lace work, mounted on card and bound into the book.

another lace design mounted within the book

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Among a selection of Victorian spelling books and chapbooks that were collected by graphic designer and typographer Charles Hasler, we’ve found a rare alphabet book that could double up as a hornbook, published in Alnwick, Northumberland around 1830.

Page showing the alphabet and several rural illustrations.

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Many of us are familiar with leafing through the Radio Times at Christmas, but what did the magazine look like in the 1930s? These two contain plenty to pore over from the sofa🎄 That’s all from us at Special Collections, happy holidays! We’ll be back with you in January🎉

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

📚With the University’s centenary coming up next year, we’ve launched four new online exhibitions exploring our early history, using photographs from the University History Collection, parts of which will be made available for research next year. 🔗Link to view and photo descriptions down below!

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Check out our new Special Collections blog post! 🔗 collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll... Project archivist Jackie Bishop gives us a closer look into the family photographs from the Solange and Stephen Joyce Collection, currently on display in our James Joyce exhibition.

Photograph of Stephen James Joyce, c1942-1959.

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

This Victorian book from our Cowie Collection contains these beautiful engravings, one of which depicts Christine de Pizan, a prolific French poet and author of the Middle Ages. She is regarded as one of Europe’s earliest female professional authors. COWIE COLLECTION RESERVE FOLIO--007 2

Christine de pizan presenting her book to the Queen of France

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

For @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social 's focus week, we're looking at #eyaconservation , with some behind the scenes conservation highlights of James Joyce exhibition prep!

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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Are you a PhD student & interested in using museum collections in your teaching or research? We're running a *free* doctoral training programme for students at any institution to learn about working with collections. Find out more: collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/

Two students look at objects in the reading room at The Museum of English Rural Life.

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

In Part 2 of our blog series, Metadata Librarian Claudia Ricci explores an eclectic range of student publications: from charity magazines like Rattler and departmental titles such as Composition, to political journals and poetry zines. 👉 Link to blog: collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll...

Assortment of covers from Rattler magazine

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

We’re excited to see what #wicked has in store for us in its next instalment this weekend! But did you know, our Wizard of Oz collection comprises around 800 volumes, of which above is just a snippet?! We love these text illustrations by W.W. Denslow for “The New Wizard of Oz”, L. Frank Baum. 🧙‍♀️ 🪄 🧹

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Oliver Mantell @olivermantell.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Drake meme: 'Life of Showgirl' [no]; James Joyce Enigmas and Puzzles exhibition [yes]

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

We’ve been busy with university teaching sessions this week across the building. Our first year history students looked across our collections for some primary sources, and our third year history placement students took part in an exhibition workshop using our Children’s Collection material.

a range of books set up across some desks

“histoire des pirates anglois” front page

An illustration from “Death of Captain Cook” alongside some Captain Cook front covers.

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

How can our library collections shed light on student life at @uniofreading.bsky.social ? The University’s centenary is fast approaching, as Claudia Ricci explores early college journals & newspapers that offer valuable insight into the University’s past: collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll...

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

University of Reading Special Collections and @themerl.bsky.social have arrived at History Day 2025! Come and have a go at our badge making. We’re really excited to look at all the other stalls too! #histday25 @ihr.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social @senatehouselib.bsky.social

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Happy Halloween!🎃 In his poem “All Souls’ Night”, W.B. Yeats calls on the memory of his lost friends around a ghostly dinner table. The poem serves as an epilogue to his work ‘A Vision’, an philosophical exploration of the imaginary and the occult.🔮 👻 FINZI BOOK ROOM 19G/02

front cover of ‘collected poems of w.b. yeats’

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

In our latest blog post, last year's graduate trainee archive assistant Amanda Knight talks us through her archival findings surrounding Dr B.R. Morris's research into the works of John Cleveland. Read here: collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll...

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

These dramatic sketches come from Joseph Nash’s 1838 "Architecture of the Middle Ages: drawn from nature and on stone". We especially love how these sketches combine the everyday goings-on and tribulations of the townspeople with the striking gothic architecture behind. RESERVE LARGE FOLIO—049

Cathedral sketch, caption reads Louviers, Normandy.

Caption reads ‘In the cathedral, Bruges’

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

This bound volume of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and volume I of The Ghost Seer by Friedrich Schiller is exactly what we need at this time of year! These illustrations depict iconic moments from the stories, though Schiller's tale remains unfinished…

Spine of the book which reads Novels and Romances: Frankenstein, Ghost Seer

Frankenstein illustration of page 37 “the day of my departure at length arrived”

The Ghost-Seer illustration “he stretched his hand towards a new coffin. Suddenly the lid made a rattling noise and fell to the ground. The Greek lady instantly appeared.

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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

wake up babe new generational James Joyce exhibition just dropped

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

🥳 Now open 🎉 Discover rarely-seen letters and artefacts from the personal archive of beloved author James Joyce in James Joyce: Enigmas & Puzzles. Explore Joyce's social network of friends and artists, his family life, his inspirations, and the adjustments he made to work despite ill-health.

James Joyce: Enigmas and Puzzles. 7 October - 9 February 2026. Uni of Reading Special Collections.

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

We hold the world's largest Samuel Beckett Collection, and frequently welcome researchers, actors and dramatists. In April, this included the cast of the upcoming Jamie Lloyd Co production of Waiting for Godot – including actors Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter! www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/t...

nytimes.com

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter Are Ready for ‘Godot’

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Some of our books have detailed illustrated covers, like these three volumes on the life of Osbert Sitwell. Part of a collection of five autobiographical books, these were published between 1940 and 1950. [Finzi 23C/14,15,17]

Illustrated book cover of ‘The scarlet tree’ with the figure of a man, his heart and venous system drawn in red.

Illustrated book cover of ‘Great morning’ with the title in a gilt sun, and two statuesque figures

Illustrated book cover of ‘Noble essences’, with statuesque figures lining a room with a glass domed roof showing the night sky.

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Convinced they had seen a real phoenix, the owner of this 16th century book was not impressed by its illustrations. Belon’s 1557 ‘Vrais portraits d’oyseaux’ was used as a checklist for an avid birdwatcher and is full of their annotations. We wonder what the phoenix they saw was…? [Cole 136/5]

Book held open to an illustration of a phoenix. The owners inscription reads: The bird of paradise, the dead one I have seen

Book held open to an illustration of a phoenix. The owners inscription reads: A phoenix as vulgarly painted

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University of Reading Special Collections @uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

This dramatic cover is heavy enough to be wooden, but it’s actually made of papier-mâché! Henry Humphreys’ ‘A record of the black prince’ was published in 1849 and is full of detailed miniatures. [Longman 053]

Book held in hand with ornate 3D cover and shield over a red background

One of the pages of miniatures, with a scene of a battle on ships. The border is decorated with leaves and has the figures of two men and a lion.

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