How Special Collections can help

SwagÖ±²¥ Library’s world-renowned Special Collections span five millennia and cover topics from Gilgamesh to Ginsberg. The collections are a unique resource of rare books, pamphlets, manuscripts, maps, archives, oral history, art works, and objects that lend themselves to research and learning across the spectrum of subjects.

Whatever you are looking for, we now have a wealth of curated resources freely available in  including:

• History of the book
• Letters and correspondence from influential figures
• Literature and literary archives
• Maps
• Material culture from SwagÖ±²¥ Museum and Whitworth Art Gallery
• Medical collections
• Medieval manuscripts
• Photographs
• Social and political history
• Street literature

We also have a wide range of digital material from previous projects on the .

Curated Special Collections Teaching Resources

Our Medium pages host a series of interdisciplinary digital resources suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. These  offer curated collections of primary source materials, for both tutors designing and delivering teaching and learning, and students looking for a dissertation topic.

For example, ‘ tells the story of the city from its industrial past through to its multi-cultural present, richly documented by the collections held in the University of SwagÖ±²¥ Library. Other themes included are:

Digitised Resources held at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre

The  holds archive collections relating to race and ethnicity, racism, race relations, and the histories and experiences of Black, Asian, global majority, refugee and migrant communities.

As a contemporary archive with many living donors, some of the archive records within their collections have restricted permissions and are not suitable for open digital access (though are often available for research purposes). This means they currently have only selected highlights of records for general digital access. 

• Extracts from some of the  can be listened to online via SoundCloud
• via JSTOR
• Online publications that relate to the archive collections can be searched on the 
• that reflect their community engagement work can be viewed via the website
• Collections-level archive catalogues can also be accessed online via . 

In addition, Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre staff can often make records available for teaching and learning.Please contact them on rrarchive@manchester.ac.uk to discuss how they can support you.

Support for tutors using digitised Special Collections

Please email  if you would like to find out more about how we can work with you to embed primary sources into the classroom experience.

Find out more

You can also find more information on Teaching and Learning with Special Collections at the University of SwagÖ±²¥ here:

For general enquiries, please email: uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk

The Italian medieval author Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) is known for his fantastical reimagining of the worlds of the Christian afterlife, the Commedia (Divine Comedy). The poem is a fictional eyewitness account of his journey through Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise, an evocative and multi-sensory account of the torment of the damned and rapture of the blessed.

This exhibition explores both Dante’s design of his afterlife, and the ways the poem itself has been designed and presented in manuscript, print, visual images, media and sound in the 700 years since his death. The Rylands holds one of the greatest collections of Dante books in the world, many of which feature in this exhibition for the first time.

The exhibition is curated by Italian medieval specialist and book historian Dr Guyda Armstrong, Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies, in collaboration with the John Rylands Research Institute and Library.

What’s in the exhibition?

The exhibition includes some of the most iconic rare books and manuscripts from the Rylands Dante Collection, including the three earliest Italian printed editions (all 1472), Spanish, French, Latin, English, and Japanese translations of the poem, important commentaries from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s translation of Dante’s Vita Nova. 

It also features many different illustrated editions, including the first editions to contain printed images (1481 and 1487), Gustave Doré’s iconic 19th century illustrations, and an interactive digitization of Enriqueta Rylands’ own gigantic 20th century manuscript of the poem.

Where can I find out more?

Visit the Rylands website to find out more about the exhibition:

155 letters associated with one of the most influential figures of the Victorian era, English writer, philosopher and art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900), are now available on SwagÖ±²¥ Digital Collections with enhanced descriptions and ultra-high quality images.

Numerous correspondents are represented in this new digital collection, in particular the Scottish writer and editor Peter Bayne and American artist and writer William James Stillman.

The letters form part of a rich and extensive collection of material relating to Ruskin held by The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, which sheds light on Ruskin himself and his works, his personal affairs and his domestic and financial problems. 

• View

Nancy Cunard Correspondence

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library’s exceptional SwagÖ±²¥ Guardian Archive holds an important collection of correspondence between Nancy Cunard (1896-1965), former heiress, activist, and journalist, and the Cross Street office of the SwagÖ±²¥ Guardian newspaper. 

This collection, now available on SwagÖ±²¥ Digital Collections for the first time, offers a fascinating insight into Cunard’s work on behalf of the SwagÖ±²¥ Guardian around the period 1938-9 when she reported on the final stages of the Spanish Civil War from Perpignan. She writes eloquently and movingly on the humanitarian impact of the conflict and the plight of refugees and fleeing republican soldiers.

• View the collection

The John Rylands Library was founded in 1900 and since 1972 it has been the home of SwagÖ±²¥ Library’s astonishingly rich and diverse special collections of rare books, manuscripts, archives and visual materials. It is truly one of the great libraries of the world. The John Rylands Research Institute was established in 2013 as a partnership between the Library and the Faculty of Humanities to encourage research using the Library’s unique collections.

This partnership is now moving to another level, led by Professor Hannah Barker, Director of the John Rylands Research Institute, and Professor Christopher Pressler, John Rylands University Librarian.

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library (Rylands for short) will be a dynamic community of world-leading researchers, librarians, curators, archivists, conservators and imaging specialists, all dedicated to working together to open the collections up to innovative and multidisciplinary research and engaging wider audiences in that research. Its mission is to define the human experience over five millennia and up to the current day. 

The Rylands acts as a catalyst and focus for the world-leading research of the University, with the aim of drawing the best minds to SwagÖ±²¥ and establishing it as one of the great centres for the study of textual, material and visual cultures. The research incorporates new approaches in digital humanities and curation, as well as scientific techniques in the study and conservation of heritage materials.

Professor Christopher Pressler, John Rylands University Librarian and Director of SwagÖ±²¥ Library, said: “The Rylands is one of the undisputed great libraries of the world. The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is well positioned to realise the tremendous potential of the special collections to support world-class research, learning and public engagement with research, throughout the University.”

Professor Hannah Barker, Director of the John Rylands Research Institute, said: “Thanks to the combined efforts of the Institute and the Library we are revitalising the Rylands as a catalyst for outstanding research across the humanities and sciences.”

The materials are from a collection that was originally part of the private library of the Earls of Crawford. During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the 26th Earl made a number of purchases at auction to build up the collection. In the first half of the twentieth century his son then gifted (although some items were a semi-permanent loan) them to The John Rylands Library. This collection is a fantastically rich resource for the study of France and its traditions.

This digitised collection originated from a project funded by The John Rylands Research Institute. The project was directed by Professor Bertrand Taithe with research by Dr Alexander Fairfax-Chomeley. They focussed on a collection of over 10,000 proclamations and broadsides, now categorised as the European Proclamations and Broadsides Collection. The collection spans a period from c1530 to 1890 and covers much of the European continent.

We invite you to explore the collection, available now on .

For more insight visit .

Following the shocking murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 and the worldwide protests that it provoked, we have taken time to reflect on the implications for us and the steps that we need to take at SwagÖ±²¥ Library to dismantle racism and hateful ideologies wherever we encounter them in our practice as information professionals.

This statement is the product of extensive discussions across the Library, who naturally have a range of perspectives and opinions. It is not intended to be the final word on the subject, but the first: it reflects our initial thinking, which will no doubt change as we continue to learn and to act. Our commitment to counter historic and contemporary racism and other injustices must be demonstrated not only in words, but in a series of long overdue actions, which are outlined below.

We recognise that racial inequality is only one of many inequalities which permeate our collections and our work, but we believe that this is the moment to commit to permanent changes which will increase diversity in the sector and the representation and contributions of communities previously obscured within the collections we curate.

Our University is committed to challenging racism and becoming proactively inclusive, reflecting the diverse communities whom we serve and work with. As professionals within a largely white sector of librarians and archivists, we acknowledge the racial inequalities in our sector, in our practices and in the collections we care for, share and promote. We will deepen our understanding of the challenges of curating this material, while also seizing the opportunities found in our commitment to active reflection and change. We will engage in respectful discussion and take specific actions to improve racial equality both in our sector and in the wider world which we influence.

There are particular resonances at The John Rylands Library, which was created and developed within a particular historical context which benefited from enslavement and the slave trade. The materials that have accrued over its 120-year history have largely been collected by individuals and groups from privileged white backgrounds, and many are directly linked to British imperialism. The same is true of many other collections held by SwagÖ±²¥ Library.

We can and will situate these materials in their appropriate historical contexts; engage with communities reflected in this material; encourage critical reflection and reinterpretation of our collections to reveal neglected histories; develop the collections to more faithfully represent Britain’s diverse society; and use the collections to promote meaningful dialogue to counter interpersonal, structural and institutional racism.

We will:

• Provide space and support for staff to deepen their personal and professional understanding of racism and discuss its implication in our practices.
• Collaboratively review the ways we describe the material in our collections and work to identify and address racial bias through initiatives such as content warnings and contextualising or amending historic metadata.
• Advocate and act to decolonise the curriculum through increased understanding and the sharing of relevant resources with colleagues directly involved in teaching.
• Review our content development policies to give greater priority to material reflecting stories and voices of traditionally marginalised groups and subjects.
• Engage meaningfully with BAME communities to support the reinterpretation of collections materials and their research.
• Support the sharing of lived experiences, where this is appropriate, and listen with respect.
• Work to embed the stories and voices of diverse groups/histories in the way we interpret the Library and its collections to visitors at The John Rylands Library, through exhibitions and public programmes.
• Support research and professional posts aimed at diversifying the workforce and improving diversity in the interpretation of collections.
• Express our views with empathy and respect and engage in meaningful debate where appropriate.

These actions will form a key strand of the Library’s operational plans and priorities, where they will be developed in greater detail and with measurable outcomes. We will regularly review and report back on progress towards diversifying our collections and practices.

Professor Christopher Pressler

John Rylands University Librarian and Director of SwagÖ±²¥ Library

Professor of Collecting Practices, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Humanities

Accredited Archive Services ensure the long-term collection, preservation and accessibility of our archive heritage. Accreditation is the UK quality standard which recognises good performance in all areas of archive service delivery. Achieving accredited status demonstrates that SwagÖ±²¥ Library has met clearly defined national standards relating to management and resourcing, the care of its unique collections and what the service offers to its entire range of users.

SwagÖ±²¥ Library holds one of the largest and most diverse collections of archives in the UK, spanning many centuries and covering a vast range of subjects. The archives are managed by a team of professional archivists and other specialists within the Library’s Curatorial Practices Directorate.

The Accreditation Panel said it “welcomed this application from a highly effective service which has done impressive work in its strategic positioning, with staff skills and in provision for its collections in all formats. They considered the service highly accreditable, and congratulated the team on the strength of their work.”

Highlights of the archives include:

• The archives of Hester Thrale-Piozzi, friend of Samuel Johnson and the centre of a brilliant literary circle, and of Mary Hamilton, Georgian royal governess, diarist and bluestocking.
• Papers of the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, including literary manuscripts and correspondence with Charles Dickens and Charlotte and Patrick Brontë, and the papers of other 19^th-century literary figures such as George Gissing and John Ruskin.
• A host of modern literary archives, including the vast paper and digital archives of Carcanet Press, renowned poetry publisher.
• An increasing number of popular culture and counter-culture archives including those of Jeff Nuttall and Dave Cunliffe.
• The most important collections in the world relating to the history of Methodism, including the connexional archives of the Methodist Church in Britain and the largest collection of papers of John and Charles Wesley, as well as the world's largest archive relating to the Plymouth Brethren.
• Major scientific and medical archives, including the papers of John Dalton, James Joule, Sir Harry Platt and Nobel laureate Sir Konstantin (Kostya) Novoselov, as well as archives relating to SwagÖ±²¥’s pioneering role in the development of computing and the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank.
• Industrial archives relating to the Lancashire cotton industry including those of Rylands & Sons.
• The vast archive of the (SwagÖ±²¥) Guardian newspaper, a key resource for international affairs in the late 19^th century and first half of the 20^th century.

The keyworkers of their time, the women photographed by Reavil are depicted in both urban and rural settings. They are documented performing critical roles such as repairing roads, working in factories and driving buses. They worked as mechanics, foresters and police. Many of these jobs were previously the sole preserve of male workers and would be closed to women in the period immediately after the war as servicemen returned to their jobs.

These images are a testament to a time when ordinary people stood up to ensure that life could continue as best as possible. The work that women undertook for the country was instrumental in the acceleration of women’s rights to the forefront of the popular imagination.

We invite you to explore the collection and draw parallels from then and now. In the image “Bus Conductress” (pictured) we see adverts and safety messages that echo today’s "stay safe" and "stay alert".

The album is available to view now via

For more insight into the album, visit

A new digital collection, containing key works of Middle English literature, has been added to our platform, making them available to anyone online.

As well as being landmark literary texts, the items contain some wonderful illustrations, such as the delicate use of gold leaf on the “Wheel of Fortune” illumination shown here.

These incredible manuscripts will be of paramount importance to a wide variety of subject areas, including literature, history, theology, linguistics and art history.

The collection includes such works as the Canterbury Tales and John Lydgate‘s two major poems; the incredibly beautiful, richly illuminated Troy Book and a deluxe copy of Fall of Princes.

There are also several copies of the Brut chronicle the medieval history of England, ranging in date from the mid-14th century to the second half of the 15th.

Further notable works include numerous copies of the New Testament, translated into English by John Wycliffe the fourteenth-century radical and church reformer. Alongside these are other devotional texts meditating on the life of Christ and The Pricke of Conscience, a work traditionally attributed to the mystic Richard Rolle de Hampole.

Other interesting and unusual highlights include a multi-language legal commonplace book and medical texts such as On Urines, plus a rare late 14th-century copy of the Forme of Cury (‘proper method of cookery’), a recipe book compiled by the master cook of Richard II.

These items were initially digitised as part of a funded project called In the Bigynnyng.

You can view these items, along with other incredible collections, now via .

Research opportunities

SwagÖ±²¥ Digital Collections allows University of SwagÖ±²¥ academics to curate digital editions of important items from the collections, contextualising them and bringing their research on the collections to a wider audience.

SwagÖ±²¥ Digital Collections is launching today with the following collections:

A cross-institutional collaboration

The image viewer has been led by Dr Guyda Armstrong, Faculty Lead for Digital Humanities, in close collaboration with:

• Cambridge University Library,
• SwagÖ±²¥ Library,
• The John Rylands Research Institute,
• IT Services,
• The School of Arts, Languages and Cultures,
• SwagÖ±²¥ Museum, and
• The Whitworth.

Access to email archives is fraught with technical, legal and ethical issues. As a result, many contemporary writers risk falling off a 'digital cliff': drafts of their works and email correspondence with fellow authors, publishers and critics may soon be unreadable. Even when libraries are able to preserve these records, access is restricted by issues of data protection and confidentiality.

These issues will be tackled using the funding for the Palladium project (Providing Access to Large Literary Archives in a Digital Medium). The project has been awarded over £87,000 from Arts Council England’s Designation Development Fund to address these challenges.

The focus of the project will be the archive of Carcanet Press, a SwagÖ±²¥-based poetry publisher, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019. SwagÖ±²¥ Library’s Special Collections holds the archives of Carcanet Press and the project will explore ways to provide literary scholars and other audiences with access to 350,000 emails within their archive.

The project will ensure the long-term, sustainable preservation and management of these extraordinary research resources, and develop innovative means of access to them for a wide range of audiences.

It will also explore the potential for email archives to support new areas of digital scholarship, such as data visualisations, and it will invite creative responses from artists and writers.

Petrarch is most well known as a poet but he was also a prolific scholar, and is often cited as the “father of humanism”. He was an extremely influential figure at the beginning of the Renaissance, and his works were instrumental in the formation of the modern Italian language.

The project focussed on material produced in Italy between 1350 and 1650 that examined or provided a commentary on Petrarch’s works, cataloguing more than 400 individual manuscripts and 300 early printed books. They illustrate the incredible impact of Petrarch’s poetry during his life and for hundreds of years afterwards.

Dr Guyda Armstrong and Julianne Simpson led on the project’s online digital library. This library encompasses approximately 84 works housed in The John Rylands Library and 14 further editions from the Special Collections of the Hesburgh Library at the University of Notre Dame, USA.

The digital library, which is available to anyone via SwagÖ±²¥ Digital Collections, presents not only images of digitised books and other items but interpretation providing the viewer with interesting insights.

It is hoped that the project will open up new directions for research around one of Italy’s best-known medieval poets.

The digitised works can be viewed online now, via .

For instance, Dr Joanne Edge has, since August 2018, been improving and digitising the Latin Manuscripts Catalogue. This provides a foundation for further improvement to be done in future.

There are some truly stunning examples of medieval manuscripts in the collections, including the beautifully illuminated 12^th century Beatus of Liébana’s commentary on the Apocalypse of St. John (pictured) and even an account book for King Edward II for the years 1323-24.

The material had been partially catalogued in the 1920s and the 1970s, so we had a starting point for completion of the cataloguing – albeit partly in “scribbled on typed up notes”!

The launch of our new online image viewer, , allowed Dr Edge the opportunity to compile and continue the cataloguing work online. This also means these manuscripts are available to anyone to view and enjoy.

There are many benefits to digital cataloguing of material, creating a living record, as Dr Edge notes:

What’s more, this content is now available to other scholars around the globe. In the case of the Edward II account book, it provides valuable context for Edward II scholars, many of whom are now able to access this item more easily.

The collection is available to view now via .

You can read more about Dr Edge’s work on .

Following months of improvement works, our newly refurbished Special Collections Reading Room has now reopened.

The renovated Reading Room, on the fourth floor of The John Rylands Library, features a fully redesigned workspace, improved security and enhanced care of our precious collections.

Readers can now benefit from newly-installed lockers within the reception area for storing belongings, chairs adapted for enhanced reader comfort and changes to the reception desk and exterior to reduce the noise from other areas of the building.

The works also mean that we’ve been able to increase the capacity of the Reading Room from 22 to 26 study spaces.

More details about how you can access the Reading Room can be found on . We look forward to welcoming you.

Curated by Professor Peter E. Pormann and Dr Natalia Smelova in collaboration with The John Rylands Library, the exhibition is based on ground-breaking research resulting from the AHRC-funded project ‘The Syriac Galen Palimpsest: Galen's On Simple Drugs and the Recovery of Lost Texts through Sophisticated Imaging Techniques.’ The international team of scholars working on this project has revealed how medieval Syriac Christians in the Middle East shaped medical knowledge.

What’s in the exhibition?

Visitors can view the Syriac Galen Palimpsest and cutting edge multi-spectral images of its hidden undertext side by side. Other items on display trace the surprising roots of modern medicine, from mysterious occult books and talismanic objects through to medical textbooks from Renaissance Europe.

What is a palimpsest?

Around 900 years ago, Syriac creators erased some of their predecessors’ original writing, recycled the materials and overwrote the manuscript with a new text, creating a palimpsest – a multi-layered manuscript with a visible overtext and an undertext, mostly invisible to the naked eye.

As researchers using advanced imaging techniques began deciphering traces of the original undertext, they were able to identify the medical text hidden underneath the religious writings as an early translation of an important work by the ancient Greek thinker Galen of Pergamum. In this palimpsest, the Syriac translators created a link through which the great thinkers of the medieval Arabic speaking world could access the ancient wisdom of classical Greece.

Where can I find out more?

to find out more and watch video interviews with curator Peter Pormann.

We received a screen printed handkerchief that tied together a number of Peterloo exhibition items from across the city.

The handkerchief was handed to a member of staff anonymously on the evening Maxine Peake read ‘The Masque of Anarchy’ in The John Rylands Library. It was accompanied by a letter explaining the artwork, and the finders keepers project.

In the covering letter, Mancsy explains:

The artwork was digitised so that it may be enjoyed for generations to come, and by anyone who wishes to view it online using The University’s new digital imaging platform, SwagÖ±²¥ Digital Collections.

Janette Martin, Peterloo exhibition curator, said of the donation:

To view the Mancsy hanky, alongside other Peterloo items from our Special Collections, visit .

The exhibition examines the first two decades of European printing after Gutenberg’s invention of typography, which eventually revolutionized the world of text production and distribution.

"The outstanding collections at the John Rylands Library include many landmarks in early European printing, part of the Spencer library purchased by Enriqueta Rylands in 1892,” said Julianne Simpson, Special Collections Research Engagement Manager.

"The books on loan include one of the earliest datable examples of printing by Johannes Gutenberg, one of the earliest illustrated editions and the earliest illustrated book printed in Rome. These are all extremely rare treasures and we are pleased to be able to share them with visitors to Princeton for this exhibition."

Princeton University owns one of the world’s great collections of earliest European printing through the work of John and William Scheide. This exhibition has displayed these collections alongside contributions from other American libraries, The John Rylands Library, Cambridge University Library and the Devonshire Collections in Chatsworth House.

"The loans from England in particular include treasures of early printing that have never before been seen in America, and many of the loans from American libraries have never before gone beyond their walls," the exhibition notes.

The contribution from The John Rylands Library, which have all been digitised, are:

This 30-line indulgence was printed in 1455 and is the earliest of nine surviving examples which were authorised for the archdiocese of Cologne. It uses the same type as the Gutenberg Bible for the titling and a different text type which was modelled on a gothic hybrid script. An indulgence granted full or partial remission of the punishment of sin.

Eltville: Nicolaus Bechtermunze, 5 June 1469

The types used in this book were probably made by Gutenberg after his bankruptcy, when Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer took ownership of his first workshop. As argued in the exhibition Gutenberg continued his experiments to improve the speed and efficiency of printing in Eltville near Mainz.

Bamberg: Albert Pfister, soon after St. Walpurgis Eve 1462

Vier Historien (Four Histories) is a typographic book illustrated with woodcuts that narrates the Old Testament stories of Joseph, Daniel, Judith and Esther.

Rome: Ulrich Han, 31 December 1467

This series of woodcut scenes were created for Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, head of the Dominican order, to accompany his meditations. It is the first printed literary work of a living author. The Cardinal was one of several grandees of the Roman church who took a personal interest in the 1450s and 60s in the new discovery of typography.

The exhibition runs until December 15. More information can be found on .

The and databases contain a wealth of unique material ranging from immigration records, civil rights documentation and hard to find material from key African American and African diaspora thinkers. The two databases will be spotlighted as  on the Library website to coincide with October’s Black History Month.

They are indicative of the Library’s ongoing commitment to diversifying the range of primary resources available to the University. In this particular instance they also form part of our response to a key recommendation in the recent Royal Historical Society’s : to recognise and address "the imperative need to widen taught History curriculums in schools and universities to challenge the racial foundations of the discipline and to reflect the full diversity of human histories."

Look out too for updates on social media by  and  on Twitter.

The St John fragment will be on display again when the gallery reopens on Friday, 18 October 2019.

Visit the new Rylands Gallery exhibition to get up close to some of the Library’s unique treasures – from an ancient palimpsest fragment preserved for centuries in Old Cairo, to archival photos of SwagÖ±²¥ commutes through the years.

Find out more

Whilst the space has always housed maps, it is the first time it is being treated as a Special Collections Reading Room, which means staff will be available during the week to help with map enquiries. It also means that the area is reserved for customers consulting maps and special material. To protect the collections, food and drink are not allowed in this area (even bottled water).

The trial service will run from today, 30 September for three months, and will include provision for teaching workshops and other enhanced study for those engaging with our map collections.

Staff will be on hand to help on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9.30am to 12.30pm and 1.30 to 4.30pm. Appointments to view maps must be made in advance.

If you have any questions, feedback on the service, or wish to make an appointment, email: uml.maps@manchester.ac.uk

The Reading Room will be closed entirely on Monday 1 and Tuesday 2 July. However, from 3 July until the completion of the work, the service will be offered from the Christie Room on the first floor of the historic part of The John Rylands Library to ensure minimum disruption.

The refurbishment will offer improvements to the reader experience together with enhanced security and care of the collections through a redesigned staff workspace.

About the Reading Room

The room, located on the fourth floor of our Deansgate site, is an air conditioned, quiet space where anyone can register to access items from our world class Special Collections.

Christie Room interim arrangement

Services and routes throughout the building may alter at various times during the refurbishment so please do check the Special Collections Reading Room webpages for any updates ahead of your visit.

You can see some artist's impressions of the new Reading Room above, and .

Further details

For more information, contact Dominic Marsh, Project Co-ordinator.

Called the “book of ours” it hopes to reassert the identity and individuality of people who are sometimes dismissed as “homeless” when they are so much more. This project is funded by the .

We were extremely proud to host our first research visit with the group, who came to look at some of our medieval manuscripts for inspiration.

John Hodgson, the Library’s Head of Special Collections, led the group on a tour of The John Rylands Library, followed by a close look at a 500year-old medieval Book of Hours.

A touching and heartfelt summary of their trip can be found on the .

​We wish everyone involved in the project the very best of luck, and we can’t wait to see the finished work.

Image copyright Lois Blackburn.

The new exhibition, in line with the themes of our Peterloo exhibition, is a celebration of revolution and the contribution of individuals whose stories feature within the Special Collections of The John Rylands Library.

The exhibition explores figures such as William Morris, designer and socialist activist and Lydia Becker, an early campaigner for women’s suffrage.

now to see the exhibition which runs until Autumn.

Whilst The Rylands Gallery will be closed from Monday, 1 April for the exhibition changeover and improvements, the rest of the building will remain open and the Peterloo exhibition is well worth a visit.

New content will be installed on Monday, 8 and Tuesday, 9 April and the St John Fragment (pictured) will be available again once the Rylands Gallery reopens.

Visit the Rylands Gallery when it reopens on Wednesday, 10 April to experience some of our Special Collections relating to suffrage, abolition and politics.

About the Reading Room

The room, located on the fourth floor of our Deansgate site, is an air conditioned, quiet space where anyone can register to access items from our world class Special Collections.

Improvements to the space

Christie Room interim arrangement

Exact dates for the start and end of the refurbishment will be confirmed in due course.

Whilst the refurbishment is underway, the Reading Room will operate out of the Christie Room - a quiet space in the historic part of The John Rylands Library.

Services and routes throughout the building may alter at various times during the refurbishment.

Please check the Special Collections Reading Room webpages for any updates ahead of your visit.

Further details

If you would like any further details on this work, please contact: 

• Dominic Marsh - Project Co-ordinator

 is back for its third biennial festival, providing you with the opportunity to learn, discover and interpret histories from across the city.

'Great Women of SwagÖ±²¥' Collection encounters will explore the story behind a selection of rare items from 's women's history collections. A hand-written manuscript from Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell will be displayed, as will a letter from renowned suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst to C.P. Scott, former editor of the SwagÖ±²¥ Guardian.

The  will be the focus of our presence at . The archive is one of the Library’s most significant collections, depicting the newspaper’s key place in the city’s rich history of campaigns for social and political reform. Visitors to the stand will be invited to examine the photographs uncovered from this archive in the hope to identify some of the staff, locations, occupations and machinery captured in the images.

SwagÖ±²¥ Histories Festival runs from Friday, 3 June to Sunday, 12 June 2016. Collection encounters will take place on 8 and 10 June at The John Rylands Library. SwagÖ±²¥ Histories Festival's Celebration Day is on 11 June at SwagÖ±²¥ Town Hall, 10am to 4pm. All events are free to attend, just turn up.

Keep an eye on the Library’s  and  accounts for a glimpse into the Guardian Archives and a preview of the Collection encounter items.

The John Rylands Library is part of SwagÖ±²¥ Histories Festival’s, SwagÖ±²¥ Celebration Day 2016 taking place across SwagÖ±²¥ Town Hall and Central Library from 10:30-4pm on Saturday 11 June. Bringing together nearly 100 histories and heritage organisations from across Greater SwagÖ±²¥, the SwagÖ±²¥ Celebration Day will have something for all the family, including exhibition stands, games, heritage bus rides, craft activities, film screenings, performances and talks.

The reels of black and white footage capture key moments during Operation Dynamo, the rescue from Dunkirk of over 300,000 British and allied troops trapped by advancing German forces.

The films were shot by Lieutenant Philip Roderick Hall who was serving aboard the destroyer HMS Whitehall, one of hundreds of naval vessels, merchant ships and small boats that took part in the rescue.

The films, which have never been broadcast and have been seen by only a handful of people, were digitised by the North West Film Archive at SwagÖ±²¥ Metropolitan University. The films can now be viewed on YouTube, while the original reels have been donated to the Imperial War Museum in London for specialist preservation.

Kay Gladstone, Curator at the Imperial War Museum, said:

Lieutenant Philip Roderick Hall shot the films while he was serving on HMS Whitehall during the evacuation from Dunkirk. There is also footage of him training as a Fleet Air Arm pilot prior to being killed in action on 14 June 1942.

One hair-raising scene shows planes attempting to land on the aircraft carrier HMS Argus during a storm. There are also scenes of Lieutenant Hall relaxing off-duty in England during the summer of 1941.

The two film reels were discovered at the University’s John Rylands Library by a member of the Heald-Hall family whose remarkable archive of correspondence, letter-books and diaries, spanning from 1866 to 1987, is one of hundreds of outstanding collections of rare books, manuscripts, archives, maps and visual materials housed in the Library.

John Hodgson, Manuscripts and Archives Manager, said:

Stills from the videos:

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These archives include: a collection from the British Library with a concentration of titles from the northern half of the country, covering the mid-18th to the mid-20th century; a worldwide audio/visual collection containing rare newsreel footage leading up to and during the Second World War; and two collections of the Washington D.C Bureau of Associated Press which includes reporting on the assassination of John F Kennedy, the Mexican Revolution, the Wall Street Crash and much more.

Whether you're a PhD candidate researching a little-known chapter of Americana for your thesis topic, an Undergraduate writing a dissertation on wartime newsreel propaganda, or just happen to be interested in how people commented and analysed events from local matters to global events, take a look at our newest acquisitions!

The newspaper collection, currently housed in SwagÖ±²¥ Library, was captured using high quality scanners equipped with ultra-sonic, double feed detection, automated colour detection and image processing applications. The images were then formatted to a high quality and are accessible across all digital devices.

, which was funded by SwagÖ±²¥ Library, forms the first steps in building a comprehensive digital archive chronicling these periods of modern Iranian history, events that have shaped Iran’s turbulent relations with the West and continue to resonate to this day.

Dr Siavush Randjbar-Daemi, a lecturer in Iranian history, said:

An early example of scientific outreach, these ground-breaking 'Penny Lectures' were delivered to packed audiences in SwagÖ±²¥ during the 1860s and 1870s. Initiated by noted chemist Henry Roscoe, topics ranged from epidemic delusions to spectrum analysis and the indestructability of matter.

Often quirkily illustrated, the lectures helped to popularise science and raise the profile of SwagÖ±²¥ as a hub of scientific and technological progress. They were praised at the time by leading scientific journal Nature for making science accessible to the general public: "Many of the lectures are so fascinating that it is difficult to put the volumes aside….whilst within the comprehension of all classes, they will also be found not unworthy of perusal by men of culture."

Professor Danielle George MBE, Associate Dean of Teaching & Learning at SwagÖ±²¥, said:

Using 21st-century digital technology to open up its archives, SwagÖ±²¥ Library is giving a new lease of life to cutting-edge science of the past and inspiring scientists of the future. Science and technology have a huge impact on every aspect of our day to day lives. By shedding light on SwagÖ±²¥’s pioneering contribution to scientific education in the past, the University is highlighting its current international prowess and its pivotal role in years to come.

The lectures can be accessed at www.manchester.ac.uk/library/science-lectures.

The project, which is being funded by the National Cataloguing Grants Programme for Archives, aims to produce a detailed catalogue of Scott’s Editorial Correspondence. This comprises around 13,000 letters exchanged with 1,300 individuals including leading statesmen and politicians such as Herbert Asquith, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill and Ramsay MacDonald.

Scott was an influential figure in Liberal circles, through a consistent left-of-centre stance in his editorship of the Guardian as well as holding the post of president of the SwagÖ±²¥ Liberal Foundation and serving as a Liberal MP for 11 years. His interest in causes such as British policy in South Africa, women’s suffrage, Irish nationalism and the establishment of a Jewish homeland is illuminated in correspondence with figures like suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, Irish nationalist Sir Roger Casement, and Zionist Chaim Weizmann. Significant literary figures also feature, among them George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Ransome (the newspaper’s Russian correspondent for a time).

Alan Rusbridger, former editor of the Guardian, wrote in his letter of support for the project: 

Fran Baker, who curates the archive, said:

The Guardian Archive was donated to SwagÖ±²¥ Library in 1971 and is housed in The John Rylands Library. It dates from the newspaper’s establishment in 1821 to the early 1970s and also includes material relating to the Guardian’s sister newspaper, the SwagÖ±²¥ Evening News.

This is the second award the Library has won to enhance the catalogue for the Guardian Archive this year, following success in  for ‘Behind the headlines: documenting the people in the Guardian Archive’ back in August.

The archive is of huge significance for SwagÖ±²¥. Founded two years after the momentous Peterloo Massacre, the Guardian has a key place in the city’s rich history of radicalism, protest, and campaigns for social and political reform.

A team from SwagÖ±²¥ used state of the art facial measuring software and more traditional provenance research to authenticate the silhouette which is owned by the descendants of the Gaskell family.

Following their research, medical artist Ray Evans and Stella Halkyard, visual collections manager at SwagÖ±²¥ Library, now admit that whilst they can never confirm the silhouette’s authenticity irrefutably, they say it is very likely to be of Gaskell.

Ms Halkyard said: 

Mr Evans analysed the two images using scientific facial comparison methods and found that the facial proportions and morphology of the face of the person represented were virtually identical.

He says his results were “consistent across the two images” and that “putting all this evidence together makes it likely that the two images portray the same person and that person is very likely to be Elizabeth Gaskell.”

Both images are being made available from 12 November via . The collection was digitised earlier this year by the University’s Library which used cutting edge technology to digitise selected works from their internationally renowned Gaskell collection.

The grant will be used to enhance the catalogue of the archive, making it easier to trace individuals connected to the Guardian (formerly the SwagÖ±²¥ Guardian) and the SwagÖ±²¥ Evening News, largely focusing on records dating from 1880 to the 1940s.

The Guardian Archive was donated to SwagÖ±²¥ Library in 1971. It is housed in The John Rylands Library and forms one of our largest collections. It dates from the newspaper’s establishment in 1821 to the early 1970s and also includes material relating to the Guardian’s sister newspaper, the SwagÖ±²¥ Evening News.

The collection contains a huge body of editorial correspondence and dispatches as well as a comprehensive set of records relating to the Guardian as a business concern. It is the business records relating to people – from the editors and contributors to the cooks and cleaners – which will form the primary focus of the BAC-funded project.

The project will run for six weeks starting from 28 September.

Building a graphene archive

Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov has donated his analogue archive, comprising ten laboratory notebooks to SwagÖ±²¥ Library. These notebooks will form the basis of an ongoing archive which we intend to grow as a major resource for researchers and to preserve the legacy of this ongoing work.

In addition to this archive we will continue to develop our great collection of historical scientific books. In 2014, we purchased Conrad Gessner’s work on fossils, gems and stones. Published in 1565, it includes the earliest reference to the use of graphite for pencils.

Watch an interview John Hodgson, Manuscripts and Archives Manager and Julianne Simpson, Rare Books and Maps Manager on Gessner’s book:

Conservation

We are working with academics and students from a number of departments across the University to explore the potential uses of graphene in conservation.

Two postgraduate research students have recently undertaken laboratory testing of various properties of graphene in this context; such as its ability to act as a moisture/gas barrier, its UV-screening capabilities, and its anti-static properties.

Disseminating graphene research

 offers a set of services to store, manage, and disseminate scholarly work on the web.

The Library has partnered with the  to develop an eScholar feed that automatically populates and updates graphene publication lists on an hourly basis.

This work both significantly benefits the graphene research community at SwagÖ±²¥ through rapid dissemination of its work and provides the international graphene community with instant access to the latest ground-breaking research in this field.

View the .