Transformative in our approach to digital humanities, the AHRC-funded “Legacies of Stephen Dwoskin” project examined Dwoskin’s social, political, technological and cultural influences, involving collaboration with Glasgow University, LUX, and BFI. research.reading.ac.uk/digitalhuman...
![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]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qm6izhyu7dijf25zwlysdkmh/bafkreihqrp2glrqokkyuf5of7r4cpx2scmll3vdzlnzjlmi2pd673kprhu)
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]
BFI’s “10 great British Films of 1976”.
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.
Whether you’re a student looking for dissertation sources, a researcher, or simply curious about this history, the Subject Explorer and the collections behind it are open to all. Read here: collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll...
📸 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.
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.
surely this would include a wartime cook-along challenge on the pod?🙏
📩Get in contact via our social media accounts or over email: specialcollections@reading.ac.uk
#uor100 #universityofreading #centenary
We’d love to hear from you: does anyone know of similar ‘Honours Lists’ created by students about students?
Does anyone know anything about the makers Clarice and Gwendoline?
And does anyone know why this roll was created?
Several also became @uniofreading.bsky.social members of staff. Dr Nellie Eales was a Zoology Lecturer, whilst Constance Bullock-Davies was a lecturer in Medieval English Literature and Language.
Amongst these pioneering graduates is Edith Gertrude Knight, the first female veterinary surgeon to qualify from Liverpool, and Phyllis Clapham, who became the first female scientist at Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust- we have some parasitic worms from her in the @colezoology.bsky.social !
📜What we find interesting is that whilst all of the students started their educational journeys at the University of Reading, this list captures where these women went to next.📜
Clarice registered to study for a Diploma in Letters at Reading from 1918-1921 and is noted as having ‘given’ the list, possibly sourcing materials. Gwendoline registered to study Fine Art at Reading College from 1924-1929, living in St George’s Hall like many others here, and illuminated the list.
Honours list with authors
🗂️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.
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
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!)
National Coal Board report with the archivally provocative title 'Some methods of supplementing boring records'.
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 📜
Think of it as one giant birthday card for Reading. And like the most special of birthday cards, it will be saved, cherished and kept for safe keeping - in the University Archives here at University of Reading Special Collections.
Submit a message!👇:
#uor100 #UniversityofReading #Centenary
Centenary Wall of Wishes poster
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!👇
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
The collection consists of around 2,500 Victorian sheet music covers, illustrating virtually every aspect of Victorian life and popular culture. Around 150 are complete scores. collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll...
📸 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
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!
📸 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).
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). collections.reading.ac.uk/special-coll...
Her illustrations, picturing insect-size humans, as well as anthropomorphised insects, seem to poke fun at Victorian society, as well as suggesting the richness and intricacy of insect life: "can we refuse to reckon as music the softest vibration of the tiniest insect's wing?"
COLE 379/08
Cover of “Episodes of insect life”
Insects pictured playing string and percussion instruments.
Gentlemen pictured riding insects and falling off them.
A maid pictured trapped in a spider’s web.
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.
Regarding whether or not to try to suppress this ‘curious condition of mind’ in your 14-16 year old son, due to poor pay and neglect of the field, William Henry Flower provides a touch of optimism: 'it is, I firmly believe, a profession of the future'.
COLE--032/03
Book cover: “Essays on museums and other subjects connected with natural history”.
Spine: “Essays on museums”, Flower.
Chapter 5: Boys’ museums.
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👇
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...
Our exhibition holds various gifts to Joyce, including an inscribed fountain pen and a telegram to James Joyce in Paris, sent from Dublin by Samuel Beckett. (More information in alt text).
![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]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qm6izhyu7dijf25zwlysdkmh/bafkreihxdb5wudpnw55nl4lulk6psswqdrgddqrwohupv27zkwakux4ay4)
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]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qm6izhyu7dijf25zwlysdkmh/bafkreidkw3d3d2s6pb37ldktql3ec6o656xglggbfz4fjud2sucrcyvnfe)
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]
![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]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qm6izhyu7dijf25zwlysdkmh/bafkreia55alkcwdfkesw3uglm3do6e2vg3mraiypaseeuzb6bqk6fxqx2q)
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.
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 !
