This display has been curated by library volunteer Romilly Spaul, who will be on hand to discuss the display with visitors.

We are very pleased to be taking part in the South West Shakespeare Festival!

Drop in between 12-2pm on Saturday 25th April to see a pop-up display, 'Illustrating Shakespeare', featuring beautiful illustrations in our Victorian books and periodicals.

devonandexeterinstitution.org/south-west-s...

A pragmatic compromise: Erskine May's parliamentary conventions - The Devon and Exeter Institution This blog was written and researched by Dr. Nathan Tamblyn, Library Volunteer.  This book, more commonly known simply as Erskine May, is the authoritative reference source for the conventions which […...

Ever wondered why British MPs don’t address each other by name? The answer can be found in Erskine May’s ‘Treatise upon the law, privileges, proceedings and usage of Parliament’ (1844). Learn more about this ‘Bible of parliamentary procedure' in April's Book of the Month blog: shorturl.at/eef3Q.

Meet the curator!

Drop in between 1-3pm tomorrow to meet Kitty Vega, Isca Photographic Collection Project Officer from the South West Heritage Trust, who will be on hand to discuss the exhibition ‘The Isca Photographic Collection: Exeter Through the Lens’.

tinyurl.com/2rahcpve

A new exhibition!

Opening next week, we are proud to host 'The Isca Photographic Collection: Exeter Through the Lens', an exhibition showcasing the city’s changing streetscapes, its people, and pivotal moments in history, through the eyes of its photographers.

tinyurl.com/5n6zjwru

Book display - A woman's nature - The Devon and Exeter Institution A Women’s History Months special! When it was founded in 1813, promoting the study of natural history was one of the central aims of the Devon and Exeter Institution. For […]

There are still a couple of weeks left to catch the 'A Woman's Nature' book display, which is free and open to all. Just drop in during our opening hours.
devonandexeterinstitution.org/book-display...

Thanks to everyone who made it to our 'Librarian's Tour: Women's History Month Special' on Friday, where we shared stories of women working in the field of natural history in the nineteenth century.

Our Librarian Sonia was joined by Exeter Heritage Partnership volunteer Amelia - thanks Amelia!

What's on at the DEI this March! 🍂

One of her books also features in our display: 'A Woman's Nature', which is available to view until Saturday 4th April.

Today marks the start of #BritishScienceWeek and we'd like to tell you about Eleanor Ormerod (1828-1901).

Ormerod was a pioneering entomologist (expert on insects) and helped to define agricultural entomology as an academic discipline in Britain.

Read our Book of the Month blog: shorturl.at/Pklbw

The DEI’s oldest book: a fifteenth-century copy of Jacobus de Voragine’s Lenten Sermons - The Devon and Exeter Institution This blog was written and researched by Dr Anna-Lujz Gilbert On the outside, it’s an unassuming and slim little volume in a twentieth-century marbled binding. Open it up, however, and […]

Happy Ash Wednesday! Did you know that the oldest work in the DEI library is a fragment of Jacobus de Voragine’s Lenten Sermons (c.1493)? February's Book of the Month blog explores the history of this mysterious little volume.

devonandexeterinstitution.org/the-deis-old...

#incunabula #incunable

Join us for an evening lecture this month with Professor Craig Beall - 26th February!

You can also nourish more than just your minds by visiting our Courtenay Room café for a pie and mash special.

A date for your diaries!

Join us for our next second-hand book sale on Saturday 28th February, 11-3.

All books have been donated by our members and all proceeds raise money to support the Institution.

The students were introduced to some of the archival material that we hold here at the DEI, ranging from execution broadsides through to a handwritten medical recipe book.

Earlier this week we had the pleasure of welcoming first year history students from the University of Exeter to our Blue Room, visiting as part of their 'Into the archives' programme.

This #LibraryShelfieDay we’re celebrating one of our best-loved sections: South West Heritage. Many of these books were only recently retired from our browsable modern collections. They will be subject to safe handling practices going forwards, helping to preserve them for the future.
#ShelfieDay

Illuminating the library - The Devon and Exeter Institution Fashionable shoppers in Regency London could step away from the cold, dark streets into Rudolph Ackermann’s (1764-1834) ‘Repository of Arts’ and be dazzled by his new gas-lighting system, shining down...

Step away from the darkness of January and into the light! This month's Book of the Month blog explores Friedrich Accum's 'A practical treatise on gas-light', (1815) and the introduction of this new technology to our own library.

devonandexeterinstitution.org/illuminating...

29 January 2026 | Doors open 6pm | Tickets available via TicketTailor (£10)

January Evening Lecture 📣

This month Dr Nick Collins will discuss the ways in which technological innovation reshaped work and daily life in the nineteenth-century. This will provide space for reflection on parallels in the present day.

Join us for an immersive tour of the Devon and Exeter Institution's historic past. Meet characters from previous centuries who worked around Cathedral Close and have stories to tell!!

Tickets are purchased via TicketTailor. Refreshments provided 🍷

What's on at the DEI this December! See our website for further details ☃️🎄

Who is this woman, proudly wielding a Christmas pudding?

Find out by reading our Book of the Month blog for December: devonandexeterinstitution.org/whats-in-a-p...

You can also pick up Christmas cards featuring this image from our Front Desk.

Looking for a meaningful gift this Christmas? Adopt one of our books for your loved one and treat them to a private tour of our historic library, followed by cream tea for two in the Courtenay Room. Gift adoptions cost £45, and help to fund vital conservation work.

Email your picture to library@devonandexeterinstitution.org by 10th December for a chance to win. We'll share our favourites on social media.

We've included a few of our staff and volunteers to give you some inspiration. Can anyone beat the cabbage??

Competition time!

For this year's DEI Christmas card, we chose this beautiful wood engraving from the 1867 Christmas supplement to the Illustrated London News, based on a drawing by Wilhelm Kümpel.

Can you recreate this image, holding an object of your choice, to win a pack of 10 Christmas cards?

I had the opportunity to put together a book display this month in the @dexinst.bsky.social (title: 'Threads through Time')! It's based on depictions of clothing in the historic book collection 📚It will be on display until this Saturday, 22 November

On 27th November, Professor Nicola Thomas will discuss the Reinterpretation of the Redvers Buller statue in Exeter. This will be a space for reflection on the presence of the colonial past in contemporary civic life. Tickets can be purchased here: www.tickettailor.com/events/devon...

These are the words of Mary Somerville, writing in her old age.

This pioneering scientist of the nineteenth century is the subject of our Book of the Month blog for November - written and researched by our Library Volunteer Edward Maunder.

devonandexeterinstitution.org/mary-somervi...

This was when the veil between the living and the dead was considered the thinnest. The most famous of these stories is Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas carol', first published in 1843.