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. 👇

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!👇

“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 👀

University of Reading Special Collections@uorspeccoll.bsky.social · 2mo ago

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. 🧵

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. 🧵

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. 🍯

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.

📖 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.

📢 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. 👇

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.

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.

🗂️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.

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!)

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 📜

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

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!

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!📚💕

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.

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...

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...

collections.reading.ac.uk

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 !

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/

🔎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! ⬇️

A wonderful blog from last year on #BBC Written Archive Centre descriptions in The Location Register of English Literary Manuscripts and Letters @uniofreading.bsky.social @uorspeccoll.bsky.social #archives #manuscripts #letters

Finding 20th Century manuscripts for the Location Register at the BBC Written Archive Centre - University of Reading Digital Humanities Hub

By Jackie Bishop, Location Register & WATCH Researcher     Introduction As the researcher for the Location Register, one of the University of Reading’s (UoR) research and digital humanities projects,....

research.reading.ac.uk

‘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.

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.

On next Wednesday! 🌟

The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL)@themerl.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Are you a PhD student interested in using museum collections in your research? Our next free doctoral training webinar takes place next Wednesday. Join us for guidance and examples of uncovering marginalised and minoritised stories in collections. collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/doc...

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🎉

📚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!

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.