Discover Issue 9/September 2018

Issue 9/September 2018

INSIDE: Ada Clarke papers • The suitor and the sister • Selection of Elections • MRI grant success

DISCOVER The University of Nottingham’s Manuscripts and Special Collections

Welcome

Welcome Welcome to the latest edition of Discover, the University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections’ Newsletter. In this edition, I am very pleased to report two fundraising successes.

Following a two-year fundraising campaign, we were delighted to be able to purchase the papers of Ada Clarke, DH Lawrence’s younger sister. Dr Andrew Harrison, Director of the DH Lawrence Research Centre at the University, outlines the importance of the collection for teaching and research in an article in this edition. The purchase would not have been possible without the generous support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the University of Nottingham, and various charities, including the Foyle Foundation, the Friends of the National Libraries, the Aurelius Trust, the Duke of Portland’s Trust and the Thriplow Trust. The acquisition also attracted substantial international media coverage across TV, radio, print and digital media.

The campaign was supported by the University’s Campaign and Alumni Relations Office, to whom I am extremely grateful.

Our second success is that the Wellcome Trust has awarded Manuscripts and Special Collections a Research Resources Award of £100,000 for a project entitled Development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at the University of Nottingham.

This 12-month project will see the preservation, cataloguing and selective digitisation of the papers of Sir Peter Mansfield, the Nobel prize-winning physicist, and other scientists involved in the pioneering work on the development of MRI at the University. We hope that this work will also lead to the discovery and acquisition of further records relating to MRI and more detail on the project is provided elsewhere in this edition.

I was recently fortunate to attend a conference and visit various university libraries and archives in the United States where fundraising – or library advancement and development as they would say – is an essential part of the academic library landscape, far more so than in the UK. In Manuscripts and Special Collections, we have a long and successful track record of grant applications for acquisitions, cataloguing and conservation. Now across the University of Nottingham Libraries we are beginning to investigate alternative sources of revenue on a broader scale, to fund some of our ambitious development work.

If you would like to find out more about any aspect of our work please do not hesitate to contact me.

Meanwhile I hope that you enjoy reading this edition of Discover.

Mark Dorrington

Keeper of Manuscripts and Special Collections

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By Dr Andrew Harrison

Associate Professor in English Literature University of Nottingham

We cannot overstate the importance of the addition of the newly-acquired Clarke papers to the outstanding DH Lawrence collections in Manuscripts and Special Collections. The papers comprise over 600 items formerly in the possession of Lawrence’s closest sibling, his younger sister Ada Clarke.

The items include manuscript drafts of published works, correspondence between family members, a diary entry, personal papers, association copies, and some of the author’s possessions: an artist’s palette, sandals, a poncho, and some pencils which were apparently saved by Ada’s son John, or ‘Jack’, Clarke, who doted on his famous uncle. Lawrence did not consistently keep a journal or diary, so our knowledge of his life and ideas relies largely on his letters. Although well over 5,500 of these have survived and been published – in the eightvolume Cambridge Edition of the Letters of DH Lawrence and, since 2006, in the Journal of DH Lawrence Studies – there are comparatively few extant letters from the period between 1885, the year of Lawrence’s birth, and 1908, when he left Eastwood to take up a teaching post in Croydon, so the Clarke papers add crucial detail to our knowledge of his earliest years. Postcards from Lawrence’s brother William Ernest to their mother, Lydia Lawrence, and letters from Lydia to her sisters, Lawrence’s maternal aunts, give a glimpse of intimate family dynamics otherwise lost to history; French, Latin and mathematics textbooks offer an insight into Lawrence’s education at Nottingham High School and University College, Nottingham.

Anybody seriously researching Lawrence’s early life simply has to come to Manuscripts and Special Collections to consult these and other holdings.

However, the range of the Clarke papers also makes them an invaluable teaching resource. I regularly bring undergraduate and postgraduate students to the Bentinck Room at King’s Meadow Campus to show them letters, manuscripts and first editions which bring to life the publishing culture of the early 20th century. It is easy for individuals studying Lawrence to assume that the texts of the Penguin Classics editions they are reading are stable and reliable entities which straightforwardly reflect the author’s intentions. Showing students the many

Spotlight

Address book belonging to Ada Clarke [née Lawrence]. Contains copies of five poems by DH Lawrence (undated). La Ac 2/2.

Letter from DH Lawrence, Villa Mirenda, Scandicci, Florence [Italy] to his sister [Ada Clarke], 1 June 1926.

La Ac 1/1/152.

Photograph of DH Lawrence and his sister Ada Clarke, August 1926. La Phot 1/20.

alterations Lawrence made to drafts of his works, and placing these alongside letters he wrote about the process of composition, and the different published versions of a work in journals and in books, allows them to realise how texts are fluid and plural entities shaped not only by the author’s vision but also by the input of editors, transcribers and typists, and, less tangibly, by the broader demands of the literary marketplace. Students consulting the Clarke papers can look, for instance, at Lawrence’s University College Nottingham notebook (La L 9) which contains heavily revised drafts of some of his earliest poetry, or at an essay entitled The Germans, Goths and Vandals (La L 19), whose content was published in a radically revised form in Lawrence’s school history textbook, Movements in European History (1921).

The popular perception of Lawrence is that he was an uncompromising opponent of the Establishment who wrote and painted exactly what he wished and suffered the consequences when his work was censored and prosecuted. Examining manuscripts and early sites of publication shows students that the situation was far more complex than this popular account implies: as an author who needed to publish in order to make a living from his writing, Lawrence engaged widely and creatively with the literary marketplace, frequently editing his work differently for various audiences and, from his middle

Artist’s palette, sandals and a poncho belonging to DH Lawrence, c1922–1925.

La Ac 3/1 La Ac 3/2 and La Ac 3/3.

period onward, using private publication as a means to circumvent censorship. Lawrence’s dealings with editors, publishers and printers inevitably entailed a degree of compromise, and studying the care and attention he gave to his work and its appearance in print brings with it a new respect for his craftsmanship and for his resourcefulness, courage and integrity as a professional author. Only by moving outside the seminar room and into the archive – confronting students with original documents and rare first editions – can we enable students to ask different kinds of questions about Lawrence’s writing in order to discover this more complex story for themselves. I look forward to continuing to work closely with the Clarke papers in my future research and teaching.

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Spotlight

Richard Monckton Milnes’ letter and William White’s painting

By Dr Richard Bates

Research Fellow in Department of History University of Nottingham

Richard Monckton Milnes (1809-1885), a poet and politician, was the person that Florence Nightingale came closest to marrying. Her decision to reject him in 1849 led to a prolonged period of soul-searching, one that continued during a voyage to Egypt and Greece in 1850, and only began to be resolved when, on the way back, she visited the nursing institution at Kaiserswirth, Germany.

Milnes had been courting Nightingale for some time, though – as we’ll see below – his intentions may not have been entirely straightforward.

This letter, to his sister Henrietta Eliza Monckton-Arundell, Sixth Viscountess Galway, was written in 1846, at a relatively early stage in his relationship with Nightingale. It’s just one of more 200 letters sent from Milnes to his sister now held by Manuscripts and Special Collections (the Viscountess’ papers form part of The Papers of the Monckton-Arundell Family, Viscounts Galway of Serlby Hall, Nottinghamshire, early 13th century–1958, collection reference Ga, given to Manuscripts and Special Collections by the family).

At the time the letter was written, Florence Nightingale was 26 and still some years away from her famous Crimean War experiences. It comes from a period in which Nightingale, forbidden by her family in 1845 from taking up a nursing position, was feeling constrained and oppressed by social convention and unable to see how she would find an outlet for her professional energies and desire to make a difference in the world. An alliance with Milnes tempted her, yet she would ultimately feel unable to accept it, fearful that she would be merely exchanging the confinement of the parental home for that of a marital one.

In the letter, Milnes offers some impressions of Florence for his family’s benefit, and mulls over her suitability as a marriage partner. His father, landowner Robert Pemberton Milnes, had been pressuring him to marry. Milnes senior was from that part of the upper classes which valued status and breeding over money. The Nightingale family possessed a fortune – they owned an 80-bedroom house in Hampshire and a country home in Derbyshire. But as their money had come from the Derbyshire lead-mining operations of Florence’s great-uncle, Peter Nightingale, the Nightingales could not lay claim to centuries of noble heritage. Though the Milnes’ money ultimately came from

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industry too – Robert Pemberton Milnes’ grandfather had been a cloth merchant – Milnes senior felt that his place was among the landed aristocracy.

“I fancy Papa looks on the Nightingales as rather vulgar people”, Milnes told his sister. Thus, “he may look on [a marriage alliance] as rather a descent in society than an elevation … they are also all monied people to whom he would dislike exploring his pecuniary embarrassments and who, he thinks, would not sympathise with him as other mortgage landlords would”.

Nonetheless, Milnes hopefully added, perhaps his father “would be much happier with a daughter-in-law perhaps a little below our rank of society than with one higher, before whom he would have to be pretending to be something other than he is”.

Milnes here appears to be trying to persuade himself – as much anyone else – that a marriage to Florence could work. A marriage to someone of a different caste presented problems, but perhaps Florence’s unusual qualities would allow them to be overcome: “FN is certainly a very remarkable person, with a gravity of deportment which I can conceive many people disliking and a clear observant critical way of looking at things, which many might dislike, but which I find very analogous to my own. She is a companion worthy of any man of intellect [...]”

Milnes clearly admired Florence, but there is also certain ambivalence here, an awareness that Florence’s intellectual seriousness would not be to everyone’s taste. Nevertheless he wrote that Florence “is exactly the person whom my father would soon entertain a great respect for”.

Florence wasn’t the only eligible Nightingale daughter that Milnes had met. There was her older sister, Parthenope – later Frances Parthenope Verney. But Milnes’ view of Parthenope wasn’t quite as flattering: “[M]y feeling as to the two is very much that I am conscious of condescending to the one and of looking up to the other, which

Richard Monckton Milnes’ letter about Florence Nightingale and her sister Parthenope (1846).

Ga 2D 1019

Water Colour Portrait of Florence Nightingale (sitting) and Frances Parthenope Nightingale (standing), William White c1836-39.

National Portrait Gallery NPG 3246.

is true physically as well as morally.” Whereas Florence was someone that his father would greatly respect, “I cannot say [this] of the other”.

Parthenope was shorter than Florence, and generally regarded as less intellectually outstanding and physically attractive. She didn’t seem to have her sister’s determination and strength of will. To Milnes she, unlike Florence, was not a serious marriage prospect.

Milnes’ comparison throws an interesting light on the William White painting of the sisters dating from the 1830s, which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. In that painting, Parthenope stands with her face full to the viewer, and holding a book.

Florence sits beside her, sewing, with her head turned to the side. The painting, in other words, appears designed to negate the kinds of contrast between the sisters drawn by Milnes.

In this representation, Parthenope stands above Florence.

By holding a book, she lays claim to an intellectual capacity.

Florence, meanwhile, who would fight so hard to escape the conventional expectations of a woman of her time, appears as a seamstress. Perhaps the painting was an attempt by the sisters – or more likely, their parents – to respond to and shape the way they were perceived by others.

In that sense, perhaps Milnes’ letter has something in common with the painting. Gillian Gill argues in her book Nightingales that Milnes was very possibly homosexual or bisexual, and, if so, his pursuit of a wife could well have been partly an exercise in providing social cover. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography considers this unproven, but Milnes undeniably had a strong interest in sado-masochistic pornography, and was one of the first collectors of the works of the Marquis de Sade. This

only became known to his family and the public after his death.

In 1851 he married Annabel Crewe, from a Yorkshire gentry family. Annabel dutifully wrote to her father-in-law every day.

The couple had three children, one of them named… Florence.

Florence was almost certainly correct to refuse Milnes. The risk that marriage would threaten her vision of her mission in life was too great. Nightingale, unlike Milnes, had no interest in playing the society host, and would not have responded well to the programme of 26 society dinners and 12 breakfast parties that Milnes asked Annabel to lay on in her first season as a hostess.

In her diary (now lost, but quoted in Cook’s 1913 biography) Nightingale wrote: “I have an intellectual nature which requires satisfaction, and that would find it in him. I have a passional nature which requires satisfaction, and that would find it in him. I have a moral, an active nature which requires satisfaction, and that would not find it in his life … I could be satisfied to spend a life with him combining our different powers in some great object. I could not satisfy this nature by spending a life with him in making society and arranging domestic things … To be nailed to a continuation and exaggeration of my present life, without hope of another, would be intolerable to me.”

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Grant success

Inside story of medical revolution The University has played a central role in the development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging ever since the technique was first introduced. Nottingham’s historical importance in this field was recognised by the Wellcome Trust, which has awarded Manuscripts and Special Collections a grant for a 12-month project Development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at the University of Nottingham. This project will transform access to the currently uncatalogued papers of Sir Peter Mansfield and to the papers of two other scientists also heavily involved in the development of MRI at Nottingham – Professor Raymond Andrew and Professor Brian Worthington – together with associated records of the British Radiofrequency Spectroscopy Group.

MRI is a medical imaging technique, using strong magnetic fields and radio waves to generate images of the internal organs. Its introduction changed the face of modern medicine, enabling doctors to see detailed images of the living body without the potentially harmful effects of radiation or surgery.

In 2003, Peter Mansfield and Paul Lauterbur were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ‘for their discoveries concerning Magnetic Resonance Imaging’. The MRI-related collections held by MSC contain material such as research notes, publications, patents, lecture notes, personal papers, photographs, videotapes and slides. The Wellcome Trust’s grant will allow MSC to fully catalogue this material and properly preserve it for the future. Transforming access to these linked collections will create a unique research resource for the study of the development of MRI here, with important implications for our understanding of the past, present and future of large-scale medical innovation.

MSC will work closely with an interdisciplinary advisory group of academics, who will provide professional and technical support. We will make more information available as this exciting project progresses.

Images taken from the Papers of Sir Peter Mansfield (PPM), the Papers of Professor E Raymond Andrew (PRA), the Papers of Professor Brian Worthington (PBW) and the Records of British Radiofrequency Spectroscopy Group (BS)

Various editions of Adrift in Soho. Colin Wilson Collection.

Spotlight

Two years ago, in issue 3 of Discover, we covered the first International Colin Wilson Conference that took place here at King’s Meadow Campus.

It proved so successful that a second, threeday international conference was organised to celebrate the life and work of this East Midlands author.

Colin Wilson (1931-2013) had a prolific and enormously varied output, ranging from true crime books, philosophy, the paranormal, and works of fiction in several genres. As the finale to the conference, delegates were treated to a screening of Pablo Behrens’ film Adrift in Soho, based on Wilson’s book, which was in turn inspired by a draft manuscript by his friend Charles Belchier (also known as Charles Russell) called The Other Side of Town.

First published in 1961, Adrift in Soho is a semi-autobiographical story of a young would-be writer, Harry Preston, who leaves his hometown for London and ends up among an eclectic mix of artists, actors and other bohemians living in Soho. He meets James Compton Street, based on Belchier, who introduces Preston to the local characters and shows him how to survive in the seedy, impoverished Soho of the mid-1950s.

The book has been in and out of print over the past few decades, and we hold copies of the various UK and US editions, including the author’s copy of the first edition, a special 50th anniversary edition published by local independent publisher and bookshop Five Leaves, and a 2016 version that includes Belchier’s unfinished story.

The file for Adrift in Soho, compiled by publishers Victor Gollancz, is quite slim compared to those for some of Wilson’s other early books. It contains correspondence discussing routine matters such as dates of publication, payment of the advance, press reviews and a proof copy of Gollancz’s typical yellow dust jacket with red and black text. There are also several letters devoted to suggested changes to avoid potential libel accusations – much of the book was inspired by real people and events, and the publisher’s lawyers were concerned that there might be grounds for a lawsuit if they were too identifiable.

Right: Ticket to the private screening of Adrift in Soho.

CWA St/W/ M4/4/2.

Bottom: Gollancz publishing file for Adrift in Soho. CWA Gz/C/7.

More recently, we have started collecting a few items relating to the film (including the ticket from the conference’s preview screening in Nottingham), which was shot partly in and around Nottingham’s Lace Market and used extras from the local area. The cobbled roads, traditional Victorian street lamps and even some long-disused public toilets doubled as 1950s London and several cafes and pubs provided the location for interior shots of the vibrant Soho nightlife.

The screening was attended by Behrens and introduced

by Wilson scholar and biographer Colin Stanley, who has helped Manuscripts and Special Collections acquire much of the Colin Wilson material held here. The film is due to be released later this year, and hopefully we will be able to add the DVD to our growing Colin Wilson Collection.

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Exhibition news

The rights of women – or the effects of female enfranchisement, by George Cruikshank; 1853. Fagan Collection of Political Prints, Pol P 57.

Votes, Suffrage and Reform 2018 marks the centenary of the first UK general election in which some women were entitled to vote.

We celebrate by looking back at some memorable elections and exploring how electioneering has changed over the years.

Most of us are familiar with the principles of our modern parliamentary elections: one person one vote, secret ballots, and universal suffrage for people aged 18 and over. But how and why did these principles develop, and what came before?

Before 1832 few people could vote, and powerful aristocrats could sway the results by influencing their tenants to vote for their preferred candidate. Public polling meant that tenants were at risk of being evicted if they didn’t vote according to the wishes of their landlords. The three great Reform Acts of the 19th century (in 1832, 1867 and 1884) extended the franchise, but by the turn of the 20th century around one in three men still did not qualify to vote in general elections.

Included among the material on display are papers from the disputed Cumberland election of 1768 and the Duke of Newcastle’s pocket borough of Aldborough, revealing stories of coercion, bribery and corruption. Printed ballads and posters give a flavour of the songs, fireworks and spectacles which attended elections in the town of Nottingham in the early years of the 19th century.

Personalities feature heavily in the exhibition. The fourth Duke of Newcastle is shown opposing the Reform Act, and fiercely criticising his own son’s election campaign in South Nottinghamshire in 1846. Discover the fascinating story of James Morrison, the wealthy MP for Nottingham East lauded as ‘the

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The School of Reform by Charles Jameson Grant, (London, 1831).

Fagan Collection of Political Prints and Caricatures, Pol P 36.

friend of the poor’. Follow the tireless work of Fred Westacott, Communist Party candidate in Mansfield, in the 1960s and 1970s. And learn about the suffragists and suffragettes who campaigned for equal voting rights in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Using original archives and rare books from Manuscripts and Special Collections, A Selection of Elections illuminates 250 years of political campaigning. The exhibition has been curated by staff from Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham, and designed by the University’s internal design team.

Exhibition runs Friday 7 September – Sunday 2 December.

EXHIBITION EVENTS A series of events will accompany the exhibition at Nottingham Lakeside Arts.

All events are free but places are limited: please book on 0115 846 7777.

LUNCHTIME TALKS

Djanogly Theatre, 1-2pm.

Communist Party election poster, 1974. Fred Westacott Collection, FWC 4/15/1/1.

By permission of the People’s History Museum.

A GREAT ELECTIONEER AND HIS MOTIVES RECONSIDERED: THE 4TH DUKE OF NEWCASTLE Thursday 27 September The ‘Great’ Reform Act of 1832 attempted a transformation in the system of parliamentary representation. In what ways did those who opposed the Act interpret these changes and feel its consequences? Richard Gaunt, Associate Professor in History at the University of Nottingham, studies a notorious local ‘boroughmonger’ to see different perspectives from those usually advanced in the history books.

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE UP TO 1928 Wednesday 24 October Val Wood, of the Nottingham Women’s History Group, considers the impact of the franchise for the women of Nottingham in terms of women’s political representation and suffrage activism in the city from 1918 to 1928. Val refers to the first women councillors and discusses the possible reasons why it took so long to return a female MP. NEW DAWN? THE 1997 GENERAL ELECTION Wednesday 21 November 1997 represented a dramatic turnaround for a party out of office since 1979. Some say that to win, Blair transformed Labour out of all recognition.

Others counter that the party had no alternative but to become ‘New Labour’ and that under Blair it remained true to its historic mission of making society fairer. This talk by Steven Fielding, Professor of Political History at the University of Nottingham, reflects on some of the issues raised by the election, many of which remain relevant today.

Hustings in Newark, from The Illustrated London News, 28 February 1846. Central Store 1 Periodicals.

Opening hours

Weston Gallery Nottingham Lakeside Arts, University Park

GALLERY TOUR Monday 1 October 11am-12noon Join the curator for a guided tour of the exhibition and discover the stories behind the items on display.

Tuesday-Friday 11am-4pm, Saturdays and Sundays 12noon-4pm.

Free admission

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Recent acquisitions

Results and photographs from the Cross Relais International de Centrale, Paris, 17 March 1990.

UU 20/1/22.

Hand-drawn map and comments about The Roaches Fell Race, 1989. UU 20/1/22.

Film reels. ACC 2916.

What’s new?

The last few months have been busy, with more than 30 accessions. We are very grateful to everyone who has donated items to the archives and helped to ensure their preservation for the future.

University of Nottingham

The records of the University of Nottingham Cross Country and Athletics Society (UU 20) document the history of the club from 1949 to 1997. Seven boxes contain handwritten journals and record books, lists of committee members and club members, minutes, photographs, race reports and accounts, a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings, and a series of newsletters.

We were also delighted to receive a ‘time capsule’ of material from the Society of Nottingham Guides and Scouts (SNoGS) (UU 19) recording their activities this year. More detail is available on our blog.

Cultural life at the University in the 1960s is represented by a set of publications and programmes donated by one of our alumni (UL/F/3). They include programmes for Nottingham University Dramatic Society productions and catalogues for the National Open Exhibition of Photography in 1962 and 1964. Printed items, including issues of Gong, Gongster, Chick!, and Solar (produced by the Nottingham University Literary Society) have been added to the University of Nottingham Collection (UONC).

Video tapes and film reels, perhaps used as promotional material to attract new students in 1974, have been passed on to us by a former member of the UoN Technical Committee (ACC 2916).

The labels – Geography lecture scene, Rutland Hall, and Careers Advisory Scene – suggest that an interesting snapshot of life on campus is contained within. The films will need to be digitised by a specialist company before they can be viewed. We would like to know if any other former Technical Committee members have any material relating to the history of the University, especially if it is in a medium which can no longer be easily viewed or listened to.

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‘Celebrating Success’. ACC 2931.

We have also received photographs and slides of University buildings, including the Medical School, c1978-1981 (UMP/9/10), and photographs of events, tutors and staff at Nightingale Hall, 1990-1997, during the wardenship of Professor Jane Robinson (UMP/10/17).

It is important for us to collect material relating to the current work of the University, which one day will be considered just as historically interesting. The contemporary archives received recently include photographs of the Men’s Hockey Club 20172018 (UU 17); photographs from the launch of Volume 2 of the Letters Page journal, 2018 (UU/D/4); publicity material from the Arts Faculty, 2018 (ACC 2932); files relating to Nottingham International Women’s Day Conference 2018, a celebratory event hosted in partnership between the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University (ACC 2904); items relating to the national UCU strike collected at the University of Nottingham, March 2018 (ACC 2907); and born digital material relating to a staff engagement event for staff at University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus organised by the Malaysia Campus Human Resources Department (ACC 2911).

University research

Verdict of the 1816 Perambulation of the boundary of the Lordship of Warsop; 26 Jul. 1816. MS 350/2/1

Phaulcon rescuing the Jesuit (top), The Torture (middle), and The Parting (right) in William Dalton’s Phaulcon the Adventurer, or, The Europeans in the East: a Romantic Biography (London, 1862). Special Collection barcode 1007978207.

We welcome collections representing the work carried out by University academics, researchers and students.

The lecture notes taken by Professor Rex Coates during his time as an Engineering student at Nottingham, 1939-1941, form part of a group of papers collated by his biographer, Professor Stephen Brown (MS 1006). The papers illustrate the work of the Department of Engineering during Coates’ time here.

Professor Ray Page (1924-2012) was a historian and a former member of the English Department. His research into runes (ACC 2928) has been continued by staff here, including Professor Judith Jesch.

Professor George Brown joined the University in 1975 as Senior Lecturer in University Teaching Methods and Educational Technology. His papers (MS 1009) include references to his work on training dental students, and to educational research in general.

Finally, Becky Whittaker, Assistant Professor in Palliative and End of Life Care, has donated born digital files relating to her education work in Cameroon and the University of Buea in the 2010s (ACC 2931).

Literary, religious, business and local records

Three small accessions have been added to our DH Lawrence Collection, including papers relating to Lawrence’s literary estate (La Mc 2/7). These illuminate a dispute between Lawrence’s widow, Frieda Lawrence, and Lawrence’s siblings over the ownership of Lawrence’s literary estate following the death of Lawrence without a will in March 1930.

Interesting additions to the records of High Pavement Chapel in Nottingham (Hi, ACC 2917) were probably collected by John Crosby Warren (d.1931), a member and warden of the chapel.

The various printed leaflets, notices and programmes include a programme for The May Queen, performed by High Pavement Choral Society in 1916, and an annotated typescript lecture on The Portraits in the Memorial Hall of the High Pavement Chapel given by Mr JC Warren in 1923. We also received various printed books from the Chapel and its Sunday School (ACC 2922).

Further material from the Sealed Knot has been received (SK, ACC 2926), including photographs and DVDs of battle re-enactments.

Our material relating to the textiles industry in Nottingham has been enhanced with the acquisition of a press copy letter book from the lace manufacturers Thomas Oliver and Son, of Kaye’s Walk, Nottingham, 1898-1902 (MS 1005). This company is rarely noted, and we have no other material relating to it.

Jeff Bugg, a regular volunteer in Manuscripts and Special Collections, has kindly donated his research papers relating to his book, Edgar Gilstrap Simpson: The Nottingham Artist, Jeweller and Craftsman (MS 1007).

Finally, we received two items relating to the Dukes of Portland: an account of the 1816 perambulation of the boundary of the Lordship of Warsop, and papers relating to a proposal for financing improvements to Welbeck Abbey in 1890 under the Landed Owners Residences Act, including a list of tenants of the Duke of Portland (MS 350/2).

Special Collections

Notable additions are a number of books published in Britain in the 19th century highlighting different aspects of the Romantic movement.

Phaulcon the adventurer: or, The Europeans in the East by William Dalton (1862) is a novel subtitled ‘a Romantic biography’ forming part of the trend of popular literature set in exotic locations beyond Western Europe. Dalton is more famous for another romantic biography published a year before Phaulcon, in which he novelised the true story of William Adams, the first Englishman to reach Japan in the 17th century. Phaulcon is illustrated with eight leaves of coloured plates depicting adventurers in flamboyant costumes similar to the Albanian dress worn by Lord Byron for his 1813 portrait.

An interesting addition is a volume titled Essays on Gothic Architecture published in 1800 by the Rev T Warton, Rev J Bentham, Captain Grose, and the Rev J Milner. It is illustrated with 10 plates of ornaments selected from ancient buildings, showcasing various styles from different periods which resonated with the Gothic sensibility.

The Briggs Collection of Educational Literature has acquired two volumes of stories for children published in the middle of the 19th century: an 1850 edition of the Grimm Brothers’ Household Tales and, from the same year (in a 2nd edition), the Pentamerone: or The story of stories; fun for the little ones edited

by Giambattista Basile with illustrations by George Cruikshank.

An important addition to the East Midlands Special Collection is the recent acquisition of a first edition of Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, published in 1820. The copy is a rare find for having retained the original boards, all half-titles, untrimmed text, and ad leaves. This literary classic about a romanticised clash between the Anglo-Saxon and Norman-French cultures is partly set in Nottinghamshire, with Robin Hood making a cameo appearance in the story.

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Contact details Manuscripts and Special Collections The University of Nottingham King’s Meadow Campus Lenton Lane Nottingham NG7 2NR mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk +44 (0)115 951 4565 nottingham.ac.uk/ manuscriptsandspecialcollections

@ mssUniNott

Parchment, Paper and Pixels Highlights from Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham

Parchment, Paper and Pixels provides a taster of the wonderful collections held by Manuscripts and Special Collections.

This iBook introduces you to a selection of archives, maps, photographs, posters and music covering the globe from Iceland to China by way of Nottingham and the Soviet Union.

Download for free at: Designed by UoN Design

nottingham.ac.uk/open/ebooksandibooks.aspx