At this year’s Remembrance Day service passages from the Roll of Honour books held in the University Archives will be read. These books record the names of Queen Mary students who died in military service during World War 1 and World War 2. The stories of three students will be read this year and we have used other student records in the archives to fill in details of the lives beyond their military service.
Date added: Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Sir Joshua Reynolds painted a portrait of Sir Percivall Pott the eminent Surgeon at St Bartholomew’s Hospital which is still displayed at the hospital. In this blog Anne Marie Mcharg, Rare Books and Special Collections Assistant, will explore the life of Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Date added: Friday, July 21, 2023
All this good weather had us thinking about how nice it would be to have a swimming pool on campus. But did you know we once did? It was built in 1888 and entertained and cooled generations of East Londoners until World War 2 when it suffered serious bomb damage. But the building of the former People’s Palace Swimming baths, bought by the university, hung around until 2011.
Date added: Friday, September 15, 2023
After finishing the articles about our distinguished English poets and Greek philosophers who are featured in the old Octagon library, I discovered in our rare book collection another English poet many of you will know doubt know, especially if as a child you read his famous poem The Tyger. Well, I found Blake sitting on a shelf looking down on an old furniture Bible. I would like to talk about the two together and the importance they bring to our literature, and to show another side of William Blake and his works. A blog by Anne Marie Mcharg Rare Books and Special Collections Assistant.
In the last couple of months, I have been beavering away amongst our rare book collection cataloguing and updating records. Tucked away on the bottom shelves I found prompt copies for Samuel Phelps of Shakespeare’s tragedies, histories and one comedy. This small collection is printed copies from microfilm of originals held by The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. So, my thoughts turned to wondering, who was Samuel Phelps? A blog by Anne Marie Mcharg Rare Books and Special Collections Assistant.
Date added: Friday, July 7, 2023
A blog by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, June 30, 2023
The theatre has played many parts throughout the centuries, like a character in changing scenes. In this second part of our look at the history of the theatre, we pick up in Shakespearean times and look at the developments of more recent years. So, the scene is set, and the principal characters (the theatres!) play on. A blog by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Thursday, June 8, 2023
"All the world's a stage" this quotation from Shakespeare’s As You Like It has got my little grey cells thinking again as Hercule Poirot might say. While researching the great literary writers whose busts and names are in the Octagon, a question came to mind, when did the theatre and plays first start? What impact did they have on society and the world stage? A blog by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, May 26, 2023
I have written before about the three major Greek Tragedians , , and . Aeschylus and Sophocles both fought in Greek battles; Sophocles and Euripides were both child dancers at festivals. But what they really all had in common was Greek tragedy and theatre. A blog by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, May 19, 2023
The title may seem like an oxymoron – the People’s Palace ceased to operate in 1954 and its archives have been fully catalogued on our online catalogue since 2012 - but an archive is not set in stone, and in the last ten years additional material has trickled in (eleven additional boxes worth to be exact). We have recently finished repackaging, describing and updating the catalogue with these additions and this blog will cover some of our favourite discoveries.
Date added: Thursday, April 13, 2023
The Building Mile End Library exhibition takes you through the origins of the “Student’s Library” 1890-1920, the move to the new “Old Library” in the Octagon in 1921 and the construction of the Mile End Library 1988-9. But as much as buildings shape the library’s history at the Mile End Campus so do the people. In this blog we will focus particularly on the lives and careers of the earliest librarians that took the student library from a small room in the Queen’s building to the “Old Library” in the Octagon.
Date added: Friday, October 7, 2022
Hilaire Belloc was Head of English Language and Literature 1911-1913 at East London College (the former name of Queen Mary University of London). We recently re-discovered this connection because of a photograph in our collections. This role as university educator is not one that has been highlighted before in Belloc’s biography. He is otherwise remembered for his politics, poetry and journalism.
Date added: Monday, July 25, 2022
A blog by Rare Books and Special Collections Assistant Anne-Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, March 11, 2022
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on the gold plated names etched in the base of the dome. These are the names of eight Greek and Roman philosophers and poets that lived in the ancient world, whose works are still read today. This week the focus is on Euripides. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, March 4, 2022
New Collection Alert! We recently received a donation of the United Kingdom One World Association and Towns & Development Records. We are excited to announce it has undergone our initial processing and is ready for researchers to dig into. A collections overview is on our catalogue Ref. OWLTD and a box list is available on request. Read on to find out more about this new addition.
Date added: Monday, February 21, 2022
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on the gold plated names etched in the base of the dome. These are the names of eight Greek and Roman philosophers and poets that lived in the ancient world, whose works are still read today. This week the focus is on Aristotle. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, February 25, 2022
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on the gold plated names etched in the base of the dome. These are the names of eight Greek and Roman philosophers and poets that lived in the ancient world, whose works are still read today. This week the focus is on Plato. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, February 18, 2022
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on the gold plated names etched in the base of the dome. These are the names of eight Greek and Roman philosophers and poets that lived in the ancient world, whose works are still read today. This week the focus is on Socrates. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, February 11, 2022
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on the gold plated names etched in the base of the dome. These are the names of eight Greek and Roman philosophers and poets that lived in the ancient world, whose works are still read today. This week the focus is on Sophocles. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, January 28, 2022
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on the gold plated names etched in the base of the dome. These are the names of eight Greek and Roman philosophers and poets that lived in the ancient world, whose works are still read today. This week the focus is on Pindar. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on the gold plated names etched in the base of the dome. These are the names of eight Greek and Roman philosophers and poets that lived in the ancient world, whose works are still read today. This week the focus is on Aeschylus. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, January 21, 2022
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on the gold plated names etched in the base of the dome. These are the names of eight Greek and Roman philosophers and poets that lived in the ancient world, whose works are still read today. This week the focus is on Homer. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, January 14, 2022
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on several busts clinging to the edge of life on the balcony, looking down on us. This week the focus is on Lord Byron. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, January 7, 2022
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on several busts clinging to the edge of life on the balcony, looking down on us. This week the focus is on Sir Walter Scott. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, December 17, 2021
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on several busts clinging to the edge of life on the balcony, looking down on us. This week the focus is on William Wordsworth. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, December 10, 2021
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on several busts clinging to the edge of life on the balcony, looking down on us. This week the focus is on Samuel Johnson. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, December 3, 2021
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on several busts clinging to the edge of life on the balcony, looking down on us. This week the focus is on John Dryden. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, November 26, 2021
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on several busts clinging to the edge of life on the balcony, looking down on us. This week the focus is on John Milton. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, November 19, 2021
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on several busts clinging to the edge of life on the balcony, looking down on us. This week the focus is on William Shakespeare. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, November 12, 2021
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on several busts clinging to the edge of life on the balcony, looking down on us. This week the focus is on Geoffrey Chaucer. A series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Friday, November 5, 2021
Have you ever ventured into the Octagon, which used to be the Queen Mary library, for meetings or lectures and has your eye started wandering around the room? In doing so your gaze may have rested on several busts clinging to the edge of life on the balcony, looking down on us. A blog series by Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg.
Date added: Thursday, November 4, 2021
In a follow up to the Oral Tradition, Special Collections Information Assistant Anne Marie McHarg explores writing and words in their many forms.
Date added: Friday, October 29, 2021
In September the Chelsea Flower Show will once again open its doors to the public after a long lockdown. Let Special Collections Information Assistant, Anne Marie McHarg, open a book or two to showcase the wealth of rare books in our collection on plants and wildlife.
Date added: Friday, September 17, 2021
After her look at Aesop, Anne-Marie, our Rare Books and Special Collections Information Assistant, has taken a closer look at the oral tradition of storytelling and how it has developed over time, up to the present day.
Date added: Monday, June 7, 2021
Anne-Marie McHarg, Rare Books and Special Collections Information Assistant, has been looking at the books held in our rare books collection as she works her way through cataloguing them. First up, a closer look at Aesop and his fables, and a connection to one of our buildings which you may not know about!
Date added: Thursday, April 29, 2021
The Leo Baeck Institute London Collection is a valuable resource for the study of German-Jewish history and culture. It was recently deposited at Queen Mary University of London Library, by the Leo Baeck Institute London, and is available to researchers. In this post, we give an overview of the collection and take a look at some notable items.
Date added: Wednesday, February 27, 2019
A murder most historical! A detailed look at the deposit file of Constance Louisa Maynard personal papers, the first principal of Westfield College, and what it revealed about what is missing from the collection.
Date added: Thursday, December 12, 2019
A new way of enjoying our unique and inspiring collections at Queen Mary Archives & Special Collections has arrived! Follow @qmarchives to learn more about this resource for original research, see collection highlights and get research inspiration.
Date added: Wednesday, November 27, 2019
At Queen Mary, we love how our archives preserve the stories of ordinary people who are often forgotten by the history books. In this blog post, we look at the life of Christine Lawrence (1930-2011), whose experiences working in Tanzania in the 1960s are preserved in the archive of Donald Chesworth.
Date added: Friday, August 16, 2019
A couple of weeks ago, Archives and Special Collections took part in the Festival of Communities, an annual event co-ordinated by Queen Mary University of London which explores living and learning across the Borough of Tower Hamlets.
Date added: Tuesday, July 9, 2019
Donald Chesworth (1923-1991) was a politician and administrator. Over the course of his 45-year career, he worked for a wide range of organisations on projects aligned with his socialist values, both in the United Kingdom and abroad.
Date added: Monday, April 29, 2019
At the end of August 2018, Queen Mary University of London Archives received the personal papers of Jon John (1983-2017), performance artist and practitioner of body modification, from his friend and collaborator Paul King.
Date added: Friday, October 12, 2018
We have recently begun a project, enlisting the services of Codex Conservation, to repair fragile volumes which were in too poor a condition to safely provide access to our users. We have just received back the two hefty volumes from the first batch – completely transformed from their previous sorry condition!
Date added: Tuesday, July 3, 2018
The personal papers of Ian Hinchliffe (1942-2010), performance artist, have now been catalogued, and are searchable via our online catalogue. To celebrate the accessibility of this fantastic resource, we have been given, as a guest contribution, a version of a talk delivered by Dr Dominic Johnson at the public research event Hinchliffe’s Afterlives’ in November 2017, organised in collaboration with Dave Stephens and the Live Art Development Agency.
Date added: Friday, June 1, 2018
Records relating to the early work of Queen Mary’s Electrical Engineering and Aeronautical Engineering departments have recently been catalogued. The records form part of the papers of John Turner MacGregor-Morris. MacGregor-Morris (1872-1959) was Professor of Electrical Engineering at East London College, later Queen Mary College.
Date added: Friday, April 27, 2018
We are delighted to announce that the Archives service at Queen Mary University of London has been awarded Archives Accreditation by the UK Archive Service Accreditation Committee, representing the entire archive sector.
Date added: Thursday, April 5, 2018
For our second guest post of the year, Professor Rüdiger Görner, Director of the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), has written about an exciting new accession to the Archives - the personal papers of the German born novelist, translator, musician and visual artist Wolfgang Held (1933-2016).
Date added: Sunday, February 11, 2018
In a special guest post, Amanda Engineer, Project Archivist at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Archive, looks to newly catalogued material to answer the question posed by one unhappy customer, “Does the Catering Company exist to feed us or to annoy us?” Two surviving Complaints books, 1885-1954, and a minute book of the College Catering Company, 1936-1953, available to researchers at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Archive and Museum, provide a vivid insight into the eating experience and expectations of student doctors at Bart’s during this period.
Date added: Friday, January 5, 2018
The personal papers of the performance artist, Ian Hinchliffe (1942-2010) have been transferred to our Archives.
Date added: Thursday, March 16, 2017
Libris UK was an independent publishing company, based in London from September 1986 until its closure in 2014.
Date added: Thursday, March 9, 2017
2016 marks the 400th anniversary of poet, playwright and actor William Shakespeare’s death (baptised 26 April 1564, died 23 April 1616).
Date added: Thursday, June 23, 2016
The catalogue of the Grenfell family archives (1800s-1962) is now available.
Date added: Monday, April 4, 2016
In October 1974 Lyn Millington-Wallace, a second year economics student, proposed starting a women’s group at the college to campaign against sexism, and invited interested students to get in touch.
Date added: Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Blog number three in our Women’s History Month series looks at Lucy Masterman (1884-1977), a poet and Liberal Party politician.
Date added: Friday, February 26, 2016
Blog number two in our Women’s History Month series looks at Constance Garnett (née Black, 1861-1946).
This is the first in a series of weekly blogs from Queen Mary University of London Archives celebrating Women’s History Month.
Date added: Tuesday, February 23, 2016
A new Historypin collection and an archive gallery on the history of inaugural lectures at Queen Mary are available now, highlighting some of the lectures that took place between 1937 and 1986.
Date added: Friday, February 12, 2016
A new archive gallery showing a selection of student profiles written between 1949 and 1954 is now available online.
Date added: Tuesday, February 9, 2016
At the end of November, Queen Mary University Archives took part in the Institute of Historical Research’s third History Day held at Senate House.
Date added: Tuesday, December 8, 2015
The Globe Road Poetry Festival took place from 13th-15th November 2015 on and around the Queen Mary Mile End Campus.
Date added: Friday, September 11, 2015
The month of October brings the re-launch of the Inaugural Lecture Series.
Date added: Thursday, September 10, 2015
With the start of the new academic year comes the inevitable task of deciding which clubs and societies to join.
Date added: Monday, September 21, 2015
International Youth Day takes place annually on the 12th August.
Date added: Thursday, October 8, 2015
Cataloguing of the Grenfell family archives is underway at Queen Mary Archives. This aristocratic family has a long and interesting history.
Date added: Tuesday, June 2, 2015
The archives at Queen Mary are a rich and diverse resource for those interested in women’s history.
Date added: Tuesday, March 10, 2015
The catalogue of the archives of General Sir Neville Lyttelton (1845-1931), an officer in the British Army, is now available here.
Date added: Wednesday, February 11, 2015
The Roll of Honour for the Great War 1914 to 1918, has now been digitised and is available to download here.
Date added: Tuesday, November 4, 2014
In the history of women’s rights and education the case of Rukhmabai in India is a pertinent one.
Date added: Thursday, September 25, 2014
With so many men sent out to the front line during the First World War (1914-1918) the role of women on the home front became very important.
Date added: Tuesday, September 2, 2014
The Lyttelton collection held here in Queen Mary’s archives shows that it was not only General Sir Neville Lyttelton and his wife Katherine who got involved in philanthropic projects.
Date added: Wednesday, July 30, 2014
The Meanings of Military Service website is now available online.
Date added: Friday, July 25, 2014
An interesting letter has been found whilst cataloguing the Lyttelton family collection, from Katherine Lyttelton to her husband General Sir Neville Lyttelton about women’s cricket.
Date added: Tuesday, June 24, 2014
It was an active year for comets in 1910.
Date added: Friday, May 23, 2014
Katherine Lyttelton, wife of General Sir Neville Lyttelton, was heavily involved in helping the Belgian refugees during the First World War.
Date added: Monday, May 12, 2014
Cataloguing the many thousands of letters in the Lyttelton family archive is underway in the Archives.
Cataloguing of the archives of General Sir Neville Lyttelton is now underway, and many interesting items have already been uncovered.
Date added: Thursday, March 20, 2014
Did you know...
Date added: Wednesday, November 20, 2013
The Archives has been awarded a grant from the Centre for Public Engagement.
Date added: Thursday, October 24, 2013
An alumnus has donated a rare film of Rag Week at Queen Mary College in 1974 to the Archives.
A catalogue of the archives of Jacob Isaacs, writer and university lecturer (1896-1973), is now available here.
Date added: Friday, June 7, 2013
A typed letter written by the poet T. S. Eliot has been discovered in the Jacob Isaacs Collection.
Date added: Thursday, January 10, 2013
Our project to digitise the Palace Journals, 1887 to 1893, the weekly newspaper of the People’s Palace, has now been completed and the Journals are available to view online.
Date added: Friday, July 27, 2012
Constance Maynard was the first Mistress of Westfield College and a pioneer in women’s higher education.
Date added: Friday, April 13, 2012
The archives of Stanley Bindoff, Historian, are now catalogued and available to users.
Date added: Thursday, November 1, 2012
Here are a few memories of festive celebrations at Queen Mary from the Ghost of Christmas Past...
Date added: Friday, December 9, 2011
To celebrate the completed catalogue of the Constance Maynard Archive being available to users, we would like to let you in on ten surprising facts about the first headmistress of Westfield College.
Date added: Tuesday, March 9, 2010
The Archives Team recently visited the old campus of Westfield College in Hampstead, which is now a residential campus of Kings College, and heard of stories of ghosts reportedly haunting the grounds.
Date added: Friday, August 27, 2010
This Valentines we are remembering one of the many love stories that have begun at Queen Mary.
Date added: Tuesday, February 9, 2010