J. K. Rowling starts the seventh and final volume ‘Deathly Hallows’ in the Harry Potter series with an introductory epigraph from the Greek poet and playwright Aeschylus (525/524 – 456/455 BCE) The Libation Bearers.
The Library staff have been hard at work creating a display dedicated to the Harry Potter books and items based on library-related quotes from the seven Harry Potter books. The Harry Potter phenomenon started on the 26th June 1997 when J.K. Rowling’s Philosopher’s Stone was published. The author was then know as Joanne Rowling and some first edition copies include this name. The films followed between 2001 and 2011.
Harry Potter Display
Written and researched by Special Collections Librarian, Claire Arrand.
In response to discussions concerning ideas for creative collaboration between the School of Design and the Library, it was proposed that we hold an installation based upon the 97 Ideas About Creativity book, copies of which are already held by the library. The Library copies of the book allow the student to write within the pages and share their own creative ideas. The installation is being held as part of the Festival of Creativity.
97 Ideas Installation
The installation comprises of a screen in the library, displaying one idea per day randomly from the 97 ideas contained in the book – to present the ‘Idea for the Day’. Accompanying the screen element, a computer is available to Library users who are able to control the screen and browse any of the 97 ideas.
Special Collections Librarian, Claire Arrand has organised the latest display about making medieval inspired tiles on the ground floor of the library. Students and staff were under the direction of local artisan Andrew MacDonald from the Pot Shop on Steep Hill.
Japanese stab binding is a traditional technique originally used to bind pen and ink drawings.
Learn more about making books and have a go at binding your own book in this free, enjoyable workshop for staff and students. Suitable for all abilities.
The Nineteenth Century Entertainment section of the John Johnson collection is a rich resource for examining the history and cultures of all different kinds of performance in nineteenth-century Britain. One of the types of performance feature in this collection is the minstrel show. These performances, in which white performers blackened their faces and sang British audiences ‘a distorted and appropriated form of black music’, had been popular in Britain since the 1830s.[1] The blackface minstrel appeared on Victorian Christmas cards, and music from minstrel shows was regularly performed in Victorian drawing rooms—examples of both can be found in the John Johnson collection.
In using the John Johnson collection to put together this post, I found it fascinating to use the ‘Browse’ function. Upon clicking that tab at the top of the page, you are taken to an expandable menu featuring the five main collections:
Nineteenth century entertainment: This includes both theatrical and non-theatrical performance. It can be used to study both the history and development of different forms of entertainment, as well as high and popular culture
The Booktrade: Bookplates and publishing materials, useful to those studying the publishing trade as well as trying to look at the dissemination of different kinds of information during these periods
Popular prints: This includes landscapes, topography and artistic works.
Crime, murder, and executions: This includes broadsheets and pamphlets. It is useful for historians who study crime and punishment and well as historians of certain kinds of printing (such as woodcuts)
Advertising: This section of the collection contains a wide variety of advertisements and can be used to study economic and social history as well as consumerism.