This month’s Rare Book Display on the Mezzanine level of the University of Portsmouth’s Library has been curated by Emily who we are lucky to have as one of our Student Assistants. Emily has chosen a fascinating and eclectic range of books.  All are beautiful in their own way.  It was fantastic to have Emily’s choices that reflect her diverse interests. Its an eclectic collection – from beautiful portraits of society figures dressed in their finest, divinely bound books and the poetic writings of Oscar Wilde; to the caricatures of Punch and Judy and finally the macabre Hans Holbein.

Looking back over the Black History Month blog posts from last year, you will find descriptions of the many powerful Black women who successfully overcame the frightening violence and persecution that followed the uptick in racism and fearmongering in the 1950s following the post-war economic collapse. Figures such as Mavis Best who changed the law from a tool of persecution to a standard for equality that gave police sweeping powers of arrest without cause and allowed them to intimidate Black people with the threat of arbitrary arrest and instigated the Race Relations Act of 1965 that replaced colonial laws and established equal rights in law for everyone, regardless of their ethnicity. These figures are so important that I wanted to revisit them again briefly here.

It was small…only around 5cm by 3cm, a little wonky-looking, and greyscale. Hardly the most ostentatious of signals, tucked away from view on the inside cover of a slightly battered looking book written entirely in French. What it was that …

A Narrative for Nora: from the smallest of clues to an international life story Read more »

A database reminder One person in seven experiences disability (World Bank, World Report on Disability, 2015, Washington, DC). Yet the story of this community and its contributions is largely absent from the scholarly record. Disability in the Modern World: History …

Disability in the Modern World Read more »

The history of the University of Portsmouth stretches back to 1869.  A display telling the story of the various institutions which became our current university is now on show at the Portsmouth History Centre until mid-May.  The display is a joint project between Portsmouth …

University of Portsmouth: Our History exhibition Read more »

The academic study of queer culture and lifestyles has become a popular field of study in several degree courses.  We have a broad range of books about this subject in the University Library. For anyone who is interested I came …

Exploring queer cultures and lifestyles in the creative arts in Britain c1885-1967 Read more »

For those of you who love archives and libraries and enjoy visiting museums and art galleries, this may be the website for you.  If you like finding out about forthcoming exhibitions (and anything archaeological and historical) see http://www.culture24.org.uk/home. It’s partly …

Culture24 Read more »