University of Exeter Special Collections

Postcard featuring illustrations of piskies, wearing read and green outfits, holding hands and dancing around. Green text reads: 'Cornish Piskies' and red text reads: 'Good Luck'.

What better way to end the working week than with luck bestowed by some mischievous Cornish piskies!

We came across this charming and joyful postcard, dating back to 1915, whilst box-listing an archive this morning.

📷 EUL MS 408 Box 27: 1

#FridayFeeling #Archives #Piskies #Cornwall

Today marks the start of #BritishScienceWeek and we'd like to tell you about Eleanor Ormerod (1828-1901).

Ormerod was a pioneering entomologist (expert on insects) and helped to define agricultural entomology as an academic discipline in Britain.

Read our Book of the Month blog: shorturl.at/Pklbw

LibGuides: Special Collections: Science, Technology and Medicine: Introduction LibGuides: Special Collections: Science, Technology and Medicine: Introduction

British Science Week starts today!

We hope this online subject guide to Science, Technology & Medicine will be a great starting point for exploring our collections. It includes items relating to astronomy, fungi, the Channel Tunnel - & even the Exeter Hip!

#BritishScienceWeek #Archives #RareBooks

WORKSHOP: A Friendly Introduction to Palaeography!

🔎 Explore 14th century medical + culinary recipes
🔎 Based exclusively on records in our Archives
🔎 Learn about Middle English
🔎 No practical experience required

15 April | 2pm-4:30pm

Book your tickets: www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/whats-on/eve...

Renaissance Maps: Myths & Memories – Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution The American Museum & Gardens in Bath is home to a remarkable world-class collection of printed Renaissance maps. It was amassed by American Museum founder, Dallas Pratt, and includes rare and unique examples, rivalling those held by major libraries and museums around the world. Pratt began collecting printed maps of the world as a student and quickly developed a passion for acquiring examples that illustrated Europeans understanding of the world around them. Chief Curator, Kate Hebert, tells the story of the creation of this outstanding collection and shares some of the star pieces, exploring how they shaped our understanding of the world.

It was once not uncommon for maps to be populated by sea monsters 🐉 and imaginary islands 🏝️

🗺️Come along to BRLSI to find out what the world looked like in the Renaissance, with Kate Herbert, Chief Curator of the #AmericanMuseumandGardens🏛️

🔗

White text at the top says, 'Library training events for PGTs, PGRs & academic staff A dark green background' and at the bottom says, 'Check the details and booking requirements here: bit.ly/ExeterUniLibEvent'. In the centre are illustrations in white of a laptop, a piece of paper with a pencil, and a stack of books on a bright green border and 'NEXT WEEK' in white capital letters above it. A bright green graphic of a calendar is in the top left-hand corner.

Library events next week include:

Writing a Literature Review (Doctoral College students)
Enhancing E-books: tools for making reading online easier and more productive
Group Work
Presentations
AI Escape Room Experience
Drop-Ins/Research Cafés

See more & book: bit.ly/ExeterUniLibEvent 🗓️

Illustration of a nun standing on the left-hand corner of a blue border. She is wearing a grey habit, black veil and a white linen crown forming a cross over her head, with five red spots that represent the five wounds of Christ. She is holding a book bound in brown leather in front of her, which she appears completely engrossed in. To her right are words in Latin.

We love this tiny illustration of a Bridgettine nun engrossed in a book!

She can be found in the border of Sister Mary Dominic's vow in the Syon Abbey archive.

📷 EUL MS 389/COM/2/2/3/4 (date: 1924-27)

#WorldBookDay #SyonAbbey #Nuntastic

You can find all our events & links for booking here: https://linktr.ee/exeterlibraryevents

✨ A quick update of our events heading into March, April and May.

You'll find your usual discos, quizzes, live music and creative writing events, along with some reptiles, theatre and Lego robots!

#LoveLibraries

To celebrate World Book Day, why not check out our upcoming Words Alive in Libraries events! ⬇️

Shelf of small books in the Syon Abbey Library. Most have parchment bindings and hand-made modern orange labels created by the community of Syon Abbey.

Shelves of books in the Chris Brooks Collection. The books in this photograph were written for children and young adults in the 19th and early 20th century, and many of them have colourful and illustrated bindings.

Shelves of late 19th and 20th century books in the Hypatia Collection of books and journals by and about women. Many of the books have colourful or illustrated spines.

Four shelves of 19th and 20th century books in the John Betjeman Library

Our rare book collections are available for EVERYONE to access for research or enjoyment in our reading room!

With more than 50,000 books published between 1471 and 2025, we have something for everyone.

Find out more! ➡️ libguides.exeter.ac.uk/archives/books

#WorldBookDay #RareBooks #Exeter

Gool Peran Lowen! Happy St Piran’s Day! 🏴🏳️〓〓

Today we are sharing this beautifully coloured, illustrated postcard from the 1920s — part of the Perranzabuloe parish church collection — depicting the legendary arrival of St Piran in Cornwall.

Kernow bys vyken! 🖤🤍

#StPiransDay #GoolPeran #Kernow

'The Library' by Graci Wakely, Exeter Young City Laureate - Literature Works To mark World Book Day 2026 and the National Year Of Reading, we are pleased to share a new commissioned poem from the first ever Exeter Young City Laureate, Graci Wakely. It shares an insight into…

We are pleased to share a new commissioned poem from the first ever Exeter Young City Laureate, Graci Wakely. 'The Library' shares an insight into the joys of reading, so it’s perfect to mark @worldbookdayuk.bsky.social today.

Read here:

A page from a manuscript commentary on 'Al-'awāmil al-jadīdah', written in Arabic. The patterned border is decorated in red ink.

This is a page from a 20th century manuscript entitled 'I' lam al-haqabbat' (a treatise on Arabic grammar). It is a commentary on 'Al-'awāmil al-jadīdah' by the 16th century Turkish scholar Muhammad ibn Al-Birkawi. The scribe and date is unknown.

📷 EUL MS 219

#NationalGrammarDay #Arabic #Archives

English alt text / Tekst aral Sowsnek: An English-language poster for the Women of the Gorsedh exhibition at Penryn Campus Library in March 2026. There are three pictures of Cornish bards in blue robes on a blue background.

It’s finally here! We’re very excited to announce that our Women of the Gorsedh exhibition is now open at Penryn Campus Library. 🎉

Celebrating women who have made important contributions to Cornish culture and heritage, the exhibition will be up throughout March. Make sure to come and see it!

The People of Exeter - Exeter Observer An afternoon hosted by Love St Thomas focussed on Exeter’s historic multicultural character with talks, conversation and a community lunch.

ON OUR RADAR // The People of Exeter 🗣️🥪⚽

An afternoon hosted by Love St Thomas focussed on Exeter’s historic multicultural character with talks, conversation and a community lunch.

🗓️ Sat 7 March
🕑 2-5pm
📍 St Thomas Church Hall, Cowick Street

exeterobserver.org/2026/02/26/t...

This Monday, discover the highly-skilled roles occupied by talented women here at Exeter Cathedral across the centuries 🔍

Hatter, seamstress, blacksmith… who else will you uncover with our Cathedral Librarian & Archivist?

✦ 9 March, 1pm-3pm
✦ More info: www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/whats-on/eve...

Hope you enjoyed the sunshine! ☀️

Collage of four early 19th century colour illustrations of animals numbered one to four. Number 1 is an illustration a malbrouck monkey sitting on a branch and holding a piece of fruit. It appears to be smiling rather sweetly. Number two is an illustration of a lemming on a piece of grass. It looks distinctly disgruntled and its open mouth (with sharp teeth!) appears to be shouting. Number 3 is a an illustration of a manatee, lying on its side next to some water. It looks exhausted and rather fed up. Number 4 is an illustration of a grizzly bear. It appears to have a cheeky expression on its face and a little red tongue is sticking out of its mouth!

We love finding images of wildlife in our collections! ♥️

One of our favourite books is 'Animated Nature' (1828) by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. Which of these illustrations from the book best sums up your mood today?

📷 Reserve 590 BUF

#WorldWildlifeDay #Animals #MondayMood #RareBooks

A colour illustration of the European lobster, showing the deep blue colouration of the shell. The illustration is large enough that the page is trifold to fit within the book

Today is #WorldWildlifeDay. We could find many images of wildlife in our collections @thembauk.bsky.social but this one of the European lobster caught our eye. We hope you like as much as we do
📖BL.42/L - Malacostraca podophthalmata Britanniae. W.E Leach, 1815-1875. Illustrations by James Sowerby

A sepia coloured page with two adult coots, one standing and one floating on the water. A coot chick is running towards the floating adult with its tiny wings flapping and beak open. Its parent is calm and sedate, floating on the water.

It's #worldwildlifeday and here are a group of beautiful coots, drawn by illustrator E. H. Shepard.

Shepard, best known for his illustrations for 'Winnie-the-Pooh', often made studies of wildlife in his sketchbooks.

Ref. ST/SB/7, (c) The Shepard Trust

#coots #ehshepard #eyawildlife

LibGuides: Special Collections: Women's History Resources: Introduction LibGuides: Special Collections: Women's History Resources: Introduction

March is Women's History Month!

Women are present throughout our collections but their narratives can be harder to find.

Our online guide addresses this imbalance by highlighting archives and rare books relating to women, which can be accessed for research or enjoyment.

#WomensHistoryMonth #WHM

Our latest exhibition, ‘Cornwall in Print’ is OPEN! 🥳🎉

Explore Cornwall’s historic letterpress printing industry, including stories about its community of printers. Discover what letterpress is, why its invention was so far reaching and why it is such an important part of our history.

Exeter Phoenix is hosting this free Curation for Cinema workshop on Friday 6th March as part of Two Short Nights. Aimed specifically for 16-25-year-olds, it will be interactive and invaluable to anyone with an interest in curation, event management and/or cinema: exeterphoenix.org.uk/events/irl-c...

White text at the top says, 'Library training events for PGTs, PGRs & academic staff A dark green background' and at the bottom says, 'Check the details and booking requirements here: bit.ly/ExeterUniLibEvent'. In the centre are illustrations in white of a laptop, a piece of paper with a pencil, and a stack of books on a bright green border and 'NEXT WEEK' in white capital letters above it. A bright green graphic of a calendar is in the top left-hand corner.

Library events next week include:

Dissertations: Critical Reading & Writing
Crafting Clever GenAI Prompts
Intros to APA, Chicago & Harvard referencing
Introduction to EndNote
AI Escape Room Experience
AI Playground
Drop-Ins/Research Cafés

See more & book: bit.ly/ExeterUniLibEvent 🗓️

A display including several books from the Gorsedh Kernow Special Collection

Have you seen the new display in our case yet?

Our #GorsedhKernow Special Collection covers topics from ancient crosses to Shakespeare to the #Cornish language.

Come and see some highlights on level 0 of the Exchange Building - and remember, our Women of the Gorsedh exhibition opens next week too!

Words Alive in Libraries - Literature Works Words Alive in Libraries is a fourth partnership with the South Western Regional Library Service, building on the success of previous writer tours of libraries around the south west.This time, the tou...

📚 WORDS ALIVE IN LIBRARIES 🌿

Looking for a moment of calm, reflection, and creative inspiration? Explore life writing, nature, and wellbeing with A Flat Place author @noreenmasud.bsky.social.

📅 26 March 2026
📍 University of Exeter (Streatham)

@swrls.bsky.social @literatureworks.bsky.social

Colour illustration of a pangolin in side profile. It has a long body, short legs, and a long, strong tail. Its body is covered in large plate-like scales that in appearance are comparable to a pine cone. It has a long snout, and one eye is fixed upon you!

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend, but especially to all the pangolins, for tomorrow is their special day!

Ahead of World Pangolin Day, here is an illustration of a pangolin from 'Animated Nature' (1828) by Georges-Louis Leclerc.

📷 Reserve 590 BUF

#WorldPangolinDay #PangolinDay #RareBooks

As the Winter Olympics conclude, we've been seeking our own "Cathedral gold" in our Library. Tucked among the historic Harington Collection is a handsome 1810 edition of Joseph Strutt’s 'Sports and Pastimes of the People of England'.

Read the full story: www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/news-events/...

Two black and white formal group photographs. The top photograph shows four rows of women outside Hope Hall. In the front row, a woman sitting in the centre is holding a tiny black and white kitten. The caption underneath reads: 'Photograph of residents of Hope Hall, 1935-1936, University Archive: EUL UA add. 17'. The bottom photograph shows four rows of men in the grounds of Reed Hall. At the centre of the front row, a spaniel looks towards the camera. The caption underneath reads: 'Photograph of the residents of Reed Hall, 1944-1945, University Archive: EUL UA/p/3/i'.

We love finding photographs of pets in archives! ❤️

Can you spot any pets in these Halls of Residence group photographs from our University Archive?

📷 EUL UA add. 17 & EUL UA P/3/i

#LoveYourPetDay #UniOfExeterArchive #ArchiveCats #ArchiveDogs #Archives

Announcing our 2026 Young Writers' Flash Fiction Competition - Literature Works Entries are now open to our Young Writers' Flash Fiction Competition, Between the Lines, 2026. If you’re aged between 10 and 18-years, send us your Flash Fiction, 250 or 500-word story. There are two ...

📝 Entries are now open for this year's Young Writers’ Flash Fiction Competition.

literatureworks.org.uk/announcing-o...