An experiment in higher education: Owens College opens, 12 March 1851
Dr James Peter commemorates the 175th anniversary of the opening of Owens College, a predecessor institution of the University of Manchester.
Latest Posts
Rediscovering Frances Power Cobbe
We use our collections to reignite the work of this near-forgotten Victorian philosopher and figure in the women’s suffrage movement.
Discovery and Empire: The botanical works of Caspar Commelin and Maria Sibylla Merian
A blog by Verity Burton, placement student, BA Art History. The John Rylands Library holds a remarkable collection of rareContinue Reading
New online collection of Arabic manuscripts II: from calendar to calligraphy
 In our recent blog, we introduced some of the Quranic codices featuring our new digital collection of Arabic manuscripts. ApartContinue Reading
Incunabula Cataloguing Project. Number 11: Blockbooks (Part 5) – The Art of Memory
In this final blog on the John Rylands Library’s collection of 15th-century blockbooks, we take a look at the memory aid known as the “Ars memorandi”
A new era for Manchester computing: the Ferranti Mark I, 1951
Dr James Peters discusses the Ferranti Mark I computer, installed at the University of Manchester in February 1951.
New online collection of Arabic manuscripts I: the Glorious QurĘżan
The John Rylands Library holds nearly 900 Arabic manuscripts. Our new online collection gives you a glimpse of this treasure house.
Edgar Woodall: Surgeon on the Front Line
Dr James Peters discusses the recently catalogued letters of Edgar Woodall, a military surgeon during the First World War.
200 Years of the Christian Brethren (Give or Take)
A Guest Post by Dr Tim Grass
Brought to light – A stone grotesque and the Artec Spider II scanner
By Tony Richards and Samuel Simpson The Rylands Heritage Imaging Lab have recently taken delivery of an Artec Spider IIContinue Reading