Items · History Day · University of London

Library book shelves with shelf end signs reading, "B - magic and science" and "FA Astrology and Astronomy".

All work and all play: unconventional sciences at the Warburg Library

This blog post was written by Kella Lawrinson and Simone Monti, Graduate Library Trainees at the Warburg Institute as part of a series of posts on the theme of ‘Human Discovery: Experiencing Science’ for History Day 2022.

Open page of a book with a pressed flower on one side and diagrams of spiders on the other.

From 15th Century to Today: How to Find Treasures in Linnean Collections

Head of Collections, Isabelle Charmantier, and Librarian Will Beharrell explain how to navigate the Linnean Collections

From woodcut to photograph: techniques of book illustration:

This exhibition explores the history of the development of illustrative techniques from woodcuts through to photographs.

Introduction to Special Collections

This video offers an introduction to the Special Collections at Londo Metropolitan University

Title page of Hector Boece's Historiae Francisce Scotorum, a history of Scotland, published in 1527.

Kings and Witches: exploring the sources of Macbeth in the IHR Library

This blog was written by Michael Townsend, Collections and Metadata Librarian at the IHR Wohl Library.

Poultry against the Pestilence: Early Modern Surgeons’ treatments for the Plague

During a three hundred year period from the 14th to the 17th century plague physicians, surgeons, and other medical practitioners reprised ancient forms of knowledge, as well as devising innovative treatments for the disease, producing a wealth of textual evidence. Thomas Banbury, this year's HLCE grant holder, has scoured the library for plague tracts and found one of the most outlandish and superstitious-seeming recommendations called the "Live Chicken Cure".

Early modern print depicting the last supper.

The Act of (Not) Eating in the Middle Ages

This blog post was written by Maisie Brewster, one of the Library Graduate Trainees at the Warburg Institute Library, for History Day 2023 and explores library material relating eating in the Middle Ages.

The Afterlife of Alchemy in the Warburg Institute Library’s Collection

This blog explores the iconography of the ‘hermaphrodite’ from its origin in classical myth, to the alchemical works of medieval and early modern Europe.

The mysteries behind a mediaeval manuscript of “women’s ills”

This blog explores The Sekenesse of Wymmen by Gilbertus Anglicus, a mediaeval manuscript from the 1450s.

The printed page

This exhibition explores the development of the printing press and printing techniques.

Unfolding Time: the Medieval Pocket Calendar

Fewer than thirty concertina-fold almanacs are known to exist, this exhibition brings a group of them together for the first time and sets them alongside treasures from Lambeth Palace Library.

View Everyday Technology Firsts (#TechFirsts) from the collections

Share your memories, pictures and stories of how new technology has transformed people’s lives on this Padlet or on Twitter, using hashtag #TechFirsts.