UCL Special Collections

The programme is a collaboration with @sladeschoolucl.bsky.social & @uclpublishing.bsky.social and offers unique opportunities to work with students across both departments.

Call for applications!

We are looking for a small press to take up a temporary residency at UCL!

£5,000 to spend flexibly, an opportunity to work with outstanding collections & collaborate with brilliant students and staff!

blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...

Apologies - we posted the incorrect link! Correct link is: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...

Here's my new blog post about Jewish dance cards and a recent UCL bicentennial event where we learned Edwardian ballroom dances from a Jewish dance card in @uclhjslibrary.bsky.social to the same tunes that were performed in 1909. #UCL200

In partnership with @uclhjs.bsky.social and the UCL IJS.

Interior page of a dance card from the Gaster Collection showing the dances and space for someone to write in agreed dance partners.

Recently we hosted an event celebrating the rich world of Jewish dancing cards round 1900. If you'd like to read more about Jewish dancing cards in our collection, Dr Sonia Gollance has written about their history

blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...

Got to love that new book smell!

University College London The first university in London, and the first in England to accept people of all faiths and creeds, University College London occupies a prestigious position in the history of British education. Since...

uclpress.co.uk/book/univers...

Further information, including how to purchase in the link above!

A hand holding a copy of University College London: The Bloomsbury Campus, by the Survey of London

Fresh from The Survey of London and @uclpress.bsky.social - This beautiful monograph of University College London: The Bloomsbury Campus. A rich history of UCL's main campus. #ucl200

White mad in his 60ties operating a historic printing press in a printing workshop with other printing presses visible in the background.

Barry, a former printer who now guides tours and workshops at St Bride, narrated the story of printing, exhibited traditional tools, and demonstrated printing methods!

Thank you Barry!

A photograph of the print workshop at the St Bride Foundation

Last week Book History module outing to St Bride Foundation! Established in 1891, the St Bride Foundation served the print and publishing trades. Today, they maintain thousands of publishing and design artefacts.

This term we have launched Books and Book History at UCL Special Collections, a new MA module collaboratively designed and delivered by us and @uclhistory.bsky.social.

This thread is the first in the series of student-produced posts highlighting our book history adventures!

Post: Sabrina Wiggins

One month to go… UCL turns 200! 🎉

On 11 February, we kick off #UCL200 – a year of celebrations marking our radical founding in 1826 as London’s first university, open to all. Expect parties, exhibitions, student festivals, art, books, performances, and more.

Get ready!

@uclspeccoll.bsky.social

UCL Special Collections will be closed from 5pm on Tuesday 23rd December until Monday 5th January. Wishing you all a very happy holiday!

"I am considering the techniques used to make this book, its targeted audiences, and Housman’s role in its production."

Also interested in working with our fascinating collections? Apply for a UCL RIC Visiting Fellowship & receive a grant of £5,000. Deadline 12th Jan: www.ucl.ac.uk/research-ins...

She says her project explores the printed material produced by Housman championing the women’s suffrage movement in UCL's Housman Collection: "Works I have so far examined include An Anti-Suffrage Alphabet (1911), which features the work of women illustrators who supported the cause"

Current Special Collections Visiting Fellow Michelle Reynolds (@lovelymydear.bsky.social) is researching the role of Laurence Housman (1865-1959) in the women's suffrage movement.

Image of the main screen of the 'Prejudice in Power' digital exhibition at UCL's Student Centre. The speaker on the right in the image is Subhadra Das - more about her here: https://www.subhadradas.com/

Head of UCL Special Collections, Sarah Aitchison, @saraha73.bsky.social, reflects on the digital 'Prejudice in Power' exhibition. The visuals and eye‑catching quotations have drawn passersby to pause, reflect, and engage with UCLs eugenic history. blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll... #eugenics

Also interested in working with our fascinating collections? Apply for a RIC Visiting Fellowship & receive a grant of £5,000 to come to London to delve into our collections and produce a creative or academic piece of work. We're accepting applications until 12th Jan ’26 www.ucl.ac.uk/research-ins...

Current Visiting Fellow Andrew Whiteman (Musician @ Broken Social Scene, Creative Director @ Siren Recordings & PhD student @ Concordia) discusses his project focusing on rare AV material in our Small Press Collections. The piece he's composing in response will be premiered at UCL this summer

Open to applicants at any career stage and to diverse range of approaches to collections-based research and practice, the fellowships are a brilliant opportunity to delve into UCL's outstanding collections and collaborate with UCL's community.

Applications for The Research Institute for Collections (RIC) 2026 fellowships are now open!

RIC offers funded opportunities to conduct research using our archives and manuscripts, rare printed collections, records, and museum #collections.

To learn more and apply: www.ucl.ac.uk/research-ins...

CFP: 'Difficult Collections' Special issue of 'Paper Trails' @uclpress.bsky.social. Focus on challenges of working with troubling heritage collections (colonialism, eugenics, representation, etc). Proposals: 31/01/26; Submissions: 31/05/26. Details: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll... #GLAM ##HistorySky

A dark blue background with a cyan blue circle containing the words ‘Interested in working in museums, galleries, archives and libraries? Don’t have a degree and not sure where to start? Applications are now OPEN for The new Curators Project 2026! Link in bio.’.

Applications are now open for The New Curators Project 2026! Deadline: 8pm 22 February.

This annual project – offers 10 paid places for east Londoners aged 18-24 who do not have a degree but are interested in working in the cultural heritage sector.

Apply now: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...

Promotional graphic for an event titled ‘UCL Collections and Wikidata: An exploratory workshop.’ The Wikidata logo appears in the centre over a faint patterned background collected from the UCL's Ethnography Collections. Event details at the bottom read: ‘2:30–5pm, 3 Dec’ on the left, and ‘Malet Place, London, WC1E 7JE’ on the right.

Are you a UCL student or staff member curious about Wikidata?

Join us on 3 Dec for a fun, hands-on workshop where you’ll explore what Wikidata is and make your first edits using data from UCL’s Ethnography Collections.

Come start your Wikidata journey with us!

2025 marks the 60th anniversary of UCL's Small Press collections. UCL has collected widely in this area of independent radical publishing to preserve the outputs of these activities. The collections comprise 4,500 periodicals and 20,000 pamphlets. Watch a new celebratory video at lnkd.in/eAhT7M6t.

Drawing of the back of a skeleton. The Boenst have been labeled with numbers, matching names written along the edge of the page.

Title page of Pharmacopœia Londinensis Or the New London Dispensatory.

Happy Halloween! 💀🎃 What could be scarrier than a skeleton whose bones bend in unnatural ways?

This drawing of a skeleton is from the 1696
Pharmacopœia Londinensis. While the skeleton may look unrealistic, the bones are accurately labelled.

Event: SYMPOSIUM AND BOOK LAUNCH: Metropolitan Crossings: Art, Displacement, and the Making of Modern London (1930s–1970s) In person and Online SYMPOSIUM AND BOOK LAUNCH Metropolitan Crossings: Art, Displacement, and the Making of Modern London (1930s–1970s) Ben Uri Gallery and Museum 108a Boundary Road, St John’s Wood, L...

UCL Research Institute for Collections Fellow, Dr. Liz Bruchet and Ming Tiampo will be presenting at this symposium next week. Their paper will focus on 'Slade Overseas Students and Conjunctures of Global Activism' and will draw on records from our College Archive. benuri.org/events/80-sy...

Coming soon to British Online Archives — Witchcraft and Magic in England, c. 1400–1920.
Featuring rare records from The National Archives, British Library, UCL, and The Folklore Society.
Register your interest: buff.ly/YBeFCF1

Poster for an event titled 'Community Knowledge Spaces: UCL Student Periodicals and Wikidata'. The background shows pages from Pi Magazine, UCL's historic student publications. The centre features the Wikidata logo with event details: 'Tue 4 Nov 2025 | 12–4pm, UCL Main Campus (Garden Room), Gower Street, London WC1E 6AE'.

Join us on 4 Nov for a workshop with @wikimediauk.bsky.social and discover how this project used historic student publications to support research, teaching, and public engagement. You'll also have the chance to see the original material and get hands-on training processing historical documents.

Inscription reading "Dedicated to my ever loving wife Nausea Diderot".

Title page and title engraving of Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences. Title image is a full page engraving, packed with various figures staring at a central figure of a woman bathed in light.

We love inscriptions, though "Nausea" is an uncommon name to find! This inscription is from vol 1 of Denis Diderot's 1751 Encyclopédie. It is a later addition, as it is on late 19th/early 20th century paper added when the book was rebound.

Who added the inscription, and why? Suggestions welcome!