48 grants for 2023.
Unknown and thought to be unpublished, this vellum-bound manuscript was written probably around the 1580s. The manuscript, in Secretary hand, is probably the first comprehensive academic study of a single foodstuff to be written in the English language, which gives it particular significance for food historians.…
Considered one of the most important English poets of the 19th century, Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a prominent writer of the Victorian period. These letters, predominantly written from Barrett Browning to her sister Henrietta Surtees Cook, offer valuable insight into her work, public reception and social networks.…
'A voyage to and from the island of Borneo in the East-Indies: with a description of the said island giving an account of the inhabitants, their manners, customs, religion, product, chief ports, and trade'…
The book, sold by a private collector, has been added to the existing collection for Swindon Town Football Club at the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre. The book complements official reports and accounts for the Club. The purchase was important for several reasons.…
Edward Lane joined his brother in London as an engraver, but abandoned that career owing to ill health. He learned Arabic and went to Egypt between 19 September 1825 and 7 April 1828. Based Cairo and made voyages up the Nile, in 1826 he went as far as the Second Cataract, and in 1827 with to Abu Simbel.…
Georgina Hogarth (1827-1917) is one of the most intriguing, yet little known, women of the Victorian age both in relation to her brother-in-law, the great writer Charles Dickens (1812-1870), but also in her own right as a single woman navigating the social constraints of the age to forge and maintain a stable position for herself.…
The Chandler archive is substantial, consisting of c.130 boxes of material. The working papers of two of Chandler’s agents form the core of the archive: Brandt & Brandt in the US, and Helga Greene in the UK.…
John Cole (1792-1848) was a 19th-century bookseller, writer, publisher and antiquarian and an under-researched character in the regional book trade. As a young man he was apprenticed to a bookseller and bookbinder in Northampton.…
Peggy Guggenheim, a world-renowned art patron and collector, began her lifetime commitment to art in the 1930s when she lived for five years at Yew Tree Cottage, Petersfield, between 1934 and 1939.…
The archive sheds light on local life in the medieval and early modern era, between Greater Manchester’s better-known Roman and industrial revolution stories.…
This letter is an oft-quoted missive, revealing Stevenson’s justification for his take on Robert Burns in a recent article, and with a foreshadowing of his plans to travel extensively. It provides a rare example of two of Scotland’s most important literary figures featuring in one manuscript letter.
It is rare that Robert Louis Stevenson diary fragments, or manuscripts of more than a single page, come to market. This four-page manuscript of diary entries covers the period from May 9th to July 5th, 1872, when Stevenson was 21, living in Edinburgh, and studying towards his law degree.…
These objects are significant additions to the Jane Austen House collection, offering new insights into Jane Austen and her family and new avenues for research.…
The Carnations manuscript provides a fascinating, personal insight into early 18th-century floristry and religious belief, from shoemaker and amateur botanist, Richard Hammond. The museum is rich in papers from the 19th- and early 20th-century botanical and horticultural clubs but material is very sparse from the 1700s.…
Showtown is a new museum in Blackpool which opened in March 2024; it is Blackpool’s first permanent museum and highlights the town’s rich history as a seaside home of entertainment. Charlie became one of the greatest and most creative Auguste clowns of the 20th century.…
An important collection of manuscripts, typescripts and artefacts related to the Herschel family which comprises six very large archive boxes, containing a considerable number (800-1,000?) of manuscripts related to the Herschel family.…
These 12 letters were part of a larger collection of correspondence to Peter Winckworth, Governor of St Paul’s School and Master Mercer. Winckworth was a Governor of the School from 1958 to 1973 and Master of the Mercers Company from 1961 to 1962.…
This diary, compiled by the author and journalist Hugh de Sélincourt for his lover, the German translator and writer Eva Schumann, is written with fluency and writerly skill, conveying the day-to-day uncertainties and privations of the Phoney War.…
Although this is a small collection of deeds, it is noteworthy. The deeds relate to the Whitton and Vennington estates, in the parish of Westbury and their descent through the Topp family.…
Eleven volumes of estate accounts, servants’ wages, rents, house accounts and a memoranda book relating to the Seale family estate of Dartmouth, Devon, 1745-1831. The collection forms part of the estate archive Mount Boone, Townstal, which is now the site of the Britannia Royal Naval College.
All four of Hume’s letters refer to his quarrel with the Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Following an initially friendly relationship, Rousseau attacked Hume in a letter accusing him, among other things, of trying to sideline him.…
The books acquired are:
1. Hiob Ludolf, 'A New History of Ethiopia, being a Full and Accurate Description of the Kingdom of Abessinia', first English edition, London, for Samuel Smith, 1682.…
Rowlandson's satire on the experience of visiting the Royal Academy's exhibition at Somerset House is very well known and has been reproduced in all major publications on the history of the Royal Academy, but the hand-coloured etching itself is very rare.…
This plan is a unique, contemporary representation of a property then known as Upper House Farm. The farm sits within the ancient parish of Basildon, which is to the west of Reading and bordered by the Thames. The plan shows the farm buildings in elevation, field names, acreages and the state of cultivation. It was drawn for its owner, William Raw…
An important collection of manuscripts, typescripts and artefacts related to the Herschel family.…
The document is an indenture of release between William Lushington (1747-1823) and the Scotsmen John Stewart (1754/5-1826) and Alexander Fraser of Inchcoulter (1759-1837), which ultimately transferred ownership of the Camden Estate on Trinidad, and the enslaved workers, from Lushington to Stewart and Fraser.…
this uniquely surviving example of large format colour printing from pre-Revolutionary France. It comprises a composite sheet of paper almost 1.5 metres long, woodblock printed in four sections and pasted together.…
Lawrie Siggs was a cartoonist and illustrator who used a gentle humour in his work, often inspired by domestic scenes and observation of everyday life. He worked for Punch for 35 years as well as various newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, the Evening Standard and The New Yorker.
The letter is addressed to a 12-year-old Sophia Thrale, the sixth daughter of Hester Lynch Thrale, British author and patron of the arts. Hester was one of the most important women in Johnson’s life, and his regular correspondence with Hester and her children provides great insight into Johnson’s mind.…
This single letter ties Thomas Hardy’s career as a budding architect to one of the key Dorset structures on which he is known to have worked. Athelhampton church, located some four miles east of Dorchester close to the elegant country house of the same name, was constructed in 1861-62. The plans for the church in Hardy’s own hand were purchased b…
The archive consisted of a very large vellum bound ledger of leases, dated 1648 on its front cover, as well as a similar volume commencing in 1786. In addition, there was a mid-18th century survey book for the manors of Arwenack, Mylor, Tregenvor, Trevethan, Trescobeas, Prisla and Treganiggey.…
The Use of the Church of York was one of the religious rites practised in England before the Reformation. It had variations from the Uses of the Church of Salisbury, the Church of Hereford, and the Church of Bangor.…
Manuscript Book of Reference to the Maps of the Manors of St Donats and Sully and other Lands in the County of Glamorgan, the property of Thomas Drake Tyrwhitt Esquire.…
As a young man in 1746, James Cook was apprenticed to master mariner and shipowner John Walker. In Cook’s time at Whitby, one in five of the population was an apprentice and the bulk of those would have been in marine trades.…
A rare map of St Pancras - a hand-coloured Edmund Daw map of the parish dating from 1854. Camden Archives had maps of the area by this cartographer for 1849 and 1860 but not this 1854 edition. Some major changes are quickly apparent from a comparison of the 1849 and 1854 maps.…
John Huddleston (1608-98), the missal’s original owner whose inscription can be found on the title-page, was a Benedictine priest famous for the role he played at several key moments in the life of Charles II.…
With an audience capacity of 1,400 people, the category-A listed His Majesty’s Theatre is the largest theatre in the North-East of Scotland. Built at a cost of £35,000 and opened in 1906, it is still in use today and is one of Aberdeen’s most iconic buildings.…
Title deeds and associated papers relating to the Great House Estate in West Hoathly and the manor of West Hoathly Rectory. Dating from 1453 to 1964, this is a remarkably complete collection comprising several hundred documents.…
The FNL continues to be most generous to Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery and The Edward Thomas Fellowship as we add manuscript and signed books to the collection of the late Tim Wilton-Steer held in the Edward Thomas Study Centre at the Museum and Gallery.…
The Manor of Duffield Fee was a unique institution in the county. It was in effect a collection of manors under the ownership of one lord, which were managed as one administrative unit (the Fee); the manors or sub-manors lying within the Fee were Alderwasley, Belper, Biggin, Duffield, Heage, Holbrook, Hulland, Idridgehay, Southwood, Turnditch and W…
The survey was made for Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn who was the largest landowner in North Wales at that time. He was the 5th Baronet of Wynnstay and married Lady Henrietta Clive, daughter of Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis.…
Several lots relating to the Eyre-Matcham family of Newhouse, Whiteparish and Downton were brought to the attention of the Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre by The National Archives.…
Set during the Second Partition of Poland in the 1790s, Thaddeus of Warsaw is one of the earliest examples in English of the historical novel, introducing the new stock figure of the noble exile. Despite being commercially published, this work did not have a large initial print run.…
Hannah Brown (1866-1973) entered the care of the London Foundling Hospital in 1866 as her mother, Emma Johnson, as a single mother had few other options to care for her child. After leaving the Hospital, Brown entered domestic service before having a happy marriage and a career late in life as a self-taught artist.…
Three volumes containing eight issues of the The Savoy periodical (1896) from the collection of Walter Edwin Ledger, collector of Oscar Wilde’s works, and his brother Percy George Ledger.…
The photographic negative collection of Henry Wykes (1874-1964) who was an Exeter-based commercial photographer. The collection documents an important period of change in Exeter, capturing street scenes that no longer exist, such as Bedford Circus.…
Eric Walrond was an unassuming Caribbean man who lived in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, in the 1940s. He worked at a local factory, lodged in the town and went 'under the radar' - apart from being the only Black resident in a town of 4,000 people.…
This volume augments a fine parish archive, it is also one of a very few examples Cornish highway surveyors’ accounts and rates that we hold.…
