Visibility
Unlike our monograph (i.e. book) holdings, manuscript material is not currently catalogued online. Whilst a basic finding aid to the Manuscript Album is available on the Special Collections web pages, few of our patrons are cognisant of the existence of this resource.
The idea for an exhibition came from a desire to promote the Manuscript Album and the work which has been done to further collections care. How, though, to celebrate such a heterogeneous collection of documents?
The names of correspondents have suggested broad themes, or pathways, thus the exhibition is divided into 'Science and Innovation', 'Politics and Society', and 'Literature and Culture' but it has also been useful to set the 'album' in a context of letter-writing history and to consider the value of letters as historical evidence.
