War Child
The MERL is very excited to announce the publication of War Child, an online ‘mixed-media book’ which explores our Evacuee Archive from a fascinating new angle. In this visually stunning work, Teresa Murjas, Associate Professor in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television at the University of Reading, and alumnus and film-maker James Rattee have woven […]
Discovering the Landscape: Preparation, progress and preservation – 3 years on
Plans, papers, press cuttings and publications…. we have spent a busy three years working on the Landscape Institute collections here at MERL. Alongside continuing to work on the collections to make them available, we are now looking to encourage use, awareness and engagement with our rich and varied landscape heritage collections. What have we achieved? […]
Discovering the Landscape: landscape research bursaries available
This year, thanks to generous funding from the Landscape Institute, we are pleased to offer bursaries to encourage use and engagement with our varied and fascinating landscape collections. Read more about our Landscape Institute collection here, including the collections of Geoffrey Jellicoe, Sylvia Crowe and Brenda Colvin. See a full list of our collections here. […]
Discovering the Landscape: From London traffic to an Italian Prisoner of War camp
Over the course of a large scale cataloguing project, many hundreds of items pass through your hands. Since acquiring the library and archive of the Landscape Institute in late 2013, we have made nearly 2500 books available to readers here at MERL. Added to this figure are metres of journals and pamphlets – and this is […]
Discovering the Landscape: Dublin of the Future (1922)
This post highlights Dublin of the future: new town plan by Patrick Abercrombie, Sydney Kelly and Arthur Kelly (University of Liverpool Press, 1922) – a title from our MERL Library Landscape Institute collections with intriguing context and provenance. Patrick Abercrombie (1879-1957) was a town planner active in the interwar period. He played a leading role in planning […]
Interview with Reading Room Assistant Ceri (Pt. 1)
Marketing Volunteer Whitney continues her series of interviews with staff talking to Ceri Lumley, Reading Room Assistant What does your job entail at MERL? I’m split between working in the reading room and doing background tasks. Three days of the week I’m down in the reading room answering enquiries, doing production, getting documents out and […]
Reading Readers – Felicity McWilliams
For this month’s Reading Readers blog, PhD student Felicity McWilliams (a familiar face at MERL) gives us an insight into how the MERL collections are playing a part in her research of draught power technology in the 20th century. Last September, I left my post as Project Officer at the Museum to embark upon an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral […]
Discovering the Landscape: Treasures Exhibition at the University Library
We’re delighted that this exhibition can now be seen at the University Library: Discovering the Landscape: treasures from the collections of the Landscape Institute Where? University Library Foyer, Whiteknights campus When? April – June 2016 (during opening hours) What? This display will showcase a selection of important archive materials and books from the Landscape Institute collections, […]
Reading Readers – Alex Bowmer
For this month’s Reading Readers blog, PhD student Alex Bowmer gives us an insight into how the MERL archives and object collections are playing a part into his research of livestock health. As a collaborative doctoral awarded PhD candidate, I split my time between King’s College London and here at The Museum of English Rural Life. […]
Explore Your Archive: People Stories – Eve Balfour
The last of our People Stories, written by The Abbey School students, looks at the life of Lady Eve Balfour, co-founder of the Soil Association Lady Evelyn Balfour was born on the 16th July 1898. After studying agriculture at Reading University she went on to write The Living Soil and then co-founded The Soil Association in […]