pic18 - Colour illustration of an elephant with 4 men riding on it, being attacked by a tiger

pic04 - Poster encouraging women to contribute to the war effort by joining the Auxiliary Territorial Service and Women's Auxiliary Air Force (1942)

pic13 - A technician at work in our digitisation studio

pic08 - Some of the 4th Duke of Newcastle's personal diaries

pic11 - Readers at work in our public Reading Room at King's Meadow Campus

pic10 - Court Rolls from the Manor of North Wheatley, Nottinghamshire, 1633-1719

pic02 - Snorre Saga book cover

pic15 - Pages from the Wollaton Antiphonal undergoing conservation

pic16 - Detail from a painting of Wollaton Hall by Jan Siberechts, 1697

pic06 - A reader at work in our former Reading Room at Hallward Library

pic09 - Photograph from the First World War, showing nurses and wounded soldiers

pic05 - Photograph of D.H. Lawrence and Frieda Lawrence in Chapala, Mexico, 1923

pic14 - Detail of a colour illustration of a bird, Pharomachrus auriceps, from the Porter Collection

pic01 - Marriage settlement of the 3rd Duke of Portland (1766)

pic03 - Detail of Nottingham Castle from 'Nottingham Park' by Thomas Allom (1804 - 1872)

pic12 - Political cartoon, titled 'The Noddle Bazaar', showing the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel studying busts representing various political figures. By John Doyle ('H.B.')

pic07 - Great Jet of Steam on the Sulphur Mountains, from 'Travels in the Island of Iceland' by Sir George Steuart Mackenzie (1812)

pic17 - Photograph showing a bundle of deeds

Welcome to Manuscripts and Special Collections

We are part of the University of Nottingham Libraries.

Anyone can view our printed, manuscript and archive collections at King's Meadow Campus.

Reading Room Opening Hours

From Monday 4th October we are extending our opening times.

The Reading Room will be open to all readers Monday-Thursday, 9.30am to 6pm by appointment-only. Please give us as much notice of your visit as possible, but at least a minimum of two working days.

If you only want to return a book or collect one using the Click and Collect service, you don’t need to make an appointment and can drop in any time.

To make an an appointment, please email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk

If you are unable to visit in-person, we are happy to provide the following:

Enquiry service
Reprographics service

Review of Reading Room opening hours

We would be grateful if you could spend a few minutes completing this survey which will inform our current review of Reading Room opening hours.

Parchment, Paper and Pixels

A free iBook showcasing some of the treasures held in Manuscripts and Special Collections, with a range of short articles illustrated with images, sound and video.

It includes mediaeval manuscripts, archives, maps, posters, photographs, rare printed books and music and covers the globe from Iceland to China by way of Nottingham and the Soviet Union. Notable personalities featured include Robin Hood and DH Lawrence and it introduces the father of English geology, William Smith, and one of the world’s first ornithologists, Francis Willughby.

Available from itunes

Search images from the archives

Learn how to use archives

Latest blog posts

Cataloguing Connie part 3: the Finale

Beyond the Mayflower: Separatists and Puritans

Absolute Units

Say Cheese!

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For the latest news and our regular #ThrowBackThursday images from the archives of the University's student newspaper, follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/mssUniNott

Read the latest issue of our magazine

Open a pdf version of this issue:

Discover May 2021 issue no. 15

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Manuscripts and Special Collections

Kings Meadow Campus
Lenton Lane
Nottingham, NG7 2NR

telephone: +44 (0) 115 951 4565
fax: +44 (0) 115 846 8651
email: mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk