The remarkably diverse collections held by the University of Reading’s Special Collections service and MERL are currently being celebrated with displays of new collections based art work in our reading room, highlighting the visual appeal of many of our rare books and archives (which are usually kept safely in our store).

Come in and visit to see the colourful images, chosen by our staff, of these treasures on display thanks to our conservator, Fred.  Here are a few pictures to capture your interest!

New collections art work in the Reading Room

Love, Walter de la Mare, new reading room art work

The Reading Room display features five images of book covers (including highlights from our Great Exhibition and Finzi collections) alongside original art work from the Chatto & Windus archive (including the cover for Mr Beluncle by V.S. Pritchett in 1951 and the intriguingly entitled 1955 The Enormous Shadow by Robert Harling).  The images are truly beautiful and capture the items in 3D, drawing attention to the importance of the history of the items as objects as well as for their illustration.  MERL is also represented in an image of a title from our Printing collection, of the rare Barnett Freedman’s 1939 Real Farmhouse Cheese.  

Traveling through the reading room into the MERL library corridor, you will be greeted with more newly displayed images taken from the MERL photographic archive.  Represented here are the Fowler, Ransomes, Burrell and Clayton & Shuttleworth collections, in a display funded by the Road Locomotive Society in memory of their friend and secretary Sandra Marder.

New Road Locomotive Society images, MERL Library corridor

We think these displays are a great way to celebrate the visual nature of our manifold collections, whilst really brightening up both the reading room and MERL library corridor – please come along and take a look!

Claire (Graduate Trainee)