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I wrote this post for the Peterhouse Perne and Ward Libraries blog.  It is cross-posted from there with their kind permission. 28 May saw the launch at the Whipple Museum of the online Peterhouse Manuscripts Collection, housed in the Cambridge Digital Library. The collection aims to present highlights from the College’s collection of 276 medieval manuscripts, and will be developed as time and funding allow. High-quality images are presented alongside searchable transcript

I’ve just come across this fantastic propaganda film from 1945.  It is a detailed picture of life in Cambridge as the second world war came to a close.  It’s fascinating to see what’s changed (co-education being the most obvious thing) and what hasn’t (just about everything else!). Readers of this blog might also be interested to see a clip of Sir Lawrence Bragg, then Cavendish Professor, lecturing – it’s at 5:52. #BritishCouncil #UniversityofCambridge #propaganda #secondworl

Regular readers of this blog (if there are any, I should apologise to them for my long silence) will be familiar with the story of King Arthur’s Table.  You won’t need me to remind you how I was lucky enough to discover this forgotten object in the stores of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, and then spent much of 2013 investigating its biography. You’ll already know, I’m sure, that the story takes in Sir Lawrence Bragg, the Cavendish Laboratory and its workshops.

I was pleased to be able to speak at (and help organise) the Connecting with Collections Symposium a few weeks ago.  That event showcased some of the work that was done as part of the AHRC-funded Connecting with Collections internship scheme. The day went pretty well, I think.  For those that weren’t able to make it, I have put a recording of my presentation together with the slides I used, to create a lovely video which summarises the research I did during my internship.  I

This post is cross-posted from the Connecting with Collections blog. At the start of this project I was only hoping to find some documentation linked to the equatorium that Derek Price built – so I was amazed when I found the equatorium itself.  It’s now on display in the Whipple Museum for the History of Science (open Monday-Friday, 12.30-4.30; admission free). But I still haven’t found much of the documentation I was searching for in the first place.  I imagined I’d be ab

This post is cross-posted from the Connecting with Collections blog. In a previous post I introduced one of the main subjects of my research: the historian of science Derek de Solla Price.  Price, you’ll recall, was studying for his second PhD here in Cambridge when he discovered the Equatorie of the Planetis manuscript in the library of Peterhouse.  As part of his research, he had what we’re calling King Arthur’s Table built at the Cavendish Laboratory. My research has raise

This post is cross-posted (with minor modifications) from the Connecting with Collections blog. This month the Connecting with Collections interns are all posting on the theme of who?  In my last CwC post I raised some biographical issues and introduced my main subject, Derek de Solla Price.  So this time I’ll write about a significant supporting character: Sir Lawrence Bragg. Bragg is justly famous in the history of science: he remains the youngest ever winner of a Nobel Pri

This post is cross-posted from the Connecting with Collections blog. My current project is about King Arthur’s Table.  I described this in a previous post.  As I’ve explained before, it stems from my PhD research into a 14th-century manuscript, The Equatorie of the Planetis. Yesterday I was in London, looking in the archives of the Royal Institution for information about how and why King Arthur’s Table was built according to the instructions in the manuscript.  I didn’t find

I’ve just started a research project focusing on a medieval manuscript, The Equatorie of the Planetis.  This manuscript describes the construction and use of a curious astronomical instrument, and my previous post was about the first stages in my attempt to reconstruct that instrument, in order to better understand the manuscript. I’m still working on that, and will write all about the fun I had trying to divide a three-foot circle into 360 equal degrees very soon.  Before th