An evening of talks, wine and nibbles and displays of UCL Special Collection’s rare books, archives and manuscripts.

Join us as we delve into our collection of rare books, manuscripts and archives in search of items that reflect the turn of the season towards the summer – from historic calendars, to spring folk traditions to colours, pigments and hues in manuscripts.

A Colourful Heritage: Multi-spectral Imaging Manuscripts and Rare Books from UCL Special Collections (Cerys Jones):

Multi-spectral imaging involves capturing images of an object illuminated in ultraviolet, visible and infrared light. Capturing images in different colours, including light that is invisible to the human eye, can reveal features on the books which cannot usually be seen. This talk by Cerys Jones, final-year PhD student in Medical Physics at UCL, will present a brief introduction to multi-spectral imaging in heritage and show several examples of recovering lost features on manuscripts and rare books in UCL Special Collections.

Politics and Pedagogy: How I made use of the Woodcraft Folk Archive (Rich Palser):

Rich Palser, a retired Further Education lecturer, is currently writing a book on the history of the Woodcraft Folk in the inter-war years which draws heavily on the organisation’s archives now held at UCL Institute Of Education. He will be talking about the archive’s relevance to his own interest in the relationship between politics and pedagogy, but also suggesting ways in which the archive may be relevant to the research of others.

Guests will be able to view a number of items for UCL Special Collections, including medieval manuscript fragments, material from the newly acquired Woodcraft Folk Archive, and an emblem book once belonging to Ben Jonson.