Being a nosey parker is my favourite pastime. But I dress it up as being a historian. #archives #romantic www.debbiechallis.com/post/what-s-...

Somewhere free, quiet, and right next to Liverpool Street? 👀 Whether you’ve got a deadline looming, are polishing off a chapter on your lunch break, or hunting for a calm spot to do some work, our new Reading Room is open to you. 👋 https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/whats-on/activity/reading-room/

Ending the week with a martini #ConfinedCocktails. Feels like a bit of sunshine while watching the rain!

It’s been quite a week (+month, year etc), so here’s a little #FindsFriday / #FlintFriday treat for your timelines: a gorgeous little Mesolithic ‘mèche de foret’ (drill bit) from my desk. Retouched edges abraded to a smooth sheen by repeated use. 🏺🏛️

Regrouping after a week of sadmin with a very strong 5:1 Martini #ConfinedCocktails. Not sure about this adulting lark, but it is soothing to sit in the garden and get (a tiny) bit of sun.

Sunday #ConfinedCocktails with an Orange Martini. Bracing for a return to work after three weeks spent in and out of hospitals...

THIS BOOKSHOP IS OPEN UNTIL MIDNIGHT AND SELLS COCKTAILS. EVERYONE CONVERGE ON PALERMO NOW. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Any other lyrics— don’t even try chronic town murmur or reckoning btw— just form vowels and syllables, and mean it

Raising a glass to my dear old dad and watching the rainbow. He would have told me it is a perfectly natural scientific phenomenon and to stop being so fanciful 😆

There's so much bad news in the world. So, here's some wrapping paper designed by Japanese artist Ippei Tsujio that turns everything into bread. A delightful (delicious?) distraction. More info: spoon-tamago.com/bread-wrappi...

Raising a glass to Child 1, who is officially off to university in September #ConfinedCocktails.

I am in Manchester on a short break suggested by Child 2 (who has spent most of their time in the hotel room). I lived and worked here over 20 years ago, and recognise absolutely nothing.Have started #ConfinedCocktails early to cope.

Highly recommended as an antidote to *everything else*. I'd had a challenging day and didn't want to go, but it proper cheered me up.

Are YOU the most depressing book plate ever? YES, You ARE!

I really enjoyed my extended break (over 2 weeks for the first time in 20 years) but, good grief, the first full week back has been a challenge! Classic Martini to help me into the weekend #ConfinedCocktails. With navy strength gin.

me: im such an academic that when i have a problem i think i can solve it by getting a book about it. other half: dunno, that kind of makes sense? reading about problems to resolve them. me: who said anything about READING it

A key part of being over forty is accepting that you will occasionally just need to lay down for a bit.

Please take some time to read this article. Digest it, and think about how it resonates with your practice and experience. What can you do going forward to acknowledge and integrate these experiences, acknowledging that there are always risks of generalisation. #Museums

🐝 #WorldofWasps opens today at @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social! Prof Seirian Sumner @waspwoman.bsky.social spoke to BBC London about the value of these much much maligned creatures. Inspired by @ucllifesciences.bsky.social research, the free exhibition runs till Jan 2026 www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-coll...

Zoom inside a virtual wasp’s nest and experience the hidden, intimate ‘World of Wasps’ – their homes, their lifestyles and their relationships. See our upcoming exhibition based on @ucl.ac.uk research. www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-coll... #GMZWasps

We’re currently thinking of painting our front door, er, ‘Dante’s Cardigan’

Sharpen your #knitting needles and join us for Craft Thing on 10 June, an afternoon of #crafting explored through UCL's Special Collections. Free and open to all but only a few tickets remain: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/craft-thin...

The New Curators Projects participants are launching their exhibition next Tuesday! Come celebrate with us and enjoy free local food, crafts and games inspired by the exhibition theme “The Best of Newham”. Tuesday 10 Jun, 5-7pm East Ham Library, E6 2RT No need to sign up – just turn up!

Andrew Whiteman is our 2025 LTC Visiting Fellow! A musician & mythopoetics scholar from Montreal, he writes & performs in Broken Social Scene, AroarA & Poets’ Workout Sound System & has co-founded sirenrecordings.com. He'll be using #smallpress poetry recordings to create a new work of sonic #poetry

Year 9 Pupils from Kelmscott Secondary School recently joined us to learn about becoming an historian. They developed their skills through researching an item relating to medical history in our collection. These are their responses at seeing the items face to face at the end of the project!

Lego trebuchet! Vote for it to be an available kit: ideas.lego.com/projects/1e7...

Join us next week for this online talk 'Co-producing research with Special Collections: Prejudice and Power case study' (Tue 3rd June 10-11:30am). Free and open to all!

This French 75 is the only thing stopping me from returning my adulting card this week #ConfinedCocktails.

That should do the trick.

This brilliant course, part of London Rare Books Summer School programme, will be a unique opportunity to work with our outstanding collections of little, artists', and alternative magazines! Join us in May!

BA Creative Arts and Humanities students have produced original short films inspired by UCL Special Collections items. Join us for the premiere screening on 3 Jun and explore a special display of the rare books and archives that shaped their creative process. Book now on tinyurl.com/uclscfilm

Craft Thing! Join us on 10 June for an afternoon of #crafting, collection displays, and a talk on histories of political banner making by the brilliant Alice Gabb! Free and open to all: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/craft-thin....

For those who missed it: The English Short Titles Catalogue (ESTC) has finally been relaunched with the help of the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL) following the cyber-attack on the @britishlibrary.bsky.social. Find it here: datb.cerl.org/estc/

It's definitely Friday #ConfinedCocktails...

Registration is now open for our conference ‘Jeremy Bentham, the Panopticon penitentiary scheme, and “A Picture of the Treasury”’, which is taking place at Bentham House, Faculty of Laws, University College London, on 23–4 July www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-picture-...

LAST CHANCE to sign up for this, on 23rd May! A hands-on study day in UCL special collections, exploring their most experimental magazines, from the Modernist avant-garde to the mimeo revolution. ies.sas.ac.uk/events/magaz...

The beneficial effect on one’s mental health of clearing out all the old jars of god-knows-what from the back of the fridge has been indisputably proven, just now, in my house.

Cheers #ConfinedCocktails, I am enjoying a margarita in the sunshine. A small haven in the midst of GCSEs and A-levels.

The fascinating documents will be displayed for the first time at the #OrwellFestival at UCL on 25 June. Once catalogued, they will be freely accessible to all through the @uclspeccoll.bsky.social reading rooms and digital collections webpages. 🔍Discover more archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/

UCL has acquired rare correspondence between #GeorgeOrwell and his original publisher. Now in the care of @uclspeccoll.bsky.social, the letters offer insight into Orwell’s early literary relationships, his approach to publishing and his response to criticism. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

We hold unique, rich collections for the study of deafness, d/Deaf communities, and institutions associated with them. To mark #Deaf Awareness Week, we explore on our blog histories of sign languages through our collections. blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...

Ferreting about in my drawer for something I came across these two badges (each a present from a former colleague: they both knew me well). For an archivist, these probably contain all the ingredients of a balanced lifestyle.

End of a birthday weekend for Child 2, I'm celebrating on her behalf #ConfinedCocktails

You know it must be #WorldPenguinDay if we're posting our Book Penguin made of Penguin Books. 🐧

When I was in the archive earlier this week I stumbled on a name I knew well ‘Miss A L Hodson’. During the lockdown I wrote an article based on her letter memoir. Her ordinariness meant that I struggled to find much abt her life. But there she was in a 1942 annual report. Archives are magical places

Just 1 day left to apply for the Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize! If you’re studying at a London university and have a collection of at least 8 books or any other printed items, don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to win £600. Apply on tinyurl.com/uclbookprize... before 12pm tomorrow.

Our next Open Morning will be on May 16th, 10am to 12pm in our South Junction Reading Room (UCL's Bloomsbury campus). All are welcome - it's free! - just sign up in advance and pop in: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/open-morni... Come and meet some friendly staff and see some incredible collection items!

Ending the bank holiday with a Reform #ConfinedCocktails.

A couple of lesser-known pencil sketches of Bentham's panopticon, dates unknown From the Bentham Papers @uclspeccoll.bsky.social , Box 157, folios 70 and 71