🚨The call for papers for the History and Archives in Practice 2026 conference #HAP26 is now live! 🚨 Along with @ihr.bsky.social @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy @royalhistsoc.org we invite you to explore 'Shaping Societies, Improving Lives: The Impact of Archives and Historical Research' ⬇️

As part of Heritage Open Days 2025, former History student Megan Ellis researched the Elmfield Building which originally housed the Department of Glass Technology and the Turner Museum of Glass (now in the Robert Hadfield building, open to the public 9-4, Mon-Fri). Read more ➡️ tinyurl.com/mr273ez5

For this year's Heritage Open Days, we have a curator-led tour of our Peter Blundell Jones: Architecture, Landscape and the City on Saturday 13th September at 10:30am! Places are limited so please book a place by clicking on 'book here' under the Western Bank Library tab 🏙️✏️🧱🎨 tinyurl.com/56s7m7s

The NFCA is delighted to announce the launch of its new online exhibition - Sanger 200. 2025 marks 200 years since the birth of ‘Lord’ George Sanger, one of the most significant circus proprietors of all time. Take a look inside tinyurl.com/Sanger200

Clowns are performers of comedy and arts, usually wearing bright costumes and make up. Clowns commonly perform in circuses meaning they feature a lot in our National Fairground and Circus Archive held here @unisheffieldlib.bsky.social Some people consider clowns humorous right?... #EYAHumour 🤡

History Day North is in full swing! Stop by our stand to learn more about our archives, National Fairground and Circus archive, Special Collections, rare books and heritage collection as well as our digital collections and exhibition programme 📚📜💾🖼️ #HistDayNorth #DCDC25

Who is joining us at #HistDayNorth and #DCDC25 @durham-university.bsky.social this year? 🎉 We can't wait to tell people about our amazing collections at History Day North tomorrow Tuesday 29th July 12:30-4:30pm!

The National Fairground and Circus Archive team were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of David Springthorpe on 16th July. David was the longest serving contributor to the World's Fair Newspaper and was a great friend of the showmen community. We send our condolences to his family and friends💐

Embroiderer and artist Diana Springall has been awarded a Doctor of Letters for her contribution to the arts by @sheffielduni.bsky.social! In 1987, Diana created 'Graduation' for Level 5 of Western Bank Library which is now part of our Heritage Collection. Find out more here➡️ tinyurl.com/nhzdcfzw

Peter Blundell Jones: Architecture, Landscape and the City opens TODAY! Alongside documents, plans, photos, books and letters, the exhibition offers the rare chance to see a scale model of part of Sheff in 1900 created by students taught by PBJ! FREE ENTRY! Open Mon-Fri 9-5 at Western Bank Library

✏️1 WEEK TODAY✏️ Our new exhibition Peter Blundell Jones: Architecture, Landscape and the City opens Monday 21st July! Explore the life, work and legacy of the late British architect, writer and teacher PBJ (not peanut butter and jelly!) who taught at @sheffielduni.bsky.social School of Architecture

✨NEW EXHIBITION✨ Peter Blundell Jones: Architecture, Landscape and the City ✏️COMING SOON…🧱 More info about PBJ ➡️ www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/news...

Check out this blog post from the university’s Digital Preservation Manager Bryony Hooper about our recent digital preservation work! @dpc-chat.digipres.club.ap.brid.gy #digipres

🍦Happy National Ice Cream month!🍦 Ice cream has always been a popular treat at fairgrounds and circuses, especially in the warmer months, and a lot of work goes into designing and making an eye-catching ice cream stand to attract customers! What is your favourite ice cream flavour?🍨

The NFCA & Bents Green School have worked in collaboration to deliver the 2025 Arts Council England Arts Award certificate to its year 10 students. Drop by level 5 of the Western Bank Library to view the exhibition display of ceramics, print, photography & graffiti art. On until the end of Sep

Our Anatomy at Sheffield exhibition has now finished! 🫀🩻 If you missed it, worry not! You can explore the exhibition virtually on our website ➡️ tinyurl.com/56zu23kt Can anyone guess what our next exhibition will be about? 👀

A prolific travel writer, Margaret Hides specialised in writing about travel for people with physical disabilities as a person with a disability herself. She sent many postcards to her husband Michael on her travels 🌍✈️ Explore the Hides in the Michael Hides Archive tinyurl.com/47s94jke #EYATravel

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our dear friend and supporter Steve Richley who passed away yesterday 3rd June 2025. Steve was a circus historian, publisher, collector & author of many books. He was a long-term supporter of the archive and he will be sorely missed by everyone here.

120 years ago today @sheffielduni.bsky.social was granted its university charter 🥳 It followed the dissolution of Victoria University into Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool unis in 1903. The Charter came to Sheff from London by train on 3rd June 1905 by George Franklin, Chairman of the Uni Council🚂

☀️Come and join us at Weston Park May Fayre THIS SUNDAY to learn more about our archives, rare books, special collections and heritage collection!☀️ 🎨We also have some fun activities for you to have a go at!🎨 FREE ENTRY

Back in 2024, we hosted the It's All a Show exhibition curated in collaboration with Sheldon Chadwick from the Showmen's Mental Health Awareness Charity. 👀 You can still discover the exhibition online here: my.matterport.com/show/?m=V5QB... #mentalhealthawarenessweek

As we continue to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, we delve into our archive to find this gem of a photo. Walter Marshall can be seen here standing next to his plane during his time in the RAF in World War 2, where he was stationed in India, South Africa, Palestine, Egypt & Israel. #ve80

✨New blog✨ Check out our new blog post for May’s theme #EYAFunandGames from the National Circus and Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield! 🎡🎠🎪 @uoscollections.bsky.social #ExploreYourArchive www.exploreyourarchive.org/photographic...

In 1945, students from @sheffielduni.bsky.social marked Victory in Europe Day by organising a celebratory dance in the Students' Union. Whilst we are sure the dance was a success and lots of fun, an attendee recalled that 'the band was not drunk it was just no good'!🎺🥁 #VE80 #Victory80

There is plenty of fun and games to be had in the month of May as there are lots of May Fairs! #EYAFunandGames @exploreyourarchive.bsky.social The Knutsford May Day Fun Fair in Cheshire is one of the most famous in the UK and can be traced back to 1864! 🎈🎉🎡🎠 More info here ➡️ tinyurl.com/5h6hhwtf

👀 Its all fun and games at the fair! 👀 Take a look at this blog by Explore Your Archive, which features some of the amazing photographic collections found at the National Fairground and Circus Archive: www.exploreyourarchive.org/photographic...

Representing The National Fairground and Circus Archive overseas, our Senior Archivist Arantza Barrutia will be speaking this week at the two-day salon, Fairs & Frontiers. Taking place in The House of Mysteries, Ghent, the salon explores the rich and multifaceted world of European funfair culture.

These colourful and distinctive natural history lecture slides were collected by Arthur Edgar Beet, an academic in the Applied Science Department at the University of Sheffield. Digitised images of the Beet Lantern Slide Collection can be found here: tinyurl.com/2v8abbfm #EYAEarth

It's been two years since Diana Springall's textile work 'Graduation' was reinstalled onto the back wall of Western Bank Library's main hall after a two year absence being conserved. Learn more about the work undertaken in the 3 short films on @unishefplayer.bsky.social tinyurl.com/4df4tkrn 🎓🎨

Not only do we have some lovely pets in our collections, our team also have some lovely pets of their own! Say hello to Wolfie, Coco, Teddy, Grace and Lily!👋👋👋😍

Happy National Pet Month! 🐶😸🐹🐰🐭🐴 Here are some lovely pets from our collections! Some might be made up...

We’ve had a great time promoting the National Fairground and Circus Archive, and at the same time met some incredible people at the GTRSB Joy event today organised in collaboration with The Showmen Mental Health Charity at Liverpool John Moore University!

☀️Happy World Poetry Day!☀️ We have an amazing Small Press Poetry Collection which focuses on British and American poetry and art of the avant-garde from the late 1950s onwards such as complete collections of Weed/Flower Press and Seripress not available anywhere else in the UK! Come take a look 👀

Uni of Sheff students come join us!!

A wonderful screening yesterday of ‘Electric Edwardians: The Films of Mitchell & Kenyon’ at the Showroom Cinema. Programmed as part of National Lottery Open Week, the screening was accompanied by a special intro & live commentary by Professor Vanessa Toulmin tinyurl.com/yckcx7ja

🎠🎠🎠 #Fairgroundfridays Ayers' Gallopers at Kingston-Upon-Hull in the 1970s (Archive reference: 178C86.446). 🎠🎠🎠 Browse more amazing digitised images from the National Fairground and Circus Archive here: tinyurl.com/3eaky2zu

Mary Anne Rawson, was a philanthropist and abolitionist, born in Sheffield in 1801. She was a founding member of the Sheffield Female Anti-Slavery Society. This scrapbook shows how she campaigned for justice for enslaved individuals around the world #EYAJustice #womenshistorymonth

We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting the Royal Historical Society 2026 History and Archives in Practice conference! 🎉 Excited to work with partners @ihr.bsky.social, @royalhistsoc.org & @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy and can't wait to welcome historians & archivists to Sheff!

Ellen Sanger (nee Chapman) lion tamer, often appeared as Britannia with lions at her feet on top of a Sanger's Circus tableau wagon as part of the circus procession. Strongwoman performer Herculine, performed feats of strength by lifting weights with her hair tinyurl.com/3nud767n #womenshistorymonth

Happy World Book Day! 📚📖 Why not celebrate by perusing some of our rare books in our free Anatomy at Sheffield exhibition! Explore the teaching of anatomy at the uni over the years alongside detailed anatomical illustrations by anatomists and artists such as Jules Cloquet and William Lizars🎨

Irene Champernowne, Elizabeth Firth, Madeleine Blaess, Carolina Dodel-Port, Barbara Caruso and Emily Gertrude Turner are just a few of the incredible women that feature in our Special Collections and Archives. Find out more about them here: tinyurl.com/3kp3vwwu #womenshistorymonth

It looks like some English students had fun with our collections yesterday 😂 Thank you Tom for using them in your teaching!

Interested in hearing more about our exhibition? Watch below 👀👀👀 Anatomy at Sheffield is FREE and on until June! tinyurl.com/nxnenmyw

ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT TO APPLY!

Archivist in action! 👀 Here is Fran installing the current display on Level 5 of Western Bank Library @sheffielduni.bsky.social 🎪 The display focuses on some original printing blocks which feature fairground rides and agricultural machinery made by world renowned engineers Savage Brothers Ltd🖼️🎨📚

Exciting news! The Barry Hines Papers are now fully searchable on our online catalogue here ➡️ archives.shef.ac.uk/repositories...

⚡NEW PAID INTERNSHIP ALERT!⚡ Are you a current final year undergraduate student or a final year postgraduate taught student at @sheffielduni.bsky.social ? Are you interested in gaining experience cataloguing and digitising audio cassette tapes? Find out more here: tinyurl.com/msmf2v47

✨Our new exhibition is now OPEN!✨ Come to Western Bank Library to explore the teaching of anatomy at the University of Sheffield @sheffielduni.bsky.social from 1904 to the present day. You will find teaching models, charts and objects alongside some of our beautifully illustrated rare books 🫀👂🩻👁️

Flying into the weekend like... Janis from Gilbert's Circus on her 21st birthday in 1955. This photograph is from the archive compiled by the circus enthusiast and historian, David Jamieson #NFCA #Circus #Archive