By Elissa B.G. Mullins If you, dear readers, recall with interest our earlier blog post on the Eikōn basilikē of King Charles the First, we now invite you to turn your attention to a newly re-cataloged manuscript containing a belated epitaph (in both Latin and English) for one Colonel John Penruddock (Post-1650 MS 0824). The […]
Category: Letters
Epitaph for Colonel John Penruddock: Manuscript
May 12, 2025
Names Swallowed by the Cold: Revisiting the RBML’s Arctic Exploration Materials
May 9, 2025
By Elissa B.G. Mullins Twenty-one pieces of manuscript correspondence relating to Arctic and Antarctic exploration have recently been cataloged! These materials can now be accessed as Post-1650 MS 0840-0852. Many pieces of correspondence contain information of great scientific and historical significance, while others are only indirectly connected to polar exploration, such as Sir John Richardson’s […]
Proust and the Great War
May 10, 2014
Selected Letters at the University of Illinois by François Proulx, Assistant Professor of French This online exhibition is part of The Great War: Experiences, Representations, Effects, a campus-wide initiative marking the centenary of World War I. (Read more about this exhibition) At the outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914, Marcel Proust […]
Victorian Scrapbooks Rediscovered
April 15, 2014
Here at The Rare Book & Manuscript Library, seemingly simple reference questions often turn into much deeper discoveries.That was the case when a patron enquired about our material concerning one Martin F. Tupper. If you aren’t familiar with Martin F. Tupper (1810-1889), then you probably didn’t live in the mid-19th century; if you did, you likely […]
A Christmas Carol and Its Corresponding Collector
December 23, 2013
While updating the catalogue record for an 1869 edition of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, I came across a letter inside the front cover. Dated 3 April 1867, it was written from Andrew Varick Stout Anthony (1835-1906) to Alexander Farnum (1830-1884) regarding William James Linton (1812-1897), an English engraver who had recently immigrated to the United […]
Letter Reveals Lord North’s Apprehension Over British Defeat at Trenton, 1777
July 6, 2009
***This post was previously posted at the RBML Discoveries from the Vault website*** On the night of Monday, February 10, 1777, Lord North the British prime minister sat at his desk at 10 Downing Street and wrote a quick note to his friend and chief intelligence official, William Eden. In addition to forwarding to Eden […]
Lost Letter from Leopold von Ranke Found!
January 8, 2007
***This post was previously posted at the RBML Discoveries from the Vault website*** The German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) is today often regarded as the founder of the science of history as a discipline involving the use of a wide range of documents in historical research. At one time, a very interesting letter from […]