Telling the Stories of York

Sarah Griffin writes about how we produced a beautiful book featuring some of the treasures of our collections.

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This particular story starts when the previous University Librarian, Stephen Town, asked me if I would prepare a short leaflet that would be image heavy and text light, and would be something that could be handed out to visitors and other people interested in the unique and distinctive collections at the University of York and York Minster Library. I worked with Sarah Slinn and Alexandra Medcalf from the Borthwick team, photographer Paul Shields, and designers Karen Smith and Jessica Stephens; we chose a few gorgeous pictures, wrote a few lines and thought we had completed our task. However once Stephen saw the initial idea he knew that we could go bigger and better and produce something much more substantial.

At first the plan was to produce a "Treasures Book", showing the highlights of the collections. It was certainly no hardship selecting stunning and internationally significant items for this. We decided on a telegram from Ghandi, theatre designs for an Alan Ayckbourn play, a hand coloured edition of the first printed atlas, a child's scrapbook from 1819 and many many more diverting and exciting items.

However as we went through the selection process we gradually realised that something else was going on. I know myself that if I go on a visit or a guided tour, it's always the stories that I remember. Sometimes I have no idea of dates or even the context of what I’ve heard, but the stories around an object stay in my mind and encourage me to go and find out more. That is what we decided to try and capture in the book and, from that moment, Stories of York really began to take shape.

York is full of great stories but our starting point obviously had to be the collections at the Borthwick, Special Collections and York Minster Library. There were some easy choices, arsonist Jonathan Martin was an obvious one as the collection is particularly rich down at the Minster, and we also had some fire boxes in the Raymond Burton collection.

York and chocolate cannot be separated and the Terry's and Rowntree's archives at the Borthwick had so much wonderful material that it was a hard job to decide what not to use. Here's a couple of the ones we reluctantly left out! Leaving things out was probably the hardest part, the book is 100 pages long but could easily have been a 1000.

Interestingly there were also things we were determined to include that in the final cut didn't quite fit. We wanted to tell the stories of the Mount School and the York Musical Festivals. There is wonderful material in the Mount archive and in the Raymond Burton Collection but we couldn't pull out that all important story. However we haven't given up so watch this space for a follow up!

Producing the book, discovering more about the stunning collections at the University and York Minster and being able to share some of their stories was a joy for all of us, and I hope that everyone else will get as much pleasure out of the Stories of York.

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Interested in reading more? You can buy your copy of our book online or in person:

• Stories of York

Knowing what you think

Joanne Casey explains why your thoughts matter to us, and reports on changes made in response to feedback.

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We are a customer-focused service, and we work hard to ensure that what we offer - in the Library, IT Services, or the Archives - meets your needs. So getting feedback from you, whether it's positive, negative, or a request for a new service, is important to us. It helps us to find out more about what you want and to identify how we can make improvements to our services.

How we gather feedback

We collect your feedback in a variety of ways; by email, in person, on comment cards, via Facebook and Twitter, or on the new comments board at the Library entrance. We respond directly to any comments that are submitted with contact details, but we also bring all the feedback together in a monthly report, reviewed by managers, and decide how we can act on it.

The well-used Library comments board

What happens next?

We look at what you tell us, we discuss whether improvements are possible, and we respond.

If we can change in response to feedback, we will...

In the past year, we have:

• Adjusted loan limits, so that you can now borrow up to 75 items at a time (previously 50 items)
• Increased the initial loan period from four weeks to eight weeks
• Edited the wording on the renewal screen in My Library account to make the renewal process for interlending items clearer
• Begun providing IT support in the evenings and at weekends, and introduced an appointments system for more complex IT queries
• Increased student spaces in the Library buildings, by opening up former staff offices and the old IT Support Office for student use, as well as opening up the meeting rooms on the second floor of Fairhurst to be used as study spaces in the evenings and at weekends. Over the coming year, it’s likely that other staff will move out of the Fairhurst and these spaces will also become available for study use.

...but sometimes we have to say no

The answer to your comments won't always be 'yes', but if it is 'no', we'll explain why.

For example, we've had a few requests for a microwave in the Library. There are lots of reasons why we can't provide this; the lack of a suitable space, problems with keeping it clean (it's not the responsibility of University cleaners to clean kitchen equipment), and cost (a standard domestic microwave wouldn't be a suitable choice). However, we've passed on this feedback to the University, and there's now a discussion underway about allowing students who live off-campus to access College kitchens.

We've also had lots of feedback about our turnstiles, and we know that several of you don't enjoy having to scan your cards to leave the Library. However, the information that we collect on use of the Library - how long people spend here, which departments or student groups are using the Library most, when people are most likely to come in - is really valuable to us in identifying how we need to develop our services (rest assured, we don’t retain any personal data from the turnstiles). So, whilst we understand how you feel, this isn't something that we plan to change.

The positives

We get lots of good feedback, about our staff and about our services. This matters to us, because it shows what we're getting right. We always make sure that these comments are shared both to managers and teams, so that our colleagues know that they're making a difference. Recent highlights include:

• Thanks as ever for the super speedy response! 1
• Thank you for the years of endless support #uoygraduation 2
• A huge thank you to @UoYITServices who have been brilliant helping with our move. Great team!
• Exceeded expectations, teaching was excellent and fun 3
• You are THE MOST WONDERFUL IT SUPPORT SERVICE IN THE WHOLE OF YORKSHIRE
• Brilliant library and very helpful staff. I just love wandering around exploring the books and journals on the shelves. A great atmosphere for learning.

Thank you all, and keep telling us what you think!

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More information

Who the compliments were for, where not stated.

1. Library Twitter feed
2. Library
3. Borthwick Institute for Archives

Find us on Twitter:

• Library Twitter feed
• IT Services Twitter feed
• Borthwick Institute for Archives Twitter feed

Read more about how we gather & respond to feedback:

• Information Services feedback

The Battle of the Somme: part 2

Our understanding of the First World War has been shaped by the numerous artists, poets, writers and composers who recorded their experiences of the fighting. In the second of two posts, Ilka Heale highlights some of the men who fought in the Battle of the Somme (1st July - 19th November 1916).

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Image of Robert Graves: [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

Poet and novelist, Robert Graves (1895-1985) is probably best known for the I, Claudius novels. In the First World War he fought alongside another war poet Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967).

During the Battle of the Somme, Graves was struck by an exploding shell a few days before his 21st birthday leaving him so badly injured that he was reported dead by his commanding officer. However, by the time his obituary appeared in the British press, Graves had miraculously recovered. He was soon well enough to return to the front a few months later. Surviving the war, he went on to live until the age of 90.

William Noel Hodgson (1893-1916) was also a poet. Known as 'Smiler' to his friends due to his sunny disposition, he volunteered on the outbreak of the war in 1914. This poem Before Action was written in the weeks leading up to the Battle of the Somme. His battalion was ordered to advance across the downward slope of a hill, in full view of German trenches on three sides. They knew how slender their chances were. On 1 July 1916, Hodgson was killed in the opening minutes of the advance.

Taken from William Noel Hodgson: the gentle poet by Jack Medomsley.

Seen as a plea for courage in the face of death, this poem was originally published on 29 June 1916 in the weekly paper The New Witness. Hodgson died two days later. Hodgson's posthumous volume Verse and Prose in Peace and War, published in 1917, was so popular it ran into three editions.

John Buchan (1875-1940) was the author of the Thirty-nine steps, one of the most famous and influential adventure stories of the 20th century. During the First World War, Buchan worked at the War and Foreign Offices and was appointed Director of Information making a major contribution with the innovative use of propaganda. Published in 1916, Buchan wrote The Battle of the Somme, First Phase claiming that the battle was so successful that it marked the end of trench warfare. However he failed to inform his readers that of the 110,000 British soldiers who fought in the Battle, over 57,000 became casualties and 20,000 were killed on the first day of fighting.

Starting in 1914, Buchan also wrote the extensive Nelson's 'History of the war' published as a monthly magazine. This book, published in 1917, was intended to be a companion to the monthly volumes of 'History of the war' as it contained sketch maps illustrating the battles.

Herbert Ward (1863-1919) was a British sculptor, illustrator, writer and explorer. As Ward was too old to enlist in the army, he served with the British Ambulance Committee. Wounded at the front and mentioned in dispatches in 1915, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his work removing wounded soldiers whilst under bombardment. He died, partly as a result of his injuries, in August 1919.

Image from Mr Poilu by Herbert Ward

Mr. Poilu: notes and sketches with the fighting French was published in December 1916 as a tribute to the French as worthy allies. As described by Ward in chapter 1, Poilu was a nickname given to French soldiers. The illustrations, chiefly monochrome, depict not victory but land despoiled and soldiers standing alone, their faces all aged by a war which must inescapably be fought despite the losses already incurred.

British Composer George Butterworth (1885-1916) was best known for The Banks of Green Willow and his musical settings for the poems of A.E Housman.

Written in 1913, The Banks of Green Willow is a short pastoral idyll. It has become almost a symbol of that long-lost halcyon Edwardian age, as if Butterworth were transcribing the disappearing world around him.
 Butterworth had joined up at the outbreak of war and during the Battle of the Somme was awarded the Military Cross for capturing a series of trenches near Pozières. On 4th August 1916, his unit was ordered to attack a communications trench and despite successfully capturing it, he was shot by a German sniper and died on 5th August.

There is an exhibition of items from the University Library's collections on the ground floor of the Fairhurst Building. To find material on First World War, search YorSearch, our Library catalogue.

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The photographs of the books in the University Library's collections were taken by the University photographer, Paul Shields.

The Battle of the Somme: part 1

This year marks the centenary of the Battle of the Somme (1st July - 19th November 1916) one of the largest battles of the First World War fought on the Western Front. In the first of two posts, Ilka Heale highlights some books on the subject in the University Library.

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At 7.30am on Saturday 1st July 1916, the opening British and French attack was launched near the River Somme in Picardy, northern France. The battle was fought in three major phases and several battles: at Albert, Bazentin Ridge, Fromelles, Delville Wood, Pozières Ridge, Guillemont, Ginchy, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Transloy Ridge, Thiepval Ridge, Ancre Heights, and at Ancre.

This was the 'Big Push' and was intended to hasten a victory for the Allies and to end the war. It was also one of the bloodiest battles. By the end of the fighting on the Somme, the British Army had lost over 400,000 men for an advance of a mere six miles. Between both sides, over 1,000,000 were killed or wounded. Practically all were infantrymen.

We are fortunate to have a collection of books about the First World War donated to the University Library by A. J. Peacock. Alfred James Peacock (1929-2004) was an educationalist and magistrate who completed a doctorate at the University. He also published a biography of the York "railway king" George Hudson. With an interest in the First World War, Peacock led annual tours of the battlefields.

The photograph above is of a young officer giving his men some final instructions before going into the battle. Taken from The war illustrated album de luxe: the story of the great war told by camera, pen and pencil edited by J. A. Hammerton (published in London by Amalgamated Press, 1915-1919).

The following quote (taken from The Imperial War Museum book of the Somme by Malcolm Brown) about the opening attack on the first day of the battle was written by an anonymous British eyewitness. He was writing about the part played by the 1/1st Welsh Heavy Battery (Territorial Force).

The extract below, from Orders are orders: a Manchester Pal on the Somme, is from an account written by Private Albert William Andrews of the 19th Battalion Manchester Regiment. A Manchester Pal, Albert recalled the first day of the Somme in his memoirs written in 1917 while convalescing from shell shock. You can also read his memories of Saturday 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Monday 3rd July, 1916

"On the Monday I was put with others burying the dead and this was when we realised the cost of our victory. The first Tuesday the roll was called there were too many that did not answer. Burying your own lads is not a job that I want again, some seeming by their looks to have died very easy, others very hard. [....] The job consisted of ….. taking their equipment off and emptying their pockets. You put the contents in the gas helmet satchel and hand this to the Officer who is with you, giving the man's name, number and Regiment if possible."

British troops advancing under shell fire 1 

On 12 August 1916 Friedrich Steinbrecher, a young German officer, wrote home saying: "Somme. The whole history of the world cannot contain a more ghastly word."

There is currently an exhibition of items from the University Library's collections on the ground floor of the Fairhurst Building; this will remain in place until the end of November (although it will be briefly removed between 19 and 28 October). To find material on the First World War, search YorSearch, our Library catalogue.

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1. British troops advancing under shell fire - a British Official photograph taken from The illustrated war record: of the notable episodes in the Great European War

The photographs of the books in the University Library's collections were taken by the University photographer, Paul Shields.

Flying squirrels and medieval knights: the John Heath Collection

Matthew Wigzell explores the recently catalogues John Heath Collection

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Tales of a medieval knight, the writings of a Swiss pseudo-scientist, and an illustration of the hooded flying squirrel. There may seem to be no apparent link, but all of these can be found in a wonderful new collection of books recently added to the Library's Special Collections.

The collection was amassed by former British diplomat Sir John Heath (1922-2009), who acquired examples of books illustrated by his ancestors, including the well-known engraver James Heath (1757–1834). The books were left to the University in Sir John's will and have now been fully catalogued and made available for study.

The collection, which is a wonderful glimpse into the late 18th and early 19th centuries, has books on a range of different subjects, with a particular focus on literature, early travel writing, and scientific subjects such as zoology (with some amazing illustrations of exotic animals).

As an added bonus, many of the items have been ornately bound, making this a research resource with great potential for those interested in the art of fine binding, antique book illustration, engravings and portraits.

We have also been recording unique information about items in the collection, including the presence of bookplates, signatures and other provenance information. We have a full set of Bell's Poets of Great Britain passed down through three generations of the Kirby family for example, and many of the books in the collection have personal reminders of former owners.

I have picked out three striking books from the collection which came cross my desk during the cataloguing process.

First up is The history of the valiant knight Arthur of Little Britain: a romance of chivalry. A medieval epic originally written in French, the book follows the hero Arthur doing battle with knights, dragons and other beasts, storming castles, and foiling dastardly plots at the royal court (think Game of Thrones written in Middle English). More striking though are the image plates; beautiful hand coloured book illustrations which show scenes from the text. They have some great details, and some of the battle scenes are surprisingly graphic - seriously, take a look.

My second selection is an odd book on physiognomy - the 'science' of assessing a person's character from physical characteristics, particularly the face. Essays on Physiognomy was written by Johann Caspar Lavater, a Swiss writer and philosopher, and gained something of a cult following thereafter. Containing a series of engraved portraits, the accompanying text describes the character of each portrait, and analysis of different parts of the face.

One unfortunate chap (pictured left) is characterised as having a face showing "Corrupt rudeness, and malignity, contemning morals. Natural power degenerates into obstinacy, in the forehead. Affection is far distant from this countenance. Insensibility usurps the place of courage, and meanness the seat of heroism…. The thing most pitiable in this countenance is an expression of the conscious want of power to acquire the degree of malignity it may wish, or affect to possess".

Even animals don't escape scorn. The hammer-head shark being "a monster, 2. How infinitely distant from all that can be called graceful, lovely, or agreeable! The arched mouth, with the pointed teeth, how senseless, intractable, and void of passion or feeling; devouring without pleasure or satisfaction! How inexpressibly stupid is the mouth of 3, especially in its relative proportion to the eye!".

The final example comes from a multi-volume set, General zoology or systematic natural history, by George Shaw. The set has some brilliant early 19th Century illustrations and descriptions of exotic animals, manly only recently discovered by explorers in Australia. The books describe a wide-range of mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes and reflect the growing interest in zoology and recording of the natural world. My favourite is the truly terrifying Hooded Flying Squirrel.

There is also a wonderful anecdote about the platypus, and Shaw's (who was keeper of the natural history department at the British Museum) initial reluctance to include it in the book. The specimen at the museum was "the only one which had been seen, [and] it was impossible not to entertain some distant doubts as to the genuine nature of the animal … and there might still have been practiced some arts of deception in its structure … Two more specimens, however, having been very lately sent over from New Holland, the suspicions before mentioned are now completely dissipated".

All of the books in the Heath collection can be accessed through the Borthwick Institute for Archives, and can be found in the Library catalogue. From the Advanced Search option, you can perform a provenance search for John Heath.

Hopefully researchers and students find them as interesting to study as we did to catalogue.

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All photos taken by Paul Shields.

The History of the York Mystery Plays: part 2

In the second of her two posts about the York Mystery Plays, Ilka Heale uses contemporary texts to learn more about the history and development of the tradition.

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There is no record of the first performance of the York Mystery Plays, but they are first recorded celebrating the festival of Corpus Christi in 1376, by which time the use of pageant wagons had already been established.

At least 48 individual plays would be performed in York. According to civic records for 1399, the day began at 4.30 in the morning with parades through the streets on wagons stopping at twelve special places on the streets, designated by the city banners. The route was just over a mile long. It took them down Micklegate where there were four stations, across Ouse Bridge, down Coney Street, up Stonegate and ending at Pavement.

From Eboracum by Francis Drake, 1736, titled 'Extract out an order for the regulation of the play of
Corpus Christi; dated the 7th day of June 1417'.

The extract above from Eboracum: or the history and antiquities of the city of York …. by Francis Drake, 1736 (Appendix, pg xxxii) shows the route of the 1417 Corpus Christi plays. Indeed this map also from his major two volume work on the history of York show the layout of the street pattern has hardly changed since 1417.

The plays were organised, financed (and often performed) by the York Craft Guilds. In medieval England, the word 'mystery' meant 'trade' or 'craft', and it also refers to a religious truth or rite - hence the name Mystery Plays.

Below is a photograph of The oath of the new brethren of the Merchant Adventurers of the City of York which is part of the Raymond Burton Yorkshire collection housed in the Library's Special Collections. The collection is centred around Yorkshire and ranges from Edwards of Halifax bindings with fore-edge paintings to early writings about Dick Turpin; and from a fine presentation copy of J. Tickell's, The history of the town and county of Kingston upon Hull (1796) to chapbooks of James Kendrew, an early 19th century York printer.

The inscription at the bottom of the oath reads "Wm. Brown admitted to his Freedom of the Com[pany] of the Merchant Adventurers of the City of York. by Servitude this 20th. day of Aprl. 1813. ... [signed] J. Ward Sec[retar]y."

Each guild would perform a play, often one that was most fitting to their members. For example, the marriage of Cana, where Christ turned water into wine, would be acted out by the vintners. More morbid associations included the metal pinners nailing Christ to the cross and the butchers who performed the death of Christ.

Below is an extract from Tomlin's transcript of the Ashburnham Manuscript in the original Middle English. The Guild of Shipwrights performed the building of Noah's Ark

Compare this with the extract below which is a modernised version of the same text.

The opening to the Story of Noah,
performed by the Guild of Shipwrights.

This extract is taken from 'The York cycle of mystery plays: a complete version' by JS Purvis. Cannon Purvis wrote the first modern script for the plays from the original Middle English for the 1951 revival of the York Mystery Plays. This was a shorter version to be performed in under three hours and was published in the same year as 'The York cycle of mystery plays: a shorter version of the ancient cycle'. In 1957, the text was expanded to include a complete version of the plays. From 1953-1963, he was the first Director of the Borthwick Institute and his archive is deposited with the Borthwick Institute for Archives.

This extract from 'The York mystery plays' is the first few lines of the modernised text for the 1951 plays. Found in our collections, there is little information in the book, but we can assume that this is a playscript for the plays written by Cannon Purvis for the York Festival Society. Incidentally, the playscript was donated to the Library from JB Morrell (yes, you are right in thinking that our Morrell Library is named after him. For more details, see the information board by the main entrance).

Along with the text, there are many references to music in the plays.

This is a page of music from The York play: a facsimile of British Library MS Additional 35290: together with a facsimile of the Ordo Paginarum section of the A/Y memorandum book. These six settings of music with Latin texts are to be performed as part of the Weavers pageant of The Assumption of the Virgin.

Music plays an important role but it is used in a different manner to music in modern drama. In contemporary drama, it works as 'incidental music', a way of highlighting the emotional content. However, medieval music has a functional role and is used to convey the beginning or ending of a play, to accompany entrances, exits and processions within a play as well as the spectacular stage effects of ascents and descents. Music is also used for a symbolic purpose. Heaven would be symbolised by the high voices and pure harmonies of the angels, with Hell using dissonance to create the chaos of evil.

For more information on medieval music, see our collection of books and scores in the John Paynter room in the Fairhurst Building, along with Music in the English mystery plays at MA 62 DUT.

York Historic Pageant souvenir by Charles Eyre Pascoe.
Shelfmark: Raymond Burton Yorkshire 12.32

The tradition of pageants and wagons was reintroduced in 1909. The York Historic Pageant included a parade of the banners of the Guilds through the streets, accompanying a wagon representing the Nativity. The York Pageant was a six day dramatic re-enactment of York's history from 800BC to 1644 which took place in the grounds of St Mary's Abbey at York. It was intended that 'the York Pageant represent by dramatic means a continuous history of York from the earliest times down to the siege of York in 1644'.

The York Pageant Music by James Rhoades & T. Tertius Noble.
Shelfmark: Special Collections Quarto LM 25 NOB

Thomas Tertius Noble (1867-1953) was the organist of York Minster from 1898 until 1913. He was responsible for the music in the York Pageant of 1909, composing some of it and directing the performances.

For a list of material on the York Mystery plays, please search YorSearch (the Library catalogue) or browse the shelves in our Literature section for MA 62.4 (the shelfmark for York Mystery Plays). In the Library's AV Collection, there are past performances of the mystery plays on DVD and video.

The books are in the University Library's Special Collections and can be consulted in the Borthwick Institute for Archives.

For books on the history of York, please see Q 42.741. Books on English History from 1558-1603, including the Northern Rebellion are at Q 42.055.

You can also find material related to the York Mystery Plays in the York Digital Library.

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All photographs have been taken by our own University photographer, Paul Shields, from the Library's collection of books on York Mystery plays.

The History of the York Mystery Plays: part 1

This year, from Thursday 26 May to Thursday 30 June, the York Mystery plays are being performed at York Minster for only the second time in their 700-year history. In the first of two posts, Ilka Heale highlights some books on the subject in the University Library.

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The York Mystery Plays are a Middle English cycle of forty-eight plays or pageants that tell stories from the Bible from the Creation to the Last Judgement.

Also known as the York Corpus Christi Plays, these were traditionally performed in the City's streets on the feast day of Corpus Christi (a movable feast which occurs sometime between 23 May and 24 June). There's evidence that the Plays were performed in York from the 1300s for around 200 years before their suppression in 1569, and that they are one of only four virtually complete surviving English mystery play cycles.

The Plays continued after the Reformation, when in 1548 the feast of Corpus Christi was abolished in England. The plays were adapted to fit the new religious orthodoxy, by cutting scenes honouring the Virgin, but were finally suppressed in 1569 the same year as the Northern Rebellion.

The play cycle was revived in 1951, in the York Festival of the Arts, as a part of the Festival of Britain celebrations. This was performed on a fixed stage in the ruins of St Mary's Abbey in Museum Gardens. Following the great success of the 1951 production selections from the plays have been staged periodically since.

Illustration of a performance of a mystery play in
'Ancient mysteries described, especially the English miracle plays' by William Hone

The earliest manuscript of the York cycle, probably dating between 1463 and 1477, is in the British Library and is known as the Ashburnham Manuscript. Originally belonging to the Corporation of York until 1553, it was later owned by Sir Henry Fairfax, Ralph Thoresby, Horace Walpole, Benjamin Heywood Bright, and Bertram, 5th Earl of Ashburnham (1840-1913). The manuscript was acquired by British Museum from Ashburnham in 1897. A facsimile of the manuscript appears in The York play: a facsimile of British Library MS Additional 35290: together with a facsimile of the Ordo Paginarum section of the A/Y memorandum book.

The plays remained little known until Lucy Toulmin Smith obtained the permission of the Earl of Ashburnham to study this manuscript, then in his possession. In 1885, her transcription was published as 'York plays: the plays performed by the crafts of mysteries of York on the day of Corpus Christi in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, now first published from the unique manuscript in the library of Lord Ashburnham' along with an introduction and short glossary.
In the introduction, Toulmin Smith writes "This was the book wherein the plays … were 'registered' by the city officers, and it must have belonged to the corporation. It was in one time in the care of the priory of Holy Trinity in Micklegate, at the gates of which was the first station in the circle of performances through the city as early as 1399."

Illustration of Holy Trinity church taken from Antiquities of York.
Drawn and etched by H. Cave and published in 1813.

For a list of material on the York Mystery plays, please search YorSearch (the University Library's online catalogue) or browse the shelves in our Literature section for MA 62.4 (the shelfmark for York Mystery Plays). In the Library's AV Collection, there are past performances of the mystery plays on DVD and video.

The books are in the University Library's Special Collections and can be consulted in the Borthwick Institute for Archives.

For books on the history of York, please see Q 42.741. Books on English History from 1558-1603, including the Northern Rebellion are at Q 42.055.

You can also find material related to the York Mystery Plays in the York Digital Library.

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All photographs have been taken by the University photographer, Paul Shields, from the Library's collection of books on York Mystery plays.

Meat lozenges and custard: advertising during World War One

Ilka Heale pores over advertisements found in the Library's Special Collections.

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We've all seen this advert on the side of a building near Monk Bar in York:

Bile beans sign by Andy D'Agorne
Used under a Creative Commons license

Purporting to keep you "healthy, bright eyed and slim", Bile Beans was a laxative and tonic first marketed in the 1890s. Amongst other cure-all claims, Bile Beans promised to "disperse unwanted fat" and "purify and enrich the blood". Something after a winter of comfort eating, we could probably all do with!

Although the manufacturer claimed that the formula for Bile Beans was based on a vegetable source, its actual ingredients were commonly found in pharmacies. In 1905, a court case in Scotland found that the Bile Bean Manufacturing Company's business was based on a fraud and had been conducted fraudulently. Nevertheless, Bile Beans continued to be sold until the 1980s.

The following photographs of advertisements have been taken by our own University photographer, Paul Shields, from the Library's collection of the Illustrated London News.

The Illustrated London News (ILN) was the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. The first issue appeared on Saturday, 14 May 1842 and was published weekly until 1971. The magazine continued less frequently with publication finally ceasing in 2003.

These photographs are from issues published during the First World War.

They show the change in the advertising pages to reflect the preoccupations of war. Before radio and television, the engravings and illustrations published in the weekly illustrated papers were often the only images people in Britain could see of the events unfolding. Some advertisements are targeted to families looking to buy a gift for the soldier at the Front and others for the families left at home.

Ever heard of Brands meat lozenges? No, me neither but this advert claims they are a 'meal in a vest pocket'. Who knew?

If that doesn't sound appetising, how about Bird's Custard? Apparently, 'served with any stewed or tinned fruits, it makes a feast fit for a King'!

Finally, these advertisements are aimed at planning for the future, when the war was over.

The newspapers are in the University Library's Special Collections and can be consulted in the Borthwick Institute for Archives.

For other titles on advertising, search YorSearch, our Library catalogue.

The Library also has a large collection of UK and international newspapers available in either print, microfilm or electronic formats. For further details on the titles held, please see About our collections on the Library website.

Customer Service: being excellent

Jackie Knowles talks about our ongoing mission to maintain excellence in the service we provide to our customers.

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We are proud to announce that the Information Directorate has successfully been revalidated for the Customer Service Excellence (CSE) accreditation.

In the twelve months since first achieving our CSE accreditation in April 2014 we have been working hard at ensuring we maintain our focus on our users and striving for excellence across everything we do. This has meant continuing to listen and engage with our users, making more improvements based on what we find out, continuing to share our good practice and maintaining our overall culture of putting customers at the heart of everything we do.

Our CSE revalidation visit took place in March and took the form of a 'health check' looking both at areas where we had identified where there was room for improvement and those areas where we excel. Our assessor came on site for a day and a half to meet with our staff and customers. We arranged a packed programme of discussions, tours and meetings for the assessor, including focus groups with users of York Minster Library and telephone interviews with some of our archives depositors and users. We also took the opportunity to showcase some of our best practice projects and ongoing work.

Highlights of the work we presented are:

• A full review of our feedback routes and complaint handling processes. We have refreshed our complaints policy and created a series of new user friendly complaints pages to explain what to do when things have gone wrong. We are also following up individually when people have complained to check that they are happy with how we handled things:
• Complaints
• Ensuring that we are measuring and reporting against our agreed service standards:
• Service Standards
• Sharing the results of some work we had been doing on understanding whether our users felt they were fairly treated.
• Explaining how we are working to track more of our customer interactions through building a Customer Relationship Management database to track our interactions with academic departments, and through the introduction of enquiry logging in the Borthwick.
• Outlining the creation of the White Rose Libraries office based here in York as a case study of our working in partnership with others:
• White Rose Libraries
• Sharing the details of our reviews and improvements to the start of session experience for users across both the Library and IT Services.
• Presenting information about negotiations we've undertaken with suppliers to ensure we can offer improvements to functionality, value for money and the user experience of software.

We are happy to report that our assessor was impressed with the range of work we had completed and commented that the Directorate continued to display a "culture of customer service and continual improvement". This continued success is something that we celebrate and is a strong reflection of the hard work of all our staff.

Three of the four areas previously rated as being of partial compliance will now be rated as fully compliant with the standard. In addition, two further areas will now be rated as being Compliance Plus (areas of best practice), these are:

• We have made the consultation of customers integral to continually improving our service and we advise customers of the results and action taken.
• Our staff are polite and friendly to customers and have an understanding of customer needs.

Looking ahead we are keen to keep up the good work and look forward to more CSE assessment visits in the years to come. We are already starting to think about our revalidation for spring 2016 and planning for our full re-assessment which will take place in 2017.

Further information

Customer Service Excellence is a government backed industry standard that assesses (against 57 different criteria) whether services are efficient, effective, excellent, equitable and empowering – with the users always and everywhere at the heart of service provision.

If you're interested in learning more about Customer Service Excellence we'd be happy to share our experiences. Please contact Jackie Knowles, Head of Customer Services.

A new digital showcase: Special Collections scrapbooks

Robin McKinlay introduces a fascinating showcase of scrapbooks held within the Special Collections.

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Since starting in my Digitisation Assistant role in September 2014, one of the projects I have inherited and continued to work on has been to research a collection of four 19th century scrapbooks. These scrapbooks were handpicked by Elizabeth Carter after a visit to King's Manor Special Collections, which are now housed in the Raymond Burton Library. Although each of the scrapbooks has a different compiler, they are connected by common themes such as architecture, travel and York history. The Digital York team is pleased to present these scrapbooks to you in a new digital showcase:

• Scrapbooks

The first scrapbook, entitled 'Scrapbooks of architectural photographs from various countries', is an impressive collection of photographs of cathedral architecture. These images were collected and compiled by George Wilson, about whom we know very little. You can read the detective work that went into working out who he was and why he had such an large collection of images of mostly French cathedrals, each one annotated and organised into groups of architectural features. Captured within the scrapbook are hundreds of cathedral interiors and exteriors, and even a handful of images that capture the effects of wartime bombardments on these buildings.

• Scrapbooks of architectural photographs from various countries

Reims Cathedral west front after a bombardment

York Minster architectural features

'York Cathedral: description of the door way entering into the chapter house' was compiled by John Carter, who was possibly England's first architectural journalist, working through the late 18th century and into the 19th century. Very committed to his work, he had a passion for Gothic architecture and was very outspoken about anyone trying to do anything different (what he called 'Innovation'). You can read about his tumultuous professional life, which saw him develop a nemesis, argue with the wealthy in various publications, but also find happiness in York Minster.

The scrapbook that we have in our Special Collections contains some of his intricate drawings from his work in York, as well as a written description of his observations.

• York Cathedral: description of the door way entering into the chapter house

Also featured in our showcase is a scrapbook compiled by William Wilberforce Morrell. This scrapbook contains an eclectic mixture of images, including photographs from around York, cathedral architecture and illustrations collected from travels abroad. Kath Webb, archivist at the Borthwick Institute for Archives and researcher into the Morrell family, reflects on the historical value of scrapbooks and why this scrapbook in particular interests her.

• Scrapbook of English and European architecture

York Minster

The final item featured in our showcase documents an extensive trip to the Middle East. The author of this scrapbook is unknown, but we do know that it had three contributors with the initials BB, IB and TWB. This scrapbook contains an intriguing collection of images of an expedition conducted by three (possibly) British men and their group of local guides (or dragomans).

Through photographs and sketches, they managed to capture places of archaeological significance in Egypt, Israel and Jordan before the effects of commercial travel became visible. These include images of the pyramids at Giza, the Valley of Jordan and the streets of Jerusalem.

Within the pages there is a great sense of the authors exploring the unknown, not just because of the ground they managed to cover, but in the way they have recorded cultural differences such as dress, as well as architectural styles and street scenes.

• Photographs of the Middle East and Italy

The complete travelling group outside their tents in Beirut

The main aim of this showcase is to highlight what we have available at the University, as these are just some of the items available to be viewed in the Library's Special Collections. To see more, we encourage you to explore the Special Collections web page and ask to view items in the Borthwick Institute’s searchroom.

• Special Collections
• Borthwick Institute for Archives

For more information:

The Digital Showcase not only lets you browse the scrapbooks, but also provides the background of each in far more detail:

• Scrapbooks

You can also view these image collections, and a host of other resources, on our Digital Library:

• York Digital Library

Did you know it's National Customer Service Week?

The Information Directorate are providers of award winning customer service. This week, as Jackie Knowles reports, we used the occasion of National Customer Service Week to promote and share our story with a showcase event.

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In March 2014 the Information Directorate were awarded the Customer Service ExcellenceⓇ (CSE) accreditation. CSE offers organisations an external, and independent, accreditation which looks in detail at those areas that matter to customers when it comes to services - aspects such as delivery, timeliness, information, professionalism and staff attitude.

Our showcase invited staff from across the University to come along to find out more about what we do across Library, IT and Archives and what makes us tick when it comes to providing our award winning customer service. It was also an opportunity for leaders and managers from other departments in York to find out more about the CSE framework -  both the work involved in preparing for assessment and the ongoing commitment that is required. Holding CSE within Information helps us promote the University as a whole and a selection of other HE organisations have begun to gain CSE accreditation across the whole of their institutions, with many others waiting in the wings and considering following suit.

The afternoon was an informal drop-in based around having conversations with people and it was a great opportunity for us to chat to colleagues about our approach and our services. The CSE standard places an emphasis on developing customer insight and understanding the user experience - and for us, talking to people underpins this understanding. Providing cake along the way helps too!

Customer Service Excellence is a significant undertaking, especially for a department of our size, and although there was a lot of hard work involved in preparing for our initial assessment we have seen a range of benefits come out of the process. Our staff culture has changed and we now are certain that we put the customer right at the heart of everything we do. Our staff have been challenged via working on CSE to become more self reflective and always look to make continual improvements to the services we provide. But perhaps one of the biggest success stories coming out of CSE is how we've come together as a big team to make it all work. For a department made up of three distinct areas this was a particular challenge and CSE has given us a common language and framework to drive forward our work. This was evidenced throughout our work on CSE from senior level managers working together to put robust service standards in place, to a range of practical measures on the ground around sharing of good practice.


The achievement of the standard gives us formal recognition and a badge of quality - but the badge is simply the icing on the cake.

To find out more about our CSE accreditation please visit our Customer Service Excellence webpage or contact Jackie Knowles, Head of Customer Services for further information.

Our Staff Festival

You may have spotted that we were short-staffed over a few days in July. Joanne Casey explains why.

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Every year, the Information Directorate holds what we call Staff Festival. It's not quite Glastonbury - good weather helps, but we don't have to wear wristbands or wrestle with tents.

Instead, it's our annual focus on staff development, which springs from a belief that staff who are given the opportunity to boost their skills will provide a better service to our customers.

We've run our staff development events in various formats over the years - a fortnight of opt-in sessions, an all staff away day, or a week of events. This time, the event lasted three days: the first focused on individuals, the second on teams, and the third on the whole department. The overall theme was Brilliance, and how to achieve it.

As individuals, we tried to enhance our personal brilliance by selecting from activities aimed at improving the work life balance - from sessions on resilience to yoga in the workplace. Team events were an opportunity for us to get together in our groups with day-to-day work set aside; some chose to take time to look at their team mission, others arranged team building events off campus from sandcastle building to clearing weeds in Rowntree Park. Staff from the IT Support Office presented their colleagues in Customer Services with a video about their work, which is now proving popular on our YouTube channel.

The final day found almost all Information staff at Merchant Taylors' Hall, with a day long session facilitated by Darrell Woodman from The Art of Brilliance. Presentations in the morning were followed by group exercises in the afternoon. Crucially, we spent time looking at things that we could genuinely change to improve the work that we do, both for ourselves and for our customers.

Inevitably, carrying out staff development on such a wide scale meant that for the second two days the Library Help Desk and IT Support Office were running on minimal staff. We hope that this short-term inconvenience is more than offset by long-term improvements.

Behind the name on the door...

Have you ever noticed that each of the study rooms in the Morrell and Fairhurst has a name on the door, and wondered what's behind that name?

Wonder no more, as all is being revealed this week. Each name has been chosen because it represents a place or person, or something with a York or Yorkshire connection.

Acomb doesn’t just refer to an obscure, far-away suburb at the end of the no. 4 bus line…

Acomb Room Sign, photo credit: Paul Shields, University Photographer

Researching for and writing these signs has been a fascinating process, and they show the wealth of resources that we hold here, in Special Collections and the Borthwick Institute for Archives. For instance, did you know that we have one of the original manuscripts of Laurence Sterne’s autobiography? And patient papers for The Retreat hospital, including poems, stories and paintings produced by the inmates?

Title page of the original manuscript of Laurence Sterne's autobiography, 5.36 RBY Col. Reproduced from an original in the Borthwick Institute. Click any image to enlarge.

Art therapy on lawn: Retreat patients sitting painting, RET 1/8/4/3/1, 1950s. Reproduced from an original in the Borthwick Institute

We don’t just have signs on famous figures either - there is information about lesser-known people, such as Catherine Cappe, who was prominent in the Unitarian movement in York.

Next time you’re in one of our study rooms, look up - you never know what you’ll find out.