{"id":195,"date":"2020-12-02T11:43:44","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T11:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-library-guide\/?page_id=195"},"modified":"2025-10-09T11:11:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T10:11:24","slug":"special-collections-archives","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-library-guide\/primary-sources\/special-collections-archives\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Collections &amp; Archives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Special Collections &amp; Archives at the University of Kent are located in the Templeman Library and house a wealth of unique materials (comprising over 150 different collections, to be precise) available for you to use throughout your degree. To access any material, you&#8217;ll need to book an appointment, but the team is always ready to assist you through email. Feel free to <a href=\"mailto:specialcollections@kent.ac.uk\"><strong>get in touch<\/strong><\/a> if you have any queries or would like to learn more.<\/p>\n<p>Collections include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Modern First Editions<\/strong>: Over 1300 volumes of books, primarily 20<sup>th<\/sup> century, divided into prose and poetry categories. The collections are particularly strong on small and private press poetry and works by EM Forster, Bonamy Dobree and TS Eliot.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Catherine Crowe Collection<\/strong>: Research notes and material collected by Geoffrey Larken into the Victorian gothic novel writer Catherine Crowe, alongside first editions of her works.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Theatre collections<\/strong>: Playscripts, ephemera, publicity material, and printed books exploring all areas of popular performance. The collections are particularly strong in Victorian and Edwardian theatre (19<sup>th<\/sup> \u2013 20<sup>th<\/sup> centuries), pantomime and music hall.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Local history collections<\/strong>: Material relating to the history of Kent county, with a substantial number of books about Canterbury.<\/li>\n<li><strong>History of science printed material<\/strong>: Book collections relating to the work of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin and the development of science as a discipline, with a particular focus on physics and medicine, ranging from the 16<sup>th<\/sup> century \u2013 20<sup>th<\/sup> century.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Artists\u2019 books<\/strong>: Curated for a 2016 exhibition in the Beaney Museum in Canterbury, these works explore the relationship between the mind, body and medicine using their format as a method of communication.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pre-1700s collection<\/strong>: Several hundred books from the pre-1700 era, including Holinshed\u2019s Chronicles (the works which were used by Shakespeare, Marlowe et al to write history plays), a first edition of playwright Ben Jonson\u2019s folio, religious sermons and much more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more information about the resources available in Special Collections &amp; Archives, please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/library-it\/special-collections\"><strong>visit their website<\/strong><\/a>. There\u2019s also a <a href=\"https:\/\/kent.cloud.panopto.eu\/Panopto\/Pages\/Viewer.aspx?id=6453f80b-238f-4d4b-8a55-ac5600a976c7\"><strong>guide on using archive materials in your research<\/strong><\/a>, as well as a <a href=\"https:\/\/kent.cloud.panopto.eu\/Panopto\/Pages\/Viewer.aspx?id=7d8dabf1-e633-4732-8353-ac3f00cd4115\"><strong>video introducing you to the world of Special Collections and Archives<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;margin: 0cm 0cm 18.0pt 0cm\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Special Collections &amp; Archives at the University of Kent are located in the Templeman Library and house a wealth of unique materials (comprising over 150 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-library-guide\/primary-sources\/special-collections-archives\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2259,"featured_media":0,"parent":355,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/195\/revisions\/299"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/english-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}