Tag Archives: events

LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE ARCHIVE! – Live Comedy Day

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This April Fool’s Day come and explore the history of live comedy in a tour of the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive.

Comedy expert Oliver Double will introduce you to some incredible archive material, including scripts and set lists from comedians like Linda Smith, Robin Ince and Stewart Lee; an original Comedy Store poster; scripts of The Young Ones; one of Harry Hill’s suits; and a tangerine donated by Josie Long. What’s a tangerine got to do with live comedy? Come along and find out!

The British Stand-Up Comedy Archive (BSUCA) celebrates, preserves, and provides access to the archives and records of British stand-up comedy and comedians. The collections contain audio visual recordings, scripts, publicity material, photographs, press, correspondence, and props. The inspiration for the establishment of this archive was the deposit at the University of the personal archive of the comedian Linda Smith (1958-2006). The archive was established by the University of Kent’s Special Collections & Archives and with Dr Oliver Double and the Department of Drama and Theatre at the University of Kent.

We’re very excited to be collaborating with Olly on this free event as part of this year’s Live Comedy Day. The event will be held in the Templeman Library on Wednesday 1st April 2026. Book your place here!

Find a complete listing of Live Comedy Day events at https://livecomedyday.co.uk/events.

 

 

UK Philanthropy Archive Inaugural Shirley Lecture

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As part of the ongoing launch of our UK Philanthropy Archive (UKPA) we’re very excited to announce a new series of lectures – the Shirley lectures, named after one of the founding UKPA collections, the Shirley Foundation papers.

The lecture will take place next Thursday (13th May) at 1pm online – you can sign up for a free place here.

Image of Dame Stephanie Shirley alongside text advertising the inaugural Shirley Lecture online at 1pm on Thursday 13 May 2021.

Join us for the inaugural Shirley Lecture, given by Dame Stephanie Shirley herself!

We are delighted that our first Shirley Lecture will be delivered by Dame Stephanie Shirley CH – IT entrepreneur and philanthropist who has generously donated the papers of the Shirley Foundation to the University of Kent, supporting the establishment the UK Philanthropy Archive.

Dame Stephanie , who arrived in the UK as an unaccompanied child refugee on the Kindertransport, went on to found a hugely successful IT software company that specialised in employing women. Dame Stephanie used the wealth she achieved in business to give back to society through her charitable foundation – the Shirley Foundation, which granted more than £60 million to a variety of projects before spending out in 2018. The inspiration for much of her philanthropy has been technology, after her professional interests, and autism, after her son Giles who was diagnosed as profoundly autistic.

For the inaugural Shirley Lecture – Dame Stephanie will talk about her life and her experiences, her charitable interests and philanthropy.

Signed copies of her books – ‘Let It Go’ and ‘So to Speak’ – will be available to order – with all proceeds going to Autistica – the UK’s leading autism research charity.

We hope you’ll be able to join us for what promises to be an unforgettable event!

For more information about the UK Philanthropy Archive – including recordings of past events – please see our webpages here.

Re-Engineering History: A Playful Demonstration

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Here’s a fun fact for you: one of the world’s first computers was constructed out of Meccano! Built in 1934, engineer Douglas Hartree created the Differential Analyser for about £20 (which seems like a bargain to us).

A young Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in action. Maybe.

Very excitingly, next week Special Collections & Archives are going to be hosting a reconstruction of this ground-breaking machine in our Reading Room! PhD student Tom Ritchie is the man behind this brave challenge, and he’s going to be hosting a very special event to explore the Differential Analyser next Tuesday (9th October). Intrigued? Why not come along and learn more?

The best thing to happen in Special Collections & Archives since we changed our Reading Room hours

As an added bonus, you’ll be able to view related material from our wonderful collections on the day too. This will include items from our recently-explored Maddison Collection, which charts the history of science from the 16th century to (almost) the present day. What more could you want on a Tuesday evening? Tea, coffee, and wine? Well we’ve got that covered too! (Just not near the books)

Like table football, but more useful

‘Re-Engineering History’ takes place between Monday 8 – Thursday 11 October. The seminar, demonstration and Q&A is being held on Tuesday 9 October at 5.30pm in Special Collections and Archives. 

Because the author of this blog is in no way a scientist, please visit the IS Science Team’s blog here and Tom Ritchie’s excellent explanation here to find out more about this very exciting project.

 

Free event: Panto Then and Now, 10th January 2018

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SC&A are really excited to invite you to our fantastic pantomime-themed day on 10 January 2018, which should be a great way to kick off the New Year!

We’ve been working with the Centre for Comic and Popular Performance to celebrate all things pantomime. There’ll be a chance to see not one but two exhibitions, hear talks from pantomime experts, test your knowledge in a quiz, go behind the scenes at the biggest theatre in Canterbury and take part in a Q&A session with the cast and creative team from this year’s Marlowe pantomime – Peter Pan.

This event is free, but places are limited. If you’d like to come along, please book your free ticket via Eventbrite. Will we see you on the 10th January? Oh yes we will!

Music in the Archives – a Summer Music Week event, 7th June 2017 2pm – 4pm

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What do early modern playwrights, the Victorians, First World War soldiers and pantomime audiences all have in common? Music – and archives!

Books from the John Crow Ballad & Song Collection

To complement the University of Kent’s Summer Music Week, Special Collections & Archives invites you to an open afternoon on Wednesday 7th June between 2 – 4pm to learn more about how music is represented, recorded and explored through our collections.

W.K. Haselden: Music at meals: Meals at music – a parallel, 1914

You’ll be able to view a wide range of material including:
Items from the John Crow Ballad and Song Collection
Rare books from our Pre-1700 Collection
Artwork held in the British Cartoon Archive
Alternative cabaret performances found in the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive

…and much much more.

You don’t need to book, just drop in on the day. Whether you’re a performer, a researcher, a fan of all things musical or just curious about the material held right here on campus – all are welcome. We look forward to seeing you next week!