Before you know it, it’s suddenly coming up to the start of the third and final term of the academic year. This year, term starts on the 6th May but as it’s the May Day Bank Holiday, Special Collections will be closed on this Monday. If you would like to order anything for the morning of Tuesday 7, please make sure that the request is with us by 4pm today.

It’s also going to be the final week of the Victorian & Edwardian Theatre Exhibition, curated by the students of Helen Brooks’ Theatre History module, which will be coming down on Friday 10 May. Please do pop in to see it if you have the chance. It’s on in the Templeman Gallery which is just behind the cafe on level 1 of the Templeman.

If you can’t catch it – or if you want to learn more – take a look at the websites which the students created to stand alongside their physical exhibitions. The gateway to these, and more information about the module, is available on the Special Collections website.

The next exhibition in the space is being curated by Canterbury Christ Church University almunus and Kent member of staff Alyson Hunt, and is a collaboration with the Canterbury Christ Church University’s International Centre for Victorian Women Writers and UoK’s Centre for Gender, Sexuality and Writing. Featuring items from our Special Collections, Christ Church Special Collections and the Gulbenkian Theatre, Wild Woman to New Woman: Sex and Suffrage on the Victorian Stage, will explore changing depictions and attitudes towards women during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The exhibition will open on Tuesday 14 May, with a public lecture given by Professor Kate Newey (University of Exeter) at 6pm in Keynes Lecture Theatre 3.

As if that wasn’t enough, next week, on Thursday 9 May, the Templeman will host a lecture of the Canterbury Historical Association, which is open to all (members and students free, non-members £3). Dr Sally Dixon-Smith, Curator of the Tower of London, will be talking about Royal Beasts: The Menagerie at the Tower of London. This will take place at 7pm in TR201 on level 2 of the Templeman Library. As part of this, there will be a small exhibition of some Special Collections & Archives materials of particular interest in the Special Collections reading room, on Level 4 of the Templeman Library, from 5-6pm. Do come along to say hello and to learn more about the archives we hold for research, teaching and discovery.

The session getting started at the Marlowe Theatre

And finally in our roundup, I’d just like to report on another exciting event which we were involved in this week. ‘Lifting the Curtain‘ was a three day programme of workshops, lectures and discussion, organised by UoK’s Department of Drama and Theatre and hosted by the Marlowe Theatre, in the heart of Canterbury. This provided a wide range of sessions for all attendees, particularly those wihout prior links to the University. Special Collections was involved in Dr. Helen Brooks‘ discussion and exploration session, all about the theatre in World War I. We provided some original and some copied materials for the attendees to explore, thinking about how theatre was effected by the war, and the role which theatre played and was seen to play, in the war effort. It was great to be greeted with such enthusiasm, once again, for these sources, and fasinating to be able to talk to such a wide range of people, from academics in non-performance disciplines, to those working in theatre, to those simply interested in drama. I’d like to thank the Department for making us part of this event, and helping to bring out collections to such a wide audience.

I think that’s about it for now, but do check back to see what new and exciting projects, materials and ideas we discover over the last few weeks of the academic year.

In the meantime, I hope you have a lovely bank holiday weekend and we’ll see you from Tuesday 7 May, next week.