About this Event
Join CILIP’s Rare Books and Special Collections Group for an exciting tour of Senate House Library, home to one of the UK's most significant research collections. Its Special Collections house over 50,000 rare books and manuscripts. With highlights including Shakespeare’s First Folios and Langland’s Piers Plowman, Senate House Library is home to an exceptional range of materials relating to literature, the arts, sociology, politics, and economics—from the medieval period to the present day.
The visit will also include a curator led tour of the newly opened Spineless Wonders exhibition:
'Spineless Wonders’ spotlights a range of ‘spineless’ material from SHL’s collections. It explores why the material was made, its impacts and its continuing relevance.
SHL is home to many works which have been produced without a (perfectly bound) spine, dating from the early 17th century to the present day. These are often ephemeral items which have survived against the odds and beyond original intent. The format encompasses poetry pamphlets, radical and activist publications, artists’ books, playbills and broadsides and ballads. Often hidden, this exhibition brings the material to the fore.
The exhibition is part of the Spring 2025 programme of the well-established ‘Spineless Wonders’ network (SWN) of which Senate House Library is a founding member: Spineless Wonders • Slade School of Fine Art (ucl.ac.uk).
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Senate House Library, Malet Street, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
