Special Collections Roundup

Inside My Favorite Manuscript
Launching November 15th, a new podcast from Dot Porter of the Schoenberg Institute at Penn. The first episode features guest Allie Alvis of Type Punch Matrix Books. I can’t wait to hear it!

The expenses of Queen Eleanor of Castile
As part of its ongoing Medieval and Renaissance Women digitization project, the British Library has digitized a manuscript documenting the expenses of Queen Eleanor of Castile from September 1289 to December 1290.

Fancy things: Cataloguing the Tercentennial Collection
The Bodleian reopens some of the presents it got for its 300th birthday in 1902 from libraries around Europe.

1880s Chemistry Set of Harmon Cozzens
Columbia RBML acquires a chemistry set used by one of the students in its School of Mines in the late 19th century. This is one item you’ll be handling with gloves in the reading room, as it contains a number of substances you don’t want to get on your hands.

Code Cracking in the Tinder Postcard Collection
Knowledge of the “Pigpen Cipher” makes it possible to decode a 1911 romantic message from Myrtle to Leon.