Under the direction of Captain Sir William Parry, the HMS Hecla and HMS Griper left port on 11 May 1819 destined for the Arctic. Their objective was to continue the search for the Northwest Passage and to pursue the Longitude prize by surpassing the record for a sailing vessel traveling the farthest north (previously set […]
Category: Manuscripts
To the End of the World and Back (Post-1650 MS 334)
May 25, 2010
Spanish Antiphonal Manuscript (Pre-1650 MS 209)
April 27, 2010
Recently donated by Roberta Lynn Hay, Pre-1650 MS 209 is a large and imposing addition to The Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Once used for the observance of the Divine Office, this manuscript is one volume of an incomplete antiphonal of the Temporale cycle of a non-Dominican monastery […]
Letter Reveals Lord North’s Apprehension Over British Defeat at Trenton, 1777
July 6, 2009
***This post was previously posted at the RBML Discoveries from the Vault website*** On the night of Monday, February 10, 1777, Lord North the British prime minister sat at his desk at 10 Downing Street and wrote a quick note to his friend and chief intelligence official, William Eden. In addition to forwarding to Eden […]
Lost Letter from Leopold von Ranke Found!
January 8, 2007
***This post was previously posted at the RBML Discoveries from the Vault website*** The German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) is today often regarded as the founder of the science of history as a discipline involving the use of a wide range of documents in historical research. At one time, a very interesting letter from […]
“The Humble Petition of William Andrews,” ca. 1690
July 10, 2006
***This post was previously posted at the RBML Discoveries from the Vault website*** A handwritten letter from around 1690 that has long been in the uncataloged area of The Rare Book & Manuscript Library has recently been cataloged. Though known to curators in the past, cataloger Brandy Parris came upon it again and brought it […]