In tribute to Cobbett’s first rural ride 200 years ago, this small exhibition showcases a few of the treasures held in the Nuffield College Library & Archive collections Exhibition at Nuffield College Library Born in March 1763, the son of a farmer and innkeeper, William Cobbett was an English agriculturalist, journalist, and political reformer. 200 years ago today, October 29th 1821, William Cobbett embarked on the first of a series of journeys, by horseback and on foot, throughout southern England to see for himself the rural conditions and the plight of the agricultural labourer. The jo ..read more

Members of the Commission of the League of Nations. [Wikimedia Commons] January 10th 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the League of Nations, established by the Treaty of Versailles the previous year. The League was the first international organisation whose main aim was to maintain world peace via collective security, disarmament, arbitration and sanctions. During the period of its existence it held many conferences and commissioned and published extensive research into conflicts and the political and economic conditions of the world. However, it was unable to stop the mil ..read more

Starting in January 2019, the renumbering of the Clay collection and the expansion of the handlist took longer than anticipated. Naively it was thought that the numbering may only take 6 weeks (!) based on the evidence gathered from the partially expanded 2008 handlist. However, numbering the individual leaves of notes and copious amounts of pamphlets and publications resulted in the project lasting 10 months rather than the 6 weeks predicted. Over 10,000 individual documents later, with 81 boxes numbered, handlist entries expanded and 45 previously numbered boxes checked, the main collection ..read more