Manuscripts - A-H

A 1975 letter from Arthur C Clarke to a fan. Clarke uses a preprinted letter which he has signed in biro. The printed text explains the reason that he cannot respond personally to 'several thousand it...

A cut signature belonging to the pioneering photographer, Henry Fox Talbot. The autograph signature is written in black ink on very slightly textured paper which has evidently been clipped from a let...

A cut signature belonging to the pioneering mathematician and mechanical engineer, Charles Babbage. His autograph signature is written in black ink on very slightly textured paper which has evidently...

A double sided manuscript letter from Bernard Quaritch, perhaps the preeminent bookdealer to have worked in the British Isles, to the bibliographer and collector Samuel Sandars. The letter has extreme...

This is an audio recording - in all likelihood unique - of the funeral speech given by the author Christopher Isherwood for his friend, the Hollywood actor, and fellow British ex-patriate Charles Laug...

Edward Everard, Tailors' Courts, Broad Street, Bristol, 1897. This album compiled at the end of the nineteenth century contains more than a thousand examples of cut and mounted envelope crests. These ...

A typed letter and review article by the Yorkshire writer and intellectual Arthur Raistrick. The letter is addressed to the Arts Editor of the Yorkshire Post Bill Oliver. In it Raistrick mentions hi...

A single A3 sheet architectural drawing showing elevations and plans for a terrace of six houses. Drawn by F Tunnell (Engineer and Surveyor) in February 1945 the pen and ink drawings are elegantly col...

The original architectural drawings used in the construction of Frank Lloyd Wright's Carlton D Wall, 'Snowflake House' in Michigan. The drawings comprise twelve very large diazo prints and one pencil...

An original ink drawing by E H Shepard for the English periodical, Punch. Shepard became a staff cartoonist for Punch in 1922 and lead cartoonist in 1945 before being removed from the job by Malcolm M...

An interesting letter by the outgoing President of Harvard University Charles W Eliot as he ponders life in retirement. Eliot's forty year tenure of the Harvard Presidency is credited with transformi...

A remarkable personal archive chronicling the professional life of a senior manager in the Mackintosh toffee company in Halifax. The archive which is held in a 'Nipper' file runs from 1909 to 1955 whe...

A fascinating unpublished manuscript account of an 1889 British colonial migrant's journey to South Africa, taking in De Beers' diamond mine at Kimblerley, before moving on to work at Hatherley Distil...

A typed letter from Evan Hunter, also known as Ed McBain, offering 'the rough draft of Sadie When She Died' to a manuscript collector. Hunter comments that 'I cannot send you the original pages becaus...