What do we mean by Visual Collections?
Visual collections is a term that we use to cover the Library’s art, visual and material culture. This means our paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, textiles, ceramics, and prints, illustrations in books and illuminations in manuscripts.
Our visual collections date from the ancient world to the present and their scope is international; covering areas as diverse as Renaissance print culture, Post World War II avant-garde art movements, the art and illustration of science, technology and medicine, 19th century British Art, and the visual culture of the Near, Middle and Far East.
There are a number of discrete collections within our four main collecting areas, which are fine art, decorative art, photography and evocative objects. There are also hybrid collections (for example mixed collections of archival materials and artworks) and many more items of visual material and material culture (objects) spread across all our formats and library sites. For instance, we have maps that are also artworks, badge collections in our RACE library, extensive collections of medical artefacts in the Museum of Medicine and Health, early photography illustrating printed volumes and personal objects found in archives.
Particular strengths of the collections are in the following areas:
- Objects that link visual and literary cultures, from the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead to recent and contemporary artists’ books and Private Press productions which offer opportunities for interdisciplinary study.
- The collection of analogue photography contains a comprehensive range of subjects, from art to zoology, in a variety of analogue formats and processes, from the calotype to the Polaroid.
- Our collection of portraits encompasses paintings, miniatures, drawings, sculptures, photographs, ceramics and bone. These works depict a vast array of individuals from a range of cultures and historical periods.
- The art and illustration of science, technology and medicine is well represented in our archives, book and manuscript collections in the form of notebooks, drawings, diagrams, photographs, objects and printed images.
- Visual Print culture from the 15th century to the present (including maps, portfolios, albums and printed books) which covers a spectrum of subjects, a range of different techniques including relief, intaglio, planographic and screen printing.
- Our collections of Jewish, Near Eastern and Oriental manuscripts contain a wide range of examples of the art and visual culture of the Near, Middle and Far East in the form of drawings, paintings, illumination and calligraphy.
- Similarly, our Western European manuscripts represent the crafts of painting, illumination and calligraphy.
- Architectural, urban and landscape history is well represented across our collections and includes treatises and surveys which range from Alberti and Palladio to Robert Adam, Sir John Soane and Joseph Nash. We also hold extensive collections of atlases and travelogues.
- Urban design and development, particularly of Manchester and the North West of England is very well represented in our Map Collection.
- Objects that tell the history of writing and printing including printing presses; typewriters, pens and the tools of artistic practice.
- Objects that tell the history of The University of Manchester & The John Rylands Library.
Finding Visual and Material Culture within our Collections
As a relatively new collection area, much of our discrete visual collections cataloguing is a work in progress. For those collections that are now documented, a catalogue entry appears along with our printed collections in Library Search, while most of our archives are catalogued on Elgar. The manuscript collections tend to be organised by language, so each collection will have a separate hand-list or catalogue that details it. The Guide to Special Collections pages give good advice on where to begin with each individual collection.
The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE (Race Archives and Community Engagement) Centre have many of their specialist collections catalogued and available for study. Please check their pages for advice about accessing individual collections.
The Museum of Medicine and Health houses a 3,000 strong collection of medical and health related objects from the last 300 years, known as the Beswick Collection.
Finally, the Image Collection contains digital surrogates of many individual visual resources and the Manchester Digital Collections is a new resource for exploring high-quality images of cultural collections and research projects at The University of Manchester.
For advice on material not covered by the online catalogues, or for any other enquiries relating to the visual collections, please contact us.
Additional Resources:
Made in Manchester tells the story of Manchester using items from our Special Collections
How do I find out more about Special Collections?
Introducing Special Collections
Our Catalogues:
How to Search Special Collections
How to find Special Collections in Library Search
Digital Collections:
How to use Manchester Digital Collections
Images reproduced with the permission of The John Rylands University Librarian and Director of the University of Manchester Library. All images used on this page are licenced via CC-BY-NC-SA, for further information about each image, please follow the link in the caption description.
If you are interested in using any material from Special Collections please get in contact with our Reading Room staff: uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk
