Monthly Archives: July 2018

Just a quick update, as we catch our breath after a long examination of the Peterborough Mechanics’ Institute.  We will be back on Monday, with a literary visit to the city pictured above — a sort of homage to Catalonia, … Continue reading →

With this post, we finish up our look at the Peterborough Mechanics’ Institute, the precursor to the city’s Public Library.   In Part 1, we examined briefly the history of the Institute, and in Part 2 we looked at the contents … Continue reading →

A quick note here: our look at the periodicals and the reading room of the Peterborough Mechanics’ Institute will appear early next week (Tuesday or Wednesday).  So have a good weekend! Above: a cartoon from Punch magazine, which was indeed … Continue reading →

“Its object shall be to instruct its members in the principles of the Arts and in the various branches of Science and useful knowledge.”  Such was the stated goal of the Peterborough Mechanics’ Institute, the city’s first library, at the … Continue reading →

Peterborough’s bibliothecal (it’s a word!) history is not, of course, as long as that of our subject of the other day, Baghdad.  However, it does go back tolerably far into the city’s early history: to 1843, and the foundation of … Continue reading →

With the Literary Map of Peterborough still very much under construction (it goes, if slowly, with dots added here and there at a relaxed sort of pace, which is the only pace the computer is allowing me these days), it … Continue reading →

If we are to consider Peterborough and its surrounding area as a City of Literature, then we should expect literature, or at least its footprints, fairly easy to find in these parts.  But how easy?  Ignoring for the moment whatever … Continue reading →

As indicated in an earlier post, I intend, as part of this series, to take a short individual look at each of the offical UNESCO Cities of Literature.  Given that it was Irishmen and -women who comprised the first large … Continue reading →