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Object types in Special Collections

Books in Brotherton Room
Introducing the different types of objects researchers in Special Collections can encounter.
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Researcher holding illuminated manuscript
Object types in Special Collections: photographs
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Dorothy Bosanquet's diary, March 1917
Object types in Special Collections: Diaries
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Letter with pen and ink sketch entitled 'Myself'.
Object types in Special Collections: Letters
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Whitaker Collection 445 fol/Map of the world
Object types in Special Collections: Maps
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Andreyev Autochrome
Object types in Special Collections: photographs
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Newspapers
Object types in Special Collections: newspapers
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Cemetery Register
Object types in Special Collections: Registers
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Literary drafts
Object types in Special Collections: creative drafts
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Page from Tony Harrison, The Loiners Notebook
Object types in Special Collections: Scrapbooks
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AntiPoverty Demonstration Flyer
Object types in Special Collections: advertisements & marketing material
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Brotherton Collection Incunabula CAR Ulm 1480 back pastedown manuscript
Object types in Special Collections: Ephemera
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minute books
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Brotherton Ovid - Silenus and a satyr
Object types in Special Collections: Art work
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Special Collections holds many different types of objects. Collections are made up of hundreds of thousands of items, which can be hundreds of years old, or relatively new.

When ‘reading’ an object, the form it takes can tell us a lot about how we should approach the information it might contain. This resource is an introduction to some of the more common types of material which can be found in Special Collections and will show what they are and how you might use them.

Image credit Leeds University Library