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History: Special Collections

Special Collections Guide

Coleraine

Special Collections at Coleraine include:

The Henry Morris Collection
Contains books and journals covering Irish history and literature in Irish and English, as well as archaeology, folklore and local history.
 
The Irish Collection
Covers a similar range of topics to the Morris Collection but comprises books and periodicals acquired more recently.
 
Headlam-Morley Collection

A valuable resource for students of history, containing books about the First World War, the Paris Peace Conference, and the diplomacy of the inter-war period. The collection is catalogued. The library also has a collection of the letters of Sir James Headlam-Morley from the Paris Peace Conference. These are shelved in a separate location . A list is available.

Paul Ricard Collection
Mr Ricard was a librarian with French family connections and this collection of material, mainly from 1938 to 1945, was gathered during his personal historical research. The books are shelved among the main collection in the Reading rooms and Ricard's notebooks of MSS records and newspaper cuttings are available for consultation on request.  This is a valuable source of material on World War II.
 
The George Shiels Collection

The books and typescripts of this Ballymoney-born playwright were donated to the library by his sister, Mary Shiels.  The books appear in the University of Ulster library catalogue with the prefix Shiels Collection 4.  In addition there is a list of the typescripts of his plays available for consultation in the Library at Coleraine.
 
The Denis Johnston Collection
Denis Johnston, playwright, war correspondent and Director of Programmes at the BBC, gave the library a collection of his papers, manuscripts and typescripts.  This includes a large number of broadcast scripts for the BB, and autobiographical material as well as his war correspondent's field notebooks.  A list of items in the collection is available for consultation in the Library.
 
The John Hewitt Collection

The Collection comprises the personal library and literary archive of the poet John Hewitt which he bequeathed to the University of Ulster. It is one of the most significant Collections in the UK and Ireland, outside Oxbridge, Trinity College, Dublin and the National Library of Ireland, of modern and contemporary Irish literature and of the manuscript holdings in that literature. It is a unique resource for researchers particularly in Irish poetry but also in modern Irish culture, history and folklore.

Irish  Travelling People: a Resource Collection
This is a unique collection of material covering all aspects of the Travellers' way of life, values and customs. The collection includes books, pamphlets, newspaper cuttings, journal articles, photographs, postcards  and other material. Although the focus is largely on the Irish Traveller community, there is also information on travellers in Britain, Europe and the USA. Subjects covered in the collection include Early history of the Traveller community, Shelta, folktales and folk music, health and welfare, education and site provision.

Magee

Irish Collection

Magee Library houses one of the most comprehensive collections of Irish material in the North West of Ireland.

The main collection has some 5400 books and 800 pamphlets covering a wide subject area, with its main strengths being in Irish history and literature. There are many excellent primary history documents including all eighteen volumes of the Calendar of the Ancient Records of Dublin, all seven volumes of the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters and both volumes of the Annals of Loch Ce. There is also a collection of 18th century Irish printed material, Irish Statutes (1310 - 1800) and Calendars of State Papers.

The local and wider Northern Ireland community has made its contribution to the collection with many leaflets and pamphlets which have been collected over the years, including a rare 17th century pamphlet collection on the Siege of Londonderry in 1689. These are of special interest to local historians, who also find the Derry Almanacs a useful tool. The Almanacs are one of a number of sets of Irish journals housed with the main collection. Others include the Journal of the Royal Society of the Antiquaries of Ireland (1890 - 1992), and the Ulster Journal of Archaeology dating back to 1853.

Magee Community Collection

The Magee Community Collection comprises approximately 4,000 photographic negatives of pictures of Londonderry and the North-West of Ireland, dating from the 1860s to c.1970. The Collection was established by the Institute of Continuing Education in Magee in the early 1970s.

Access
The photographs have been digitised and the collection can be browsed online.
The images are copyright of the University of Ulster. If you wish to use an image, please contact Jeanie Parris, the Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Librarian at: Ulster University, York Street, Belfast, N. Ireland,  BT15 1ED or by email at j.parris@ulster.ac.uk

Spalding Collection

The Spalding Collection comprises 400 volumes concerned with Eastern and Middle Eastern culture, religion, art and history. The majority of the titles are 20th Century imprints and may be borrowed. Enquiries to the Information Point in Magee Library.

Lady McCorkell Red Cross Collection

Aileen Allen, Lady McCorkell OBE was the founder and first President of the British Red Cross branch in Derry-Londonderry. The collection comprises her personal notes, speeches, correspondence, minutes of Red Cross meetings, and traces the development of Red Cross services locally. It also contains her personal reminiscences of providing support for vulnerable people from the early 1960s, through the Troubles, and into the post conflict society. Enquiries to Special Collections team