Our exhibitions
Collecting Innovation: Innovative Collecting
On display until Friday 2 February 2024 at the Special Collections Gallery.
This exhibition features a selection of objects from our Material and Process Innovation Collection presented as an opportunity to rethink what is meant by innovative practice.
The exhibition has been curated by Bethany Turner-Pemberton, a student at Manchester Met undertaking a collaborative PhD with Manchester School of Art, the Science and Industry Museum, Manchester, and the Special Collections Museum. Bethany’s PhD explores contemporary textile production in Greater Manchester and how this might be evidenced in museums and galleries through archival material and contemporary acquisitions.
19th Century Mass Media: Magazines, Annuals and Scrapbooks
On display until Friday 23 August 2024 at the Special Collections Gallery.
This exhibition draws on ongoing academic research on magazines and annuals using material held in our collections, including a nationally significant collection of scrap albums and commonplace books. It has been curated by Dr Emma Liggins, Reader in English and Co-Director of the Long Nineteenth-Century Network at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Prof Brian Maidment, Liverpool John Moores University.
The exhibition explores the visual appeal and innovative use of illustrations and design in nineteenth-century British magazines. The nineteenth century was the first age of mass media. Advances in communication technologies and printing accelerated the production of all forms of print and their global distribution. With their eye-catching images, star contributors and glossy advertisements, magazines were appealing to ever wider audiences.
A range of key popular magazines from the early to late nineteenth century are on display here, all of which attracted diverse readerships. You can also view annuals, pocketbooks and scrapbooks, which remediated traditional magazine content in slightly different forms.
Bringing a group
