Magdalen Libraries & Archives
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Magdalen Libraries & Archives
@magdlibandarch.bsky.social
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Magdalen College, Oxford has a large circulating library, a significant early printed & manuscript books collection, and an extensive archive.
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Magdalen Libraries & Archives @magdlibandarch.bsky.social · Jan 7
We're delighted to join the BlueSky community. Sadly, today's weather is not playing ball! Here are some GreySky pics of College, which we think still looks pretty lovely.
Exterior of the Longwall Library, Magdalen College, with a dull white sky. A touch of frost on the roof and ground. St Swithun's quad, Magdalen College, with the Great Tower in the background. The sky is grey and there's a touch of frost on the lawn. St Swithun's quad, Magdalen College. A touch of frost on the building's roof and on the lawn. The sky is totally cloudy.
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See this, and more, in our exhibition 'The spirit of the place': Magdalen College and its staff from foundation to the present day
📍Old Library
📆🕑 OPEN Today, 2-4:30pm
Poster advertising an Old Library exhibition at Magdalen College. The exhibition is 'The spirit of the place': Magdalen College and its staff from foundation to the present day. The exhibition was curated by Dr Emily Jennings and Dr Richard Allen. It runs to 15th April 2026. A black and white photograph of Magdalen staff posed in the Cloisters forms the header of the poster.
February 4, 2026 at 10:15 AM
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This photo shows members of the Magdalen College Fire Brigade in 1935. Founded at some point before 1925, it was formed exclusively of college staff. College fire brigades would often compete with one another, including for a rowing ‘Challenge Cup’.
Black and white photograph of 8 men posed for a group photo. The group are members of the Magdalen College Fire Brigade and 7 of them wear a uniform. The names of the men are recorded underneath the photograph in blue ink.
February 4, 2026 at 10:15 AM
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We're marking LGBTQ+ History Month in the Longwall library with this display ft. queer history, diary, memoir... There's even a graphic guide to lesbian & queer history too.

Looking for more LGBTQ+ history & queer theory? Go to 👉 306.7
💥Graphic novels 👉 library foyer
🌱Self-help 👉 Rolling stacks
Books on display: Black Queer Freedom, Free to Be Me, What's Your Pronoun?, A Lesbian History of Britain, Black on Both Sides, A Short History of Trans Misogyny, Female Husbands, 300,000 Kisses, Youngman: Selected diaries of Lou Sullivan, Transgender History, Ace, Letters to my Little Queer Self, Gender Pioneers, Sensible Footwear: a graphic guide to lesbian and queer history, The Trans-gender Issue.
February 3, 2026 at 1:00 PM
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Happy #InternationalPuzzleDay. There's a new jigsaw puzzle in the Longwall Library foyer. Next time you take a much-needed study break, help us out with finding all the edge pieces.
A cardboard box containing a jigsaw puzzle. Several edge pieces have been separated from a smaller box containing the rest of the jigsaw puzzle's pieces.
January 29, 2026 at 10:15 AM
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Today is #LibraryShelfieDay. Here we have 3 shelves of beautifully bound books donated to the library by Francis Lascelles-Hadwen. Lascelles-Hadwen, who bound most of the books himself, was a Demy student at Magdalen in the 1940s.
3 shelves of books, many of which have decorative binding.
January 28, 2026 at 4:30 PM
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Other accounts show him caring for the kitchen garden and the college’s dishes, with such work helping to more than double his formal income of £2.
See this and more, in our exhibition on Magdalen staff over the centuries
📍Old Library
📆🕑 OPEN Today, 2-4:30pm
January 28, 2026 at 10:15 AM
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An early modern 'side hustle' - servant wages could be poor at Magdalen, in the 16th century but there were opportunities for those employed by the college to supplement their income. This account book extract shows ‘Stayno’ being paid 3s 4d to make pottery jars for the visit in 1592 of Elizabeth I.
Extract from an account book, with handwritten information in Latin. This extract records Stayno (Magdalen's Head Cook) was paid 3s 4d to make pottery jars (pro vasis figulinis) for the visit in 1592 of Elizabeth I. Poster advertising an Old Library exhibition at Magdalen College. The exhibition is 'The spirit of the place': Magdalen College and its staff from foundation to the present day. The exhibition was curated by Dr Emily Jennings and Dr Richard Allen. It runs to 15th April 2026. A black and white photograph of Magdalen staff posed in the Cloisters forms the header of the poster.
January 28, 2026 at 10:15 AM
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Browning, Christopher R. Ordinary Men : Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. London: Penguin Books, 2001.
January 27, 2026 at 9:53 AM
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Lipstadt, Deborah E. Antisemitism : Here and Now. London: Scribe, 2019.
Dwork, Deborah. Saints and Liars : The Story of Americans Who Saved Refugees from the Nazis. First edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2025.
January 27, 2026 at 9:53 AM
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Stone, Dan. The Holocaust : An Unfinished History. London: Pelican, 2023.
Evans, Jennifer V, Erica Fagen, and Meghan Lundrigan. Holocaust Memory in the Digital Mediascape. London ; Bloomsbury Academic, 2024.
January 27, 2026 at 9:53 AM
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Lantos, Peter L. The Boy Who Didn’t Want to Die. London: Scholastic, 2023.
Ebert, Lily, and Dov Forman. Lily’s Promise : How I Survived Auschwitz and Found the Strength to Live. London: Pan Books, 2022.
January 27, 2026 at 9:53 AM
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Williams, Amy, and Bill Niven. National and Transnational Memories of the Kindertransport : Exhibitions, Memorials, and Commemorations. Rochester: Camden House, 2023.
Eisen, George. Children and Play in the Holocaust : Games among the Shadows. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988.
January 27, 2026 at 9:53 AM
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Finkelstein, Daniel. Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad : A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival. London: William Collins, 2023.
January 27, 2026 at 9:53 AM
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The full list of titles is:
Freedland, Michael. Ben Helfgott : The Story of One of the Boys. London ; Vallentine Mitchell, 2018.
Gruner, Wolf. Resisters : How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023.
January 27, 2026 at 9:53 AM
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Through this selection of books - featuring academic studies on the Holocaust, survivor testimonies, and pieces reflecting on memory - we can learn about the past, for a safer future.

Thank you to Dr Barnabas Balint (DPhil History, 2025) for curating this display.
Book display featuring books related to the Holocaust
January 27, 2026 at 9:41 AM
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HMD is an opportunity to learn about the experiences of those who have suffered persecution and genocide and to stand against hatred and prejudice today.
January 27, 2026 at 9:41 AM
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This theme encourages us all to engage actively with the past - to listen, to learn and to carry those lessons forward. By doing so, we build a bridge between memory and action, between history and hope for the future.
January 27, 2026 at 9:41 AM
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Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. The theme for HMD 2026, 'Bridging Generations', is a call-to-action. A reminder that the responsibility of remembrance doesn't end with the survivors - it lives on through their children, their grandchildren and through all of us.
January 27, 2026 at 9:41 AM
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Happy #BurnsNight. This portrait of Burns (the original hangs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery) by Alexander Nasmyth is reproduced in the first volume of his collected works. You can borrow all three volumes from the Longwall Library.
3 volumes of poetry side-by-side on a shelf. They are "The poems and songs of Robert Burns' volumes 1-3, edited by James Kinsley Black and white copy of a colour portrait of Robert Burns, from a book. The original painting is in colour and is from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery's collections. Title page of volume 1 of The poems and songs of Robert Burns' edited by James Kinsley
January 25, 2026 at 6:15 PM
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We like to think it's more than 'tone' but we enjoyed this library love in 'The Last Continent' by Terry Pratchett.
Longwall Library exterior in the early evening. The sky is light blue and the library's and courtyard lights are on, shining a bright yellow. In the sky, white text reads: "But we're a university! We have to have to have a library!" said Ridcully. "It adds tone. What sort of people would we be if we didn't go into the Library?" - Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent
January 23, 2026 at 10:15 AM
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#OnThisDay in 1946, the writer Julian Barnes was born. Barnes studied at Magdalen between 1964-8. We have several of his books in our Magdalen Authors Collection, including his Man Booker prizewinning novel, The Sense of an Ending. Happy 80th birthday to Julian Barnes! 🎈🎂🎉
A row of library books on a shelf. They are books by the author Julian Barnes.
January 19, 2026 at 4:30 PM
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This #BlueMonday, we hope these Blue Sky images taken around college brighten your day. 💙
View of Magdalen's New Buildings, taken from the Old Library, with a bright blue sky View of the Water Meadow, with the Great Tower in the distance. The sky is light blue with a scattering of clouds View of Magdalen bridge and the Cherwell, from the Old Kitchen Bar terrace. The sky is blue. Longwall Library exterior in the early evening. The sky is light blue.
January 19, 2026 at 10:15 AM
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See this, and more, in our exhibition 'The spirit of the place': Magdalen College and its staff from foundation to the present day.
📍Old Library
📆🕑Open today 2-4:30pm
Poster advertising an Old Library exhibition at Magdalen College. The exhibition is 'The spirit of the place': Magdalen College and its staff from foundation to the present day. The exhibition was curated by Dr Emily Jennings and Dr Richard Allen. It runs to 15th April 2026. A black and white photograph of Magdalen staff posed in the Cloisters forms the header of the poster.
January 14, 2026 at 10:15 AM
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This is one of nearly 140 medieval wooden boxes in which Magdalen’s collection of over 13,000 medieval deeds are still kept. Containing documents relating to land and property at Wootton, Oxfordshire, it is today housed in the college’s purpose-built fifteenth-century muniment room.
medieval wooden box containing deeds, of land/ properties belonging to Magdalen College, Oxford.
January 14, 2026 at 10:15 AM
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Ever wondered who this is above the Old Library door? Now is your chance to find out about him! Special Collections Librarian Jessica has published a new blog post on Bishop John Warner: www.magd.ox.ac.uk/blog/bishop-...
A seventeenth century portrait of Bishop John Warner.
January 12, 2026 at 11:49 AM