Poster advertising the library's new collection of cookbooks
The library team has chosen 10 of their favourite cookbooks to start it off and we plan to add an additional one every term. Do you have a favourite cookbook? What should we add to our growing collection?
8 Cookbooks on a shelf
This #WorldBookDay, we thought we'd tell you about our latest book collection. Suggested by one of lovely students, who is a keen chef, we have started our Skills & Crafts Collection. The collection will include books on cooking, crafts, sewing and origami.
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.
See this photograph, and more, in our exhibition 'The spirit of the place': Magdalen College and its staff from foundation to the present day
πOld Library
ππ OPEN Today, 2-4:30pm
Black and white photograph of the New Buildings, at Magdalen College. A gardener stands with a wheelbarrow on the pathway beside it
Standing in front of the building is a college gardener with his wheelbarrow, a sight that is still common today. The gardenerβs identity is sadly unknown, but he is captured in what is potentially the oldest known surviving photograph of a member of Oxford college staff.
library returns bin, full of library books. There's also a scrap piece of paper with a thank you note on it
a scrap piece of paper with a thank you note written on it. It says: "Thank you all so so much for absolutely everything that you do to make Longwall the best College Library in Oxford! All of your hard work & kindness is so very much appreciated. :-)"
What a nice welcome back on a Monday morning! Found in our returns box π
Folio 71 from MS Lat 50, which has a drawing of a dragon
Folio 1 from MS Lat 50, which has a drawing of a dragon
Folio 88 from MS Lat 50, which has a drawing of a dragon
Dydd GΕ΅yl Dewi Hapus! Here are some dragons from MS Lat 50, a Latin manuscript dating from the 12th century! ππ²
Three late 20th century bookmarks: one from the Oxfordshire public library network, one from the Talgo rail network in Spain, and one depicting Lawrence of Arabia.
Happy World Bookmark Day! ππ
In celebration, here are some of the bookmarks that Special Collections Librarian Jessica found while cataloguing the book collection of T. E. Lawrence's authorised biographer, Jeremy Wilson (1944-2017).
#worldbookmarkday
See this, and more, in our exhibition 'The spirit of the place': Magdalen College and its staff from foundation to the present day
πOld Library
ππ OPEN Today, 2-4:30pm
First, buttery staff pose on the Hall steps during a dinner held in 1977 for the British Road Services (BRS). Second, staff deliver meals to students in quarantine in the New Building during the covid-19 pandemic.
buttery staff pose on the Hall steps during a dinner held in 1977 for the British Road Services
two members of staff delivering meals to students in quarantine in the New Building during the covid-19 pandemic. They wear face coverings and hold paper bags
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.
Magdalenβs kitchen and buttery staff have to prepare meals in all sorts of circumstances for all sorts of people, although rarely is a visual record of this work captured in the college archives.
These two photos show college kitchen staff working in two very different circumstances.
The words 'Vacation loans' over a background of painted eggs in different colours and patterns
Happy 6th week! Vacation loans now apply. Renew your books for a due date of 30th April. π£ππ₯
What a Very Good Boy! πΎ
Yesterday we were thrilled to welcome Harry (a registered PAT therapy dog) and his owner Dave to the Longwall Library. Harry made lots of new friends and gave them big cuddles to ward off their 5th Week Blues. π€
A huge thank-you to Dave and Harry for kindly volunteering!
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.
See this photograph and scorebook in our exhibition 'The spirit of the place': Magdalen College and its staff from foundation to the present day
πOld Library
ππ OPEN Today, 2-4:30pm
4 rows of men standing or sitting posed for a group photo outside Magdalenβs sports pavilion. They are members of the Magdalen College Servantsβ Cricket Club. Underneath, the names of the men have been recorded in pen. The photo has been recorded as having been taken in 1935.
Page from a scorebook, recording results of cricket matches between Magdalen College Servantsβ Cricket Club and various opponents
Page from a scorebook, recording results of cricket matches between Magdalen College Servantsβ Cricket Club and various opponents
Magdalen College Servantsβ Cricket Club was founded before 1849. This scorebook contains its first recorded match (a victory over St Johnβs College). Servant sports teams were incredibly popular in Victorian Oxford, enduring through to the 1950s.
It was made using a high-resolution 3D digital model of the original sculpture and carved robotically. For more on this, and other copies, see our online exhibition: inhisownimage.magd.ox.ac.uk
Marble horses head on a plinth in front of a bookcase
It's #ChineseNewYear2026 today, marking the start of the Year of the Fire Horse. This horse currently resides in our Old Library. It's an exact recreation of the head of the Selene Horse, part of the East Pediment of the Parthenon Sculptures dating from the fifth century BC.
Drawing of a horse, with letters written across different body parts
drawing of a horse's skull, from the side and from below
Drawing of a horse's skeleton, with letters over each bone
Title page of π₯πHappy 'The anatomy of an horse' by Andrew Snape published in 1683
π₯πHappy #ChineseNewYear2026. Today marks the beginning of the Year of the Fire Horse. Here we have images from the 1683 work 'The anatomy of an horse' by Andrew Snape, who was Farrier to King Charles II.
Title page of "The pleasures of a single life, The miseries of matrimony. : Occasionally writ upon the many divorces lately granted by Parliament. With The choice, or, The pleasures of a country-life" possibly by Edward "Ned" Ward
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
No, thanks - this is our Valentine's Day reading this year! "The pleasures of a single life, The miseries of matrimony" is attributed to Edward "Ned" Ward and was published in the early 18th century. Happy Valentine's Day to all our members. π
daguerreotype of Martin Routh. Aged 99, he is slumped in an armchair and his eyes are cast down. He sports one of his famous horsehair wigs. The print is in a small red box stamped with the name of M. Kilburn, 234 Regent Square (who no doubt took the picture).
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.
This daguerreotype of Magdalen's President Martin Routh was taken on his 99th birthday on 18 September 1854. In it, he can be seen wearing his famous wig, more typical of fashions of the 1750s than the 1850s.
See this, and the wig itself, in our Old Library.
πOld Library
ππ OPEN Today, 2-4:30pm
bookcase with a paper 'ribbon' of spidermen across it
bookcase with 6 shelves of graphic novels
Last week, we cut the (spiderman, naturally) ribbon on our new Graphic Novels Collection. The collection consists of some 250 books, given by Peter Kessler and the late Rachel Cooke. You'll find the collection in the Longwall Library foyer, opposite the jigsaw puzzles & boardgames. Happy reading ποΈ π
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.
See this, and more, in our exhibition 'The spirit of the place': Magdalen College and its staff from foundation to the present day
πOld Library
ππ OPEN Today, 2-4:30pm
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.
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 βChallenge Cupβ.
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.
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 π 306.7
π₯Graphic novels π library foyer
π±Self-help π Rolling stacks
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.
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.
3 shelves of books, many of which have decorative binding.
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.
Other accounts show him caring for the kitchen garden and the collegeβs dishes, with such work helping to more than double his formal income of Β£2.
See this and more, in our exhibition on Magdalen staff over the centuries
πOld Library
ππ OPEN Today, 2-4:30pm
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.
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 βStaynoβ being paid 3s 4d to make pottery jars for the visit in 1592 of Elizabeth I.
Browning, Christopher R. Ordinary Menβ―: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. London: Penguin Books, 2001.
Lipstadt, Deborah E. Antisemitismβ―: Here and Now. London: Scribe, 2019.
Dwork, Deborah. Saints and Liarsβ―: The Story of Americans Who Saved Refugees from the Nazis. First edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2025.
Stone, Dan. The Holocaustβ―: An Unfinished History. London: Pelican, 2023.
Evans, Jennifer V, Erica Fagen, and Meghan Lundrigan. Holocaust Memory in the Digital Mediascape. Londonβ―; Bloomsbury Academic, 2024.
