Collecting Stories - by Katy Hooper (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Collecting Stories presents in lively text and beautiful images more than fifty of the most striking items acquired by the University of Liverpool over fifteen decades of collecting activity, from the foundation of University College Liverpool in the 1880s up to the 2020s. The arrangement of the 52 entries broadly by decade of acquisition tells the story of the growth of the University's cultural heritage collections by donation, purchase, bequest and commission, and also relates each object to its place in the ongoing research activity of the University. The kaleidoscopic range of the entries crosses and connects all academic disciplines at all levels of research engagement, from undergraduate to emeritus, and pays tribute to the University and city's wide-ranging cultural partnerships.

The objects have been selected by curators and researchers familiar with the riches of the University's cultural heritage cared for in the Library's Special Collections and Archives, including science fiction, children's literature and popular music alongside rare books and manuscripts, the Garstang Museum of Archaeology, the Victoria Gallery and Museum, including public sculpture on campus, and the living collections of Ness Botanic Gardens.

Review Quotes

'Collecting Stories is a valuable contribution to the knowledge and appreciation of how the University of Liverpool is engaging with collections that hold so many diverse and often contentious narratives across so many disciplines. It offers an insight into the culture of collecting within a university institution, specifically one established to meet the knowledge and skill demands of an expanding northern industrial city in the late 19th century that has evolved to meet those required in the contemporary global environment. [...] It is a formidable task to represent the complexity of an institution's collections by means a physical publication. Collecting Stories provides an example of how it can be achieved in an appealing, informative and engaging way, creating a physical object which will take its own place in the cultural collections of the University of Liverpool.' Melanie Gail Stephenson, Museum History Journal