21stC history

The Staircase to Nowhere and its Greek Inscription

Christopher — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 20:37:47 +0000

The Staircase to Nowhere and its Greek Inscription

Stephen Anderson

Issue number

(2024): 21

Notes category

Deep in the bowels of the new Gradel buildings is the so-called basement hub, a circular area from which doors, corridors and stairways go off in all directions to different parts of the development. One notable feature here, added more for the sake of symmetry of design than for any other reason, is the ‘Staircase to Nowhere’, a set of seven or so steps which do no more than go up to a small semi-circular area on which some natural light is shed from a window far above.

Staircase (top), Gradel Quadrangles, �㽶ֱ��, Oxford

�㽶ֱ��, Oxford

21NCN10 (2024) Anderson on Greek Inscription.pdf605.36 KB

Some Notable Acquisitions and Associations from 2020

Christopher — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 01:58:58 +0000

Some Notable Acquisitions and Associations from 2020

Christopher Skelton-Foord

Issue number

(2020): 14

Notes category

John Hanbury Angus Sparrow

Throughout 2020, New College Library acquired a range of noteworthy books and association copies—copies previously owned by the author or otherwise connected to them through a previous owner. This culminated at the end of the year in the most significant, sizeable donation or bequest of early printed books made to the library for at least the past century, if not longer . . .

New College Library, Oxford, NB.134.20

New College Library and Archives, Oxford

14NCN8 (2020) Skelton-Foord on Some Notable Acquisitions.pdf485.2 KB

Anniversaries, Alumni, and Acquisitions: New College Library in 2019

Christopher — Tue, 24 Dec 2019 11:13:05 +0000

Anniversaries, Alumni, and Acquisitions: New College Library in 2019

Christopher Skelton-Foord

Issue number

(2019): 12

Notes category

Savilian professorships

2019 was a year of notable anniversaries, marking as it does both the 400th anniversary of the Savilian Professorships in geometry and astronomy, and the 40th anniversary of women students at �㽶ֱ��. In 1619, the scholar and diplomat Sir Henry Savile (1549–1622) founded two university chairs bearing his name, which have long been associated with �㽶ֱ��. And if we fast-forward from 1619 in Oxford some 360 years to 1979, women students are for the first time ever matriculating at �㽶ֱ��.

Paula Wilson, Portrait of Ruth Mazo Karras and Caroline Kay (2019)
Oil on board, 100 x 90 cms, �㽶ֱ��, Oxford

�㽶ֱ��, Oxford

12NCN10 (2019) Skelton-Foord on Anniversaries.pdf2.11 MB