All posts in Books

Photograph of Dry January book display consisting of eight books, with bust of Sir Richard Doll on the right.

Book Display: Dry January

Dry January is a campaign run by Alcohol Change UK during which participants abstain from drinking alcohol for January. Alcohol Change UK is a British charity that works towards reducing harms caused by alcohol consumption. Since it started in 2012, Dry January has grown fast. It has been widely covered…

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The cover of Miss Fluffy Rice depicts, in black, white, and red, a spoon with a human face and rice for hair wearing an apron and throwing more rice on to a bride and groom, who have their backs turned to her.

Pamphlet Collection: Retro Recipes

The Library’s Pamphlet Collection, housed in the gallery of the main Reading Room, comprises government reports, research papers, leaflets and circulars, and instructional manuals, to name but a few. A more surprising element of the collection is the twentieth-century pamphlets containing recipes. The shelf marks relating to Nutrition…

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 International Day of People with Disabilities 2022

December 3rd 2022 will be International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The day was first celebrated back in 1992 and set up by the United Nations to celebrate and recognize the achievements of people living with disabilities, but also to raise awareness of the various issues such as inequality and…

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Black and white block print showing three Stuart buildings with smoking chimneys and figures in the street beside.

Pamphlet Collection: Fumifugium, by John Evelyn

While working on the book display about London the other month, I came across a fairly curious-looking bound volume in the Pamphlet Collection. So, today’s trip into the pamphlet collection will investigate it a bit! Fumifugium, written by John Evelyn and first published in 1661, is now considered…

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A photograph of the Library book display, showing thirteen brightly coloured books on a cabinet surrounding a metal bust of Sir Richard Doll.

London Book Display

As we continue to welcome new and returning students to LSHTM, we have put together a selection of books from our collection about the city of London. From bubonic plague to air pollution, the works collected cover many of the challenges of living in this city over the centuries. Whether…

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World rabies day, 28 September 2022.

28 September 2022 marks World Rabies Day. This year’s theme is “One health ; zero death” : see: https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2022/09/28/default-calendar/world-rabies-day-2022The World Health Organization has a target for the elimination of deaths due to dog-mediated infection…

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Sir Humphry Davy : illustrious former owner of a book on the plague now in LSHTM Library. LSHTM Rare Books Blog series No. 5. August 2022.

Like most books in the Library’s Special Collection our copy of A Treatise on the Plague by A.B. Faulkner, published in 1820, was acquired secondhand. This was probably purchased from an antiquarian bookseller by our first librarian, Cyril Barnard, who was actively adding books of importance to the…

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Under the lens : London’s water examined in the 1853-4 cholera pandemic. LSHTM Rare Books Blog series No. 4. May 2022.

Figure 1:  Colourful organisms in a sample of the water supplied by the Southwark & Vauxhall Company to St. Thomas’s Hospital in 1854 as seen under the microscope (Hassall 1855a : page 248, Plate 19).

This illustration of a microcosm of the natural world in London’s water in…

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Observations on Smallpox by the 9th Century Persian Physician Rhazes (865-925) : LSHTM Rare Books Blog series No. 3.

This is the latest in the LSHTM Rare Books Blog, featuring Rhazes (full-name: Muhammad ibn Zakariyā al-Rāzī). Rhazes made notable contributions to many areas of medicine. His manuscripts, carefully preserved down the centuries, were among the first medical books printed in Europe in the 15th century. After translation into Latin Rhazes’s writings became widely disseminated and were to influence the future direction of western medicine.  

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Library Display: International Day of People with Disabilities

The theme for the 2021 International Day of People with Disabilities is “Fighting for rights in the post-covid era”, something LSHTM knows a lot about.

The 3rd of December is International Day of People with Disabilities, it originated back in 1992 by the United Nations, as a day of…

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