This collection of illustrations by local artist Thomas Hair (c.1810-1875) depicts the mining industry and the coal trade in the North East in the nineteenth century. The illustrations are based on Hair's watercolours on the same topic. The illustrations in the collection highlight numerous aspects of the region's mining heritage, including collieries, machinery, and river trade scenes. Many of the illustrations also show the everyday workings of the industry and those involved in it.

The collection features 37 early 20th century first editions of short stories and novels by writer and activist Eleanor Luisa Haverfield: most are signed first editions and bear presentation inscriptions, very often addressed either to the author’s sister Dorothy or to other women.

This is a small collection of notebooks and photograph albums which belonged to John William Heslop Harrison (1881-1967), at one time Professor of Botany at Newcastle University. The notebooks contain notes on plant biology, pollination and plant genetics while the albums include photographs of Iraq, dated 1938-1941. The collection also includes Proceedings of the University of Durham Philosophical Society 1955-1956 in various stages of editing.

This collection of c. 250 dictionaries consists of a 1916 bequest by R. Oliver Heslop, philologist and antiquary, together with a few later additions. It includes Baret's Alvearie (1580), Florio's Worlde of Wordes (1598 and 1611), Minsheu's Guide into Tongues (1625 and 1627), the works of such lexicographers as Bullokar, Coles, Holyoake and Johnson, and an almost complete set of the publications of the English Dialect Society.

This collection also contains papers comprising Heslop's research material for his work Northumberland Words, published by the English Dialect Society in 1892-1894.

The Library of Heversham Grammar School in Westmorland. The Library was intended for the use of neighbouring clergy as well as for the masters and pupils of the School, and books were also given by local gentry and former pupils. Two MSS. Catalogues, compiled abound 1800, show that the Library then consisted of 600 volumes, of which about 450 survive. The collection consists mainly of editions of classical or theological authors, with approximately half of the volumes having been printed before 1700 and a few before 1600.

The personal archive of Thomas Hodgkin (b.1831 - d.1913), barrister and later a partner in the banking house 'Hodgkin, Barnett, Pease and Spence', Newcastle upon Tyne. Hodgkin also devoted much time to historical studies, specialising particularly in the history of the early middle ages, and published a number of historical texts during his lifetime. Much of the Hodgkin family papers are held in the Welcome Library in London. The archive held within Newcastle University Special Collections is the personal archive of Thomas Hodgkin and comprises of notes and draft editions relating to his historical research; travel journals, photographs and slides; diaries; a small number of letters; and other published and unpublished material relating to his historical research.

The archive comprises some printed work by Thomas Hodgkin, letters to and from fellow physicians and a box of notes on medical cases, observations, sketches and various fragments.

Thomas Hodgkin (b.1798 - d.1866) was a British physician, considered one of the most prominent pathologists of his time and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is now best known for the first account of Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphoma and blood disease, in 1832. Hodgkin's work marked the beginning of the development of the role of the pathologist in being actively involved in the clinical process.

Contains the personal archive of poet Vincenza Holland including notebooks; diaries; published and unpublished material; and correspondence with poets local to the North East. Includes drafts of her poetry collection 'Mrs Turnbull's Tree' which was published by Bloodaxe Books in 1990.

Between 1966-73 Holland lived abroad with her family. First in newly independent Lesotho - a country surrounded by apartheid South Africa - but also for 18 months on Corfu. Holland was politically and socially engaged in what was happening around her, and her archive contains many collected documents, cuttings and ephemera relating to her travels.