Special Collections is pleased to present its third annual Library Exhibition.  This year’s exhibition features items from our newest collection – The Steve Hare Penguin Books Collection.

Steve Hare (1950-2015) was a doctoral student at Oxford Brookes’ Oxford International Centre for Publishing, an author, researcher, journalist, and collector of Penguins.  Following his death, Steve’s family kindly offered the collection, as a permanent loan, to the Library for the benefit of our staff, students, and visiting researchers. The collection, 50 years in the making, consists of around 15,000 Penguin titles, and includes books published in the Main series, Pelican series, Puffin series, and many others.

The exhibition is spread throughout Headington Library, and includes the following displays:

• ‘In the beginning’ – examples of the early orange, green and blue Penguins on Level 4
• ‘Pufflings, peachicks and pups’ – a selection of children’s books on Level 3
• ‘A growing menagerie’ – Pelicans, Peregrines, King Penguins and more on Level 2
• ‘Historical penguins’ – relating to the history of the publishing house on Level -1
• ‘Readers’ picks’ – in the Special Collections Reading RoomImages from the displays will also be making an appearance on our Twitter and Instagram feeds.The exhibition is open to all, and will run from 28 January 2019 to 17 May 2019.

— Eleanor Possart (Archivist, Special Collections)