Celebrating 125 Years of The John Rylands Library in Manchester

The John Rylands Library celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2025 with Rylands125, a special year-long events and exhibitions programme. This initiative by The University of Manchester Library will delve into the Library’s storied past, celebrate its vibrant present, and look forward to the promising future of the next 125 years. 

Established by Enriqueta Rylands as a library for the people of Manchester, the Rylands opened in January 1900. It has grown into a renowned cultural and academic destination that welcomes readers, researchers and visitors from around the world. 

As part of the Rylands125 celebration, the reopening of the library’s refurbished gallery spaces has been undertaken as part of the John Rylands Next Chapter project. Key highlights include the unveiling of a new Collections Gallery, which will showcase over 40 unique and rare items tracing the history and evolution of the library’s special collections and a new Special Exhibitions Gallery which will feature The Secret Public exhibition.   

The Rylands is home to an astonishing variety of books, manuscripts, archives, maps and visual materials. They include world-class holdings of ancient papyri, early European and Chinese printing, Islamic and medieval manuscripts, bibles and modern archives. The collections came to the Rylands as gifts, purchases and loans; some as ready formed collections, others as individual items.

Highlights from the new Collections Gallery will include an early fragment of the New Testament, a clay cylinder from King Nebuchadnezzar’s temple, Shakespeare’s first folio, a 14th century trilingual Qur’an manuscript, the Peterloo relief fund accounts, Alan Turing’s notes on programming the MARK I computer, and Joy Division’s manager, Rob Gretton’s notebook. It will also show items in custom-built cases, such as The Rylands Beatus, a 12th century beautifully decorated book, which has not been possible to display previously. The exhibition reveals the breadth and importance of the collections and the innovative work behind the scenes to preserve and share them.

“We look forward to a year of events, exhibitions and celebration as we mark the Library’s birthday at the same time as we complete the latest investment by the University; John Rylands Next Chapter will provide new meeting spaces, digital imaging facilities and world-class exhibitions spaces for everyone to enjoy,” Professor Pressler added. “I look forward to welcoming everyone to our great Library in 2025.”

Launching the Rylands’ new special exhibition gallery, The Secret Public examines the importance and influence of LGBTQ performers, artists and activists on mainstream popular culture. Inspired by the recently published book, The Secret Public: how LGBTQ performers shaped popular culture 1955 to 1979 by Jon Savage, the exhibition presents over 100 key pieces from his extensive collection of archive and research materials which form part of the British Pop Archive housed at the Rylands.

The Secret Public foregrounds the artists, public figures, social issues and political discourse from within which a lasting creative explosion happened and which is still felt today. The exhibition extends the date range of the book through to 1985.

Jon Savage, author and Professor of Popular Culture at The University of Manchester said: “These materials have been collected over a 40-year period and represent one of the largest private Queer archives in the country. I am very pleased to announce that they are now held within the British Pop Archive.”