Archives and Special Collections

Explore our collections from home with our online exhibition programme.

Treasures of Palace Green Library

Highlights from more than the books, medieval manuscripts and important and diverse archives cared for at the library.

Three people study a copy of Shakespeare’s first folio at Palace Green Library.

Journeys: Reading the World

Explore themes of travel, adventure and exploration using the rare books, diaries, maps and letters in Palace Green Library's special collections.

Collage image of items included in the Journeys exhibition, including a giant from Gulliver’s Travels, a tourist with binoculars, Notre Dame Cathedral, a plane, a world map, three arctic explorers and an aeroplane.

Power, Politics and Preservation: John Cosin and his Library

As Bishop of Durham after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, John Cosin built a library on Palace Green for members of the local community.

Cosin’s Library interior. A wooden table in front of large wooden bookcases filled with historic books.

Eternal Ascent: Bentley Beetham and the 1924 Mount Everest Expedition

This exhibition marks the centenary of the 1924 Mount Everest Expedition, the first Western, and ultimately tragic, attempt to climb the highest mountain in the world.