Permanent display by the CS Lewis Room. The Siku Quanshu which translates to "Complete Library in Four Sections," is an extensive Chinese literary collection commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in 1772. This monumental work is arranged in four sections: classics, histories, masters, and belles-lettres, each bound in the colours of one of the four seasons, for convenient browsing. It is one of the largest compilations of books in Chinese history, encompassing the breadth of Chinese scholarship up to that point. The collection was donated to the Library by Dr Moses Li.
Special Collections & Archives has dedicated exhibition spaces on both the ground floor and first floor of the McClay Library. Exhibitions reflect the wide range of books and manuscripts in our collections, as well as showcasing work created by Queen's students and associates. They are curated by a variety of people: SCA staff, Queen's academics and external researchers. This LibGuide will keep you up to date with exhibitions currently running and those from the past year. If you would like further information on any of our exhibitions, please contact us at specialcollections@qub.ac.uk.
Queen’s College Belfast was founded alongside its sister Colleges in Cork and Galway by the passing of the Colleges (Ireland) Act in 1845. The establishment of the Queen’s Colleges was part of the government’s plan to extend university education in Ireland because until then the only university in Ireland was the University of Dublin, Trinity College. The Queen’s Colleges in Ireland were non-denominational and Queen’s, Belfast has remained this way.
The exhibition currently running on the ground floor is a display of treasures from the University Archive. It includes the Charter from 1845 that established Queen's College Belfast, student photographs of clubs and societies, administrative records, photographs of Queen's buildings over the years, and the Centenary Stanza from 2008, written by Seamus Heaney.
We hosted an exhibition on the ground floor this summer, curated by the Irish Astronomical Association, to coincide with international conference Celestial Connections Across Time and Space. This was the 13th International Conference on the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena (INSAP) and ran from 8-13 June 2025 at the school of Arts, English and Languages. The accompanying exhibition in the McClay Library ran throughout the month of June.
21st January 2025 - 19th March 2025 McClay Library
An exhibition of books, publications and ephemera from the private library and archive of curator Roberta Bacic. Presentation produced by Helen Maguire.
From the 21st of November to the 4th of December the McClay Library hosted the Turlough Hill Power Station 50th Anniversary Exhibition, sponsored by ESB Archives. This pop-up photographic exhibition told the story of Turlough Hill Station, situated in the Wicklow Mountains, and the feats of engineering achieved in its construction and operation.
To complement this display, an eclectic mix of materials were exhibited on the ground floor of the McClay Library, encompassing both scientific developments in electricity and its broader social and cultural influence.
From the 21st of November to the 4th of December the McClay Library hosted the Turlough Hill Power Station 50th Anniversary Exhibition, sponsored by ESB Archives. This pop-up photographic exhibition told the story of Turlough Hill Station, situated in the Wicklow Mountains, and the feats of engineering achieved in its construction and operation.
To complement this display, an eclectic mix of materials were exhibited on the ground floor of the McClay Library, encompassing both scientific developments in electricity and its broader social and cultural influence.
From the 21st of November to the 4th of December the McClay Library hosted the Turlough Hill Power Station 50th Anniversary Exhibition, sponsored by ESB Archives. This pop-up photographic exhibition told the story of Turlough Hill Station, situated in the Wicklow Mountains, and the feats of engineering achieved in its construction and operation.
To complement this display, an eclectic mix of materials were exhibited on the ground floor of the McClay Library, encompassing both scientific developments in electricity and its broader social and cultural influence.
From the 21st of November to the 4th of December the McClay Library hosted the Turlough Hill Power Station 50th Anniversary Exhibition, sponsored by ESB Archives. This pop-up photographic exhibition told the story of Turlough Hill Station, situated in the Wicklow Mountains, and the feats of engineering achieved in its construction and operation.
To complement this display, an eclectic mix of materials were exhibited on the ground floor of the McClay Library, encompassing both scientific developments in electricity and its broader social and cultural influence.
From the 21st of November to the 4th of December the McClay Library hosted the Turlough Hill Power Station 50th Anniversary Exhibition, sponsored by ESB Archives. This pop-up photographic exhibition told the story of Turlough Hill Station, situated in the Wicklow Mountains, and the feats of engineering achieved in its construction and operation.
To complement this display, an eclectic mix of materials were exhibited on the ground floor of the McClay Library, encompassing both scientific developments in electricity and its broader social and cultural influence.
From the 21st of November to the 4th of December the McClay Library hosted the Turlough Hill Power Station 50th Anniversary Exhibition, sponsored by ESB Archives. This pop-up photographic exhibition told the story of Turlough Hill Station, situated in the Wicklow Mountains, and the feats of engineering achieved in its construction and operation.
To complement this display, an eclectic mix of materials were exhibited on the ground floor of the McClay Library, encompassing both scientific developments in electricity and its broader social and cultural influence.
From the 21st of November to the 4th of December the McClay Library hosted the Turlough Hill Power Station 50th Anniversary Exhibition, sponsored by ESB Archives. This pop-up photographic exhibition told the story of Turlough Hill Station, situated in the Wicklow Mountains, and the feats of engineering achieved in its construction and operation.
To complement this display, an eclectic mix of materials were exhibited on the ground floor of the McClay Library, encompassing both scientific developments in electricity and its broader social and cultural influence.
Between April and June 2024, the McClay Library hosted an exhibition of the Samuel Simms Collection of Medical Texts. On display were 19th and early 20th century texts and monographs, including first and early editions. These covered a range of subjects including paediatrics, surgery, infectious diseases, anatomy and medical biography. The exhibition also included pamphlets and unpublished manuscript material authored by Samuel Simms on a number of topics including the history of medicine in Ancient Greece, the United Irishmen and his lifelong passion for book collecting.
There is also an online version of the exhibition.
Special Collections are celebrating World Digital Preservation Day, with “The Digital Graveyard,” an exhibition of obsolescence. New digital technologies seem to promise the future, but as media, carriers, software, and file formats continuously evolve, the data within becomes ever more ephemeral. This exhibition explores a selection of media now considered obsolete: their data unreachable, without specialist equipment. From ghosts of obsolete media to bit rot, media decay, and the fragile afterlife of digital data, this interactive exhibit reveals how quickly innovation can turn to extinction. We invite you to wander through this Digital Graveyard, and ask will your digital media still be playable in the next decade?
To commemorate Black History Month in 2025, an exhibition was curated for the First Floor exhibition cabinets. The exhibition ran throughout October. Many thanks to Professor Dina Zoe Belluigi for her guest blog post.
To mark Bloomsday 2025, a selection of material celebrating James Joyce’s Ulysses is now on display on the first floor of the McClay Library. First published in 1922 by Sylvia Beach, Ulysses is one of the most influential works of modernist literature. The display features a first edition of the novel, Louis le Brocquy’s shape-shifting portraits of Joyce, historical maps and evocations of Dublin, and musical scores and references drawn from the text. Together, these items offer a glimpse into the literary, sonic and visual worlds of Joyce's masterpiece.
Previously running on the first floor of the McClay Library was a display showcasing three periodicals that emerged from Belfast’s cultural scene between the 1970s and the 2000s. The exhibition featured Belfast People’s Comic (1977), a short-lived anthology of humorous satirical comics about Northern Ireland in the 1970s, Belfast Review (1982-1986), a literary and cultural journal, and The Vacuum (2003-2014), a satirical take on city life. All three are examples of how Belfast’s creative community have used periodicals over the years to showcase the city’s artistic and literary talent as well as to provide social critiques and alternative perspectives.
Previously running on the first floor of the McClay Library was a display showcasing three periodicals that emerged from Belfast’s cultural scene between the 1970s and the 2000s. The exhibition featured Belfast People’s Comic (1977), a short-lived anthology of humorous satirical comics about Northern Ireland in the 1970s, Belfast Review (1982-1986), a literary and cultural journal, and The Vacuum (2003-2014), a satirical take on city life. All three are examples of how Belfast’s creative community have used periodicals over the years to showcase the city’s artistic and literary talent as well as to provide social critiques and alternative perspectives.
Painted by Catherine and Barbara Gage, 1840 - 1850.
Painted by Catherine and Barbara Gage, 1840 - 1850.
A selection of literary magazines and journals held by Special Collections & Archives, displayed on Floor One of the McClay Library. This exhibition highlights the significance of “little magazines” in Ireland, and their ongoing impact on this island’s literary landscape. Along with showcasing literary developments in Ireland, these magazines are a valuable resource in understanding cultural, political and societal trends and concerns throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.
This exhibition showcased a small collection of books compiled by the prodigious Scottish book collector Andrew Gibson (1841-1931). The books generally concern Scottish songs and poetry from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many are written by or concern Robert Burns.
A full listing of the collection can be found here.
Special Collections & Archives
The McClay Library | Queen's University Belfast | 10 College Park | Belfast | BT7 1LP
028 9097 6333 | specialcollections@qub.ac.uk
Head of Special Collections & Archives: Deirdre Wildy | 028 9097 6218 | d.wildy@qub.ac.uk
