Arts and humanities

Nativity scene with the Star of Bethlehem

What was the Star of Bethlehem?

23 Dec 2024

It’s a key feature of a school nativity play, but what’s the science behind the Star of Bethlehem?

Read more
ʻAhuʻula (feathered cape) from Hawaii, MAA, 1947.403. Photo ©Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology

Pacific curators restore Indigenous voices to colonial-era collections, in MAA exhibition

08 Dec 2024

'Fault Lines', a new exhibition at MAA, offers an intimate exploration of Pacific cultures guided by Indigenous curators and contemporary artists...

Read more
Joya Chatterji at the award ceremony for the Wolfson History Prize 2024

Professor Joya Chatterji awarded Wolfson History Prize 2024

03 Dec 2024

Chatterji wins for Shadows at Noon , her genre-defying history of South Asia during the 20th century.

Read more

Ancient Egypt gallery at The Fitzwilliam Museum. Photo: The Fitzwillliam Museum / David Valinsky Photography

Report highlights University’s under-researched African collections

03 Dec 2024

The University's collections include an estimated 350,000 artefacts, alongside natural history specimens and human/ancestral remains, from Africa...

Read more
100 million Cambridge English exams taken since 1913

Marking a milestone in English language exams

02 Dec 2024

100 million Cambridge English exams and tests have been taken around the world since 1913, according to figures from Cambridge University Press...

Read more

Spread the word!

18 Nov 2024

Dr Mark Wormald helps launch Elemental Poetry Cambridge – a new project to get the city writing.

Read more

Band of the second regiment of Life Guards, leaving Windsor, 1830. Oil on canvas by John Frederick Tayler, 1830. National Army Museum

Military musicians returning from Napoleonic wars invented Britain’s brass bands

30 Oct 2024

Military musicians returning from the Napoleonic wars established Britain’s first brass bands earlier than previously thought, Dr Eamonn O'Keeffe has...

Read more
Jan Steen, Mother and Child (17th-century painting). Image courtesy of York Museums Trust

Early foster care gave poor women power, 17th-century records reveal

03 Oct 2024

A rare collection of 300-year-old petitions gives voice to the forgotten women who cared for England’s most vulnerable children while battling their...

Read more

Endless Stories at Cambridge University Library

26 Sep 2024

Centuries-old Asian and African manuscripts go on display for the first time

Read more

The Jungle Book proofs come to Cambridge

05 Sep 2024

'Exceptional accumulation of manuscripts and proofs' have a new home at Cambridge University Library

Read more
Photos of embryos of horizon XVII, published in Contributions to Embryology in 1948 and still in use as Carnegie Stage 17.

The rise, fall and revival of research on human development

02 Aug 2024

A new study takes a tour of the history of research into human embryology and development to show the "cycles of attention" that led to major...

Read more

Samuel Pepys’ fashion prints reveal his love of fancy French clothes

22 Jul 2024

A collection of French fashion engravings offers precious new insights into the life of Samuel Pepys years after his premature final diary entry. The...

Read more

Pages