Cambridge University Library on the spy trail

18 January 2010

Cambridge University Library on the spy trail
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Cambridge University Library will shine a light on the shadowy world of 
espionage from January 19th - using recently declassified documents and 
"top secret" material from its own archives.

The free exhibition, "Under Covers : Documenting Spies", examines the art
of espionage from Biblical times to the Cold War era.

It draws on personal archives, printed books, official publicity material, 
popular journals and specialist photographs and maps, mostly from the 
University Library's own collections, to illustrate a few of the ways in 
which spies have been documented through the centuries.

University Librarian Anne Jarvis said "Under Covers brings together an 
astonishing variety of different kinds of material, all throwing light on 
the business of uncovering - and keeping - secrets. The University Library 
is pleased to be able to be uncovering some documentary evidence of these 
secrets in this exhibition."

Exhibits range from a 12th-century manuscript recounting the story of King 
Alfred the Great entering a Danish camp disguised as a harpist to a 
Soviet-era map of East Anglia.

John Ker's 18th-century 'licence to spy', granted by Queen Anne, shows 
that the underworld of spies was well-established long before James Bond's 
licence to kill.

Other highlights include papers used by a Parliamentary Committee 
investigating the Atterbury Plot of the 1720s, a telegraph from the MI6 
chief of the day confirming news of Rasputin's murder, and letters to 
Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin from Lord Curzon and Winston Churchill, 
only declassified in 2007...../snip/

- "Under Covers : Documenting Spies" runs from January 19 to July 3, 2010.  
  Entry to the exhibition is free. Opening times are Monday-Friday,
  9am-6pm, Saturday 9am-4.30pm, Sunday closed.


http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2010011801

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/6998301/An-early-glimpse-of-Donald-Maclean-Cambridge-spy.html