Odds and quads

These pictures are from the archive of the lesbian photographer, writer and performance artist Tessa Boffin (1960-93), now held by the University for the Creative Arts Farnham

The items shown here are all owned by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and are among the objects that appear in its online interactive 2013 seasonal calendar, with audio recordings and podcasts

The diagram showing the flow of blood in the forearm is taken from William Harvey’s De Motu Cordis (1628), a pioneering exposition of how blood circulates around the body

Images of pineapples can be found all over Wolfson College, Cambridge

These gorgeous fabric samples are taken from a scrapbook that was once used by students at Bradford Technical College and is now held in the Special Collections of the University of Bradford

The Women’s Library, based at the London School of Economics since the beginning of this year, is the UK’s leading resource for the study of women’s history and the women’s movement

These images form part of a forthcoming exhibition about the Victorian magazine Punch taking place at Liverpool John Moores University in celebration of the opening of the institution’s new Special Collections and Archives reading room

On 13 November 1967, Newcastle University became the first and only British university to give Martin Luther King an honorary degree during his lifetime

Canada’s early literary and scientific history owes much to two British-born sisters who emigrated to what is now Ontario in 1832

This guidance for university tutors is taken from a 1674 book, Firmianus and Dubitantius, which consists of “certain dialogues concerning atheism, infidelity, popery, and other heresies and schisms that trouble the peace of the Church and are destructive of primitive piety”

St John’s College, Cambridge was established by charter in 1511 through the generosity of Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509)

The Royal College of Science was one of three institutions that merged in 1907 to form Imperial College London. In 1955, it set up its own Motor Club to maintain a fire engine known as Jezebel as a mascot for students

Conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-74), originally from what is now Thailand, toured the world in a “human circus” and became so famous that the term “Siamese twins” is still current

In 1714, an Act of Parliament set a top prize of £20,000 (now worth about £1.5 million) for a method of determining a ship’s position east and west from a fixed meridian line

Ceramic cabbages, knitted cauliflowers and caterpillars, birds made of stone and metal, dancing daffodils, even a hive of porcelain bees: all formed part of the allotment created by the Manchester School of Art for the Royal Horticultural Society Flower Show at Tatton Park in Cheshire last month

This 400-year-old Bible is probably the most infamous of the rare religious books and manuscripts held in the University of Leicester’s Robjohns Collection

This poster from 1935 (left), designed by graphic artist MacDonald Gill, was used to promote the commercial telephone service between London and New York introduced by the Post Office in 1927

The notebooks of Lieutenant William Dawes (1762-1836), part of the special collections at Soas, University of London, are a major source of information about one of the many indigenous languages of Australia

These Tudor-era playing cards were found in the Muniment Room at Christ’s College, Cambridge, during renovation works in the 1960s and now reside in the College Library

American poet Peter Orlovsky (1933-2010), the partner of Allen Ginsberg for more than 40 years, was himself a major Beat Generation figure

The desk and spectacles pictured belonged to Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), the German polymath whose travels in Latin America led to the first serious scientific account of the continent

These images represent highlights from a collection of almost 200 rare books, incunabula and manuscripts donated by the businessman Henry Davis (1897-1977) to the University of Ulster

Emily Wilding Davison famously stepped into the path of the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby on 4 June 1913

These miniature picture Bibles were created by two German sisters from Augsburg around 1690

These striking posters are part of the personal material donated by playwright Willy Russell to Liverpool John Moores University’s Special Collections and Archives

These are just two of the plant samples, now held by the Museum of Evolution at Uppsala University in Sweden, that Carl Peter Thunberg brought back from his pioneering expedition to Japan in 1775.

Until the age of slides and computer displays, printed wallcharts and three-dimensional models were essential teaching tools within universities. Many combined scientific accuracy with great beauty and artistic skill. These are just some of the most striking examples from the extensive collection held by the University of Dundee's museum.

A 17th-century priest's chasuble in hand-made gros point lace and a blue sample from a 20th-century design portfolio are among the objects, documents and artefacts, some 75,000 in number, held in the lace archive at Nottingham Trent University's School of Art and Design.

IE University in Segovia occupies the site of the first Dominican convent on Spanish soil, Santa Cruz la Real.

These are among the items in The Cabinet of Things used by Falmouth University's Academy for Innovation and Research as tools for stimulating creativity, particularly during "sandpit" problem-solving workshops for businesses.

These are the original designs for the dioramas created for London's Commonwealth Institute by one of the UK's leading post-war designers, James Gardner (1907-95).

The Bergman Österberg Union

From 1981, the Women's Peace Camp at Greenham Common mounted a sustained non-violent protest against the first cruise missile site in the UK.

Launched during the First World War, Ladybird created probably the UK's most iconic - and now most nostalgic - series of 20th-century children's books.

This impressive Orthodox cross, made from intricately carved cypress wood, was used for the benediction of the congregation during the Liturgy and was probably made in the monastic community of Mount Athos.

One of the classic images of the frozen North, Sir Edwin Landseer's Man Proposes, God Disposes was first exhibited in 1864 and praised for its "tragic grandeur".

These are among the approximately 200 chairs on display at the University of Helsinki until the end of the year as part of an exhibition titled Seats of Learning.

These robots form part of the ALIZ-E project designed "to move human-robot interaction from the range of minutes to the range of days".