Odds and quads

These are among the more unusual items held by the John Hay Library at Brown University on Rhode Island.

During the past Ice Age, this large sabre-toothed cat (Smilodon californicus) ventured into the La Brea pits near Los Angeles, where tar still bubbles to the surface from underground hydro-carbon deposits, in order to feed on trapped animals - only to become stuck itself.

These images of a child receiving treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and from its Cromwell House convalescent home in North London, form part of the Historic Hospitals Admission Records Project at Kingston University.

These lantern slides are among the treasures of the little-known Alfred Denny Museum at the University of Sheffield's department of animal and plant sciences.

This walking stick once belonged to Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), one of the greatest and most influential philosophers of the 20th century. The handkerchief was used to cover his face after his death. Both were given to the University of Helsinki by Elisabeth von Wright.

These very different nautically themed objects both come from the collections of the University of Sheffield.

These amulets form part of a collection held at the University of Michigan's Taubman Health Sciences Library.

These are among the 800 objects and about 1,200 patterns which, along with tools, photographs and postcards, make up the Knitting Collections and Knitting Reference Library at the University of Southampton.

This Tippa model typewriter, silver fountain pen inscribed with the letter J, carved wooden box with record-player needles, brass knuckleduster and pipes made by Allen & Wright were all found in the desk of the English novelist John Fowles (1926-2005), most famous for his 1969 novel The French Lieutenant's Woman.

The linear écraseur chain - developed in Paris in 1850 for amputating limbs and tumours, and for castration - works by the gradual tightening of the chain loop, crushing tissue without causing bleeding.

This basket decorated with seals was made of baleen, rushes and walrus ivory by Alaskan Inuit in the early 20th century.

These shoes are among 650 pairs that were once used as teaching aids and now comprise the Cordwainers College Historic Shoe Collection.

If this shoe looks good enough to eat that is hardly surprising - it is made of cheese.

Clement Attlee (1883-1967) served as deputy prime minister in Winston Churchill's wartime coalition government before going on to win a spectacular victory in the general election of 1945.

This model ship, made of matchsticks by members of the "Upington 26", is on display in the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town.

This male finback whale was first spotted at sea in 1865 by a coastguard, who mistook it for the upturned keel of a wrecked ship.

This striking object, held by the observatory at Uppsala University, could be a fragment of the world's first mechanical calculator.

This sculpture of a kangaroo, located incongruously near the entrance of the library at Stockholm University, is the work of Torsten Renqvist (1924-2007).

These charts, pictures and illustrations (see images, right) all form part of the Otto and Marie Neurath Isotype Collection at the University of Reading.

This wasps' nest was once home to a large colony of common wasps (Vespula vulgaris).

This watercolour of the medical kit owned by the great Victorian missionary and explorer David Livingstone (1813-73) was painted shortly after his death in what is now Zambia.

This glass model of a dissected cuttlefish is one of about 100 remarkable representations of marine life held by the Zoology and Marine Biology Museum at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

This pinwheel windmill, intended as the centrepiece for a table, has discs set at exactly the right angle to respond to the slightest currents of air.

The remains of a 2,000-year-old dog have been reunited with the treasure it probably once guarded.

This collapsible top hat belonged to the conductor and composer Sir Hamilton Harty (1879-1941).

This wedding dress and these accessories, made entirely of glass fibre, were worn by Helen Nairn Munro on the day she married W.E.S. Turner in 1943.