19th Century British Literature Gallery

The Anti-Slavery Alphabet, published in 1846,  was sold at the Anti-Slavery Fair in Philadelphia. The text was not intented to be taught in schools, rather for the children in abolishinist households, in order to teach about anti-slavery and encourage support of abolishinism in children. Because the intended audience is young children the language is simple, but clear. There are no illustrations, only letters with a simple design, with an accompanying message in the form of poetry. The book begins with a note to the "little" readers, and immediately jumps into the…

This figure depicts Archibald Archer's 1819 oil potrayal of the original, temporary gallery in which the Elgin Marbles were sheltered and displayed.  This would have been the environment in which John Keats would have encountered the sculptures.  The dark, close-knit, claustophobia-inducing space clearly demonstrate to a viewer that same feeling of being caught in a "shadow of magnitude" that John Keats recalls in his poem, "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles."

Image sourced from The British Museum's collection; can be viewed at n…

This 1714 engraving details the estate’s exterior before it was possessed by the British government in 1754.  Its exterior remain minimally unchanged when the Elgin Marbles were first displayed there.  Imagine the excitement, awe, and curiosity one might experience when walking up to this museum’s entrance. From: https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/montagu-house-first-british-museum 

The Grimm Brothers were very close their whole lives, sharing a bed in school and sharing a home for large portions of their lives. It was often hard for people to tell them apart in real life and most drawings of them capture that.

A portrait of renowned author T.N. Mukharji (July 22, 1847-November 3, 1919). He was a prolific writer who wrote in both Bengali and English. He also participated in the curation of several Indian exhibits in museums across Europe. While curating these exhibits he created a travelogue that focused on his personal experiences in Europe, and the ignorance the average British citizen had towards cultures outside of their own. His journal would be published under the title A Visit to Europe.

Joseph Nash was commissioned by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to recreate forty-three images from the Great Exhibition. The purpose of the reproduction was to create chromolithographs that could be sold to the public to raise profit for the South Kensington Museum. Sitting in the centre of the image is the howdah lent that was presented to Queen Victoria by Nawab Nazim of Bengal.

While this drawing depicts the museum's interior some twenty years after the death of John Keats, this image well-displays how early museum exhibitions were staged.  It looks quite different from the museum exhibits we may be used to seeing in the twenty-first century. This is because while human beings have been collecting and displaying scientific, art, and historical artifacts as early as civilization itself, museology has undergone some serious changes over the past three hundred years.  While most modern museums emphasize the importance of education and using their artifacts…

Joseph Nash was commissioned by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to recreate forty-three images from the Great Exhibition. The purpose of the reproduction was to create chromolithographs that could be sold to the public to raise profit for the South Kensington Museum. This watercolor depict the Ivory Chair of State and stool presented to the Queen by the Raja of Travancore. The After being appointed the Empress of India in 1876 the Queen decided to take official photographs while sitting in the chair. 

Medium: Watercolor, bodycolour, and…

A printed image depicted some of the carpet weavers that could be seen in the "Indian Empire" exhibit at the Kensington Museum. The illustration was published by the London News.

https://branchcollective.org/?attachment_id=652

The image shows a portrait of Mary Shelley from 1831, 13 years after Frankenstein was first published. She was 18 years old when she came up with the story for Frankenstein, and 20 years old when it was first published. In the image, she is 33 years old. Mary Shelley died at the age of 53.

Source: Blakemore, Erin. “'Frankenstein' Was Born during a Ghastly Vacation 200 Years Ago.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Mar. 2018, https://www.history.com/news/…

The mansion depicted in the image is known as Villa Diodati. It is where Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori spent their rainy vacation in 1816 and told ghost stories that inspired the story of Frankenstein. Villa Diodati is located along Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

Source:  “Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Is 200 Years Old – Bridgeman Blog.” – Bridgeman Blog, https://blog.bridgemanimages.com/blog/mary-shelleys-…

John Polidori was Lord Byron's physician and the author of The Vampyre. Both Polidori and Byron were on vacation with Mary Shelley at Lake Geneva when she got the idea for her story of Frankenstein. While trapped inside due to rainy weather, they all threw around ideas for the creation of their own ghost stories after reading other stories. Byron began to write a story, and Polidori took his ideas and formed the novel. Polidori gave him credit in the first edition that was published, but Byron claimed that he was not the author. The creation of The…

This is the first illustration ever to be seen by the public of Javert. This was done in a series of illustration by Gustave Brion, and artist who was famous for depicting these famous Les mis characters. 

The first memorial to the Peterloo Massacre was a blue plaque placed in 1972. It was since criticized for avoiding the fact that anyone died and not calling the event what it was: a massacre. The red plaque replaced the blue plaque in 2007 and accurately identifies the event as a massacre of a peaceful democratic gathering. This plaque claims the deaths at 15 and injuries at over 600. Then, in 2019, 200 years after the massacre, the city quietly unveils a monument made by Jeremy Deller. The monument has 11 steps and inscriptions bearing the names of 18 people who died. While the monument…

Letter between Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell about her continuity of work in his journal Household Words. These more recently discovered letters have been used to identify some of Gaskell's anonymously published work. 

During the Victorian era, there was a growing attention and infatuation with the world of crime. In this satirical political commic from 1829, "Reviewing the Blue Devils, Alias the Raw Lobsters, Alias the Bludgeon Men", the working-class suspicion of the growing police force is depicted. The mid-nineteenth century in England was filled with debate regarding public policy and the jurisdiction the police force had. These concerns only gree when the Detective Police force was formed in 1842. These new detectives worked all hours and even would work without uniform. The public began to…

During the Victorian era, there was a growing attention and infatuation with the world of crime. In this satirical political commic from 1829, "Reviewing the Blue Devils, Alias the Raw Lobsters, Alias the Bludgeon Men", the working-class suspicion of the growing police force is depicted. The mid-nineteenth century in England was filled with debate regarding public policy and the jurisdiction the police force had. These concerns only gree when the Detective Police force was formed in 1842. These new detectives worked all hours and even would work without uniform. The public began to…

During the Victorian era, there was a growing attention and infatuation with the world of crime. In this satirical political commic from 1829, "Reviewing the Blue Devils, Alias the Raw Lobsters, Alias the Bludgeon Men", the working-class suspicion of the growing police force is depicted. The mid-nineteenth century in England was filled with debate regarding public policy and the jurisdiction the police force had. These concerns only gree when the Detective Police force was formed in 1842. These new detectives worked all hours and even would work without uniform. The public began to…

The London Bridge Station where the Great Gold Robbery started from the 19th Century to the 20th Century

Manuscript of Amazing Grace by John Newton. It was written in 1772 and published in 1779.

This is a mural by Kenneth Budd created in 1978 depicting the 1839 Newport Uprising. This mural lied in a Newport pedestrian underpass which was contraversely domolished in 2013 to make way for redevelopment. 

Giovanni Aldini was the nephew of famous physician Luigi Galvani (where we get the term Galvanize) and did a public experiment in 1803 involving placing two diodes into a human and watching the electricity stimulate the muscles into contracting. This experiment is what inspired the story of Frankenstein.

A sketch if the layout of the botanical garden of padua. Since it's creation, Padua botanical garden has kept the same layout over the centuries. Provided is a sketch of the layout, and a recent photo of Padua Botanical Garden's layout remaining the same.

An engraved plan of the Oxford Botanic Gardens titled: 'Hortus Botanicus, The Phisick Garden in Oxon.' by David Loggan. Though originally published in 1675, it was reprinted in 1705 by Henry Overton.

artsandculture.google.com: oxford botanic gardens, david loggan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ3lr3urgDU

This image is the movie cover for Jim Carrey's film adpatation of "A Christmas Carol." There are numerous movies with the same vivid scenes yet they are all creatively depicted. The character of Scrooge is also interesting to note between the variations. One word that is used by Scrooge most commonly is "humbug" which is slang that means a person who behaves in a dishonest/deceiving manner. He uses that word numerous times throughout…

Thunderstorm with The Death of Amelia, c.1784.

William Williams (1758-1797)

Caernarvonshire, Wales; Snowdown in the background

Available on the online Tate collection.

William Williams painted this piece during the Romantic period, highlighting themes of the sublime and love of the Romanticism era. Using oil paint on canvas Williams use vivid colours to represent life off in the distance and upon the couple’s clothing while choosing darker colours to bring to life a dark, violent storm. The couple painted are Celadon and Amelia, lovers from James Thomson’s poem…

Percy Shelley wrote the poem "England in 1819" to express how England was on the verge of "mental explosion". Shelley used imagery throughout his poem to give other readers an idea of how destructive England was becoming as a country. Shelley also excercised romanticism as he expressed his anger towards current politics and how the citizens of England were so wrongly done. The level of expression also helped many others to see the whole injustice system.

Title: Edge of a Wood

Artist: John Constable (1776 - 1837)

Date: 1816

On Display at The Art Gallery of Ontario

This painting is called Edge of a Wood and was painted by John Constable in 1816. John Constable was known to be a landscape painter and his painting usually consisted of Suffolk countryside, where he had grown up. This painting features an individual (gender not specified) and two donkeys in the foreground that are positioned on the left side of the Constable’s painting. But the three individuals in this painting are overshadowed by the woods…

In the 18th Century a great Revolution began in Europe, one calling for change and reformation of its government. This Revolution began due to many of the people suffering from oppression by the monachary in France. This age created a new outlook on life and gave writers and artist a new way to express themselves. Romantism was born during the French Revolution. The French Revolution and Romanticism created a fierce reaction in the people and ignited the search for a more direct communication with nature and its creatures. A political writer by the name of Edmund Burke wrote …

Thomas Cole painted A Wild Scene in 1831-1832. This painting exemplifies the values of Romanticism, in particular the emphasis on the relationship between human spirituality and nature, which had not previously been examined during the Enlightenment. Romanticism marked a shift away from the Renaissance and the Enlightenment because rather than stressing scientific observation  and personal achievement, Romantics took a more holistic, empirical worldview.

In this painting, humans are depicted as being part of nature rather than superior beings. Nature is…

A monument to the mind-in-creation, Benjamin Robert Haydon’s Wordsworth on Helvellyn (1842) is one of Romanticism’s iconic images. It gives concrete form to the romantic critic William Hazlitt’s description of a William Wordsworth who “lives in the busy solitude of his own heart; in the deep silence of thought” (19: 11). The twentieth-century art historian A. C. Sewter considered it not just the best portrait of Wordsworth, but “the finest portrait of the nineteenth century” (324). And in the words of the critic and biographer Stephen Gill, it is “what an image of Wordsworth…

The non-cropped engraving says below:

“From different Parents, different Climes we came,

At different Periods”; Fate still rules the same.

Unhappy Youth while bleeding on the ground;

’Twas Yours to fall—but Mine to feel the wound.

London, Published Decr. 1st. 1794, by J. Johnson, St. Pauls’ Church Yard.

* The engraving is of John Gabriel Stedman leaning on his gun with a…

Joanna.

London Published Decr. 2nd. 1793, by J. Johnson. St. Paul’s Church Yard.

*Engraving of Joanna the woman slave Stedman writes of that he purchases. The engraving and her description is in chapter 5 " The Scene changes—Some Account of a beautiful Female Slave—The Manner of travelling in Surinam—The Colonel explores the Situation of the Rivers—Barbarity of a Planter—Wretched Treatment of some Sailors." From the Book, 

IN DEVELOPMENT

The Good Samaritan by G. F. Watts
1849-1904 (likely painted in the 1850s)
Watts Gallery; G. F. Watts Memorial Collection; Bequeathed, 1905
Oil on canvas; Dimensions H 243.8 x W 154.9 cm

The painter George Frederick Watts painted two versions of The Good Samaritan, both inspired by Thomas Wright, the "prison philanthropist" and friend and inspiration to novelist Elizabeth Gaskell. This version, held by the Watts Gallery, is modeled on a…

The telescope used by Johann Gottfried Galle and his student at the Berlin Observatory for the discovery of Neptune on September 23rd, 1846. It is a refracting telescope that was made by a German physicist named Joseph von Fraunhofer.

Sources:

https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/astronomy-19th-century

https://ras.ac.uk/about-the-ras/a-brief-history

https://ras.ac.uk/timeline…

A watercolor painting of the Freemasons' Tavern from 1800, by John Nixon. It was the site of the first meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society on January 12th, 1820.

Sources:

https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/astronomy-19th-century

https://ras.ac.uk/about-the-ras/a-brief-history

https://ras.ac.uk/timeline

Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog was painted in 1818 by German artist Caspar David Friedrich. Its perfectly captures the feeling of the sublime which was a prominent theme during the romantic period. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the sublime as “tending to inspire awe usually because of elevated quality (as of beauty, nobility, or grandeur) or transcendent excellence.” I would add that something that is sublime borders on the edge of fear, or even death, but not quite reach those points of dread or…

According to abebooks.com and wordpress.com, the first printing of the original copy of "A Christmas Carol" is thought to be worth approximately $18,000-$45,000 today. It orginally coatsed 5 shillings or approximately $2 of USD currency. On the release date of December 19th, 1843, 6000 copies of the novel were made and sold out by Christmas Eve 1843. Charles Dickens didn't make the most profit off of it that he could have because he spent a lot of money on using detailed materials. 

Dickens, Charles. “Charles Dickens’ Christmas Books Including 'A Christmas Carol'.”…

The first ghost of Christmas past is described as a light that represents memory. This spirit shows Scrooge his past and invokes empathy within Scrooge while also giving the readers insight to his past experiences that shape him into who he has become. By transporting the readers into the vulnerable foundation of Ebenezer, they are able to empathize and contemplate why the spirit of Christmas may not be fond with Scrooge but especially people they may encounter in their current personal lives. “But the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright…

The second spirit is the ghost of Christmas future which is described as being kind and gentle. It is described that "its head wore no other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air” (Dickens 46). Scrooge witnesses gratitude and humility with The Cratchit family, unconditional love because of his nephew, the impacts of beign underpaid/poverty, and the detriments of illness.

The third spirit is the ghost of the future who instills fear and death within him. He shows Scrooge his outcome at his own funeral and Tiny Tim's fate of death. The appearance of this ghost is described as “shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand” (Dickens 68). Scrooge pleads to spare his life so that he has an opportunity to change his rotten ways and especially save Tiny Tim. The motif of regret is highlighted when Scrooge is the most humbled and at his most vulnerable.

An oil painting of John Keats by his friend, Joseph Severn. Severn accompanied Keats on his final journey to Rome in 1820 and took care of Keats until he passed away on February 23, 1821. Severn made this painting after Keats' death.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Keats/The-year-1819

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats

https://erling.yoga/john-keats-isle…

A map of the Isle of Wight, drawn by T. Webster and engraved by John Walker in 1815. The scale is 7/8" to the mile. This is the island where John Keats likely wrote When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be.

Source:

https://www.antique-maps-online.co.uk/isle-of-wight-walker-2519.html&nb…;

One of the eight plates created by George Cruikshank depicts a man’s descent into alcoholism. Ironically, Cruikshank himself was an alcoholic along with his brother and father. As such, Cruikshank’s advocation for abstinence stemmed from a personal experience of poverty, violence, and crime. The image is just one of the eight plates that Cruikshank created, with the others tying along to the story of a father, seemingly happy with his life and his family, descending into madness fueled with alcoholic rage towards his loved ones. The latter images depict his violence stemming from poverty…

In response to the argument for moderation, the image by Joseph Livesey depicts the “slippery slope” of moderation, claiming that both overindulging in alcohol as well as moderation were both avenues through which one descended into alcoholism. Livesey and his followers who vowed abstinence in Preston, England in 1832, believed the only true way to prevent the detrimental effects of alcohol use was through teetotalism, or the complete abstinence of alcohol. The image depicts a sort of safety net for those traveling along the path of teetotalism, whereas those on the moderation bridge are…

This image is from Joseph Livesey's ``The Teetotal Progressionist” and depicts the common association of drinking and death. The masked figure who was disguising himself as death represents the poison that Livesey and his followers believed alcohol was, a silent killer in a sense. In contrast to this, liquids, particularly water, were promoted as ways to live longer, healthier lives and were even endorsed by athletes at the time like W.G. Grace, an english Cricket player.

Many propaganda against alcohol revolved around Christianity and oftentimes, alcohol was referred to as “the demon” at this time. In the image we also see a woman, who were often symbolized as a figure of temperance, standing on top of the snake which is meant to portray “the drink”. The woman holding the pledge sign also serves as an incentive to encourage children from a young age to pledge abstinence. This image is also associated with the Band of Hope, the most successful temperance organization which was founded in 1847 and amassed a following of three million members from 1847 to…

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus was written in 1818 by Mary Shelley when she was only 18. It widely considered one of the first major works in science fiction, and is what set Mary Shelley apart from her famous poet husband Percy Shelley. The story covers heavy themes about the reprecussions of reckless science, which was a rampant fear during that time.