There’s never a dull moment in Special Collections and Archives; just as our new student inductions are coming to and end, we start looking ahead to an exciting range of events for the next academic year.
This evening, Tuesday 16 at 9pm, materials from the British Cartoon Archive will be appearing on Ian Hislop’s BBC2 series ‘The Stiff Upper Lip‘. This episode, partly filmed in the Special Collections reading room, examines the rise and fall of this apparently quintessential British trait since the First World War. Using cartoons by ‘Pont’ (Graham Laidler), one of the earliest Punch cartoonists, Ian traces the humorous side of an increasingly disconnected set of attitudes. There’s more information about the BCA’s Pont holdings on the website.
As you may be aware, the Templeman Exhibition Gallery (on level 1, by the cafe) is currently hosting our final Dickens exhibition of the year, entitled “What the Dickens! Beyond the Books“. Do pop in to have a look at this cornucopia of Dickens materials which show how Dickens’ much loved characters have endured beyond his lifetime. This exhibition will be running until 5th November.
To round off our Dickens extravaganza, our very own Nick Hiley (curator of the British Cartoon Archive) will be presenting a nineteenth century magic lantern show of A Christmas Carol next Thursday, 25 October. This show will include what was apparently the most popular of all Victorian lantern slides: ‘Man eating Rat’! Do come along to be enthralled and entertained; there will be refreshments from 5pm and the show will start at 6pm in TR201 (on the second floor of the Templeman Library). We look forward to seeing you there.
As a final note for today’s update, the first in our series of Special Collections & Cathedral Library Lectures will take place on Friday 30 November, at 6.30pm. This will coincide with the launch of the British Cartoon Archive’s latest exhibition, on William Combe’s literary creation Dr Syntax and will be given by Dr James Baker, associate lecturer in the School of History, University of Kent. We’re delighted at the range of topics and speakers who have agreed to present these lectures this year: more news on the series to follow soon!
In the meantime, if you would like to arrange an event at Special Collections or would like to know anything more about our collections, please do contact us at specialcollections@kent.ac.uk.