Special Collections and Archives highlights: 2023 edition

2023 has been a year of challenges and delights, we’ve amassed new collections, colleagues and knowledge, and – as is tradition – we want to use this post to share some of our highlights with you.

Karen (Special Collections and Archives Manager)

2023 has been another exciting, as well as challenging, year in Special Collections and Archives. We’ve seen a number of changes in our team. In the summer we said goodbye to two members of our team, Rachel who worked with us as a part-time project archivist for the UK Philanthropy Archive and Matt who was our Digital Lead. While in May we welcomed Daniella to the role of Project Archivist – Daniella’s post is externally funded and she is working to make two of our collections accessible and discoverable. If you follow us on our social media channels you’ll already know something of what she gets up to but there is more in her section below. In July we also welcomed Sam to the team. Sam is working on the Laurie Siggs Archive, purchased earlier this year with support from the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and Friends of National Libraries. The collection includes, original artworks, rough sketches and sketchbooks as well as notebooks and correspondence. 

Beth has had an amazingly busy year; working with me on funding applications, completing a survey of artworks around campus as well as all the things she mentions in her piece. One of the highlights for me was the amazing exhibition commemorating 100 years since the publication of T. S. Eliot’s Wasteland.  It was a great example of collaborative working with our academic colleagues. It proved to be a great attraction and we had many visitors to the gallery. Beth and I were delighted when Faustin Charles contacted us about his archive. Beth shares more about Faustin below but what you may not know is that he is the author of The Selfish Crocodile – a fantastic book for children. Clair has had great fun working on some of our collections and I know she especially enjoyed working on the Mark Thomas collection. Thanks to her excellent efforts you can now enjoy it too through our online catalogue or by visiting our collections. 

Exhibition poster for 100 Years: TS Eliot’s The Waste Land.

Christine has gone from strength to strength in developing her skills and talents as our Coordinator. She has finished cataloguing her first book collection, of which you can learn more about below and the Childrens Book Collection has so many lovely books for us all to enjoy. Christine also helped to develop the sessions for Discovery Planet in Ramsgate, working with our academic colleague Stella, and our whole team. I hope we can do more to these amazing sessions in the coming year. Mandy continues to beaver away making sure our cuttings collection is kept up to date. At the same time she has been working on digitising the original art works of Hector Breeze. Hector’s cartoons were published in Private Eye, Punch, Evening Standard, and other popular Daily newspapers. Jacqueline completed cataloguing the Carl Giles books, and moved on to catalogue Arnold Rood’s collection (he had a very attractive bookplate) and Jack Reading and Colin Rayner’s collection. Jacqueline has uncovered some real treasures, which I’ve enjoyed seeing. We’re looking forward to seeing what she uncovers next year! Our colleagues Stu and Matthias have been working with us one day per week and have made great progress in dealing with our British Cartoon Library backlog as well as our Shirley Toulson Poetry Collection, making them available to everyone.  

Display of Special Collections and Archives materials at Discovery Planet, Ramsgate.

Our volunteer projects this year have been hugely successful, and we continue to be amazed by the talented people that come to support us in our work.  

Looking forwards to 2024, we have some recently acquired collections that will be announced very soon. One I can mention though is a beautiful collection of Caribbean literature, donated by one of our former academics. We plan to start work on this collection in 2024 alongside some work to process a collection of African literature including works in the African Writers Series. Keep an eye on our social media channels for updates. And if you are not already following us do have a look at the Special Collections and Archives Advent Calendar – it’s on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram @UniKentArchives. 

Beth (University Archivist)

2023 has been full of highlights and it is hard to pick out a few special things to represent such a busy year!

With the University Archive collections this year I focussed on the archives of the Colleges. At the beginning of the year I started a huge (and still ongoing) project to sort and catalogue the enormous Eliot College archive. This has now been un-boxed and arranged in a logical way, and cataloguing is on-going. This is a huge step forward in preserving the history of these important institutions within the University, and there are many fascinating records coming out of this.

We also received a brilliant collection of literary manuscripts from alumnus Faustin Charles, a storyteller and poet, originally from Trinidad and who studied at the University of Kent from 1977-1981. Faustin is an important voice in Caribbean poetry and storytelling, and his collection of manuscripts and correspondence will provide a fascinating insight into his work.

The archive collection of Faustin Charles, Caribbean storyteller and poet, being catalogued at the University of Kent Special Collections and Archives.

With the UK Philanthropy Archive collections we have continued to build and expand this growing collection receiving a new collection from the Hilden Charitable Trust in the last few weeks! We have been involved with two great events to showcase the wider philanthropy collections and begin to share information about the content and its importance for research. In April we held a mini-display of material at the Understanding Philanthropy conference, and then later in November we helped organise the 15th Anniversary Colloquium for the Centre for Philanthropy, Philanthropy: Past, Present and Future, which included our 3rd annual Shirley Lecture. This year we were delighted to welcome Orlando Fraser KC, the Chair of Charity Commission of England and Wales, who delivered an interesting lecture of the role of philanthropy in the charity sector. We were able to showcase the UK Philanthropy Archive collections at this event, giving tours of the collections talking to participants about their value for research.

Display of philanthropy related items for the Centre for Philanthropy’s 15th Anniversary Colloquium in November 2023.

Our exhibition schedule has been jam packed this year beginning with the 100 Years: TS Eliot’s The Wasteland which was on until April, after which we installed the Migrating Materia Medica exhibition in collaboration with colleagues in the Schools of English.  In August we added a fabulous short term exhibition on zines and zine making, called “Zines Zines Zines!” which explored the history of this popular genre of self-publishing and allowed us to display some of our zine collections, modern poetry and artist books, and also a loaned collection of zines from the Queer Zine Library.

The zine we made to support the Zines Zines Zines exhibition this year.

We have ended the year by installing our new exhibition – which has been curated by a fab team of volunteers to kick off our celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the British Cartoon Archive at the University. The first cartoons arrived at Kent in 1973 and the Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature opened in 1975 – which later developed into the British Cartoon Archive. Between 2023 and 2025 we are running a programme of events and activities to mark this significant anniversary. The 50/50 Project, where our volunteers have selected 50 cartoons reflecting the 50 years of the British Cartoon Archive, was the first of our celebratory activities and was launched in October. The exhibition will be on display until the end of February so do come along and see it if you can.

In addition to all of this – a particular highlight for me this year was in organising and delivering our Telling Our Tales series of workshops, held in June, in the run up to Refugee Week. This series of creative workshops related to our project and exhibition in 2022, Reflections on the Great British Fish and Chips. The workshops explored the ways in which we tell, share and preserve stories of migration and movement. Working alongside our amazing colleague Basma El Doukhi, we invited speakers to run artist-led workshops where participants learned about sharing migration stories and how these can be expressed and recorded through portraiture and photography. We held an In Conversation event between Basma and Rania Saadalah, a Palestinian Refugee, who shared her photography work where she lives in the refugee camps in Lebanon. Our final workshop was with Paul Dudman from the Living Refugee Archive at the University of East London, who talked about how to preserve stories of migration and the lived experiences of migrants living in Britain.

The workshops were all thoughtful and impactful events, that encouraged us to challenge stereotypes, build better relationships with people in our communities, and foster a spirit of understanding and compassion for others. This sentiment seems particularly important to highlight at this time of devastation and suffering in the ongoing war between the Israeli and Palestinian people. It remains vital that the stories and experiences of refugees and those with lived experience of migration are heard, shared and preserved to ensure their voices do not go unrecorded.

Poster for one of the Telling our Tales workshops, held by Paul Dudman and Beth Astridge.

Clair (Digital Archivist)

Once again, it’s been an incredibly busy year for Special Collections and Archives, and if you can excuse the cliché, it has really flown by! There’s been lots of enjoyable projects along the way, but I’ve chosen just three to talk about in this year’s round-up.

Firstly, we’ve had a bumper year for volunteering! Volunteers bring so much to our service, and help us achieve more than we could ever do alone with our small team. We’ve had the pleasure of working with over 20 individual volunteers this year on various tasks and projects. In particular, we’ve run two volunteer projects related to the British Cartoon Archive (BCA) this year. The first was the 50/50 project where volunteers were asked to research, select and curate an exhibition of 50 items from the BCA to celebrate 50 years since the founding of the collection. The second was the Cartooning Covid-19 project, where volunteers supported us in making over 400 cartoons published during the Covid-19 pandemic available to the public via our catalogue. It’s been such a pleasure working with all of our fantastic volunteers this year, and we hope to continue to work with some of them again in the next.

Our 50/50 volunteers.

In terms of cataloguing, I had a blast sorting and cataloguing material from our Mark Thomas Collection in the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive (BSUCA) this year. The Mark Thomas Collection has been part of BSUCA since its very beginnings, with the earliest set of records being deposited in 2013, and we were delighted to receive an accrual to his collection in 2020/21. This new batch of records contained notebooks, publicity, audiovisual material, and material related to his radio and TV work. In addition to this cataloguing, I also had the help of two work experience students in sorting and cataloguing the significant ‘100 Acts of Minor Dissent’ series. Records can be viewed on our catalogue now: https://archive.kent.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=BSUCA%2fMT

100 Acts of Minor Dissent: Act 61-63 – the BASTARDTRADE logo (designed by Greg Matthews) is trade marked and was created as a symbol of bad corporate behaviour (BSUCA/MT/3/8/26).

Finally, in the first half of this year I was lucky enough to take part in the National Archives’ peer mentoring scheme. I really enjoyed the experience of being a mentee and benefited from having a very knowledgeable, kind and supportive mentor. The scheme was the perfect opportunity for me to take the leap in creating a Digital Asset Register for our digital collections. Having a Digital Asset Register in place is important as it enables us to have control over our digital objects (both born-digital and digitised) and helps keep us informed of the file formats we hold so that we can make decisions about any preservation actions we may wish to take. It’s a huge step forward in improving our digital preservation maturity, so that’s definitely something to celebrate!

Computer Laboratory, Nov 1977 (UKA/PHO/1/1014)

Daniella (Project Archivist)

2023 has been an exciting year for me as I joined Special Collections & Archives as a Project Archivist, working on two cataloguing projects – Craigmyle Consultants UK Ltd’s archive and the “Oh Yes It Is!”: Cataloguing the David Drummond Pantomime Collection project, funded by Archives Revealed a partnership programme between The National Archives, The Pilgrim Trust and the Wolfson Foundation.

Donated by the collector David Drummond, the collection contains materials relating to a range of pantomimes, such as Cinderella, Puss in Boots, and Sleeping Beauty, as well as ephemera and photographic materials showcasing Principal Boys and Principal Dames. There are also gorgeous costume designers by prolific costumer designers, such as Wilhelm and Archibald Chasemore. Positive steps have been made with the cataloguing and, so far, I have catalogued in draft materials relating to Florrie Forde, Albert Chevalier, Godfrey Tearle, and David Wood. My latest cataloguing work package has focused on items relating to the pantomime Aladdin, started to coincide with this year’s pantomime performance at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury. Watch this space to see these be added to our catalogue! Fantastic work is also being done by a wonderful group of volunteers who sorted and have been listing programmes and flyers for the pantomime Cinderella – they have made amazing progress and we can’t wait to share this with researchers.

Aladdin materials in the David Drummond Pantomime Collection.

Linked to the above, an absolute highlight of working on the David Drummond Pantomime Collection was going to the local pantomime at the Marlowe Theatre to watch Aladdin with my colleagues. We had an absolute blast watching the Dame strut her stuff whilst dodging the oncoming water guns!

Craigmyle’s archive is very different to the David Drummond Pantomime Collection and provides a different perspective to fundraising. It is interesting because the collection shows how this organisation, which was set up in 1959, helped charities across the United Kingdom fundraise. They work with a variety of clients ranging from Cancer Relief Macmillan to cathedrals and parish churches. Schools and education fundraising is of particular importance to Craigmyle. In fact, the company’s earliest focus was on this sector, with initial clients including The King’s School Ely, Tonbridge School, St John’s College Durham and Wycombe School. The project is well underway, and I have scoped what there is and begun to appraise and weed to select what we will be keeping for permanent preservation.

Working on Craigmyle’s archive has also given me the chance to meet staff in the Centre for Philanthropy, and Beth and I had the exciting opportunity to work with Professor Beth Breeze and Dr Karl Wilding to organise the Philanthropy Past, Present and Future colloquium. We had over 80 people register and attend, and has fantastic talks from Michael Seberich and Orlando Fraser, Chair of the Charity Commission for England and Wales. It was also a great chance to get the Craigmyle collection out and engage participants with what research can be done with this archive.

We’ve had an exciting end to the year by appointing two Archive Assistants, Cassie and Farradeh, who have joined me on the project to catalogue Craigmyle’s archive. We’re thrilled for Cassie and Farradeh to be a part of the team and they are sorting, listing, and repackaging appeal literature that forms a part of this collection. They have made an amazing start and have the following to say about their experience on this project so far:

Cassie: “I’ve only been working on the project for a couple of weeks so far but I already feel like I’ve learned so many new things about working in archives, and about the philanthropy sector. It’s been fascinating working through the new Craigmyle collection and I can’t wait to see what else we find and discover the ways in which this material can contribute to the UK Philanthropy Archive”.

Farradeh: “It’s really exciting to see what goes on behind the scenes at an archive, and have an active part in the formation of a new collection. It has made me see archives in a different light, understanding the thought and care archivists put into their craft, and appreciating the level of nuance that goes into executive decisions”.

Cassie and Farraday working on the Craigmyle Archive.

Outside of my collections work, Karen and I contributed to Dr Suzanna Ivanic’s module The Early Modern World: Conflict & Culture, 1450-1750. I gave a lecture about the recordkeeping revolution and archives between the sixteenth century and mid-eighteenth century. I also supported Karen and Christine in delivering the seminars for this module, during which students were able to examine and handle some of the spectacular early modern printed texts in the collection, including editions of William Lambarde’s Perambulation of Kent, William Somner’s Antiquities of Canterbury, and indentures ranging from the reigns of Henry VI to Elizabeth I that are found within the Ronald Baldwin collection.

Christine (Special Collections and Archives Coordinator)

This has been my first full year working as the Special Collections and Archives Coordinator, and it’s been a real opportunity to increase my knowledge of our collections and support a variety of digital and in person engagement activity – in the Autumn term alone, we engaged 177 UG and PG students through seminars, not to mention individual readers, school groups and prospective open day students.

Earlier this year I did a #FacsimileFridays series on Instagram to shine a spotlight on what is often underprized and overlooked – for facsimiles are copies, not originals. However, they increase the circulation potential of unique items and thereby fulfil an important place in telling the history of the book. The knowledge I gleaned from many of these items also became pertinent to my teaching of a seminar on Chaucer this December for third year School of English students, in which we were considering very early manuscripts and print technology.

Produced between 1330-40, the Auchinleck manuscript gives an idea of reading practices pre-Chaucer: it consists principally of romances (think Arthuriana) along with other secular tales and religious pieces. Chaucer died in 1400, just before the advent of the printing press, and no copies of his works survive from his lifetime. The most famous of 15th-century manuscript versions of his work is undoubtedly the Ellesmere Chaucer, which became the authoritative example for organizing the Canterbury Tales. It’s written in the hand of a single scribe, and is incredibly grand both in its use of blank space and famous miniature illustrations of the Canterbury pilgrims. You may even be familiar with one of these, for its portrait of Chaucer is blown up on the side of the former Nasons building in the Canterbury high street! Now in the Huntington Library, our monochromatic facsimile still gives us access to the scale and content of the original. The first printing of the Canterbury Tales was William Caxton’s 1476 version, and the earliest printed version of Chaucer that we hold dates to 1598. With ‘Dorothy Smallwood’ inscribed on the title page, we know this copy once had female readership and it is also fascinating for its marginalia showing just how much its readers relied on a glossary to make sense of Chaucer’s language just 200 years after it was first circulated. William Caxton was also responsible for bringing Mallory’s Morte D’Arthur to an English audience, and we are really lucky to have a facsimile of this work because only one and a half of Caxton’s original version survive to date. Given the depth of the book, and the pressure reading puts on the spine, this is not surprising – original copies would literally have been read to pieces.

The Ellesmere Chaucer (F PD 1865 Classified sequence).

Le morte d’Arthur (Q PD 2040 Classified sequence).

From the history of books to the art of books, I have had several opportunities this year to appreciate the variety of forms books can take and really get to grips with the non-textual components of books which is crucial to special collections cataloguing. In cataloguing our Children’s Literature Collection, I had to give condition and provenance notes as well as a physical description of each book, noting such varied features as illustrated fly-leaves, dust jackets, fold-out maps, pages of publisher’s advertisements, volvelle frontispieces and pop-up engineering. Children’s books are a joy to handle because they are so self-conscious of being tactile interactive objects, and they have proved inspirational – alongside our artist books – when displayed at book-making workshops led by Dr Stella Bolaki at Discovery Planet, Ramsgate. It has been a particular privilege for me to accompany our collections to a different venue off campus and engage different audiences, notably children, and witness them transpose their awe for special collections into creative responses.

This year : next year (PZ 8.3 DEL Children’s Literature Collection).

Les grotesques : en quatre tableaux (PZ 8 Children’s Literature Collection).

Mandy (Special Collections and Archives Assistant)

Over this past year I have been digitalizing our Hector Breeze collection, they are very interesting to scan and the way that they have been drawn.

HB0005, Hector Breeze Collection.

HB0011, Hector Breeze Collection.

I have also been scanning our cartoons collection, to see how they have changed over the last few years is so interesting, changes in the government also.

Sam (Project Digitisation Administrator)

In my first year as an official member of the Special Collections team, I have been cataloguing and digitising the charmingly offbeat world of Lawrie Siggs (1900-1972), a cartoonist who worked for various publications (including Punch, John Bull and Lilliput) for 35 years.

Here are a few examples to set the tone.

Pinch Me, SIG0307.

No He Doesn’t Talk, SIG0319.

Jacqueline (Curation and Discovery Administrator)

The theatre designer Edward Gordon Craig described himself as “fond of print.” His designs for theatre stage sets and scenery surpassed possibility in his time and he turned to typography and woodcuts. I have spent this year with the collections of three men who can all be described as fond of print. Arnold Rood’s collection is centred around Gordon Craig and his circle. It includes Craig’s woodcuts in print. I began the year at the end of Carl Giles’ collection (the cartoonist Giles) where I found a set of Puffin Picture Books from the 1940s-50s, their design and illustrations redolent of a return to delight in books after austerity. After Rood, I’ve been cataloguing the periodicals in Jack Reading and Colin Rayner’s collection; they were thorough collectors who focussed on theatre and literature. Last week amongst odd issues I came across a complete set of The Masque, a small and pretty journal of 9 issues each one on a theme. Issue 5 is The Masque of Christmas, presenting dramatic JOYS of the season to you.

The Masque, Reading-Rayner Literature Collection.

Stu (Curation and Discovery Administrator)

Over 90 titles added to British Cartoon Archive Library this year. Most memorable was probably the stunning cold war era illustrations in, Drawing the curtain : the Cold War in cartoons / Althaus, Frank.

Also Daily Mirror reflections : being 100 cartoons (and a few more) culled from the pages of the Daily Mirror. [Vol. I] / Haselden, W. K. (William Kerridge), 1872-1953, formerly owned by prime minister Stanley Baldwin.

Quite moving and of current topical interest, A child in Palestine : the cartoons of Naji al-Ali / ʻAlī, Nājī.- This collection of drawings chronicles the Israeli occupation, the corruption of the regimes in the region, and the plight of the Palestinian people. The images have bold symbolism and starkness to them.

The bottle / Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878, – This is a really interesting little pamphlet promoting temperance through a cautionary tale of the downfall of a family brought about by the evils of drink. No publication date but probably late 19th century.

Matthias (Curation and Discovery Administrator)

I have been working on the Shirley Toulson Collection this year, a collection of over 400 poetry books from the estate of the late author and poet Shirley Toulson. Handling a writer’s private library felt very special and personal. The books, many of them rare editions by small presses, often had personal notes and handwritten dedications by the authors. Often I found postcards or letters inserted between the pages. My personal highlight was a handwritten, seemingly unpublished poem by Shirley Toulson I found inside a W.H. Auden poetry volume.

Collected shorter poems 1927-1957, PR 6001.U4 AUD Shirley Toulson Poetry Collection.

Our reading room will be closed from 16th December 2023 and will reopen 16th January 2024 – we hope you all have a very happy and peaceful break.

50/50 Exhibition – The 50 Selected Cartoons

The 50/50 Project: Celebrating 50 Years of the British Cartoon Archive

In October 2023 we launched our new co-curated exhibition highlighting 50 cartoons representing 50 years of the British Cartoon Archive. The cartoons were selected and researched by a fabulous team of volunteers and we are extremely grateful to them for their participation in this project. So thank you to Angel Robson, Dr Balasubramanyam Chandramohan, Cameron Matthews, Elizabeth Grimshaw, Hannah Robson, Irene Szmelter, Nadia Davies, and Peter McCullen! 

The full list of the selected cartoons can be found here in this blog – but do remember to come and see the exhibition in person between October 2023 and February 2024!

The 50 cartoons selected represent the vast breadth of artists, subjects and formats found in the British Cartoon Archive. Together they provide a fascinating introduction to the history of cartooning and tell the stories of political events and people discovered by the volunteers throughout their research.  

Themes that emerged in the volunteer research included the history of cartoons, the beginnings of satire, the space race, political events and crises, strikes, the commonwealth, and the cartoons of Carl Giles.

Introduction Panels – Cartoons selected by the British Cartoon Archive staff 

  1. “Cartoon No 1: Substance and Shadow”, Punch, Or, The London Charivari, 1843. Reference: Punch, 15th July 1843

    Cartoon titled Cartoon No 1 Substance and Shadow showing a scene in an art gallery where a group of poor and ragged children and adults are looking at the opulent artworks on the walls which show portraits of people in more wealthy clothing

    Substance and Shadow, Cartoon No. 1, Punch Magazine, 15th July 1843.

  2. Rendezvous, David Low, Evening Standard, 20 September 1939. Reference: LSE2692

 

Satirical Ceramics in Late Georgian Britain and beyond ;The Emergence of Satirical Print; Historians start to take cartoons seriously

The cartoons for this theme were selected and described by Irene Szmelter:

  1. Pink jug with transfer-prints, Doctor Syntax drawing after nature; Doctor Syntax Disputing his Bill with the Landlady, c.1914-1930s. Reference: Doctor Syntax collection, [uncatalogued]  
  2. Plate with transfer-print, Doctor Syntax reading his tour, c.1920-1980s. Reference: Doctor Syntax collection, [uncatalogued]
    Ceramic plate on a plate stand showing an image of Dr Syntax, a character created by Thomas Rowlandson as a satire of William Gilpin, who was a supporter of the Picturesque movement. In the image Dr Syntax is reading his book to others in a tavern and they look bored and even asleep.

    Plate with transfer-print, Doctor Syntax reading his tour, c.1920-1980s. Reference: Dr Syntax collection, [uncatalogued]

  3. William Combe, The tour of Doctor Syntax, in search of the picturesque : a poem (5th edition, London, 1813) Reference: Derek Schartau Collection PR 3359.C5 
  4. Steve Bell, Fashionable Contrasts in Washington D.C (after James Gillray), 2017 Reference: Steve Bell Digital Collection SBD1772 
  5. Richard T. Godfrey, James Gillray: the art of caricature (London, 2001) Reference: British Cartoon Archive Library LRG NC 1479.G5 GOD
  6. Martin Rowson, The Contrast 2018 (after Thomas Rowlandson), 2018. Reference: Martin Rowson Digital Collection MRD1228 
  7. Dorothy George, English political caricature, 1793-1832 : a study of opinion and propaganda, 1959. Reference: British Cartoon Archive Library, NC 1763.P66 M 
  8. McCreery, The satirical gaze: prints of women in late eighteenth- century England, 2004. Reference: British Cartoon Archive Library NE962.W65

Strikes!

The cartoons for this theme were selected and described by Angel Robson:

Cartoon showing the door to Number 10, being opened by Boris Johnson holding an umbrella, with buckets of excrement balanced on the top and about to come down on his head. The buckets are labelled 'Inequality', 'Education' and 'NHS'. Keir Starmer is shown hiding just beyond the opening door and is pulling his mask down.

13: “Come on Everyone! Lockdown’s over and everything’s brilliant!” Martin Rowson Digital Collection, MRD 1634, Daily Mirror, 5th April 2021.

  1. Sidney Strube, – And we’re on our way, Daily Express, Undated. Reference: Sidney ‘George’ Strube Collection, Beaverbrook Foundation GS0070 
  2. Jonathon Pugh, “It’s not another eclipse. They’re our rubbish bags”, Daily Mail, 05 September 2017. Reference: Cuttings Collection 106199 
  3. Martin Rowson, [Lockdown’s over and everything’s brilliant], Daily Mirror, 05 April 2021. Reference: Martin Rowson Digital Collection MRD1634 
  4. Peter Brookes, Hoot if You Support Junior Doctors, The Times, 02 September 2016. Reference: Cuttings Collection 104446 
  5. Martin Rowson, [Boris tramples over workers], Daily Mirror, 08 March 2021. Reference: Martin Rowson Digital Collection MRD1622 
  6. Michael Cummings, “It’s the Silly Season and the Loch N.U.M. Monster arrives, as usual, on time!”, Sunday Express, 06 September 1987. Reference: Michael Cummings Collection, Beaverbrook Foundation CU1813 
  7. Deep Digs! Cartoons of the Miners’ Strike, (London, 1985). Reference: British Cartoon Archive Library NC 1763.S87 

 

Censorship and Saucy Postcards

The cartoons for this theme were selected and described by Nadia Davies: 

Typed card with a postcard stapled to it. The postcard shows a man with a large protruding stomach looking out across a beach. There is a lighthouse in the distance. There is a sandcastle on the sand in front of him, and a small boy ('Willy') sitting in a hole digging in the sand at his feet. He cannot see him over his stomach.

Postcard designed by Bob Wilkin, I wish I could see my little willy?, D E & S Ltd.

Typed card titled 'Proceedings' with hand written entries for several rows and columns. Reads - No 1 Date 3.12.52. Court Rhyl. Defendant 5. Result OD. DPP Ref 3290/52; No 2 Date 27.10.54. Court Margate. Defendant 5. Result OD. DPP Ref 3795/53; No 3 Date 27.4.54. Court Margate QS. Defendant 5. Result OD. DPP Ref 456/54; No 4 Date 15.11.57. Court Southwell. Defendant 5. Result NO. DPP Ref 3409/57.

Typed Card from the Crown Prosecution Service recording the prosecutions for obscene postcards that took place for the card on the reverse – I wish I could see my little willy. Prosecutions took place in Rhyl, Margate and Southwell.

  1. Donald McGill, A stick of rock, cock?, Constance Ltd, Undated. Reference: Crown Prosecution Service Collection CP/0363 
  2. What rosy cheeks you have my dear, Leslie Lester Ltd, Undated. Reference: Crown Prosecution Service Collection CP/0649 
  3. Have you got two big bouncy balls please?, Leslie Lester Ltd, Undated. Reference: Crown Prosecution Service Collection CP/0700 
  4. Bob Wilkin, I wish I could see my little willy?, E & S Ltd, Undated. Reference: Crown Prosecution Service Collection CP/0438  
  5. Dave Brown, Has anyone seen my little willy?, The Independent, 05 Oct 1999. Reference: Cuttings Collection 52292 

Political Events and Crises

The cartoons for this theme were selected and described by Hannah Robson: 

  1. Brian Adcock, “So you know the so-called “Special Relationship,” well you are gonna love this!”, The Independent, 6 November 2017. Reference: Brian Adcock Digital Collection BAD0485 
  2. Victor Weisz, “McCarthy is dead! Long live McCarthyism!”, Daily Mirror, 7 May 1957. Reference: Vicky [Victor Weisz] Collection, Beaverbrook Foundation VY0890 
  3. Michael Cummings, [no caption], Daily Express, 14 November 1986. Reference: Cuttings Collection 44500 
  4. Christian Adams, Signed in Blood, Daily Telegraph, 19 October 2015. Reference: Cuttings Collection 103278 
  5. Carl Giles, Daily Express Christmas card, c.1947. Reference: Carl Giles Trust Collection CG/1/4/1/4/1 (GAC0098) 
Cartoon for a Christmas Card - of a newspaper seller, sitting near a London bus stop looking serious and downcast, with signs propped against a wall showing the headlines of the newspapers including: Evening Atom bomb latest Sunday Complete list of wars Daily Crime waves everywhere Sunday Taxes may be double Daily H bomb on the way Daily Merry Xmas to all our readers

Carl Giles, Daily Express Christmas card, c.1947. Reference – Carl Giles Trust Collection – CG/1/4/1/4/1 (GAC0098)

 

Viewing both England and the University of Kent through an Irish lens

The cartoons for this theme were selected and described by Peter McCullen: 

  1. Martin Rowson, Backwards, The Guardian, 25 May 2015. Reference: Martin Rowson Digital Collection MRD0654 
  2. Ben Jennings, [no caption], Independent, 01 March 2014. Reference: Ben Jennings Digital Collection BJD0121 
  3. Ben Jennings, [no caption], Independent, 01 March 2014. Reference: Ben Jennings Digital Collection BJD0200 
  4. Carl Giles, “Talking of cheque book journalism, do you think the editor would object to us taking that cab?”, Daily Express, 07 May 1981. Reference: Carl Giles Trust Collection CG/1/1/1/3002 (GA4259)  
  5. Carl Giles, [no caption], Daily Express, 11 November 1958. Reference: Carl Giles Trust Collection CG/1/1/1/3824 (GA5503) 
  6. Wally Fawkes, [no caption], Observer, 14 June 1987. Reference: Cuttings Collection 42646 
  7. Tove Jansson, Moomin and Snorkmaiden, Undated. Reference: Tove Jansson Collection TV0002 (Uncatalogued) 
Drawing of two moomins by Tove Janssen. Moomintroll is standing wearing a neck tie with moomins on it, facing Snorkmaiden who is looking and pointing at the tie.

Tove Jansson, Moomin and Snorkmaiden, Undated. Reference: Tove Jansson Collection TV0002 (Uncatalogued)

 

The Space Race 

The cartoons for this theme were selected and described by Elizabeth Grimshaw 

28. Michael Cummings, Increase of Fares Between London – Mars –Venus – Moon, Daily Express, 27 Jan 1953. Reference: Cummings Collection CU0522

36. Scott Clissold, “Got a spare ticket for the new Star Wars movie, mate?!”, Daily Star, 16 December 2015. Reference: Scott Clissold Digital Collection CLD0549

Colour cartoon of two aliens in a space ship talking to an astronaut on a space walk outside the International Space Station. One of the aliens speaks to the astronaut and says 'Got a spare ticket for the new Star Wars Movie, Mate?!' The astronaut looks confused.

Scott Clissold, “Got a spare ticket for the new Star Wars movie, mate?!”, Daily Star, 16 December 2015. Reference: Scott Clissold Digital Collection CLD0549

37. Osbert Lancaster, “Just think, Gretchen! Halfway to the moon! One day, perhaps, science will be able to tell us how to reach West Berlin!”, Daily Express, 14 Aug 1962. Reference: Cuttings Collection 02019

38. Carl Giles, “Be funny if the Moon Men thought she was an Earth Man and made her their ruler”, Daily Express, 05 Nov 1957. Reference: Carl Giles Trust collection CG/1/4/1/3/12/3 (GAA121419) 

The Commonwealth

The cartoons for this theme were selected and described by Dr Balasubramanyam Chandramohan:

  1. Margaret Belsky, “After all why shouldn’t the Queen protest – I expect she gets fed up with the rest of the Commonwealth criticising Britain all the time”, The Sun, 08 January 1969. Reference: Cuttings Collection 14577 
  2. Jak [Raymond Jackson], “Je demande que la Grande Bretagne soit chassee du Commonwealth si elle vend des armes a l’Afrique du sud”, Evening Standard, 20 October 1970. Reference: Cuttings Collection 18825 
  3. Michael Cummings , “Really, Mr. Stewart, it might come as a merciful release if Britain could be expelled from the Commonwealth”, Daily Express, 25 June 1965. Reference: Cuttings Collection 07292 
  4. Carl Giles, “And Rajah – be a good chap and control those long rumbling tummy noises during the Commonwealth speeches.”, Daily Express, 24 November 1983. Reference: Carl Giles Trust Collection CG/1/1/1/3239 (GA4603) 
  5. Will Dyson, Our big brother and the little strangers, Daily Herald, Undated. Reference: Will Dyson Collection WD0597 

Will Dyson, Our big brother and the little strangers, Daily Herald, Undated. Reference: Will Dyson Collection WD0597

Ronald ‘Carl’ Giles

The cartoons for this theme were selected and described by Cam Matthews: 

44. Carl Ronald Giles, “An appeal has been made for every nurse to be off duty during the inquiry into the Nurses v. Hospital Authorities dispute in Guernsey.” Daily Express, 16th July 1957. Reference: Carl Giles Trust Collection CG/1/1/1/973 (GA1328) 

45. Carl Ronald Giles, “We’ve been thinking about your parrot, Grandma. Supposing we can’t get a turkey for Christmas…” Daily Express, 25th November 1947. Reference: Carl Giles Trust Collection CG/1/1/1/3787 (GA5454) 

46. Grandma Giles doll made by Dorothy Read, Undated. Reference: Carl Giles Trust Collection CG/5/3/39 (GAX00058)  

Image of a doll of the character Grandma created by Carl Giles. Grandma is wearing a black hat with a blue trim, and a black dress. She carries a black handbag with a clasp, and an umbrella with a duck head handle, and is also wearing a brown fur stole.

Grandma Giles doll made by Dorothy Read, Undated. Reference: Carl Giles Trust Collection CG/5/3/39 (GAX00058)

47. Carl Ronald Giles, “I’m jotting down a list of all the ones who aren’t laughing their heads off.” Daily Express, 17th February 1987. Reference: Carl Giles Trust Collection CG/1/1/1/3532 (GA5027) 

48. Police Helmet, Undated. Reference: Carl Giles Trust Collection CG/4/1/45 (GAX00085) 

49. Ink, paint and paintbrushes from Giles’ studio, Undated. Reference: Carl Giles Trust Collection (uncatalogued) 

50. Carl Ronald Giles, “Well, well, well, well, well! Man have they got your number!” Sunday Express, 1st March 1970. Reference: Carl Giles Trust Collection CG/1/1/2/802 (GA2779) 

Zines Zines Zines! New exhibition in the Templeman Gallery

Title of exhibition - Zines Zines Zines - written in a DIY ransom note font

Come and see our new exhibition in the Templeman Gallery about the history and development of zines, and featuring zines from the Queer Zine Library – which will be up throughout September 2023.

What are zines?

Zines are do-it-yourself publications – often in the form of photocopied booklets. They are either unique items or have a limited number of copies in circulation. They are cheap to make, require no particular skills to create, and have hugely varied content including art, poetry, cartoons, collage, interviews and commentary. The history of zines is rooted in radical political self-publishing and provide an opportunity for expression of views and perspectives outside of the mainstream press.

What is in the exhibition?

View of an exhibition case with two information boards to the left. The exhibition case contains a range of zines and small press publications with captions alongside.

Display of zines and small press publications from Special Collections and Archives that highlight the history of zine making and self publishing.

The exhibition features examples of zines and small press printing selected from across our collections in Special Collections and Archives – including from the British Stand-Up Comedy Archive, the Modern Firsts poetry collection, examples from our artists’ books collection, and our new zine archive donated and collated by Dan Thompson.

These zines provide examples from across the history of zine making from early 18th century pamphlets (such as ‘Common Sense’ by Thomas Paine) to Beat Poetry in the mid 20th century to zines created by comedian Josie Long in her Kindness and Exuberance tour in the 2000s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are also delighted to host a selection of zines from the Queer Zine Library – a mobile DIY library celebrating radical LGBTQIA+ zines and selfpublishing. With huge thanks to Holly Callaghan, one of our amazing Divisional Liaison Librarians, who organised the loan of the material from the Queer Zine Library and provided the captions about each item on display.

And finally, we are also delighted to feature some beautiful and moving examples of artists’ books created by participants in the Open Book project, a book-making project organised by the Canterbury Festival offered to those living with dementia to express their experiences both visually and through text. With thanks to Amanda Sefton Hogg at the Canterbury Festival for providing these examples from the project to include in the exhibition.

Get a Free Zine and Make Your Own!

You can pick up a free info-zine about the exhibition, and even have a go at making a zine yourself at the making station. We can’t wait to see your creations! You can share a picture with us by emailing specialcollections@kent.ac.uk.

Image showing table in the exhibition space with three piles of free info-zines for people to take away, some paper and pens for people to make their own zine, and an information board about zines at the University of Kent

The making station in the Templeman Gallery exhibition space where you can make your own zine

Small black and white zine, standing up with the front cover visible showing the text "Zines Zines Zines! Templeman gallery A Block 1st Floor. Aug/Sept 2023. An exhibition about the history and development of zines! Featuring items from Special Collections and Archives AND the Queer Zine Library!" In the background of the image in soft focus are other copies of the zine displayed on the table.

Free info-zine about the exhibition. Come along and take one.

 

Cartooning Covid-19 – call for volunteer participants

About the project 

Nicholas Newman, The Sunday Times, 01 Mar 2020. ©
Nick Newman (ref: 109242)

‘Cartooning Covid-19’ will be a 10-week volunteering project which aims to make available cartoons published in national papers during the Covid 19 pandemic between March and December 2020. Through cataloguing these cartoons, we ensure that this important period in recent history is captured in the cartoon catalogue of the British Cartoon Archive for use in learning, teaching and research.

The British Cartoon Archive collects the cartoons published each week in national newspapers (The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Guardian and The Independent). This encapsulates work by artists such as Bob Moran, Nicholas Newman, Peter Schrank, Morten Morland, Peter Brookes and more. 

 

To participate in this project please email cartoons@kent.ac.uk. 

Practicalities 

The project will be carried out using a hybrid model of in-person group sessions and remote virtual cataloguing. However, this opportunity is open to all, so if you do not live locally to Canterbury, you are welcome to join as a fully remote participant. Similarly, if you would prefer to participate in person only, that’s ok too. 

Volunteers will be provided with full training as part of the project, including sessions from the archive team about the BCA and the work they carry out to preserve it and make it available, and they will be given access to library resources where possible, such as newspaper archives and both physical and digital cartoon collections. 

Volunteers will be given a set of cartoons published between March and December 2020, which they will be asked to catalogue by listing details about the cartoons into a spreadsheet with supervision from the Special Collections and Archives team. At the end of the project the resulting spreadsheets of data will be uploaded to the British Cartoon Archive catalogue alongside digital cartoon copies, making these resources available to the public.  

Special Collections and Archives will provide refreshments at in-person events (lunch will not be provided). 

Michael Heath, The Mail on sunday, 05 April 2020. ©Associated Newspapers Ltd. (ref: 109333)

Schedule 

  • In-person sessions will be held fortnightly on Tuesdays from 3rd October through to 5th December 2023 (10 weeks). Sessions will run from 10:30-16:00 with an hour break for lunch. For online only participants, you would be invited to attend the welcome day sessions virtually on Tuesday October 3rd, after which you will be provided with digital copies to describe and catalogue. 
  • Optional online drop-in sessions will be scheduled virtually (via Microsoft Teams) for one hour every other week from Thursday 12th October. These sessions will enable Special Collections and Archives to provide virtual support for volunteers between in-person sessions, while also providing an opportunity for socialising and peer support. 
  • Volunteers are encouraged to participate remotely between in-person sessions. Resources will be made available online through Google Drive.   

Requirements 

There are no specific prerequisites for participating volunteers, however this project will likely suit those with an interest in political satire, art and graphic design, UK politics, or those wishing to learn more about archives.  

Volunteers should be comfortable with using websites and online catalogues, and in using spreadsheets. 

A laptop will be needed for participation during in-person sessions.  These can be supplied by Special Collections and Archives on request, but numbers are very limited so please indicate in advance if this is required. Volunteers are encouraged to provide their own devices where available.  

For remote participation, volunteers will need to have their own laptop or personal computer with internet connection, as well as access to a Google account.  

To participate in this project please email cartoons@kent.ac.uk. 

Morten Morland, The Times 27 April 2020. ©News UK (ref: 109373)

The 50/50 Project: Celebrating 50 Years of the British Cartoon Archive

Help us to select 50 cartoons representing 50 years of the British Cartoon Archive!

We are looking for volunteers to participate in a project to explore and select 50 cartoons from across the British Cartoon Archive collections to feature in an exhibition in the Templeman Gallery. The project will take place on Mondays, 11am-4pm, throughout June 2023.  The exhibition will be on display from September to November 2023.

This is an opportunity to get hands-on with our cartoon collections and be involved with our celebration activities for the 50th anniversary of the British Cartoon Archive. Volunteers will receive a tour of the collections, training in searching our catalogues and writing captions, and an opportunity to gain experience in selecting material and curating an exhibition. Remote participation is also available.

Get in touch with us for more information or to volunteer to take part. We would love to hear from you: specialcollections@kent.ac.uk

And now – enjoy a selection of cartoons from the British Cartoon Archive marking other 50th anniversaries!

Black and white cartoon of a mug with a royal crest and a central depiction of Queen Elizabeth II jumping on a bouncy castle with a corgi with a label above reading Children's Tea Party

Cartoon marking the 50th Anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II – Patrick Blower, “50th Anniversary Mug”, Evening Standard, 2nd June 2013. (Reference: British Cartoon Archive, Cuttings, 65815)

Black and white cartoon of a residential street with park gates, with Grandma, Vera, George Junior, Stinker and the twins (members of the Giles Family) standing on the pavement. George Junior is chaining Grandma's foot to the railings while she looks the other way.

“Fifty Years Ago…”- Giles cartoon featuring Grandma and Vera from the Giles Family, showing George Junior and Stinker chaining Grandma to the park gates as a prank. A poster held by one of the children notes the 50th Anniversary of Votes for Women. Ronald Carl Giles, Daily Express, 6th February 1968. (Reference: GAN1736)

Black and white cartoon titled Happy 50th Birthday Ikea..., showing a man drinking a glass of Moet champagne at Ikea HQ and another man reading instructions for how to drink: 1. Hold glass firmly in hand, 2. Empty Contents into mouth, 3. Swallow...

“Happy 50th Birthday Ikea” – Cartoon marking the 50th Birthday of Ikea in 2006. Neil Kerber and David Black, Daily Mirror, 30th June 2006. (Reference: British Cartoon Archive, Cuttings, 87975)

Black and white cartoon showing a poster on a wall reading Dr Who 50th Anniversary and a Dalek on a stair lift

“Dr Who 50th Anniversary” – Cartoon marking the 50th Anniversary of Dr Who in 2013. Matt [Matthew Pritchard], Sunday Telegraph, 24th November 2013. (Reference: British Cartoon Archive, Cuttings, 99878)

Colour cartoon showing Queen Elizabeth II drinking a glass of champagne with a man, below a poster reading "Blue Peter 50th Birthday Party". The Queen says "Who invited the elephant" and is depicted standing in a pile of elephant dung, next to one of her Corgis.

“Who invited the elephant?” – Cartoon marking the 50th Birthday of Blue Peter in 2008, depicting Queen Elizabeth II. Nicholas Newman, Sunday Times, 19th October 2008. (Reference: British Cartoon Archive, Cuttings, 90501)