Tag Archives: Research

Exhibitions looming

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The final preparations are now under way for the British Theatre 1860-1940 Exhibition, which will open to the public on Wednesday 15th December.

The reading room and office have been tidied up, cleaning is underway and three sets of empty boards are looming over three remarkably clear tables. We have six sheets of (almost) identically cut cotton waiting to throw over each group’s work (in the interest of fairness), which will be covered until the grand unveiling. Cushions, books rests, snake weights and Secol covers are neatly stacked, awaiting the formation of three different exhibits created by the eighteen students of the British Theatre module.

The exhbits will be titled

  • The changing representation of women 1860-1910
  • The reasons for the popularity of Music Hall
  • The ways in which theatre troubled class relations

Each group of six students has gone through a process of exploring the sources available in Special Collections, researching topics which interest them and selecting sources to support the arguments they make in the course of their exhibit.

While staff have been on hand to offer advice on the use of collections and on the topics, the work is the students’ own and will draw on their theatrical experiences to inform current academic debates. We are looking forward to experiencing the work which these talented students produce and hope that you will be able to share in it.

If you can’t get to the exhibition, opening times below, each group will produce a website to support their exhibit, which will include digital images of the sources they used. We hope, in the near future, to be able to link these websites to the Special Collections website in order to make this work accessible to everyone.

Exhibition Opening Times

Opens: Wednesday 15th December

Daily opening: 9.30-1pm & 2-4.30pm Monday-Friday (normal reading room opening times)

Closures: 12-3pm Tuesday 21st December
23 December-3rd January (Library closure for vacation)

Closes: 7th January

If in doubt, please phone ahead of your visit on 01227 827609

Dastardly bankers and financial panics

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Despising bankers and panic over financial crises are no new phenomenons: Dion Boucicault’s The Poor of New York (later renamed The Streets of London), written in collaboration with three journalists, was a popular success in 1857. Focusing on two periods financial panic, 1837 and 1857, the plot is set in motion by the actions of the villain Bloodgood, a banker, who absconds with his bank’s cash just before it goes bankrupt. One of the latest investors, Captain Fairweather, leaves an impoverished family who are driven further into penury as a result of Bloodgood, who, as a wealthy landlord, demands high rents from the Fairweather family and their friends.

Boucicault himself suffered from poor finances for most of his life, but as a result of overspending, rather than extortion. He was involved in several cases regarding plagiarism; The Poor of New York was closely based on Les Pauvres de Paris by Edouard-Louis-Alexandre Brisbarre and Eugene Nus. Ironically, Boucicault’s version was written in response to his desperate need for money after the birth of Eve, Dion and Agnes Boucicault’s second child.

Streets of London Quadrille

Streets of London sheet music title page

Although initially written for and performed in America, the play was a hit elsewhere, with the name of the production changing to suit the place of its performance. The Poor of Liverpool, for example, was performed in 1864 and versions of The Streets of Dublin performed as recently as 1995. Despite the critics’ derision and Boucicault’s own admission that the play was ‘guano’, the enduring popularity of the play suggests that the trials of financial panics and the actions of bankers have long been a subject to draw the crowds.

For more information on this or any of Boucicault’s plays, have a look at the Special Collections website, where there are lists of characters, plot summaries and lists of productions of some of Boucicault’s better known productions. Archives Hub now also includes full descriptions of the two Boucicault Collections.

If you would like to view any items from the collection, please email specialcollections@kent.ac.uk to make an appointment.

With many thanks to Angela Groth-Seary for the excellent website, and to Mrs Sue Crabtree, for her research.

1:17pm on 17th October 1940

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1.17pm on Monday 18th October 2010 marks the 70th anniversary of the bombing of the Deanery at Canterbury Cathedral, while Hewlett Johnson and his guests were at lunch. In his autobiography, Searching for Light, Johnson recalls the ‘sound of a bomb descending directly above us’, which gave enough warning for them all to take cover in the vaulted pantry. Johnson wrote:

‘There was a terrific crash, the walls rocked like a ship in a rough sea and settled again’

All of the occupants of the Deanery were unhurt, and the cook, Mrs. County, even rescued the pudding which had been left in the oven.

Interior photograph of the Deanery after bomb damage, 1940

Bomb damage to the interior of the Deanery

While Hewlett’s recollection is tinged with humour, Nowell’s letter, dated the 19th October 1940, is saddened by the damage to ‘the poor old Deanery.’ Her letter of 27th October, partially written whilst listening to Myra Hess on the wireless, recalls the Deanery:

Our lovely lovely old Drawing room, the evening light, the soft drawn curtains, the lovely colours, all the exquisite beauty of it. And I can hardly believe it has gone.’

Despite this early damage to the Precincts, the Cathedral building itself was undamaged throughout the war, although the city of Canterbury sustained significant damage. Hewlett Johnson’s precautions of having the stained glass removed from the Cathedral, and a thick layer of earth over the quire to protect the crypt beneath, helped to keep the building fabric from harm. Of the Deanery, with all of its windows blown out,  Hewlett recalled ‘the winter gales and dust and dirt from the rubble blew through the shattered house for month after month’, but he remained in Canterbury throughout the war years.

Latest news

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Well, having promised updates I’m afraid I got carried away with the work. Transcription is never more exciting than when you realise that the ink was drying at a time when Henry VI’s uncles were getting their infant nephew the crown of France, or just a month after Oliver Cromwell had been confirmed Lord Protector in 1657 (three years before the monarchy was restored, in 1660).

However, my transcription of these indentures is now finished, and it only remains to translate and check out the background of the people and places involved. This could be a lengthy process, and will hopefully involve people far more expert than myself, but I hope to be able to share the information we gather through the blog.

Your Canterbury‘s Florence Tennent broke the news this week; her article can be found on page 5 of this week’s issue.

A slight correction is needed to the last post – although we thought that Charles Dickens was writing to Sir Charles Darley, further investigation (and the eagle eyes of Angela Groth-Seary) suggests that the gentleman in question was Sir Charles Pasley. There is a substantial amount of Pasley-Dickens correspondence extant, and the signed note we discovered would tie in to the exchanges between them during 1855, while Dickens was resident at Tavistock House. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, after 1855, Pasley devoted much of his time to re-editing his published works. This may offer a clue to ‘the enclosed’, the subject of the note, which Dickens ‘read…with much pleasure’ but which has been seperated from this note and is now almost impossible to identify.

While the vast majority of these items appear to be of small significance in political or national terms, it appears that there is still plenty to learn from them about life in Kent and Essex over the last 600 years.

This time, updates will follow!

Breaking news…

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It’s not often I get the chance to be up-to-the-minute with Special Collections news, but this last week has seen a very exciting development.

As part of his process of ‘rationalising’ the assorted collections which the newly created Specialist Collections and Academic Archives is responsible for, Steve Holland has been investigating various donations stored in the basement of the Templeman. On Thursday 19th, he made a very exciting discovery in part of the Baldwin collection. A box marked ‘original deeds’ turned out to contain some very original deeds: fifteen indentures, the earliest from 1425, the third regnal year of Henry VI.

Thorough investigation is still underway, but so far we have encountered some documents on paper and others on parchment, some in English and some in Latin (at least one item in both) and some with seals, or parts of seals, still intact. The most impressive in terms of seals is one indenture from the reign of William and Mary, which appears to be the latest of the selection, which has 5 seals attached to the document by parchment tags.

The majority of these indentures appear to be from the Elizabethan period, although so far we have identified one indenture from the reign of Henry VI, one from the reign of Henry VII, one from the reign of Henry VIII, one from the Commonwealth and one from the reign of Charles II. I am still in the process of transcribing and translating (where necessary) these documents, but the majority thus far (including a large indenture dated to 1657) have concerned the transfer of land in Kent. The Baldwin Collection focusses upon local history, so it makes sense that he gathered these documents relating to medieval and early modern Kent.

Also included in this unassuming box were two more recent correspondences. One is from King William IV, signed William R and dated 1825; the other a short note apparently from Charles Dickens to Sir Charles Darley[?], dated 1855. These will also be investigated further.

I will post further updates as they emerge; for the moment, the transcription, identification and appropriate storage of these materials is our priority.

As a taster, here’s one of the more legible documents, in English.

It reads:

Be yt knowne unto all men by theise p[re]sent[es], that we S[ir] Thom[a]s Fane
knight [and] Will[ia]m Lambeard in the country of kent Esq[uires] for avoiding
of all ambiguities doubt[es] or controversies that may hearafter aryse
of one Franncis Shakerley in the p[ar]ishe of Dytton and in the
county of kent gent[leman], that he is at the date hearof in good health
and p[er]fect memory: Wherunto we the fore sayde S[ir] Thomas Fane
knight and Will[ia]m Lambeard in the foresaid county have sett
to our handes to vereafy the truthe thereof : the vth Day of Novemb[er]:
In the yere of our lord. Anno Dom[ini] : 1588.

Tho[mas] Fane Sen[io]r
William Lambarde