• Home
  • Archive: "Victorian and Edwardian Literature" Category

Archive: "Victorian and Edwardian Literature" Category

Anne Brontë’s Bicentennial

January 17, 2020 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of poet and novelist Anne Brontë. Anne, the youngest child in the Brontë family, was particularly close to her sister Emily, who was two years older. Anne was too young to attend the Cowan Bridge school where the eldest Brontë girls died (immortalized as Lowood …

Read More →

The World of George Eliot

Special Collections is featuring the work of eminent Victorian novelist George Eliot (Marian/Mary Anne Evans) in a small case exhibit celebrating the 200th anniversary of her birth on Nov. 22, 1819. “The World of George Eliot” showcases first editions of her major novels, like Middlemarch, Silas Marner, and The Mill on the Floss. The exhibit …

Read More →

Beautiful bindings: the vellucent binding

In the 1890s, English bookbinder Cedric Chivers (1853-1929) introduced a new book decoration process which he called the “vellucent” binding. First, an artist would create a painting on a very thin medium. The design might include mother-of-pearl inlays, gold leaf, or other decoration. It would then be overlaid with a specially-treated sheet of vellum — …

Read More →

Historic Clothing and Classic Literature

If you’re a fan of 19th and early 20th century literature, you won’t want to miss Special Collections’ newest reading room exhibit! “A Century of Style: Historic Clothing and Classic Literature” pairs rare editions from the The L. Tom Perry Special Collections with original pieces from BYU’s Historic Clothing Collection, which is now housed in …

Read More →

Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria

Today marks the 200th anniversary of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria. Albert was the younger son of Ernest, ruler of the German state of Saxe-Coberg-Gotha; Victoria was his first cousin. They married in 1840. As a foreigner, Albert was initially viewed with suspicion by the British public as well …

Read More →

New acquisitions: Printing proofs for the Kelmscott Chaucer

Special Collections recently acquired five printing proofs of wood engravings from William Morris’ masterpiece, the 1896 Works of Chaucer. The illustrations were designed by Victorian artist Edward Burne-Jones, and then would have been transferred to blocks of wood by Robert Catterson-Smith and then engraved by William Harcourt Hopper. These proofs would have been created as …

Read More →

Gifts from Queen Victoria

Friday, May 24, 2019 marks the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria. The Victorian Collection here at L. Tom Perry Special Collections contains a wealth of material about the Queen and her life, as well as a number of documents signed and written by Victoria herself. In honor of her birthday, we’re sharing a gallery of …

Read More →

Art Nouveau Bindings for National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month, and to celebrate, we’ve created a gallery of some rather gorgeous poetry books. The bookbindings shown here were all designed in the art nouveau style, and published between 1880 and 1910. Art nouveau features long, flowing lines, inspired by organic forms. It was popular in decorative arts of the late Victorian …

Read More →

Queen Victoria’s Coronation

Victoria’s coronation on June 28, 1838 was a grand occasion. Spectators from all over the country flocked to London to see the huge coronation procession as the young queen was carried in a gilded coach from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey. The ceremony itself was a five-hour affair marked by several mishaps: the Archbishop of …

Read More →

John Ruskin

February 8 marked the 200th anniversary of the cultural critic and social reformer John Ruskin. Ruskin found early fame as an art critic, and his writings influenced the tastes of generations of Victorians. He championed J. M. W. Turner, the pre-Raphaelite painters, and the 19th century revival of Renaissance and pre-Renaissance art, as well as …

Read More →

Recent Posts

Archives