I have recently been making the most of my time by using the very popular library edition of Ancestry, as a library member, via the RBKC libraries website. In Ancestry, censuses from different years are widely used as a tool for researching a particular address or person. It’s possible to find out more about how they lived, who they lived with, names, ages, occupations and so on. It’s a great resource if you are interested in your family history, or even the history of the house you live in. Continue reading “Census from Punch Historical Archive”→
Looking for some political predictions from phrenologists? How about Victorian era investment advice? If you’re after some scathing commentary on 19th and 20th century society, look no further than the Punch Historical Archive! One hundred and fifty-one years of this legendary satirical magazine have been completely digitised and are now available at your fingertips!
Furniss, Harry. “An Undoubted Old Master.” Punch Historical Archive [London, England] 14 Jan. 1882: 14. Punch Historical Archive. Web.Spanning from the very first issue in 1841, all the way until the final issue in 1992, the database contains full colour scans of every issue.
“Public Affairs on Phrenological Principles.” Punch Historical Archive [London, England] 14 Aug. 1841: 57. Punch Historical Archive. Web.In addition to providing a comprehensive archive, the database also offers a collection of fascinating essays from leading scholars. For example, Dr Annie Grey has analysed the representations of food in Punch, while Professor Brian Maidment investigates early Victorian comics. Of particular interest may be Dr Mike Benbough-Jackson’s article exploring how Punch handled humour during the First World War.
Hello from us all at Kensington Central Library! Our blog post this month has a pieces from our lending and reference libraries which perfectly illustrates we have something for everyone.
A wizard and ghosts in the children’s library!
As the school holidays are in full swing we’ve had some amazing events for kids in our children’s library to support this year’s Summer Reading Challenge.
Mr Wiz the Wizard came to see us last week – he needed help building his creepy house in the children’s library. He had plenty of dinosaur eggs (Haribo eggs thankfully!) and balloon animals which he gave out to the children that helped him. The children had a great time as they also had the chance to spin plates, burst bubbles and sing songs.
We’ve been having a story and craft session every Thursday afternoon at 2pm since the start of the summer holidays. We’ve been reading some scary stories and creating some scary things which the children have loved. Last Thursday the children made ghosts by drawing round their hands and spiders from fingerprints. They also came up with some great names for their spiders – Vegeta and Ushar being two of them!
We’ve another story and craft session this Thursday (15 August) & we’ll be making witches – bring the kids along!
Jodie Green
Jodie Green
Lending Librarian
Headlines and back issues
Newspapers
Did you know that we keep a range of current newspapers and magazines in our libraries? We also have a treasure trove in our historical and special collections of back issues of not only current titles but also newspapers and magazines that have long since gone out of print.
Magazines
Our most popular titles include:
Illustrated London News – going back to 1842
Microfiche of The Times – 1785 – 1997
Punch – going back to 1841
Harpers Bazaar – going back to 1950
Vanity Fair – going back to 1956
Vogue – going back to 1923
A full list of all the newspapers and magazines that we have and how far back we keep them can be found on our ‘Reference and information and special collections’ web page. If you want to check we have issue – do phone us on 020 7361 3010 so we can confirm that the newspaper or magazine you need is available.
Current issues of young adult magazines
Back issues of young adult magazines
Did you know we have newspapers and magazines for children and young adults too? We have reorganised the young adult magazines in the young adult library at Kensington Central Library so that the current issues are in some sturdy green folders and the back issues are now kept in box files on the shelves just behind where the current issues are. They now look a lot tidier and more importantly are more accessible.
We have a fantastic costume collection at Chelsea Reference Library and Gillian Nunns, one of our Triborough Reference Librarians has been taking a look….
I was very interested to read our Local Studies Librarian’s post about the seemingly bizarre story of crinolines, which had me looking through our costume collection in search of stories of undergarments and their place in history and fashion.
As the crinoline fashion gradually subsided in the early half of the 1860s, the Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine reported as early as 1860 that
‘The iron reign of the “Crinoline” is undoubtedly, but gradually, coming to and end.’
And as it did so skirts morphed into into a narrower skirt but with a bustle at the back. Here is an illustration from Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine, October 1869.
Illustration from ‘Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine’ October 1869
Which of course required different support. This became known as the ‘tournure”, involving different kinds of heavy support for each layer – steel, horsehair and whalebone were used, for example. Here are some images that we found on a page of The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine also from 1869.
Panier tournure from ‘Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine’ 1869Horsehair tournure from ‘Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine’ 1869Petticoat worn over a tonure from ‘Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine’ 1869Crinoline from ‘Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine’ 1869
The last is a sort of cinoline, but altered to emphasise the new bustle fashion, allowing for a straight front of the skirt with a big bustle at the back.
We can always count on Punch to satirise such trends in fashion. The first appearance of a crinoline in Punch is in 1856, and the fashion is described as “Crinolineomania”.
Crinoline cartoon in Punch, 1856
And another from the same year.
Another crinoline cartoon in Punch, 1856
In 1857 Dr. Punch considers of the crinoline that
‘If he were called upon to fix the spot precisely where the malady broke out, without hesitation he would point to Paris’.
Although I doubt that Dr Punch would have done, considering the amount of fun that the crinoline afforded him. And in fact, I found out that many undergarment fashions might have been lost to history completely if it were not for publications that satirized them.
The crinoline is described in Punch as a “depopulating influence[…]”
“The mode now prevailing is one of such extravagance that it is continually demanding fresh sacrifices, and ladies have to choose between a fine dress and a family, for no income but a Rothchild’s can provide for both.”
As I read more and found about later and earlier eras in fashion, I was interested in how the history of Western fashion is ruled by an obsession with the silhouette; so that when a desired shape comes into fashion, its boundaries end up being pushed to the extremes. Norah Waugh makes an interesting point about this in her book Corsets and Crinolines.
“This over-emphasis of line has given a curious underlying rhythm to women’s clothes and become an almost unwritten law of design. A longer slender silhouette gradually begins to widen at the base, emphasis shifts from length to breadth, and when the greatest circumference has been reached, there is a collapse, a folding up, and a return to the long straight line”
This point was not lost in the pages of Punch in an article called “Philosophy of Fashion”
“When hoops went out of vogue nigh on a Century ago, the ladies vowed that scanty petticoats were infinitely prettier; and they vied with one another in reducing their dimensions, until their skirts became so shrunken that they could hardly move their feet with the limited circumference. So doubtless, will it be again, now Crinoline is doomed […] Already we see signs of the change approaching. Ladies fresh from Paris startle our eyes now-a-days by appearing in what at first sight we may fancy are their night dresses. Of course, when one tide sets in, all the female world will swim with it”
And in my next post we will see what happened next…..
Gillian Nunns
Gillian Nunns
Triborough Reference Librarian, Chelsea Reference Library
Further information
The sources used for this post are all available at Chelsea Reference Library except Punch which is available at Kensington Central Reference Library.
rbkc libraries blog 