ARTS

Welcome to our collection of contextual essays covering the arts.

To support libraries, researchers, and educators, we regularly commission academics to write contextual essays that explore topics using our digital primary source archives.

These essays relate to themes from cartoons in newspapers to the place of literature in Empire and literature for children: take a look at our essays below.

General | Illustration | Literature

Popular Music in Punch: Antagonism towards Modern Mass Culture

Ron Moy, Liverpool John Moores University

From the Punch Historical Archive

The Illustrated London News and Archaeology

Thomas Prasch, Washburn University

From the Illustrated London News Historical Archive

The Illustrated London News and Photography

Julia F. Munro, Lakehead University Orillia, Canada

From the Illustrated London News Historical Archive

ILLUSTRATION

Comic Periodicals

Nicholas Hiley, University of Kent

From Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals

Punch and Early Victorian Comic Illustration

Brian Maidment, Liverpool John Moores University

From the Illustrated London News Historical Archive

Representing the Victorians – Illustration and the Illustrated London News

Brian Maidment, Liverpool John Moores University

From the Illustrated London News Historical Archive

The Daily Mirror and Cartoons

James Whitworth, University of Sheffield

From The Mirror Historical Archive

LITERATURE

Children's Periodicals

Diana Dixon, Southwold Museum

From Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals

Fact, Fiction and Fun

Siân Pooley, University of Cambridge

From British Library Newspapers

Literature and the Empire

Patrick Brantlinger, Indiana University

From Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals

Newspapers and Literature

Markman Ellis, Queen Mary, University of London

From Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection

The Illustrated London News and Literature

Joanne Nystrom Janssen, Asian University for Women

From the Illustrated London News Historical Archive.

Women's Periodicals

Solveig Robinson, Nottingham Trent University

From Nineteenth Century UK Periodicals

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Featured archives

BRITISH LIBRARY NEWSPAPERS

Consisting of six parts, this series forms one of the largest collections of regional newspapers from the UK, providing an alternative voice to the major national newspapers. This project has digitised titles from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, providing over 200 years of rare documents.

ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS HISTORICAL ARCHIVE, 1842-2003

When it first launched, this innovative publication started a revolution in journalism and news reporting. It provided an unprecedented visual tour of the triumphs, tragedies, daily life, and monumental events of the world and the modern British Empire – and every issue is contained here.

THE MIRROR
HISTORICAL ARCHIVE, 1903-2000

Aimed at a working-class mass-market audience, the Mirror became influential in shifting the course of British newspapers and journalism, starting the dominance of tabloids in the twentieth century—offering researchers a valuable left-wing, populist alternative to the major broadsheets.

NINETEENTH CENTURY UK PERIODICALS

This project was undertaken in response to demand from scholarly communities, and the two resulting archives support researchers in almost every subject area. They contain well known publications alongside obscure documents, covering everything from hobby interests to issues of global importance.

PUNCH HISTORICAL ARCHIVE, 1841-1992

This archive includes nearly 7,900 issues from all volumes of Punch, the world's most celebrated magazine of wit and satire. It contains Almanacks and special numbers, and in collaboration with Liverpool John Moore’s University, authorship has been attributed and made searchable using the ledgers.

SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY BURNEY NEWSPAPERS COLLECTION

A well-known collection at the British Library, the original Burney volumes are in fragile condition and are restricted from reading-room use except as microfilm. This digitization includes more than 1,000 documents, allowing researchers to see the development of the newspaper as we know it today.

SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY NICHOLS NEWSPAPERS COLLECTION

John Nichols was a printer, Master of the Stationers’ Company, biographer, and historian. Made in collaboration with the Bodleian Library, Oxford, this digitized archive contains over 150,000 pages of printed text and contains some of the most influential titles in British publishing history.