Wednesday, June 24

A wonderful find...

...and unexpected...

My youngest is currently researching which university she wishes to attend once she finishes A levels, and last Friday was the open day at the University of Reading, one of the universities on her list...

While she attended lectures in the faculties she is interested in studying in, I made myself scarce, and being a university, and me being a wargamer with an interest in military history, the library was a bit if a magnet!

University libraries tend to have more depth in their reading choices than the usual public libraries so I was keen to see what choices there were in the military history line...  Started off in section 355 (Military Science - that catalogue number, and section 793/794 is permanently etched on my brain since childhood ) and picked up "The Armies of Queen Anne", by R. E. Scouller (Major.) Written in 1964, it covers all aspects of the British army of the time, what the official sizes of units should be, the disparity between that and actual returns, all supporting services (medical/commissariat/administration), uniforms (cost and how often replaced), command structure, etc etc. Whiled away a very pleasant hour while little'un was checking out the animal skeletons in the Zoology section!

Broke for some refreshments, and then she went off to do a tour of the Biology faculty, so I heded back,and this time I hit the goldmine...  the library has a full set of bound copies of the Illustrated London News! Huge books, and covered in dust - they clearly don't get looked at often! Only having an hour I had to decide fast, so dismissed Omdurman (later visit hopefully) and picked up the volume covering Abu Klea and the Gordon Relief... oh man, superb - have left the following as original size, you can click and embiggen to read the articles/get a better view..

How atmospheric is this? The artist has included himself (the dark coated figure in foreground on the right)


Victoriana at it's absolute finest..


Love this next one.. quintessential Caton Woodville


...this next one bears study... the Relief Expedition on the march..





...front page announcing the death of Burnaby..



Front page February 7th announced the death of Herbert..


Have a look at what the fatigue party of the Highlanders were wearing..









...the picture provision seemed to have been shared fairly equally between Caton Woodville [clicky] and their 'special correspondent' Melton Prior [clicky] the following are all by Prior, I do like his style..



I like this one too..



.....better than the BBC and CNN I think you'd agree?

23 comments:

  1. Excellent use of your spare time, do you think you could go for a residency? ;-)

    Ian

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    1. Ian - if it wasn't for the fact that you have to work (very) hard, I'd go back to Uni like a shot.. :o)

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  2. Very atmospheric illustrations, I can understand why it was such a popular publication at the time.

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    1. Matt - I understand that all the original artwork was transcribed by the papers own illustrators once it got back to the office... it must have been as popular as radio/TV/internet is now given the lack of other entertainment sources...

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  3. Brilliant find - thanks very much for sharing!

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    1. Cheers Paul - she mentioned she wants to go back again, if I do, next time it will be Tel el Kebir....

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  4. Another title worth a look at is "The Graphic"; but the Illustrated London News takes some beating!
    It is available in a digital form from Gale (http://gdc.gale.com/products/illustrated-london-news-historical-archive-online-1842-2003/), if you are really lucky your local library may have a subscription

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    1. Hi WA - yes - you used to be able to read them online via the British Library but I note that the British Library web page says they are now accessed via your link... for a charge...

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  5. Marvelous pics Steve, what a shame these aren't more well known???

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  6. Superb ! Just the thing eh ?

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    1. Jubilo - more Victorian, than a Victorian thing!

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  7. Superb ! Just the thing eh ?

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  8. Excellent finds! My son and I are also doing the rounds of uni's at the moment but my free time when he's off listening to talks tends to be filled with a Mars bar, coffee and a copy of the Guardian! I'll have to try your approach instead :)

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    1. Alastair - well worth doing in my view... they tend to have more detailed texts than you would normally see in your local library, and you sometimes find things like this....

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  9. Thanks for posting, Steve - excellent pics.

    Giles

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    1. Thanks Giles... they were something else... I'll take a better camera next time.

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  10. Terrific stuff. Some universities today allow you to scan old items directly to your memory stick. Might be worth looking into when you go back?

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  11. I have severa l"origonal" Caton Woodville prints on my walls- bought at Antique fairs ove the years as well as a couple of more modern repros of his work. Also check out Harry Payne Simkin ,Harry Bunnett and all those other chaps who drew for the ILS and the Graphic. Some were also postcard illustrators- I have a reasonable collection of 1914-15 harry paynes postcards by Raphael Tuck - some superb stuff in there. - if not always "accurate" as to uniform

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  12. Very cool - did you feel like a secret agent capturing those images. The details in old illustration are amazing.

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  13. Lovely stuff thanks for sharing

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  14. Great stuff Steve, thanks for sharing :)

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  15. What a find! Absolutely amazing!

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