Category Archives: Books & Printed Texts

The vanity of human life

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printed text

Broadsheet: 3 large woodcut blocks illustrations and verses

 

  • Title: The vanity of human life. : Life and death contrasted, or, An essay on man. Messenger of mortality, or, Death and the lady.
  • Publication: [London] : Printed & sold by J. Catnach, No. 2, Monmouth-Court, 7 Dials, London, [1820s?]

Catalog Record

820.00.00.115+

Acquired November 2022

The Female soldier, or, The surprising life and adventures of Hannah Snell

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  • Title:The Female soldier, or, The surprising life and adventures of Hannah Snell Born in the City of Worcester, who took upon herself the name of James Gray; and, being deserted by her husband, put on mens apparel, and travelled to Coventry in quest of him, where she enlisted in Col. Guise’s Regiment of Foot, and marched with that Regiment to Carlisle, in the Time of the Rebellion in Scotland; shewing what happened to her in that City, and her Desertion from that Regiment. Also a full and true account of her enlisting afterwards into Fraser’s Regiment of Marines, then at Portsmouth; and her being draughted out of that Regiment, and sent on board the Swallow Sloop of War, one of Admiral Boscawen’s Squadron, then bound for the East-Indies. With the many Vicissitudes of Fortune she met with during that Expedition, particularly at the Siege of Pondicherry, where she received Twelve Wounds. Likewise, the surprising Accident by which she came to hear of the Death of her faithless Husband, whom she went in quest of. The Whole Containing The most surprising Incidents that have happened in any preceeding Age; wherein is laid open all her Adventures, in Mens Cloaths, for near five Years, without her Sex being ever discovered.
  • Published: London : Printed for and sold by R. Walker the Corner of Elliot’s-Court, in the Little Old-Bailey, 1750.

Catalog Record

53 Sn671 750

Acquired April 2023

A defence of the sole and entire corporate and deliberative rights…

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  • Author: Stone, William, liveryman.
  • Title: A defence of the sole and entire corporate and deliberative rights and franchises of the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and livery of London, in Common Hall assembled : drawn from the charters, records, and other high authorities. Dedicated to the liverymen of the several companies / by William Stone.
  • Publication: London : Printed by J.S. Barr, Bridge-Street, Covent-Garden., 1797.

Catalog Record

646 797 St881

Acquired December 2022

The spectre mother, or, The haunted tower

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frontispiece and title page

  • Author: Mitchell, John (Allegorist)
  • Title: The spectre mother, or, The haunted tower / by the author of Midnight horrors, Female pilgrim, &c.
  • Publication: London : Printed & sold by Dean & Munday, 35, Threadneedle Street, [between 1810 and 1814]

Catalog Record

763 810 M681

Acquired April 2023

Grand aerostatic ascent…

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Broadside advertising an ascent by Sieur Krous involving balloons in the form of Henry IV of France and “a number of wild animals”, which would perform an “aerial chace, or hunt in the air”.

 

  • Title: Grand aerostatic ascent. The nobility, gentry, and the public are most respectfully informed that the Sieur Krous, having at length succeeded in obtaining a ground for the above experiment, it will positively take place on Monday, July 3, 1815, at the Angel Gardens, Lambeth Walk, (late Chapman’s) near Vauxhall. …
  • Publication: London : W. Glindon, Rupert-Street, Haymarket, 1815.

Catalog Record

File 53 K93 815

Acquired January 2023

An account of the happy wedding

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An account of a marriage between a black man and a white servant in Bristol at the beginning of the 19th century. The handbill ostensibly supports the union but also perpetuates racial stereotypes and mocks the proceedings.

  • Title: An account of the happy wedding, that took place at St. Augustine’s Church, yesterday morning, Nov. 28 ; between a man of colour, well known as a shoeblack, on the quay, and a servant girl, living at a public-house, in that neighbourhood; being the sable bridegroom’s fifth wife!.
  • Publication: [Bristol] : H. Bonner, printer, No. 4, Narrow Wine-Street, Bristol, [approximately 1826]

Catalog Record

File 63 825 Ac172+

Acquired April 2023