#WorldBookDay 2019

Special Collections looks after a range of rare books and journals as well as our archive and object holdings. Did you know we have a small number of early printed books, dating from 1474 to 1799?

The subject matter of the books bears no relevance to anything taught at DMU or its predecessors – subjects like theology and classics were not our specialisms! But we did have a vibrant Printing Trades course which included subjects like bookbinding and printing. We believe that the books were purchased to be studied as objects rather than for their content. Some of them are in poor condition, which allows us to have an insight into their method of production and construction.

For more information about the collection, please see our catalogue here: https://de-montfort.epexio.com/records/EB

Happy #WorldBookDay !

Katharine

#FolkloreThursday meets #NationalStorytellingWeek

Today’s #FolkloreThursday theme is favourite fairy tales, in honour of #NationalStorytellingWeek! We were absolutely spoiled for choice with this theme, as we have such a wonderful collection of beautifully illustrated children’s stories.

To start, a Walter Crane illustration for Sleeping Beauty which adopts a Germanic woodcut feel appropriate to the Grimm Brothers origins of the tale (from The Art of Walter Crane, 1902)

 

These illustrations of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and Snow White are from Six Old World Fairy Tales, illustrated by J.K. Wilkinson, c.1920

Next are a couple of more modern interpretations of classic fairy tales Puss in Boots (1975) and Little Red Riding Hood (1976):

 

Finally some images by Edmund Dulac: scenes from Aladdin from Sinbad the Sailor and other stories from the Arabian Nights, 1911; Puss in Boots escorting the King and Fortunata and the Hen from A Fairy Garland, 1928.

Katharine

#FolkloreThursday : Traditional Leicestershire Food

For this week’s #FolkloreThursday #food theme we turned to the Leicestershire and Rutland Magazine to see what local traditions there are surrounding mealtimes, cooking and eating.

First we found an account of the hearty fare served to the workers during sheep shearing in the 1870s: large breakfasts of tea, bread and cold boiled bacon, bread and cheese mid-morning, roast beef and Christmas pudding with ale for the midday meal, and a late supper of cold beef, bacon, fruit pies and ale.

Next was an article entitled “Traditional County Cookery”, pondering the way that dishes and food habits vary from county to county. The author notes that locally produced food follows the conditions of the local soil, and that Leicestershire pastures are especially good at rearing beef and of course only the cheesemakers of the Vale of Belvoir know the secret of making Stilton. Differences in food preparation are also mentioned along with a list of traditional Leicestershire recipes:

Leicestershire Curd Tarts

Melton Mowbray Pork Pie

Thurnby Savoury

Kibworth Baked Roll

Lutterworth Tice Tarts.

Another article mentions singing games and folk song, which often developed specific local variants and reflect the rituals of everyday life – courtship, weddings, births, funerals – all of which are interwoven with food and eating traditions. Here is an excerpt from “All the boys in our town” (Welland Valley variant):

Sylvia made a pudding, she made it nice and sweet,

She daredn’t stick the knife in till Stan came down the street.

“Stanley will you have a bit, and don’t say nay,

For next Monday morning is our wedding day.”

“Sweet Nancy” from North Leicester includes the lines:

Pork Pie, mutton chop,

Mother take me to the shop,

If I fall pick me up,

Pork pie, mutton chop.

Source: Leicestershire and Rutland Magazine, December 1948 and June 1949

And, just because we like it, here’s Mrs Purry and Patty in the kitchen, from Louis Wain’s Baby’s Picture Book, 1903.

 

NB- for a reconstruction of Leicestershire Curd Tarts see https://riseofthesourdoughpreacher.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/leicestershire-curd-tarts/

Katharine

Folklore Thursday 11/01/2018

As collections of European folk songs and poems, books on Nursery Rhymes became popular during the golden age of children’s literature in the mid-nineteenth century but many of the rhymes themselves are much older. Full of working-class imagery and trades they are the perfect subject for this week’s #folklorethursday theme of #work.

From Little Song of long Ago, Illustrated by H. Willebeek Le Mair1912

 

From Old King Cole’s Book of Nursery Rhymes, Illustrated by Byam Shaw, 1901.

 

From Mother Goose, Illustrated by Kate Greenaway, c 1880.

 

From Young England’s Nursery Rhymes, Illustrated by Constance Haslewood, c 1890.

 

 

Public School Stories

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of the first Harry Potter story, as author JK Rowling noted:

JK Rowling tweet

The world of Harry Potter centres around the adventures of a young wizard while at a boarding school for magicians in training – a fantastical place with moving staircases, talking portraits and spell-casting lessons. Underneath these magical elements, however, the Potter-verse is steeped in traditions of the English public school or boarding school, and the stories themselves draw on conventions found in many school-boy tales. Sneaking into forbidden rooms at midnight, collecting house points, avoiding certain members of staff, inter-house sporting events, visits to the tuck shop, chatting in the common room, going out of bounds – all would be familiar to a Victorian reader.
IMG_20170627_081850

Special Collections holds the Tozer collection – a sequence of books which illuminates the Victorian public school tradition. As well as schoolboy stories the collection includes analytical works studying this educational moment, memoirs by headmasters and staff of such schools, and histories of the schools themselves.

IMG_20170627_093908

The Tozer Collection is an excellent resource on the history of education, and also touches on aspects of sporting, social and colonial history. The books are as yet uncatalogued but visitors are welcome to visit Special Collections and browse the shelves.