REVOLUTION!
INTRODUCTION
This exhibition is held to mark the centenary of
one of the most tumultuous events of modern
times, the Russian Revolution. The revolutions
of February and October 1917 shaped the
coming century for the nations that would
become part of the Soviet Union and their
neighbours and influenced international
relations across the world. Cases 5 and 6 of the
exhibition present some of the Foyle Special
Collections Library’s unique and distinctive
holdings concerning these events and their
aftermath.
Elsewhere in this exhibition we explore the
concept of revolution more broadly, examining
other significant revolutions of modern times:
the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the American
and French Revolutions of the late 18th century
and the Haitian revolution (1791-1804), when
former slaves overthrew their masters and
established an independent state.
All the revolutions featured in the exhibition
warrant an individual exhibition of their own,
and for this reason the items shown give only a
snapshot of the Library’s wide and eclectic
holdings. This is especially true of the sections
on the Scientific Revolution, where we show
such epoch-defining publications as Charles
Darwin’s On the origin of species, and on literary
revolutions, where an inscribed copy of the
poems of Allen Ginsberg reminds us of the
revolutionary sensibilities which writers and
artists can transmit to their audiences. We
would like to thank Professor Jeremy Adler for
his assistance with the curation of this latter
section.
In the final case, we exhibit contributions from
colleagues across King’s, who have written a
wide selection of features about their interest in
or experience of the topic of revolution and
societal and cultural change. Topics include
architecture, Surrealism, Freud, Ghana, Italy,
and Northern Ireland.
Unless otherwise stated, all items in this
exhibition are from the holdings of the Foyle
Special Collections Library.
Exhibition curators: Heather Anderson and
Adam Ray
CASE 1
THE GLORIOUS
REVOLUTION
Laurence Echard. The history of the revolution.
London: printed for Jacob Tonson, 1725
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection DA452 ECH
As the title page to this history of the Glorious
Revolution of 1688 indicates, to understand
why a revolution occurs, it is essential to
understand the events leading up to it. A
‘necessary review’ of the events before the
accession of William III in 1688 would tell of a
society in which a Protestant political class was
becoming deeply suspicious of a Catholic King,
James II.
The English parliament, where political power
was increasingly based, was suspicious of the
King’s links with France, where he had both
served in the army and converted to Roman
Catholicism. France at this time was ruled by
Louis XIV and was a powerful threat to the
stability of Britain and its growing empire and
trade routes. There was also a suspicion that the
King inclined towards the system of absolute
monarchy favoured by his cousin and ally,
Louis.
When James II had come to the throne in 1685,
the orderly succession from his brother Charles
II was at first welcomed. However, his
promotion of Catholics to positions of influence
alienated the Protestant elite. In June 1688
James and his wife, Mary of Modena, produced
a Catholic heir, meaning that this son, rather
than his first born daughter Mary, a Protestant,
would inherit the throne.
These factors led a group of influential
Protestants, later given the soubriquet the
‘Immortal Seven’, to inform William III, Prince
of Orange, that if he were to land in England
with an invading army, he would be assured of
their and others’ support. The group included
politicians, senior military officers and a senior
member of the Church of England, Henry
Compton (1632-1713), the Bishop of London.
Nicholas Tindal. The history of England.
London: printed for John and Paul Knapton,
1744. Volume 3
Rare Books Collection FOL DA30 TIN
Paul Rapin de Thoyras (1661-1725), named on
the title page shown here, was a French
Protestant historian who wrote under English
patronage and was responsible for a number of
important volumes of English history. He was
part of the force that accompanied William on
his invasion of England in 1688 and fought in
the subsequent Williamite War in Ireland. This
continuation of the history of England is,
however, written by the second author named
on the title page, Nicholas Tindal (1687-1774),
an English clergyman, who had translated much
of Rapin de Thoyras’s earlier work.
William III, shown in the frontispiece displayed
here, was a Dutch Protestant who had fought
Louis XIV’s French forces in various campaigns
and was recognised as a staunch upholder of the
Protestant faith. For this reason, William, who
was a nephew of James II and indeed married to
James’s (Protestant) daughter Mary (his first
cousin), was approached by members of the
Protestant ruling class in England to challenge
James’s Catholic rule.
On 5 November 1688 William landed at
Brixham in southwest England with a largely
Dutch army of 35,000 men. Opposition to the
invasion was limited, with both Protestant
officers in James’s army defecting in large
numbers and members of the aristocracy
pledging their support to William. The
casualties that did occur were of a small number
and for this reason the revolution has been
termed the ‘bloodless revolution’. With no
chance of regaining power, James attempted to
flee to France, but was captured. However, he
was then released and allowed to complete his
escape across the English Channel, an outcome
which suited both parties: his life was preserved
and William avoided making him a martyr for
Catholicism.
Following negotiations with the English
parliament regarding William’s sovereign status
– as daughter of the former King, his wife Mary
was in effect first in line to the throne – William
and Mary were crowned joint sovereigns,
meaning one or the other would continue to
reign when the other had died. The line of
succession would then pass to Mary’s sister
Anne, a Protestant. This settlement ensured a
Protestant line of succession and was enshrined
in the 1689 Bill of Rights, which officially
excluded Roman Catholics from the throne.
Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax. The works
and life of the Right Honourable, Charles, late
Earl of Halifax. London: printed for E Curll,
1715
Rare Books Collection PR3506.H2 A1 D15
One of the foremost politicians of the age was
Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax (1661-1715).
The work on display gives an account of his
career following the Glorious Revolution and
contains poems and tales written by the author.
Montagu’s career benefitted greatly from his
support for the revolution and the reverence in
which he held William is evident in an epistle
contained in the book, written after the King’s
death:
Blest be his Name! And peaceful lie in his grave,
Who durst his native soil, lost Holland save!
But William’s genius takes a wider scope,
And gives the injur’d in all kingdoms hope.
As a junior member of the House of Commons,
Montagu was involved in formulating
regulations for treason trials; and later in the
reign of William and Mary he served as
chancellor of the exchequer and first lord of the
Treasury. In the 1693-4 session of parliament he
was instrumental in the foundation of the Bank
of England, largely established to finance the
rebuilding of the navy following defeat by
France at the Battle of Beachy Head.
The large-scale national project to rebuild the
navy saw the establishment of metalwork
factories to support shipbuilding and the
expansion of agriculture to feed the many
working men. It was an important contributory
factor in the birth of the Industrial Revolution
and in ensuring the continuing dominance of the
British navy.
The imprint statement at the bottom of the title
page reveals that the book was printed and sold
very close to the Maughan Library, at the back
of St Dunstan’s Church on Fleet Street.
Edmund Bohun. The doctrine of non-resistance
or passive obedience. London: printed for
Richard Chiswell, 1689
Rare Books Collection JC389 B63
The author of this pamphlet, Edmund Bohun
(1645-99) was a press licenser and writer whose
works give an insight into religious debates and
tensions at the time of the Glorious Revolution.
In the build-up to the English Civil War earlier
in the century, pamphlets became an
increasingly popular medium for disseminating
political arguments and this work is part of that
tradition.
Bohun was present when William and his forces
entered London and wrote one of the first
accounts of events, in which he was largely
supportive of the new reign of William and
Mary. As he had previously had both High
Church Tory and Jacobite acquaintances, this
support ensured his unpopularity with many of
his former friends, who held religious and
doctrinal opposition to the new joint monarchs.
The pamphlet on display here, couched in the
discursive, periphrastic language of the late 17th
century that sought to offend none, but at a time
of heightened tension, often did, is published
anonymously ‘by a lay gentleman of the Church
of England’ and calls for ‘non-resistance or
passive obedience’. Oddly, the title then seems
to offer a disclaimer that it has nothing to do
with the ‘controversies now depending between
the Williamites and Jacobites’ – the most
pressing political situation of the time. The
argument is one of acceptance of the new
monarchs, citing the Christian tradition of nonresistance to quieten the arguments and fears of
those who believed the divine right of James II
to rule had been usurped – and who might be
considering challenging the new rulers.
The Bill of Rights, one of the most important
constitutional documents in British law, was
published in the same year as this pamphlet, the
first of William and Mary’s reign. As well as
excluding Catholics from the English throne and
enshrining the right of Protestants to bear arms
to defend their kingdom, it laid important and
longstanding stipulations that shaped the laws of
the future. Some of the most notable of these
were the stipulation that the King had to consult
parliament regarding the suspension of laws, the
enshrinement of the right to freedom of speech
and the outlawing of cruel and unusual
punishment.
CASE 2
THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION
Extract from The Boston evening-post, of
September 2, 1765. [S l: s n, 1765]
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection FOL. HF3025 GRE
The item on display contains extracts from
proclamations and letters published in the
Boston evening-post on 2 September 1765 on the
subject of riots occasioned by the imposition of
the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act was a tax
imposed on all printed documents in the
American colonies by the British government
in1765. The tax was deeply unpopular, with
Americans arguing that only their representative
assemblies could tax them. Objectors resorted to
mob violence in opposition, aiming to intimidate
stamp collectors into resigning.
The opening on display is a proclamation by the
governor of colonial Massachusetts, Francis
Bernard (1712-79). In this proclamation,
Bernard reports riotous scenes that occurred on
26 August 1765 in Boston and offers rewards for
information on members of the mobs. Bernard
reports how mobs attacked and pillaged the
properties of several political figures of the
province in opposition to the Stamp Act. The
most brutal attack described is that against the
property of Thomas Hutchinson, lieutenant
governor of Massachusetts. Bernard describes
how a mob forcibly entered Hutchinson’s home
and destroyed fittings and windows, demolished
and stole furniture, clothes and money, and
even uncovered part of the roof:
…the said people continuing thus riotously and
tumultuously assembled the whole night and until
day-light the next morning, committing divers
outrages and enormities and threatening the
custom-house, and the houses of divers persons, to
the great terror of his majesty’s liege subjects
Similar riots broke out in other colonial towns,
resulting in mass resignations of the stamp
distributors. This made the Act incredibly
difficult to implement, and led to its repeal just
one year after it had been sanctioned. The issues
of taxation and representation raised by the Act
put strain on the relationship between Britain
and the colonies, with relations further
deteriorating over the next decade until the
Revolutionary War broke out in 1775.
Thomas Paine.
Common sense. Philadelphia, printed; London:
re-printed, for J Almon, opposite BurlingtonHouse in Piccadilly, 1776
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection E211 PAI
Common sense was the most widely circulated
pamphlet published during the American
Revolutionary War. Within three months of its
publication in 1776 it was claimed that 120,000
copies had been sold and second editions of the
work were published within weeks. Benjamin
Rush, an associate of Paine and one of the
United States’ Founding Fathers, recalled in
July 1776:
Its effects were sudden and extensive upon the
American mind. It was read by public men,
repeated in clubs, spouted in schools, and in one
instance, delivered from the pulpit instead of a
sermon by a clergyman in Connecticut.
The pamphlet made the case for independence
for the American colonies, arguing in favour of a
democratic republican government. Paine’s
accessible prose style and impassioned
arguments garnered enthusiasm for the cause of
independence, and even those opposed to his
arguments were inspired by his devotion to the
cause.
This edition of Common sense was reprinted in
London in 1776 (from the original edition
published in Philadelphia). The copy on display
is bound with James Chalmers' critical
essay Plain truth, which was written in
opposition to Paine’s arguments. The
advertisement in this edition states how
Common sense has been ‘held up as proof
positive that the Americans desire to become
independent’ and that the publisher is ‘happy in
this opportunity of publishing Plain truth; which
we take to be as good a proof that the
Americans do not desire to become
independent’.
This copy of Common sense has hiatuses
(omitted words and phrases) throughout the
text. The printer omitted controversial parts of
the text to avoid accusations of seditious libel.
The hiatuses in this copy have been filled in
with pen and ink, possibly by a person
employed by the printer to do so.
The charters of the province of Pensilvania and cit
y of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: printed and sold
by B Franklin, 1743
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection FOL. KFP400.5 1742.A34 PEN
This copy of the charters and laws of
Pennsylvania was published by Benjamin
Franklin (1706-90). From his early twenties,
Franklin worked as a printer and publisher,
owning a successful printing shop in
Philadelphia. Franklin retired at the age of 42 to
focus on his political and scientific interests,
becoming involved in local civic affairs and
acting as a colonial representative in London.
With the outbreak of the American
Revolutionary War, he threw himself into the
independence movement and in 1776 helped
Thomas Jefferson draft the Declaration of
Independence. In the same year he successfully
secured a military alliance with France that was
critical to America’s ultimate victory. In 1783
Franklin negotiated and signed the Treaty of
Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.
Philadelphia, the capital of Pennsylvania, was
the site of the first and second Continental
Congresses in 1774 and 1775, with the latter
Congress producing the Declaration of
Independence. Eleven years later, the
constitution of the United States was drafted in
Philadelphia, creating a united federal
government.
Benjamin Franklin’s signature is at the top right
of this title page and his signature is the only one
of the Founding Fathers’ that can be found on
the four documents that established the United
States of America: the Declaration of
Independence, The Treaty of Alliance with
France, the Treaty of Paris and the US
Constitution.
The constitutions of the several independent states
of America: the Declaration of Independence, and
the Articles of confederation between the said
states. London: printed for J Stockdale, in
Piccadilly, 1783
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection KF4502 CON
The book on display contains reproductions of
key documents that declared America’s
independence from Britain and established
government in the United States at state and
national level following the American
Revolutionary War.
In June 1776 a convention of delegates from the
13 colonies tasked a five man committee,
including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin
Franklin, with producing a statement that
justified independence from Britain. Jefferson
drafted what would become the Declaration of
Independence. The Declaration, as well as
sparking the American Revolution, was the first
formal statement that asserted the right of a
nation’s people to choose their own
government, making it a significant document in
the history of democracy.
Following the American Revolutionary War,
the 13 states adopted their own individual
constitutions. The Articles of Confederation
were ratified by all 13 states in 1781, creating
the first American constitution and creating the
nation’s government.
This copy includes a frontispiece portrait of
George Washington (1732-99). Washington
was commander in chief of the Continental
Army during the American Revolutionary War
and served as the first president of the United
States from 1789 to 1797.
CASE 3
THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION
Edmund Burke. Reflections on the revolution in
France. London: printed for J Dodsley, 1790
Rare Books Collection DC150 B8
Edmund Burke (1729-97) was an influential
Anglo-Irish member of parliament and political
thinker who fiercely opposed the French
Revolution. Burke believed that the French
people had thrown off ‘the yoke of laws and
morals’ and he was alarmed at the generally
favourable reaction of the English public to the
revolution. In 1790 he wrote the critical
Reflections on the revolution in France, a text that
was an attack on the revolution and on English
radicals who sought to provoke similar change
in England.
In this text, Burke dismisses parallels that had
been drawn between the French Revolution
and the 1688 English revolution. He claims that
the 1688 ‘Glorious Revolution’ was little more
than an adjustment of the constitution, while the
French Revolution was veering towards
anarchy, rather than reformation. Burke used
the text to defend English values and Britain's
constitution, arguing that a situation similar to
the one developing in France would be
disastrous for the country.
The copy on display here is a first edition. The
essay received great attention when it was
published and a large number of responses, the
most famous being Thomas Paine’s Rights of
man, which argues that Edmund Burke’s idea of
the ‘hereditary wisdom’ of the ruling classes and
established order is divisive rather than
benevolent. Paine’s Rights of man is also on
display in this case.
Thomas Paine. Rights of man. London: printed
for JS Jordan, 1791
Rare Books Collection JC177 B8
Thomas Paine (1737-1809) wrote Rights of man
to refute Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the
revolution in France. For Paine, the French
Revolution represented the beginning of a new
era. He argued in favour of rational
republicanism and put forward the view that
governments should support the natural and
civil rights of all men. Paine’s writing style made
these ideas accessible to a wide audience, with
language and arguments appealing to working
people as well as the educated classes.
Tens of thousands of copies of the book were
sold. Copies were widely circulated and read
out in inns and coffee houses. Following the
publication of the second part, the British
Government sought to suppress the work and
indict Paine for seditious libel. He fled to
France, where he was offered French
citizenship as well as a place on the National
Convention.
The first of this two part work was published in
1791. The copy on display is a fifth edition and
was published that same year. This shows how
popular Rights of man was. The portrait of Paine
on display has been inserted into this copy by a
previous owner. The portrait is from John
Baxter's History of England (1796) and shows a
picturesque image of Paine pointing to his work,
standing beneath a scroll inscribed ‘Equality’.
This copy is bound with Observations on Paine's
rights of man: in a series of letters by ‘Publicola’.
These letters, which attack Paine’s arguments,
were originally published in the summer of 1791
in a Boston newspaper. ‘Publicola’ was the
pseudonym of John Quincy Adams (17671848) who was the sixth president of the United
States from 1825 to 1829.
William Augustus Miles. The correspondence of
William Augustus Miles on the French
Revolution, 1789-1817. London: Longmans,
Green, and Co, 1890. Volume 1
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection DC146.M64 MIL
The item on display is the first of two volumes
of correspondence of the English political writer
and spy William Augustus Miles (1753/41817). In 1790, Miles was sent to Paris by
William Pitt to work against an alliance
between France and Spain. In Paris Miles
joined the Jacobin Club and came to know
figures such as the Count of Mirabeau (a leader
in the early stages of the French Revolution)
and the Marquis de Lafayette (a military officer
who fought in the American Revolutionary
War). Miles lived in Paris from 1790 to 1791
and during that time wrote a number of letters
to statesmen and friends in England on the
political situation.
The opening on display is from a letter dated 24
December 1790, addressed to the Reverend
Howell H Edwards. In this letter, Miles
expresses his initial enthusiasm for the
Revolution:
The revolution in France appeared to me at a
distance to be one of those magnificent events which
rouse even the most torpid into admiration and
enthusiasm… I fancied that my favourite
divinities – Liberty and Justice – resolved on a
visit to this sublunary globe, had descended in
Paris, and would make the tour of at least the
continent of Europe.
He then expresses his disillusionment, due to the
reality of the political situation he had
witnessed:
The nation is without revenue and government, its
metropolis and provincial towns are without
police, its legislature without talents, without
probity, and without credit, except with a senseless
and sanguinary rabble who would suspend their
representatives from a ‘lantern’ with as little
motive, and with as much facility, as they applaud
their tumultuous and indecent harangues in the
Senate. There is no prospect, not even the most
distant, of public tranquillity being restored.
In this correspondence we see how the reality of
revolutionary activity and its effects can be
quite different from idealised notions.
William Milligan Sloane. Life of Napoleon
Bonaparte. New York: The Century
Co; London: Macmillan & Co, 1896. Volume 1
Maurice Collection DC203 SLO
The plate on display here depicts the 13
Vendémiaire, which was a battle between
French Revolutionary troops and Royalist
Parisian civilians on 5 October 1795. The
insurrection was suppressed by the
revolutionary troops, who were led by Brigadier
General Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte’s
actions proved his loyalty to the Directory,
resulting in the rapid advancement of his
military career and at the age of just 26 he was
promoted to the command of the Army of the
Interior and then to the command of the Army
of Italy.
Napoleon’s loyalty to the regime did not last. In
November 1799, he was part of a group which
successfully overthrew the Directory, in an
event known as the coup of 18 Brumaire. A
three-member Consulate replaced the
Directory, with Napoleon as First Consul,
making him France’s leading political figure. In
1804 Napoleon established the First French
Empire, crowning himself Emperor of the
French.
The plate on display is a reproduction of the
watercolour painting The thirteenth
Vendemiaire, October 5, 1795 by the Austrian
artist Felician Myrbach. This is from the first
volume of the four volume series Life of
Napoleon Bonaparte by William Milligan Sloane
(1850-1928), professor of history at Princeton
University.
CASE 4
REVOLUTION IN
HAITI
Marcus Rainsford. An historical account of the
black empire of Hayti. London: James Cundee,
1805
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection F1923 RAI
The largest colonial slave revolt and the only
one to lead directly to the establishment of an
independent state and the abolition of slavery
occurred in St Domingue, a French colony on
the western side of the island of Hispaniola.
Following the tumultuous events of the French
Revolution, in May 1791 the French National
Assembly decreed that free-born persons of
colour in the colony should be granted the
franchise in provincial and colonial assemblies.
However, the colonial government of St
Domingue was vehemently opposed to this and
refused to implement the decree, threatening to
secede from France. With no agreement
forthcoming, a period of chaos on the island
ensued: free black and mixed race leaders took
to arms, demanding their rights, and slaves in
the north rose in revolt, burning plantations and
killing former masters. Large-scale fighting of
appalling brutality ensued, with atrocities
committed by all three sides (white, slave and
free persons of colour).
French troops were eventually sent to restore
order in 1793; however, following a British
invasion as part of a wider conflict between the
nations in 1794, they were forced out, leaving
the British to face the inspirational and brutal
slave leader, Toussaint L’Ouverture (17431803). Though L’Ouverture defeated mixed
race forces and consolidated control and
territory on the island, he often did so through
brutal means, including the massacre of mixed
race people. Further conflict ensued in the years
to come, between the colonial powers of
England, France and Spain and between rival
ethnic groups, until in 1802 L’Ouverture was
captured by the French, following their
renewed attempts to re-assert power on the
island.
The plates in this book illustrate the extreme
brutality enveloping the island of Hispaniola
during this period. There are horrifying images
entitled ‘Blood hounds attacking a black family
in the woods’ and ‘The mode of exterminating
the black army as practised by the French’. The
opening here contains the title page and
frontispiece, in which the author is shown being
court martialed on suspicion of being a spy, with
Henri Christophe (1767-1820), later King and
president of Haiti presiding. Though found
guilty and condemned to death as a spy, Marcus
Rainsford (c1750-c1805), a military officer who
had led black troops in the West Indies, was
eventually freed, but is thought to have died
soon after.
Henri Christophe, King of Haiti. Copie de
lettres [manuscript] 1805-6
[With facsimile copies of the title page and a
letter]
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection F1924 HEN
The volume on display here is opened to show a
coloured print of Sans Souci, the palace of Henri
Christophe, president and later King of Haiti,
1807-20. Also on display are facsimile copies of
the manuscript title page and of one of the letters
included in the volume.
The volume comprises a collection of manuscript
copies of letters written by Christophe, a former
slave and leader in the Haitian revolution, which
led to independence from France in 1804. Many
of the letters, like the one reproduced here, are to
Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806), emperor
of Haiti from 1804 to 1806. The example shown
is dated 20 November 1805 and is addressed to
[Sa Majesté] ‘L’empereur’. The subject of the
letter gives an indication of the suspicion and
internecine conflict engulfing the island in this
period, with Christophe relating to Dessalines
the details of an order he has given to arrest all
Spaniards still at liberty, to prevent them from
passing information to the enemy.
Though the shackles of French colonial
government had been thrown off in the
revolution, neither the reign of Dessalines nor
that of Christophe saw widespread liberation
from harsh working conditions. Christophe
instituted a semi-feudal regime of compulsory
plantation corvée labour, backed by military
force, which stopped just short of slavery. By
these means he was able to maintain sugar
production on the large estates and generate
enough export trade to ensure a measure of
prosperity.
He also embarked on a grandiose construction
programme, building six châteaux and eight
palaces, as well as the impressive citadel of
Laferrière, to guard the country from French
attack. The ruins of Sans Souci, shown here, still
stand in the north of the country.
In 1811 Christophe proclaimed himself king,
taking the title Henri I. He established a Haitian
peerage, with princes, dukes, counts, barons and
knights (chevaliers), and a college of arms to
regulate the award of coats of arms to the
nobility.
Almanach royal d'Hayti, pour l'année 1814. Au
Cap-Henry [ie Cap-Haïtien]: chez P Roux,
imprimeur de Sa Majesté, 1813
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection JL1081.A11 ALM
The extremely rare publication on display here
was published to mark the 11th year of Haitian
independence. It gives details of the royal
household and nobility established by Henri
Christophe and was presented to James Stephen
(1758-1832), the lawyer and slavery
abolitionist, by a member of the Haitian
government.
By the time this work was published, Haiti was
divided into the Republic of Haiti in the south
and the Kingdom of Haiti in the north. The
south was ruled by the liberal government of
Alexandre Pétion (1770-1818), a man of mixed
race who had been expensively educated in
France and who broke up the large estates into
smallholdings that slaves could own as peasant
farmers – a popular move which was, however,
disastrous for the economy, as sugar production
was largely curtailed. The north was ruled more
autocratically by Henri Christophe.
The vicissitudes suffered by the Haitian people
as they attempted to overthrow colonial
government and then subsequently live under
local rulers who often displayed similarly
despotic tendencies, are illustrated in the items
exhibited in this case. Long after the revolution,
colonial powers continued to fight for control
and influence of the territory, adding to existing
internal conflicts. Other nations, including the
United States, were also reluctant to recognise
the newly independent nation-state for fear of
giving succour to their own slave populations.
Pompée Valentin, Baron de Vastey. Essai sur les
causes de la révolution et des guerres civiles
d'Hayti. À Sans-Souci: de l'Imprimerie
royale, 1819
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection F1921 VAS
The work displayed here was written by
Pompée Valentin (1781-1820), a mixed race
Haitian intellectual, who served in Henri
Christophe’s government and tutored his son.
His titles, derived from the Haitian peerage
system which Christophe set up, are visible on
the title page.
Valentin wrote a number of works on the
political situation in Haiti and this particular
copy of his thoughts on the revolution and
resulting civil wars is inscribed to William
Wilberforce (1759-1833) the famous British
abolitionist. An additional manuscript rendering
of ‘Wilberforce’ on the title page may be in the
hand of the Briton.
A key figure in the British campaign for the
abolition of the slave trade, the emancipation of
African slaves and other moral and
humanitarian issues, Wilberforce passed away
just three days after hearing that the 1833 bill
outlawing slavery in most of the British Empire
would be passed.
Modern Haiti, with a population of roughly 10
million, now occupies the western side of the
island of Hispaniola and suffered greatly
through natural disaster and war in the 20th
century. The more politically stable territory
now known as the Dominican Republic
occupies the eastern part of the island.
CASE 5
THE RUSSIAN
REVOLUTION
[Press cuttings] Russian cuttings: December 1915
to November 1919. Volumes 2 & 3.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection FOL. D501 PRE
The first of the two Russian Revolutions of
1917 overthrew the Tsarist regime of Nicholas
II, a ruler out of touch with the urban and rural
poor of the country, and who believed in his
own divine right to rule. In 1905, discontent
with the Tsar’s rule had led to mass
demonstrations and strikes throughout Russia,
though the imperial government remained in
power until 1917. In the intervening period,
limited reforms were implemented, including
the creation of a Duma (parliament) and a new
constitution. However, continued unrest
amongst the poor and an increasingly organised
Bolshevik party machine culminated in the
February Revolution and the Tsar’s abdication.
The openings displayed here show original
newspaper articles reporting on the two
revolutions of 1917 and are part of a set of 33
volumes of press cuttings relating to the First
World War and its aftermath, which were
compiled for the Foreign Office. On the left,
articles from early May 1917 report on the
initial period of what Lenin termed ‘dual
power’, following the February Revolution,
when the moderate provisional government
ruled with the more radical Soviet workers’
councils. The Manchester guardian reports that
greetings have been sent from members of
parliament to the Russian people expressing ‘joy
and admiration at the mighty revolution’ and
the list of signatories includes the Labour leader
and future prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald.
The Daily news foreign correspondent Arthur
Ransome (1884-1967), later to be better known
for his children’s fiction, files sympathetic
reports on the upheaval occurring in Petrograd
(St Petersburg) and remarks on the changing
perceptions of England caused by the suspicious
reactions to the revolution. Compassion for the
Tsar and the refusing of passports to citizens
wishing to attend a wartime socialist conference
have evidently not been well-received in parts
of revolutionary Russia. Ransome was a close
friend of Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders, so
these sympathetic reports are unsurprising.
However, it has been more recently claimed
that he was in fact a British secret agent.
The Morning post, a more conservative
newspaper, appraises the situation six weeks
into the dual power sharing agreement and
remarks that while ‘the populace in Petrograd is
still engaged mainly in demonstrating its joy
over the glorious victory’, conditions of life have
not improved, felonies are increasing and the
bread queues ‘are longer and denser than ever
before’.
In the volume displayed to the right, reports are
shown from the day following Lenin’s seizure of
power, and the overthrow of Kerensky’s interim
government, with the famous slogan ‘Peace and
bread’ employed as a by-line by The Times. The
first Bolshevik Decree, described by the
newspaper as ‘the extremist document’, is
reproduced and includes the four tenets of the
military revolutionary government, that of an
‘immediate democratic peace … an immediate
handing over of the large proprietorial lands to
the peasants, the transmission of all authority to
the Soviets and an honest convocation of the
Constituent Assembly’.
The Morning post article notes fears that the
revolution will aid Germany by opening the
door to a separate peace between the two
nations, garnered by the ‘German agent, Lenin’.
In its remarks on ‘the role of Russian Jews of
German extraction ... who have opened the
gates of Russia to the Germans’, a thinly veiled
antisemitism is present, with unpleasant
suggestions of a Jewish conspiracy.
Profiles of Lenin and the other Bolshevik
leaders also feature, introducing newspaper
readers to the figures who now hold power in
Russia, who lead wartime negotiations and who
will shape future international relations across
Europe.
Bertram D Wolfe. Three who made a revolution.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1955
Maughan Library DK253 W81
On the cover of the book displayed here are
portraits of the three main protagonists of the
Russian Revolution: from the left, Leon
Trotsky, Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin.
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (‘Lenin’, 1870-1924)
was the first leader of the newly founded
Russian Republic and led his government and
forces through its first bloody and chaotic years,
as they fought to wrest and retain control from
many opposing forces.
Lev Davidovich Bronstein (‘Leon Trotsky’,
1879-1940) was, alongside Lenin and Stalin,
one of the founding members of the Politburo
and went on to hold various offices of power in
the new Bolshevik administration, notably as
leader of the Red Army from 1918 to 1925.
Following ideological disagreements with
Stalin, he was later expelled from Russia and
assassinated in Mexico, both on Stalin’s orders.
Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (‘Stalin’,
1878-1953) was leader of the Soviet Union
from 1922 to 1953 and presided over a period of
mass industrialisation, alongside an ideological
view prioritising ‘socialism in one country’ as
opposed to Trotsky’s desire for the fomentation
of world revolution. Stalin was one of the most
brutal despots in history; his stranglehold over
the population through use of the secret police
and their methods of terror, and his purging of
Communist party members and political
enemies are well known.
The author of this book, Bertram Wolfe, was a
founding member of the Communist Party of
America and was involved in political activism
for most of his life. He wrote widely on
Marxism and the history of the Soviet Union,
but with the advent of the Cold War, his
perspective changed to one of anti-communism.
CASE 6
THE RUSSIAN
REVOLUTION
Times (London, England). Times illustrated
history of the War. Volume 13. London: The
Times, 1914-21.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection FOL. D521 TIM
Following the October Revolution and the end
of the ‘dual power’ sharing period, Bolshevik
forces faced opposition from factions socialist,
nationalist and otherwise, as they tried to
consolidate power across the former Tsarist
Empire. These conflicts are together known as
the Russian Civil War and are dated November
1917 to October 1922.
In neighbouring countries such as Ukraine,
power struggles ensued to fill the political
vacuum following the end of Russian
involvement in the First World War and the
Revolutions of 1917.
The images here show RADA soldiers of the
Ukrainian People’s Republic – often comprising
former units of the Russian Imperial Army – in
conflict with the Bolsheviks. In this particular
theatre of conflict, Bolshevik forces attempted
to assert control over the country in the
Ukrainian-Soviet War – itself part of the wider
conflict of the Russian Civil War.
In 1921, following a Bolshevik victory and a loss
of territory to Poland negotiated by Soviet
Russia at the Peace of Riga, the newly formed
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic became one
of the founding states of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR).
Sir Alfred William Fortescue Knox. With the
Russian army, 1914-1917. London: Hutchinson
& Co, 1921
FB Maurice Collection D556 KNO
The book shown here was written by a majorgeneral in the British Army, who was a military
attaché to the Russian Imperial Army in the
First World War. His perspective is
conservative, viewing the Bolshevik coup d’état
as the work of ‘a handful of fanatics’ who had
managed to convince the masses that their
dreams would be fulfilled.
His insights into maintaining the momentum of
revolutionary zeal, a problem that has hindered
many revolutionary movements, are notable,
however, and are explored in his observations
on the activities of Red Army troops at the end
of 1917.
One day the guard on the Winter Palace broke into
the Imperial Cellars and got drunk. The orgy here
lasted several days, successive guards, after much
shooting, arresting their predecessors, only to get
drunk in turn themselves.
Following the flooding of the cellars to stop this
practice,
“The freest army in the world” turned its attention
to private cellars … the Left Press wrote that this
cellar-looting was the result of bourgeois
propaganda, which was of course nonsense. It was
simply the result of removing all control from
armed men, of continuing to feed them, and of
giving them nothing to do.
The images displayed here show members of
the ‘Temporary Executive Committee of the
Executive Duma’, including its leader
Kerensky, meeting in the period between the
two revolutions; and soldiers in the Liteini
Prospekt in St Petersburg.
The text on the facing page documents some of
the mutual suspicion, disinformation and
propaganda spread between Russian and
German troops, as it became clear that the
Russian Revolution would see the end of
Russia’s involvement in the First World War,
and that Germany would have the upper hand
in negotiations, as a yet undefeated power.
The Soviet/Russian year-book. Howard P
Kennard. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. 1916
and 1929
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection
The two volumes of the Russian – later Soviet –
yearbooks displayed here are exhibited to give
an indication of British perspectives on the
country before and after the revolutions of
1917.
The yearbook published in 1916, which
includes advertisements for machinery and
commercial goods, acknowledges that the war
that both nations are engaged in has ‘put an end,
for the moment, to the ordinary commercial
intercourse between the two countries’ but
hopes that this pause will allow ‘the mercantile
classes of both countries an opportunity to learn
more of their prospective customers than they
have in the past’. These sentiments, viewed
against the backdrop of the First World War,
and the resulting slaughter of millions of men,
seems misplaced, but this yearbook was a ‘trade’
publication, catering to a ‘mercantile class’
readership who would be familiar with the
content: the work was in its sixth year of issue.
The map shown is from the opening to the 1929
edition of the yearbook and illustrates the
European territory of the USSR as it then stood.
States such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Georgia
would form part of this Union until its break-up
in 1991.
The text of the introduction of the second
volume, from 1927, acknowledges that ‘at
present comparatively little is known by the
general public of the new economic and political
order of the Soviet Union’. Though the AngloSoviet Trade Agreement had been signed in
1921 and marked a significant step towards the
normalisation of relations between the two
countries, the radical economic policies of
Soviet governments, and a growing suspicion of
the regime on the world stage meant that an
outsider’s view of the Soviet Union was often
opaque, something that would last throughout
the 20th century.
International literature. Moscow: The State
Literary Publishing House, 1935
Adam (Grindea) Collection
One of the aims of the Trotskyite strand of
Marxism is worldwide revolution and this helps
to explain why the incipient Soviet Union was
held in such high suspicion by many people of
other nations, fearful of revolution in their own
lands. Even after Stalin’s adoption of the
doctrine of ‘socialism in one country’,
arguments for countering Soviet influence in
conflicts throughout the 20th century were
predicated largely on the fear that an expansion
of Soviet power and territory would threaten
the democratic nations of the world and their
hard-won freedoms, trade processes and
capitalist systems.
The publication shown here sits within this
theme of international Marxism. Its subtitle is
Organ of the International Union of Revolutionary
Writers; and its former title was: Literature of the
world revolution. Published in five languages,
Russian, French, German, English and Chinese,
from 1932 to 1945, the magazine names
distributors in the USSR, Great Britain and the
USA.
The opening shown here displays two
revolutionary murals by Jacob Burck (1907-82),
an American who travelled to the Soviet Union
in 1935, a visit announced by the magazine on
the previous page:
Burck feels that he needs a deeper understanding of
socialism, to continue his artistic growth. He is
coming to the Soviet Union for his “post-graduate
course”. He will become staff artist of the
Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Burck travelled to the Soviet Union and worked
on murals commissioned by Intourist, the
official Soviet travel agency. However,
disillusioned by his orders to tailor his work to
fit in with Stalin’s ‘cult of personality’, he
returned home less devoted to the Communist
cause. In later life he worked as a cartoonist for
American newspapers and won the Pulitzer
Prize for editorial cartooning while at the
Chicago times in 1941.
CASE 7
THE SCIENTIFIC
REVOLUTION
Galileo Galilei. Dialogo dei massimi sistemi.
Fiorenza: per Gio: Batista Landini, 1632
Rare Books Collection QB41 G14
On display here is a first edition of Dialogo dei
massimi sistemi (‘Dialogue concerning the two
chief world systems’) by Galileo Galilei (15641642). The engraved title page depicts Galileo
in discussion with Ptolemy and Copernicus.
In this work, Galileo compares the
Ptolemaic system with the Copernican system.
The Ptolemaic system claimed that the earth
was the centre of the universe and had been the
accepted view of the earth’s place in the solar
system for centuries. Copernicus’ theory, that
the earth and other planets orbit the sun, was
controversial and when Galileo first published in
support of it in 1614 he was accused of heresy.
In the 1620s, Galileo was given permission by
Pope Urban VIII to publish his theories of the
universe, as long as Copernican theory was
treated hypothetically. In 1632, Dialogo dei
massimi sistemi was published. The text set out
the arguments for and against Copernican
theory in the form of a debate between three
men – one Copernican, a follower of Ptolemy
and a mediator who guided the discussion.
Readers found that the Copernican argument
was the stronger of the two and that the
Ptolemaic supporter had been named simplicio
(‘simpleton’ in Italian).
Pope Urban VIII ordered that no more copies
were to be published and Galileo was accused of
heresy once again. In 1633 he was summoned
before the Inquisition in Rome and the text was
put on the Index of Prohibited Books. Galileo
was forced to retract his support of Copernican
theory and was sentenced to permanent house
arrest. Dialogo dei massimi sistemi remained on
the Index of Prohibited Books for 111 years,
before a heavily censored version was released
in 1744. The full text was published again in
1835, 202 years after it had been banned.
Robert Hooke. Micrographia, or Some
physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by
magnifying glasses. London: printed by Jo
Martyn, and Ja Allestry, printers to the Royal
Society, and are to be sold at their shop at the
Bell in S Paul's Church-yard, 1665
Rare Books Collection FOL.QH271 H74
Robert Hooke (1635–1703) was a scientist and
draughtsman who carried out research in a
remarkable variety of fields, including
microscopy, astronomy and geology. The work
on display is a first edition of Hooke’s
Micrographia, which was the first illustrated
book on microscopy. In the words of Richard
Westfall:
Like Galileo’s Sidereus
Nuncius, Micrographia presented not a systematic
investigation of any one question but a bouquet of
observations from the mineral, vegetable and
animal kingdoms
This bouquet was a feast for the eyes, as this
fantastically detailed copperplate engraving of a
flea demonstrates. In Hooke’s observations of
the flea, he describes and praises the ‘strength
and beauty of this small creature’, noting the
insect’s powerful jumping mechanism, revealed
through the microscope: ‘the curious
contrivance of its leggs and joints, for the
exerting that strength, is very plainly
manifested, such as no other creature, I have yet
observ’d’.
Nothing which so vividly advertised the
excitement of microscopy had been published
before, and it provoked a mini-craze among
amateur enthusiasts, such as Samuel Pepys, who
famously stayed up until two o’clock in the
morning reading the work. In addition to
observations on specimens viewed under the
microscope, Hooke’s text explores the wave
theory of light and proposes, significantly, that
fossils are the remains of extinct species. It was
in this work that Hooke also coined the term
‘cell’ when describing the tiny pores in a piece
of cork.
Joseph Priestley. Experiments and observations
on different kinds of air. London: printed for J
Johnson, 1775-77. Volume 1
St Thomas's Historical Books Collection QD28
PRI
On display is the first volume of the threevolume work Experiments and observations on
different kinds of air by Joseph Priestley (17331804). In this work Priestley announced his
discovery of several gases, including oxygen.
Prior to Priestley’s discovery, the theory that air
was an elementary substance, formed some
2,500 years ago, still prevailed. Priestley found
during a series of experiments that ‘air is not an
elementary substance, but a composition’ of
gases. One of the gases he discovered he called
‘dephlogisticated air’, which was soon after
given the name ‘oxygen’ by the French chemist
Antoine Lavoisier (1743-94), who recognised it
as the active principle in the atmosphere. The
discovery of the existence and activity of
oxygen revolutionised chemistry.
The fold-out plate on display shows equipment
used by Priestley in his experiments. Using this
equipment, he discovered oxygen, finding it to
be a gas ‘of exalted nature’, observing that ‘a
candle burned in this air with an amazing
strength of flame’. In this work, as well as
writing on his discovery of oxygen, Priestley
identifies ammonia gas, nitrous oxide and
nitrogen dioxide, along with the process of
photosynthesis.
As well as being a scientific pioneer, Priestley
harboured religious and political beliefs that
were considered radical in his day. Priestley was
a Dissenter (a Protestant not associated with the
Church of England) who supported the
American and French Revolutions. Many
people found his opinions too radical, and in
1791 the Priestley Riots occurred in
Birmingham on Bastille Day. A drunken mob
damaged the Old and New Meeting Houses and
destroyed Priestley’s house, Priestley and his
family only just escaping with their lives.
Priestley and his family emigrated to America in
1794, where he continued his scientific work
until his death. The copy on display contains
the bookplate of his son, Joseph Priestley junior
(1768-1863).
Charles Darwin. On the origin of species by means
of natural selection: or the preservation of
favoured races in the struggle for life.
London: John Murray, 1859
De Beer Collection QH365.O2 1859
On display is a first edition of
On the origin of species, Charles Darwin’s
ground-breaking work that transformed our
understanding of humanity’s place within the
natural world. In this text, Darwin proposed
some of the most radical ideas of the 19th
century – the theory that evolution occurred by
a process he called ‘natural selection’, along
with the implication that humans are descended
from apes.
Darwin initially formed his ideas in the 1830s,
but did not publish his theories for 20 years, due
to their controversy. His work offered a theory
on the development of humankind without the
need for a creator, a theory that undermined
Victorian Christian beliefs. Aware of the
subversive implications of the work, he once
stated that writing On the origin of species was
‘like confessing a murder'.
Published in 1859,
On the origin of species shocked many readers
and the text generated much public debate,
including famous public discussions between
scientists and theologians. However, the work
also attracted a great deal of positive attention,
and rapidly became a bestseller. Five updated
editions were published within Darwin’s
lifetime and the text was translated into a
number of different languages. The work is now
considered one of the most important works of
biology ever published, with its theories
underpinning modern Western thought.
This copy was previously owned by Sir Gavin
de Beer (1899-1972), professor of embryology
at University College London and director of
the Natural History Museum. His former library
is now held in the Foyle Special Collections
Library, with the collection including a nearcomplete set of Darwin's publications, all in
their original bindings.
CASE 8
LITERARY
REVOLUTIONARIES
George Gordon Byron. Childe Harold’s
pilgrimage. Canto the third. London: John
Murray, 1816
Rare Books Collection PR 4372.F2
Lord Byron (1788-1824) was one of the most
renowned British poets of the 19th century, and
a key figure of the Romantic movement. Byron
was associated with radical reform throughout
his life. As a young man he aspired to a career in
parliament, and as a member of the House of
Lords defended the Luddite movement. He was
viewed as a radical by some, and his political
career did not take off. He turned to poetry
instead, writing short politically radical poems,
often anonymously, and gradually incorporating
politics into works published under his name.
In 1816 Byron left England for the Continent in
self-imposed exile, due to public scandals.
During his travels he wrote the third canto of
Childe Harold’s pilgrimage. A first edition of this
work is on display. In this poem, Byron
controversially denounces the Battle of
Waterloo, which he viewed as a disaster, and
accuses it of ‘reviving Thraldom’ through its
restoration of the monarchy in France. This
view was in opposition to that of the majority of
his countrymen, including other eminent poets
such as William Wordsworth and Robert
Southey, who viewed Waterloo as a great
victory.
During his time on the Continent Byron became
politically involved with independence
movements in Italy and Greece. In Italy Byron
wrote for the radical British publication The
liberal and joined a secret society of Italian
nationalists. In Greece, Byron wrote little, and
instead focused on action that could further the
Greek cause. In the short four months he was in
Missolonghi he raised a large amount of money
for the independence movement, worked on a
new economic policy for the country and
commanded a brigade of Souliot soldiers.
Greece eventually attained independence at the
Battle of Navarino in 1832; Byron, however,
did not live to see this, dying of fever in 1824.
Byron’s contribution to the cause aided the
ultimate victory of the nationalists, which
achieved his aim ‘that Greece might still be
free’.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. A selection from the
poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. London:
Smith, Elder & Co, 1884
Hamilton Collection PR4182 SEL
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61) was one
of the most celebrated poets of the Victorian
period. Throughout her career she was not
afraid to express her views on contemporary
political and social issues, including child
labour, industrialisation, slavery and women’s
rights.
This kind of poetry was in stark contrast to the
work of more conservative women poets of the
period, who wrote on topics deemed more
acceptable for a woman’s consideration, such as
nature and religion. Barrett Browning’s work
received a mixed critical response, with some
critics admiring her willingness to tackle social
issues, while others condemned her for writing
on issues considered outside a woman’s sphere.
Barrett Browning refused to let critical
condemnation affect her, continuing to write
politically engaged work throughout her career.
The poem on display is Casa Guidi windows,
first published in 1851. Casa Guidi in Florence
was the home of Barrett Browning and her
husband Robert Browning from 1847. In this
poem, Barrett Browning addresses the
contemporary political issue of Italy’s struggle
for unification. She criticises Austria’s
domination of much of the country, as well as
Britain’s policy of non-intervention. In the poem,
Barrett Browning observes history taking place
from the windows of her home in central
Florence. As one critic notes, from the beginning
of the poem Barrett Browning insists that ‘her
domestic perspective as a wife, mother, and
woman poet enables her to make an important
contribution to the public discourse about
political events’. Her work on the ‘Italian
Question’ received support and praise from
artists, intellectuals and revolutionaries,
including Giuseppe Mazzini and George Henry
Lewes.
Samuel Beckett. That time = Damals. [Frankfurt
am Main]: Suhrkamp, [1976]
Adam (Grindea) Collection PR6003.E282 T5
Samuel Beckett (1906-89) was an Irish
playwright, theatre director, novelist and poet
who has been credited with changing the course
of post-war theatre. He has been referred to as
one of the last modernist writers and a key
figure associated with the ‘Theatre of the
Absurd’ – a form of theatre concerned with
existential ideas of the absurdity of the human
condition. Beckett’s plays offered an alternative
to theatre’s naturalistic tradition by creating
theatre without conventional plot or time and
place references that explored the human
condition in dark and humorous ways. The
critic Kenneth Tynan wrote of Waiting for
Godot, Beckett’s most famous play, that it
‘frankly jettisons everything by which we
recognise theatre’. Beckett was awarded the
Nobel Prize for literature in 1969: ‘For his
writing which—in new forms for the novel and
drama—in the destitution of modern man
acquires its elevation’.
The item on display is a copy of the one-act
play That time, reproduced in both English and
German. In That time the only presence on stage
is an old man’s head suspended in darkness,
listening to his own voice from different stages
of his life repeating and re-telling memories. In
this play, as in Beckett’s other short late plays,
the staging is stark and minimalistic and the
character’s monologues are, as one critic notes,
concerned with ‘sifting the past and enduring
the continuum of life’.
This copy is from the Adam Collection,
which was the personal library of the literary
journalist Miron Grindea (1909-95). The Adam
Collection holds many items of interest to
anyone researching the history of literary
culture in the 20th century or the history of the
book. In addition to the work on display, there
are copies of Beckett’s poetry collection Echo's
bones: and other precipitates and his short story
collection Nouvelles et textes pour rien, both of
which Beckett inscribed to Miron Grindea.
Allen Ginsberg. Collected poems, 1947-1980.
Harmondsworth: Viking, 1985
Eric Mottram Collection PS3513.I43 A17
Allen Ginsberg (1926-97) was a pivotal figure of
the Beat generation and of 1960s American
counterculture. His poetry first came to
prominence with the publication of his
collection Howl and other poems (1956). The
poem Howl, in particular, caused great
controversy due to its explicit content. It
divided critics, drawing criticism and praise for
its antagonistic tone, use of raw, honest street
language and treatment of taboo subjects. The
critic Kevin O’Sullivan wrote that the poem
was ‘considered by many to be a revolutionary
event in American poetry’, while Paul Zweig
noted how the poem ‘almost singlehandedly
dislocated the traditionalist poetry of the 1950s’.
Shortly after the collection was published, it
was banned for obscenity. Howl overcame
censorship trials and became a manifesto for the
Beat movement. Ginsberg was also heavily
involved with counterculture and anti-war
movements in the 1960s, protesting against the
Vietnam War and addressing issues of free
speech and gay rights.
The copy of Collected poems on display is
inscribed by Ginsberg to Eric Mottram (192495), professor of English and American
Literature at King's College London, who was
also a poet, critic and editor. The inscription
includes a quotation from the Buddhist abbot
Chögyam Trungpa: ‘Things are symbols of
themselve’. Ginsberg took classes and taught
poetry in Trungpa's Naropa Institute and
committed himself to the Buddhist faith in the
1970s.
Jeremy D Adler. Notes from the correspondence
= Zeilen aus der Korrespondenz: a poem by
Jeremy Adler with seven etchings by Sylvia
Finzi. [Aachen]: Alphabox Press, 1983
Jeremy Adler Collection PR6051.D44 NOT
Jeremy D Adler. Soap box. Obermichelbach:
Gertraud Scholz Verlag, 1987
Jeremy Adler Collection
Jeremy D Adler. ‘The role of the theatre in
Czechoslovakia’s ‘velvet revolution’’. Themes in
drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1991
Private Collection
On display is work by Jeremy Adler, poet and
professor emeritus at King’s College London.
Jeremy Adler was active in the Poetry Society
from 1967 to 1977, where he produced work
alongside influential members of the British
Poetry Revival, including Eric Mottram (whose
copy of Allen Ginsberg’s Collected poems is
also on display).
The British Poetry Revival took place during the
1960s and 1970s. It was a modernist-inspired
reaction to the more conservative Movement
poetry of the time. Jeremy Adler and other
‘Revival’ poets dominated the Poetry Society
throughout the 1970s. The work they produced
was inspired by the International Poetry
Incarnation of 1965, at which Allen Ginsberg
and Ernst Jandl read. As Adler writes, ‘the
Poetry Society translated the mood of 1965 and
all its vibrancy into a single continuum, which
made that unique event and its atmosphere
permanently accessible to a wide and growing
public’.
The Society held a number of experimental
workshops on visual poetry, sound poetry,
semantic poetry and poetry and dance. Poetry
readings and live performances were a key part
of the Revival poets’ work and much of the
sound and performance poetry was rooted in
Dada. As well as the Poetry Society, King’s
College London was a key site in the Revival.
Eric Mottram, a central figure in the Revival,
taught at King’s and a number of Revival poets
attended the university and were taught by him.
The items on display include Jeremy Adler’s
visual poem Soap box and the poem Notes from
the correspondence. The visual poem Soap box
shows how poetry can be treated in a material
way without relying on semantics. The artist’s
book Notes from the correspondence is a
collaborative work between Adler and the artist
Sylvia Finzi. Collaborative work was a key part
of the Revival poets’ work, and the item on
display shows an effective combination of poetry
and art.
In the 1980s Jeremy Adler became an observer
of the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution, whose
leader, Václav Havel, was a dramatist, and also
wrote experimental poetry, which Adler
exhibited. Adler's article ‘The role of the theatre
in Czechoslovakia’s ‘velvet revolution’’, on
display, was the first essay on art in the fall of
communism.
CASE 9
PERCEPTIONS
OF REVOLUTION
For the final case of this exhibition, we asked
King’s colleagues for responses and ideas
regarding the theme of Revolution, based on
items held in our collections. We suggested that
their ideas could come from:
 Their personal background or heritage –
perhaps their journey to London has been
shaped by a revolution elsewhere
 Their interest in cultural, literary, artistic
or socio-economic revolutions
 An interest in a revolution in attitudes as
to how various groups and people are
perceived
 Their interest in one of the revolutions
that has shaped the modern world
 An interest in how revolutionary activity
has had an impact on a part of the world
The items and commentaries in this case
represent these submissions and we are grateful
to our guest curators for their contributions.
By Gavin Beattie, Associate Director
(Learning and Skills), Library Services
Harry Calvert. The Northern Ireland problem.
London: United Nations Association, 1972
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection PAMPH. BOX DA990.U46 CAL
In selecting this pamphlet, I might be stretching
the definition of revolution but there is no
denying that the 1970s represented a period of
political upheaval, conflict and violence in my
home country of Northern Ireland.
The pamphlet was published in 1972. This was
both the year I was born in Belfast and the
bloodiest year of the Troubles (as the ‘Northern
Ireland Problem’ became known, in typical Irish
understatement) with 480 deaths. My parents
talked of hearing the riots and the sirens from
the maternity ward and of how unsafe my Mum
felt in hospital.
Harry Calvert, a professor of law at the
University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was
commissioned by the United Nations
Association to look at the human rights aspect of
the ‘problem’. He writes,
As I have prepared this paper, I have been
constantly reminded of how difficult it is to avoid
controversy in expressing practically any view on
the present turmoil in Northern Ireland
This may be why his conclusions seem obvious
and tempered. Perhaps that is from the
perspective of 2017, although avoiding
controversy is still difficult.
There were many pamphlets published in the
early 1970s on the ‘Northern Ireland Problem’
and it is interesting and emotional to reflect on
what it means to have been born and raised as
part of a problem. It certainly didn’t feel that
way growing up, although we were all aware
that our ‘normal’ was very different from those
of our neighbours across the Irish border or
across the Irish Sea.
The ‘Troubles’ carried on until the late 1990s
resulting in around 3,500 deaths, so it is hard to
see what impact publications like this had in
concrete terms, but it provides an interesting
historical perspective.
By Sergio Alonso Mislata, Library Assistant,
Library Services
David Sylvester. Dada and surrealism reviewed.
London: Arts Council, 1978
Adam (Grindea Collection) NX600.D3 A341
While other artistic avant-garde movements
remained mainly concerned with the aesthetic
possibilities of their proposals, Dada, born
during the First World War I in Zurich, and
Surrealism, born in Paris as a development of
dadaist positions after the war, went one step
beyond to set their goals outside the strict
boundaries of art and, on no few occasions, to
oppose them. Under the direction of its leader,
André Breton (1896-1966), Surrealism became
a major force until the end of the Second World
War. Journals were a fundamental medium for
these movements to spread their ideas and gain
converts to their cause. The most legendary of
Surrealist journals was La révolution surréaliste
(1924-29).
Dada was a pure negation of anything
established and a continuous slap in the face of
any certainty, playfully proclaiming ‘Chance’ as
its only guidance. Surrealism started as an
attempt to overcome Dada’s nihilism and
channel its discoveries and the energies that it
had unleashed towards more constructive
pursuits; it postulated itself as more than an
artistic avant-garde, claiming to be the avantgarde of a spiritual revolution. In these
movements’ eyes, the modern western world
had denied itself a comprehensive experience of
reality, through its submission to logics and pure
utilitarian reason, with catastrophic
consequences. The time had come to accelerate
dynamics already in motion within society, to
achieve a higher state of reality where
wakefulness (reason) and dream converged, to
reach a superreality (surréalité) that would bring
with it a superior level of consciousness and
freedom.
Le surréalisme au service de la révolution (193033) followed La révolution surréaliste as the
official journal of surrealism. The surrealist
movement had moved to a position closer to the
French Communist Party, and assumed the idea
of complementing the revolutionary political
positions of this with its own intellectual and
artistic positions. However, for the Communist
party, the only acceptable artistic creed was
socialist realism and educating the masses. After
three years of growing tensions and a few key
desertions from the surrealist ranks, Le
surréalisme au service de la révolution ceased
publication. Following the Second World War,
in the grim post-war panorama and with a new
world order in place, there did not seem to be
any place left for Surrealism. Other movements
and ideas had taken its place. Its influence,
however, still lives on.
By Linda Gyamfi, Student Support Officer,
The Compass
Thomas Bowdich. Mission from Cape Coast to
Ashantee. London: John Murray, 1819
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection DT507 BOW
William Hutton. A voyage to Africa. London:
Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection DT507 HUT
I really enjoyed reading about and discovering
the British experience of the Gold Coast in the
books Voyage to Africa and the Mission from
Cape Coast to Ashantee. I was very impressed by
the level of detail William Hutton provided in
his account of the cultural practices, traditional
ceremonies and the native names (although
written in a British version). I was also
fascinated by the last chapter of his book, which
contains the British translation of Fante words Fante being a dialect of the Akan language.
Thomas Bowdich’s work contains a beautiful
illustration of the yam festival, which displays
the local citizens gathering at the ceremony and
the kings in their palanquins. The ancient
symbols on the large umbrellas convey different
messages relating to the wisdom of life and are
totems of the different clans within the Akan /
Asante Empire.
Postscript
Following the end of the Second World War, in
which Britain’s African colonies had
contributed both men and resources, a wave of
nationalism began to sweep colonial territories,
led by men such as Ghana’s first leader, Kwame
Nkrumah (1909-72). In Harold Macmillan’s
famous ‘wind of change’ speech, delivered in
Cape Town in 1960, Britain recognised the
‘national consciousness’ stirring on the
continent and signalled its intentions for
disengagement.
The resulting policies and processes of
decolonisation, though involving some conflict,
did avoid the large-scale revolutionary wars
fought in other European colonies, such as the
Algerian War of Independence (1954-62) and
the Angolan War of Independence (1961-74).
Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast) was the first
of Britain’s black African colonies to declare
independence and 6 March 2017 marks 60
years of Ghanaian independence. The FCO
Historical Collection holds much material on
imperial history and also on the decolonisation
process, independence movements and
postcolonial relations.
By Luiz da Motta-Teixeira, Psychodynamic
Therapist, King’s Counselling Service
Sigmund Freud. Das Ich und das Es. Leipzig:
Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag, 1923
Institute of Psychiatry Historical Collection
h/Fre
If you are reading this, the words 'ego', 'id', and
'psychoanalysis', are unlikely to be unfamiliar to
you. Perhaps you have accessed 'counselling' or
considered looking for 'professional help' at
some point. You are likely to have read
magazine articles about 'psychological processes'
or 'group dynamics', or to have encountered
terms like 'narcissism', 'unconscious' and
'Oedipus (complex)' in newspapers or in
colloquial usage with friends and family.
You may have experienced 'anxiety' or
'depression' or 'altered states' or 'internal
conflicts' which you may be curious about and
would like to understand better. You may
wonder about addictions, obsessions, phobias,
violence, desire, frustration, dreams,
relationships, or 'personality types' - in yourself
or others. You must have seen 'shrinks' in film or
TV representations. Or your interest in the field
of 'therapy' may itself be extensive, either
personally or professionally. Had you been born
as little as 100 years ago, the same would most
likely NOT be the case! Like it or lump it, our
cultural world, vocabulary and references are
undeniably and indelibly impacted on by
Freud's body of work.
Prior to Freud, the functioning of the human
mind was a matter of interest to all those
inclined to contemplate the bewildering array of
human experience: thinking, feelings,
perceptions, responses, motivations, conflicts,
passions, awareness, will, personalities, desires,
influence, etc. The observation of our inner
workings had always fascinated writers and
philosophers alike, and this was expressed in
literature, poetry, mythologies and philosophies,
as well as in religious and ethical doctrines.
'Mental disorders’ and ‘mental disturbances'
confounded many, but it was Freud who first
attempted formally to 'analyse' and
conceptualise all this. Freud’s work has become
a touchstone for practitioners, theoreticians and
scholars and helps to generate extensive libraries
still in constant expansion, and a field of
engagement unique in its own right. It also
produces dynamic inter-relationships with most
other fields – from arts to sciences, from culture
to politics, from marketing to sports, from
popular culture to academia – permeating our
culture in its own – particular and revolutionary
– way.
By Paola Hayward, Senior Library Assistant,
Library Services
Paul Frischauer. Garibaldi: the man and the
nation. London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson
Limited, 1935
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Historical
Collection DG552.8.G2 FRI
1848 was a tumultuous year for Europe:
Austria, France, Germany and Italy
experienced uprisings against their governments
and rulers. In Italy, in an attempt to gain
independence from foreign powers, popular
uprisings started in Sicily and spread across the
Italian mainland, across several duchies, states
and kingdoms and culminated in battles in the
Piedmont area against the Austrians.
Although the events of 1848 did not overthrow
the Austrians, they nevertheless paved the way
for the formation of an independent Italian state,
which was finally established in 1861. They also
contributed to the weakening of the Papal
States and to the consolidation of an Italian
identity.
Unification was credited to several political
figures, among whom Giuseppe Mazzini,
Giuseppe Garibaldi, Count Camillo Cavour and
King Victor Emmanuel II are the best
remembered.
The revolutions of 1848 occurred across many
European states and were a protest against old
systems of government, feudalism and absolute
monarchy. Individual protest movements were
aided by the rise of a popular press,
disseminating news of shared discontent and in
some cases the seeds of revolutionary activity.
Though the backdrop against which these
revolutions were set – growing industrialism,
discontent among those outside ruling power
structures and a rising tide of liberal reform –
was shared across nations, the revolutions were
largely uncoordinated. The successes of the
various revolutions are often viewed by
historians as limited, though in Italy and other
larger European nations they had lasting
impacts in terms of the relationships between
the old ruling class and the rest of the
population. An analysis of failure would perhaps
align them with the outcomes of the Arab
Spring, another series of political movements
that have not realised the dreams of many and
have, like the European revolutions of 1848,
seen death and destruction on a tragic scale.
By Karl Ulas, BA Philosophy student at
King’s
Charles L Eastlake. A history of the Gothic
Revival. London: Longmans, 1872
Miscellaneous Collection NA610 EAS
The Gothic Revival was an artistic and cultural
movement that swept through Britain in the 19th
century. It is defined by the resurgence of
certain themes and motifs which had lain
dormant through the Age of Enlightenment.
The style was most prominently expressed in
architecture and the public realm, harking back
to past centuries and rooted in a lost medievalist
wonder. Arches, turrets and gargoyles dotted
Gothic buildings, empowering them with a
sense of mystery and tempting the inquisitive
with secrets.
One way to contextualise this renewed
fascination with the medieval world is to see it
as the embodiment of a broader historical
conflict between Classicism and Romanticism.
The two heralded a different set of virtues; the
former a balanced, structured harmony, the
latter an almost unrestrained human passion
with religious overtones. Yet an increasingly
industrialised and secularised world had
seemingly disenchanted a generation. Eminent
thinkers, writers and architects from Gilbert
Scott to John Ruskin championed the Gothic
Revival cause; the matter could not, as
Augustus Pugin noted at the time, be reduced to
the ‘servile imitation of ancient models’. Such
collective sentiment was in part a social reaction
to the rigid order and symmetry of Classical
principles.
This particular revivalist movement
revolutionised the face of British cities at a time
when they were growing at an unprecedented
rate. The architectural style of choice for civic
buildings swung back to favour the Gothic and
many magnificent edifices survive to tell the
tale. From Manchester to Bradford to Rochdale,
industrial hubs across the north of England
competed with one another to build a town hall
even grander and more inspiring than that of
their neighbours. As the capital of a burgeoning
empire, London had its share of celebrated
Gothic buildings too, including our very own
Maughan Library.
The entire affair culminated in an ideological
clash that is popularly referred to as the ‘Battle
of the Styles’. Fierce debates raged at a national
level on the question of whether our public
institutions were to be built in the Classical or
Gothic style. Ultimately, however, rapid
industrialisation and the wars of subsequent
years saw a decline in the popularity of both
styles and other internationally influenced
movements such as Art Deco and Modernism
came to prominence in their place.
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Richard Baxter. An abridgement Mr Baxter’s
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