Keeping it in the Family: British and Irish Literary Generations 1770-1930

The latest exhibition at the de Beer Gallery, Special Collections, University of Otago begins on Friday 9 December.  It is called ‘Keeping it in the Family. British and Irish Literary Generations 1770-1930’.

Co-curators of this exhibition, Drs Tom McLean and Ruth Knezevich write:

“Not every great writer is a solitary genius. As a child, Charlotte Brontë created the imaginary world of Angria with her brother Branwell. William Wordsworth borrowed from his sister Dorothy’s diary to create one of the most famous poems in English. Long before Charles Darwin studied the fertilisation of orchids, his grandfather Erasmus wrote poetry about the loves of plants. Dante Rossetti created lavish illustrations to accompany his sister Christina’s volumes of poetry.

These are some of the relationships explored in Keeping it in the Family: British and Irish Literary Generations 1770-1930*, an exhibition highlighting the role of family in creative production in nineteenth-century Britain and Ireland.

Items on display will include early editions from S.T. Coleridge, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Virginia Woolf; a letter from Charles Darwin; an 1899 edition of Rudyard Kipling’s The Second Jungle Book with illustrations by his father; and Lady Jane Wilde’s 1864 Poems, written under the pen name ‘Speranza’ and dedicated to her sons, Willie and Oscar.

New Zealand (and Dunedin) is not forgotten. Famous British families with New Zealand connections on show include descendants of Scottish writers Robert Burns and James Hogg (who settled in Dunedin); Matthew Arnold’s brother Tom published an account of his 1847 visit to Otago; and George Kingsley (father of the famous African explorer Mary Kingsley) wrote of his anticipation at seeing a kiwi for the first time.

Please do come along and visit the de Beer Gallery, Special Collections, University of Otago Library, 1^st Floor

Time: 8.30 to 5.00 Monday to Friday

The exhibition will run to 17 March 2017

*Keeping it in the Family: British and Irish Literary Generations 1770-1930 is made possible by the generous support of the Royal New Zealand Marsden Fund. It includes works from Dunedin Public Library, the Hocken Library, and the University of Otago Special Collections.

 
And because there is no official opening, there is a treat, especially if you are looking for literary inspiration. Tom McLean and Ruth Knezevich will give a FREE tour of the new Special Collections exhibition "Keeping it in the Family" on Friday at 3pm. The exhibition, which examines kinship and creativity, includes works from Wordsworth, Darwin, Rossetti, Wilde, and Woolf, among others. The tour will start on the first floor just outside Special Collections, and everyone is welcome.

For further information, please contact Special Collections Librarian Dr Donald Kerr (donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz) or co-curators Dr Thomas McLean (thomas.mclean@otago.ac.nz) and Dr Ruth Knezevich, (ruth.knezevich@otago.ac.nz).