Department of English

• Monday, April 8, 2019 - 5:15pm to 7:00pm

Class of 1978 Pavilion, 6th floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library

We will be welcoming Sarah Horowitz for a talk entitled: “Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, and the Illustrators of the Wig and Powder School: British Gift Books of the 1890s.” Sarah writes: 

In 1891, MacMillan published an edition of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Cranford featuring 183 illustrations by Hugh Thomson. The book quickly sold out its run of 5000 copies, and became the namesake for a series of highly-illustrated gift books, often published for the Christmas market. Illustrators such as Thomson, C.E. and H.M. Brock, and Chris Hammond, known as the Wig and Powder school, created dainty period illustrations which emphasized the works’ Britishness and “classic” status. In this talk, I explore the ways in which the packaging and illustration of these gift books presented the works for female readers while de-emphasizing the agency of female characters.

Sarah M. Horowitz is Curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts and Head of Quaker & Special Collections at Haverford College. Her professional interests include late nineteenth century gift books, image/text interaction, and teaching undergraduates with primary sources. She is also currently the principle investigator for the “Chronicling Resistance” project of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries.

All are welcome! Those who do not hold University of Pennsylvania ID cards should bring another form of photo identification in order to enter the library building.