Geoff Charles, 'Ballet Dancers', 1953
I’ve recently noticed a revival in British satire; in difficult times we British are well-known for our stiff upper lip and our ability to laugh at ourselves. Humour can found on the television, in the media and in the arts – even in a Library!
Comedy is part and parcel of British humour and naturally forms part of the Library collection. From the 19th century cartoons in Punch to the oddities in the photograph collection (opposite), there are items here that will make you laugh out loud (as long as you are not the reading room – shhhh!). My particular favourite though has to be the Leslie Illingworth cartoon collection.
Illingworth worked as a cartoonist for the Daily Mail during the Second World War and the Library has over 4,000 of his cartoons in its archive. His iconic caricatures are mischievous observations of the key protagonists and events of that era and are an invaluable resource to political historians. As Exhibition Officer for the Library, I’m often contacted by other museums and galleries who wish to borrow such cartoons for inclusion in their exhibitions.
We recently lent some of the Illingworth cartoons to an exhibition at Tate Britain on British comic art entitled ‘Rude Britannia’ (finishes this weekend), and we’ll also be contributing a small number of cartoons from the collection for display in an exhibition at the Estorick collection of Modern and Italian Art later this month.
I’m sure that there will be something in the Library collection to tickle your funny bone. Humour is a very personal thing; something that might be funny to one person could be offensive to another. But one thing is for certain “life without humour would be unthinkable” (Gerald Scarfe – Sunday Times political cartoonist).
Jaimie Thomas, Exhibitions Officer