Dylan Thomas’ Passport, WWI Recruitment Posters And Boxing – all in the Centenary Exhibition Online

Fri, 21 Dec 07 12:41:00

 

The National Library of Wales’ centenary celebrations in 2007 may have finished but the spirit lives on as the Library’s centenary exhibition, 'In this Place', goes online.

 

There are hours of interesting viewing on the website – just the tonic for those quiet moments off work as people celebrate the Festive Season. Why not turn the pages of Dylan Thomas’ passport – the one which came home to Wales following his death in the USA or Welsh recruitment posters from the First World War? The website includes pages from Welsh newspapers such as the Western Mail, Daily Post and Y Cymro as they reflect the changing face of Wales and the world from 1907 when the Library was awarded its foundation Royal Charter.

 

From the Senghennydd mining disaster of 1913 to recruitment posters for the First World Ward. From the formation of the Urdd (Welsh League of Youth) in 1922 to the Spanish Civil War and Second World War – the exhibition is a treasuretrove of information in photographs, correspondence and newspaper. The website includes cartoons by the Barry-born cartoonist, Leslie Illingworth, as he scathingly depicted the changing century in the Daily Mail. There is literature from the 1979 and 1997 Devolution Referendums and archives from Charlotte Guest and her interest in the Mabinogi legends.

 

Here are a selection of the online collections ... but there are many, many more on the website:

 

• Recruitment Posters from the First World War
• Letters by Gareth Jones, the journalist who died in mysterious circumstances in 1935
• Archives from the Disestablishment of the Church in 1914
• Charlotte Guest and the Mabinogi
• Turn the pages of Dylan Thomas’ passport
• Boxing
• Early Photographs of the USA by E S Curtis and Carleton Watkins
• Archives concerning the General Strike of 1926
• Letters in Welsh by Corporal Griffith Jones of Penisa’r-waun, Gwynedd from the American Civil War

 

‘The National Library of Wales’s centenary celebrations were a great success as was the centenary exhibition. The online version of that centenary exhibition can now be enjoyed and gives us a peek at the changing face of Wales since 1907 and the changing face of the Library’s collections,’ said Andrew Green, Librarian of The National Library of Wales.

 

 

Links:

The National Library of Wales: www.llgc.org.uk

Centenary Exhibition, 'In this Place': canmlwyddiant.llgc.org.uk

 

For Further Information:

Siôn Jobbins, NLW Press Office: 01970 632 902  sij@llgc.org.uk