New trial: London Low Life
New trial at Leddy Library: London Low Life (available only on campus and only until December 9, 2010)
The trial is only available on campus through this link: www.londonlowlife.amdigital.co.uk
This wonderful digital collection brings to life the teeming streets of Victorian London, inviting students and scholars to explore the gin palaces, brothels and East End slums of the nineteenth century’s greatest city.
From salacious ‘swell’s guides’ to scandalous broadsides and subversive posters, the material sold and exchanged on London’s bustling thoroughfares offers an unparallelled insight into the dark underworld of the nineteenth century city. Children’s chapbooks, street cries, slang dictionaries and ballads were all part of a vibrant culture of street literature which has been remarkably preserved in the Lilly Library’s collection.
London Low Life is also an incredible visual resource for students and scholars of London, depicting in full colour maps, cartoons, song sheets, street cries and a full set of the essential Tallis’ Street Views of London – a unique resource for the study of London architecture and commerce.
This collection will be of interest to 19th century scholars researching: the underworld, slang, working-class culture, street literature, popular music, urban topography, ‘slumming’, prostitution, the Contagious Diseases Act, the Temperance Movement, social reform, Toynbee Hall, police and criminality.
