Celebrations: Victorian and Edwardian Greeting Cards
Lead Research Organisation:
Manchester Metropolitan University
Department Name: Creative Writing, Eng Lit & Linguistics
Abstract
Greeting cards connect people. In the wake of COVID-19, community-building aspects of greetings have taken on additional resonance: we have been through lockdowns when physical interaction was not possible and many milestones were marked at a distance, even between close neighbours. Manchester Metropolitan University's (MMU) Special Collections Museum and Archives (SCM) holds an unrivalled resource of more than 32,500 Victorian and Edwardian greeting cards: the Seddon Collection. This under-studied collection is from c.1840 to c.1920. Most are from the 1880s and 1890s, the "Golden Age" of the greeting card. The majority are Christmas cards, but other life-events are celebrated, including Easter, Valentines, New Year, Birthday, Reward and Memorial/Sympathy. This is a timely moment to reveal this collection: greeting cards are changing. The popularity of e-cards means many never take physical form. Yet, the volume of e-cards being exchanged coupled with personalised print-on-demand cards and a surge in cardmaking as craft suggest that greeting cards have entered a "new Golden Age". Central to this RKE project is dedicated funding for staff time to use the MMU SCM's large Versascan 3650 flatbed scanner to digitise a selection of the Seddon Collection cards. The scanner was purchased through a Capability for Collections (CapCo) application (AH/V011987/1) in 2020. The first stage of this project is scanning and digitising records of selected greeting cards in the Seddon Collection, enabling remote, virtual access. These scans are at the heart of stage two: a pilot collaboration which seeks to engage the public in collections-based research. Using images of cards digitised in stage one, we will work with select partners to explore contemporary resonances in these greeting cards. Two collaborative main outputs are planned: a co-curated online exhibition designed and delivered with these partners; and a more intuitive cataloguing system for these cards shaped by responses from workshop participants. Combined with smaller outputs, these will raise the profile of this archival collection and make its ongoing message of community and hope accessible to a much wider audience. The original CapCo application was submitted with SCM/library staff as the investigators. This follow-on application has academics as the lead investigators. Dr Rachel Dickinson (PI) and Dr Emma Liggins (CoI) are Readers in the English Department who specialise in the long nineteenth century and have a demonstrable record of engagement through curating exhibitions, organising festivals, delivering public lectures, and leading workshops. The project's home remains in SCM and the skills and expertise of SCM professional staff play a crucial role, particularly that of curator Stephanie Boydell (CoI). The partners were chosen because of expertise, insights and access they bring. Death Café Chorlton will focus on cards from the perspective of grief and memorialisation with older adults. Elizabeth Gaskell House connects the twenty-first century to the Victorian period, focusing on primary-aged children. Internal partner Manchester Poetry Library supplements expertise on cards' verses and offers access to a network of youthful writers, and the internal RISE programme adds the perspective of contemporary young adults and provide work-related experience through student internships.
| Title | Celebrations at Elizabeth Gaskell's House |
| Description | This exhibition, on display from mid-November 2022 to January 2023, was one of the outcomes from the schools workshops undertaken as part of this project at Elizabeth Gaskell's House, the writer's house museum in Manchester. The workshops involved collecting school children's comments and images of their hand made cards to create content for a free exhibition about Victorian Greetings cards and the workshops, but focussing on the pupils responses. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | There were 410 visitors to this exhibition |
| Title | Death Café pop up exhibition |
| Description | A pop-up display of about 50 facsimile nineteenth century mourning cards from the Seddon Collection on 21 March 2022 at the Tea Hive, Chorlton, Manchester |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | 20 visitors |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/2022/05/18/displaying-mourning-cards-at-death-cafe-c... |
| Title | Exhibition: Forget Me Not: Poetry and Pictures in Victorian and Edwardian Greeting Cards |
| Description | Exhibition at the Manchester Poetry Library 5th July 2022 to 23rd October 2022. Looking at the types of verse and the writers who wrote for nineteenth century greetings cards, and the relationship with the imagery used on cards. The exhibition was co-curated with undergraduate and postgraduate students on the RISE Research Internship scheme and featured a number of illustrated text panels and labels and facsimile cards for handling. The content was also used to create an online exhibition and catalogue that is freely available on the Long Nineteenth Century Network blog (see below). |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | 3000 visitors came to the physical exhibition |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/2022/10/28/forget-me-not-poetry-and-pictures-in-vict... |
| Title | Interview with poet for Sound Cloud |
| Description | We interviewed award-winning Black British poet Zaffar Kunial for the Poetry Library Sound Cloud. The 30 minute interview was conducted by the research team and a paid intern. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | There have been 30 listeners so far, and it is likely that this will increase - other interviews with poets on this platform have at least 50 listeners. |
| URL | https://soundcloud.com/user-771006032/poetry-and-pictures-in-greetings-cards-an-interview-with-zaffa... |
| Title | Portico Library: Victorian and Edwardian Christmas Cards: Pop Up Display |
| Description | Exhibition dates 2nd December 2022 to 23rd December 2022 in the Portico Library. Manchester, of about 50 facsimile cards from the Seddon Collection, with accompanying interpretative texts. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | 990 visitors to the exhibition |
| URL | https://www.theportico.org.uk/event-calendar/victorian-and-edwardian-christmas-cards-pop-up-display?... |
| Description | Cataloguing and Digitising a sample from the Seddon Collection of Greeting Cards: The project proposed that at least 500 cards of the 32,000 in the collection would be digitised. More than 600 were, resulting in over 1,250 images once fronts, backs and additional elements were scanned. The dataset is currently available on request. It is anticipated that this will be loaded to Community Collections on JStor by July 2023. It will also be added into the Special Collections Museum's new online catalogue over the coming months. This will provide a new, publicly accessible resource of images and data. Contextual Cataloguing of the Collection: We collected a lot of data through the digitisation of the cards and the linked engagement activities, including what members of the public and academia reported they would find interesting and useful. This needs further analysis and study, particularly in relation to inclusion and access. We have therefore scheduled upcoming events around decolonising the collection to help with the next phase. The data is also being used by a MA History student to crowdsource further information from the public. Developing Research on Greeting Cards: While some research has been done on Victorian and Edwardian Valentines and Christmas greeting cards, this project has begun to shed light on other types of cards, including mourning, Easter and New Year. We have also begun to investigate design elements, including the study of lesser-known and anonymous illustrators, the use of multimedia collage or composite techniques (including feathers, glitter, fabric, celluloid, etc), as well as quotations and poetry. This is opening up new fields of research. Community Engagement: See the other aspects of this report as community engagement through workshops and exhibitions was the anticipated main achievement. Notably, the school children had just been studying the Victorian period, covering topics such as workhouses, poverty and Empire; these cards opened up a whole new perspective for them, making the Victorians seem more relatable through these quirky and humorous and sometimes baffling cards. What was surprising and rewarding was the number of additional events and activities we were asked to deliver over and above what we initially promised. Greeting Cards clearly resonate and deserve to hold a higher status. All of this suggests that these cards should be proposed for Designated Status, which has been an exciting realisation over the course of the project. |
| Exploitation Route | Members of the research team intend to build on this research. Plans in progress include: a journal article on mourning practices; making the digital data and images freely accessible online; scoping how best to deal with sensitive subject matters in cataloguing this and other nineteenth century collections. There is potential to use this research and the principles derived through engagement activity to develop further teaching materials aimed at schools as well as using cards in creative practice and reflection. Several of the UG and PG students we worked with as unpaid RISE Research Interns have gone on to further study towards and employment in the GLAM sector. Additionally, some outcomes already are being taken forward by Postgraduate Students from fields including History, Contemporary Curating and Art, who have become aware of these materials through this project. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/celebrations-victorian-and-edwardian-greeting-cards/ |
| Description | The digitisation funded by this award provided the initial data. This earliest research and its findings fed into materials to support teaching activities with school-aged children, as well as materials for workshops with adults. We specifically worked with students from economically deprived areas in Manchester and Salford, as well as a more affluent school in Stockport and a FE college in Bury, opening up aspects of studying history and cultural studies and exploring creativity as a route to higher education and well-being. Initial aspects of our findings, including those that emerged from workshops with children, were used to develop three physical exhibitions on Victorian and Edwardian Greeting Cards in Manchester: at Manchester Poetry Library (11 July - 23 October 2022, 3000 visitors ), Elizabeth Gaskell's House (1 December 2022 to 31 January 2023, 410 visitors), Portico Library exhibition (3 December to 24 December 2022, 990 visitors). Academic beneficiaries are beginning to emerge. On 7 April, we held a Northwest Long Nineteenth Century Seminar in-person morning masterclass, followed by an afternoon blended seminar, both featuring academic experts in greeting cards. These were experts on Valentines and Christmas cards. These two categories had previously received some scholarly attention; through this project, the wider potential of other types of historical greeting cards as objects of research has begun to emerge. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Title | Digitised images of the Seddon Collection |
| Description | A group of high resolution, colour, digital images of 618 greetings cards from the Seddon Collection of Victorian and Edwardian Greetings Cards. The set holds 1259 images in total (comprising a scan of each side, and any additional sides). Each image has a 400dpi, 54.5 MB full colour .tif master archive file; and each has 2 access copies (one a .tif, and one a .jpeg). Each image has a unique filename. The Filename structure incorporates the institution, the collection and unique object/reference number. The dataset includes image metadata, and can be linked to object (catalogue) metadata through the filename. At the time of writing, the dataset is available to others on request. However the intention is to publish the images, with associated descriptive metadata, on the Special Collections Catalogue, JSTOR Community Collections and VADS, to ensure full and free accessibility |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The dataset has enabled the project to run workshops, exhibitions and other engagement activities outside the museum setting, using accurate digital surrogates of historic collections. It also has provided images for illustrative purposes on the project blog and university webpages. |
| Description | Portico Library Exhibition and Workshops |
| Organisation | The Portico Library |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | This collaboration emerged during the project and was not included in the original application. A participant in a Death Café, Chorlton Workshop is employed at The Portico and suggested that the findings of our project would appeal to their visitors. We then worked with them to develop a bespoke exhibition and workshop. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Portico Library offered its venue as an exhibition space for the month of December, as well as hosting a day's workshop. Their staff contributed their time staffing the events and delivered marketing support to reach their mailing list. |
| Impact | Exhibition |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Easter card-making at Elizabeth Gaskell's House |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We produced craft materials and information sheets about the Seddon collection/Victorian cards for Elizabeth Gaskell's House to use during the Easter holidays and half term. Craft tables were permanently out in the basement for children and adults to access. Both CoIs spent time helping families to do their card-making and talking about the collection. This generated questions about the cards, creativity from the children and raised the profile of the Seddon collection. It also helped to cement our partnership with the museum and to identify ways in which to make the collection accessible to children and the general public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/2022/06/29/springtime-card-making-for-families-at-el... |
| Description | Elizabeth Gaskell's House Craft Workshops for Primary Schools |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | In May 2022, 70 primary school children, 2 undergraduate student interns and 7 teachers attended card-making workshops at Elizabeth Gaskell's House. The children also had a tour of the house. The PI and Co-I gave brief introductory talks on cards and scrapbooks, then the pupils created cards and poems, filled out questionnaires and added their cards to a display. A designer chose images from the cards for a pop-up exhibition at EGH in December 2022 to January 2023. The children enjoyed the session, reported feelings of well-being, pride in their creative achievements and increased knowledge of the Victorian period. One pupil wrote on a questionnaire, 'I just found out I like the Victorians!' In September 2022 we ran an additional workshop with the same numbers of children, interns and teachers. The children's work was again used for the exhibition in December. The EGH reported that they had 410 visitors in December and January who would have seen the exhibition. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/2022/10/06/primary-school-greeting-card-making-works... |
| Description | Elizabeth Gaskell's House Online Lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 57 people joined the PI and CoI, Emma Liggins, for an online lecture on Victorian Christmas cards, which displayed and analysed images and poems from a selection of cards from the Seddon collection. This generated questions and discussions, including further research questions about the class of the senders of the cards and how to interpret images such as robins. Participants were also invited to view our blog and our online exhibition Poetry and Pictures. The audience all said that they found the discussion very interesting and that they had learnt a lot about the card industry and the meanings of Christmas in the nineteenth century. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Elizabeth Gaskell's House exhibition of school children's crafting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | After our two workshops, a designer at the Elizabeth Gaskell's House put together an exhibition of the children's cards and poems. This also included comments made by the children about crafting, the importance of sending cards and the Victorians. This was on display in the House from December 2022 to January 2023, during which time the House had about 500 visitors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Exhibition and craft workshop at Death Cafe Chorlton |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Participants at Death Cafe Chorlton were invited to a craft workshop and pop-up exhibition on mourning cards. This was well attended by 30 people. Postgraduate and undergraduate student interns assisted with setting up and helped to talk to participants. We gathered a lot of questionnaire data and there were lots of questions about the Seddon collection and the designs and messages of the mourning cards. One participant suggested an additional exhibition in the Portico Library where she worked, which we then actioned. Others were involved in setting up their own Death Cafes so had come along for inspiration, which meant that our hosting of the Death Cafe had contributed to the development of the Death Cafe movement in the North West. Emma Liggins, CoI, has also been involved with other Death Cafes since then, including co-hosting and the development of a project with Manchester Camerata, a local orchestra. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/2022/06/24/__trashed-8/ |
| Description | Exhibition and craft workshops in Manchester Poetry Library |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We curated an exhibition Forget Me not: Poetry and Pictures in Victorian and Edwardian Greeting Cards for the Poetry Library, which was on display from July to October 2022. During this time there were over 3000 visitors to the library, not including delegates at a national conference, English: Shared Futures (350 delegates) hosted at Manchester Met. The research undertaken for the exhibition panels will be used in the writing of a future academic article on mourning cards and elegiac poetry by one of the CoIs. Our student interns also helped us to curate, install and photograph the exhibition, as well as producing an online version and an exhibition catalogue (both viewed by international participants at our research seminars). Crafting materials were permanently available during the exhibition for children and adults to produce their own cards and poetry, which were then added to a display. Visitors recorded their enjoyment of the exhibition and how it added to their knowledge of the Victorian and Edwardian periods and of poetry in greetings cards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/2022/10/28/forget-me-not-poetry-and-pictures-in-vict... |
| Description | Exhibition and craft workshops in Portico Library, Manchester |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In December 2022 we installed an exhibition on Victorian and Edwardian Christmas cards in the Portico Library, Manchester. We re-used panels from our earlier exhibition for the Poetry Library and added some additional examples of cards. Our cards were displayed alongside first editions of Charles Dickens' Christmas books as part of a Christmas-themed corner of the library. We ran a craft workshop attended by 25 people on 3 December; participants recorded a change in their understandings of the Victorian period and their increased feelings of well-being from crafting. Visitor numbers for the library, including international visitors, were 990 during this final month of the year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/2022/12/16/christmas-card-exhibition-and-crafting-wo... |
| Description | Exhibition at Death Cafe Chorlton |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 20 participants attended a meeting of Death Cafe Chorlton in March 2022. This Death Cafe is an organised group with members from the local community. It has been taking place for the last few years. We set up a pop-up exhibition of mourning cards. This encouraged questions about the collection, as well as further reflections on mourning and memorialisation. Participants also brought along their own examples of mourning cards. They were invited back for the next exhibition and to complete questionnaires. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/2022/05/18/displaying-mourning-cards-at-death-cafe-c... |
| Description | Hazel Grove High School Craft Workshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We delivered 3 workshops for Year 10 students at Hazel Grove High School, Stockport, in November 2022. After a brief talk about Christmas cards, Charles Dickens and our collection, 75 English, History and Art students made their own cards, discussed the meanings of the Victorian Christmas and filled out questionnaires. They also viewed a pop up exhibition of the cards which we set up at the front of the hall. Teachers reported an increase in subject knowledge for themselves and their classes, and greater engagement with key GCSE texts such as Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Students reported their enjoyment of crafting and creativity, as well as their responses to the cards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/2022/12/16/charles-dickens-and-the-victorian-christm... |
| Description | Interview with Poet for Sound Cloud in the Manchester Poetry Library |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The research team and a student intern interviewed Zaffar Kunial, award-winning Black British poet, in the Special Collections Museum. It was recorded on Sound Cloud and made available via the Manchester Poetry Library website, as well as reproduced in one of the panels for the Forget Me Not: Poetry and Pictures exhibition in the Manchester Poetry Library. So far there have been 30 listeners on Sound Cloud but interviews on this channel average 50 plus after one year. Zaffar spoke about his time working at Hallmark cards and his production of poetry for the card industry. He also looked at the poetry on a selection of cards from the collection and helped to devise a poetry workshop for school children. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/2022/06/27/greetings-cards-from-the-nineteenth-centu... |
| Description | Manchester Poetry Library workshops for high school and FE students |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Students from a local FE college and a high school worked with staff from the Manchester Poetry Library on a series of poetry workshops. After hearing short talks about the cards and viewing some of the exhibition panels, they created their own cards and wrote their own poems. Students and teachers reported greater subject knowledge of the Victorian period and an increase in confidence in writing poetry. They were also able to tour the Manchester Poetry Library and encouraged to return in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/2023/03/03/poetry-and-crafting-workshops-with-manche... |
| Description | Online exhibition by student interns |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Our team of student interns co-curated an online exhibition, recording their creative responses to and interpretations of cards from the Seddon collection. The exhibition was housed on a specially created blog on WordPress, set up by a paid intern from Multi-Media Journalism. Interns on our award-winning RISE programme, who gained points towards their degree, were from English, Art, Library Management, Embroidery and Creative Writing. Responses included embroidery, painting, visual analysis and interviews with curators. The link to this exhibition was made available to participants at our research seminars, to delegates at English: Shared Futures, a national conference (350 delegates) and to undergraduates and postgraduates studying the nineteenth century or accessing the Special Collections Museum resources, in order to inspire them in their own creative projects. Students and seminar participants have reported that they found the online exhibition very inspiring and that it increased their subject knowledge. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/rise-internship-projects/ |
| Description | Radio interview BBC Sounds |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Rachel Dickinson, the PI, was interviewed on Radio 3 in April 2022 as part of a programme on 'Preserving our Heritage'. The interview was recorded and made available as a podcast on BBC Sounds. Rachel spoke about the variety and size of the Seddon collection and Laura Seddon's importance as a collector and preserver of visual ephemera. This helped to raise the profile of the collection, of our work in Special Collections Museum and of our expertise in the Long Nineteenth-century Network in nineteenth-century studies and art history. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://uk-podcasts.co.uk/podcast/arts-and-ideas/new-thinking-preserving-our-heritage |
| Description | Research seminar, Victorian and Edwardian Greeting Cards |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We hosted a themed research seminar in Special Collections Museum, with two speakers from literary and visual culture backgrounds who spoke on Valentines, Christmas cards and the Arts and Crafts movement. This was our first hybrid research seminar in our North West Long Nineteenth Century seminar series, established in 2014, which ran very successfully. We had 25 audience members in the Museum, and 35 online, including international participants. Audience members were then treated to a tour of the Museum and could view cards and scrapbooks from our collections. We shared the video on our blog, with others who requested the link and with students. Audience members reported a deepening of knowledge about nineteenth-century cards and about our collections, and this impacted on visitor numbers to the museum. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/2022/07/04/victorian-and-edwardian-greeting-cards-ou... |
| Description | Talk to high school students at St Thomas Catholic High School, Eccles |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Emma Liggins, one of the CoIs, delivered two talks about Victorian Gothic to groups of Year 9 students at a high school in Salford. The talk included discussions of the Victorian Christmas, the first Christmas cards and their influence on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Students raised questions about the cards and Gothic conventions. Teachers reported an increase in subject knowledge, and students reported a greater engagement with key GCSE texts such as A Christmas Carol and Jekyll and Hyde. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Tours of Special Collections Museum for national conference English: Shared Futures |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We ran two tours of the SCM as part of a national conference English: Shared Futures hosted at Manchester Metropolitan University. We delivered an introductory lecture talking about the project and then delegates could view a selection of cards, periodicals and scrapbooks. These tours were attended by academics, postgraduates, school teachers and creatives. One of these tours led to an invite to do a schools workshop in Hazel Grove, Stockport. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | WordPress blog for the Long Nineteenth Century Network |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We set up a new blog on WordPress to record engagement activities for our research group, the Long Nineteenth Century Network, which this year primarily focused on activities relating to this project. It was set up and developed with the help of two paid interns from English/Multi-Media Journalism and Art who also contributed their own posts. It includes photographs and blog posts about exhibitions and events, as well as information about our research group, its postgraduates and our work with Special Collections Museum. Lots of students studying the nineteenth century have accessed the blog, including those at other universities who we connect with on social media. We showcased our online Poetry and Pictures exhibition at our research seminar in November 2022. It has helped to boost the employability of student interns who have contributed to it, who have gone on to work in the GLAM sector. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://long19thcenturynetworkmmu.wordpress.com/ |