The Illustrated Alphabet

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

This collection is minimally processed and open for research.

Terms of access:

The Library believes that all or nearly all material in this collection is likely to be in the public domain, free of copyright restrictions. Visit our Permissions and Publishing page for more information about use of Special Collections materials. The library can provide copyright information upon request, but users are responsible for making their own determination about lawful use of collections materials.

Preferred citation:

MSS 16862, The Illustrated Alphabet, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Summary

Extent:
0.25 Cubic Feet One legal-sized half-width document box
Creator:
James Arsenault and Co. and Johnston, George Liddell, 1817-1902
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

MSS 16862, The Illustrated Alphabet, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains the trial drawings for an illustrated alphabet book by the Reverend George Liddell Johnston. The book, bound in crushed red morocco by C. & C. McLeish sometime in the early twentieth century, contains the inlaid drawings and manuscript pages. The book begins with two calligraphic frontispieces, one titled "The Envelope" with an angel holding a brush and canvas. This image was likely the front panel of an envelope that stored the contents before binding. Then follows three pen and ink title pages with letters in the Victorian grotesque tradition, eight manuscript leaves with limericks for each letter, twenty-six calligraphic leaves of alphabet limericks in pencil and pen, twelve watercolors, and forty-six total drawings. The bulk of the manuscript is the drawings and watercolors that illustrate the alphabet, some referencing the subject of the limericks and others alternative subjects. These are humorous and often satirical images. These include critiques of religious figures like cardinals and the Pope and more everyday situations and people like a quack, a statesman, a Yankee, an older man entranced by a younger woman, and an angry wife, among other characters. Devils and demons are frequent figures in the illustrations. A number of the drawings that appear here also appear in a privately printed book by the same title. Johnston made a few copies of this book for his friends and family.

Acquisition information:
This collection was purchased from James Aresenault Company by the Small Special Collections Library , University of Virginia on September 6, 2024.
Physical description:
Good.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard