6 results
Bill of Sale from Henry Walker to William Shakespeare, 1613
This deed of bargain and sale, dated March 10, 1613, records William Shakespeare's purchase of a gatehouse in the Blackfriars district of London, from Henry Walker, citizen and minstrel of London. Shakespeare paid £80 of the £140 selling price up front, and on the day after the conveyance he mortgaged the remaining £60 back to Walker. William Johnson, citizen and vintner of London, and John Jackson and John Heminge, gentlemen, acted as trustees in Shakespeare's interest. They also were in charge of the sale of the property following ...
Contributed by
Folger Shakespeare Library
A woman dropping her tea-cup in horror upon discovering the monstrous contents of a magnified drop of Thames water revealing the impurity of London drinking water
This 1828 caricature shows a woman looking into a microscope to observe the monsters swimming in a drop of London water. In the 1820s, much of London’s drinking water came from the Thames River, which was heavily polluted by the city sewers that emptied into it. A Commission on the London Water Supply that was appointed to investigate this situation issued a report in 1828, which resulted in various improvements. The five water companies that served the north bank of the river upgraded the quality of their water by ...
Contributed by
Wellcome Library
Smith's New Map of London
By 1800, the population of London had reached one million, making it the world’s largest city. By the end of the 1900s, its population was approaching five million. The rapid growth of cities such as London created new challenges for mapmakers, including confused street names, the constant appearance of new streets and buildings, and the problem of aligning the trigonometric measurement of streets with actual measurement. Growth also created new demand for maps -- from businesses, insurance companies, government agencies, and tourists. This 1860 map by C. Smith & Son shows ...
Contributed by
Library of Congress
Women are Working Day and Night to Win the War
In World War I, all sides used posters as tools to mobilize their populations for the war effort. With men fighting at the front, women played a great role in sustaining industrial production for the war effort and civilian needs, often by working in urban factories located away from their homes. This British poster by an unknown artist shows women working at a lathe in a factory complex with a Young Women's Christian Association structure visible through the window. The YWCA was engaged in housing women workers, and the ...
Contributed by
Library of Congress
London Town
This late Victorian book of children’s poetry presents a bright and cheery view of London at the height of its imperial glory. Felix Leigh, who wrote the verses, was a prolific writer whose drawings and poems were featured for many years in the magazine Boy’s Own Paper. The illustrations are by Thomas Crane and Ellen E. Houghton. Crane designed the ornamental pages and Houghton did the figure drawings. Thomas Crane was the older brother of Walter Crane (1845-1915), who brought about revolutionary improvements in illustrated children’s books ...
Contributed by
Library of Congress
Cruel Tyrant Love
This previously unknown version of the solo cantata, Crudel tiranno Amor (Cruel tyrant Love) by George Friedrich Handel (1685–1759), resurfaced in a newly discovered, complete autograph score among the many posthumous estates housed in the Music Department of the Bavarian State Library. It was found in a miscellany of 18 manuscripts formerly owned by the well-known cultural historian, musicographer, and novelist Wilhelm Heinrich von Riehl (1823–97). The sensational discovery was made in 2004 by the musicologist Dr. Berthold Over, who succeeded in identifying the manuscript’s anonymous Italian ...
Contributed by
Bavarian State Library