Victorian wood-engraved illustrations

June 29, 2007 4:51 PM

The Database of Mid-Victorian Wood-engraved Illustration(Centre for Editorial and Intertextual Research, Cardiff University) hosts well over eight hundred images from Victorian texts; you can browse the site by iconographic themes and features (tools, religion, etc.) or conduct more specific searches by author, publisher, and the like. For more overviews of Victorian book illustration, visit Bob Speel's nineteenth-century art website, which features a number of pages devoted to various topics in book illustration, and the Victorian Web. Illuminated Books features a small collection of digitized illustrated works, many of them Victorian; there's a larger collection at Children's Books Online. The Victorian novelist we most closely associate with book illustration is Charles Dickens, and David Perdue has brief biographical sketches of his various illustrators, with examples of their work. Famous illustrators with their own websites include Sir John Tenniel, Arthur Rackham, and Randolph Caldecott. (Main link via VICTORIA.)
posted by thomas j wise (14 comments total)

Nice. Thanks so much!
posted by brundlefly at 4:56 PM on June 29, 2007

Wonderful as always, thomas j wise. Thanks!
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:08 PM on June 29, 2007

We have a winner!

Err, I mean.

Sir:

In regards to your posting of the 29th of June, I am compelled to remark upon its excellence. The Honorable Lord Admiral was also struck by the execution, declaring it all shipshape and bristol fashion.

We are indeed indebted to you for this link.

I remain,

eriko, esq.
Sysadmiralty House
posted by eriko at 5:34 PM on June 29, 2007

I just favorited this post so hard my mouse broke. Awesome stuff!
posted by LeeJay at 5:34 PM on June 29, 2007

How do you download the full images? The best I can do is get a bunch of tiles, like so:

http://www.dmvi.cf.ac.uk/dbimages/TPS7/TileGroup0/0-0-0.jpg

http://www.dmvi.cf.ac.uk/dbimages/TPS7/TileGroup0/2-1-0.jpg

etc...
posted by Dataphage at 5:57 PM on June 29, 2007

LeeJay: better order yourself a crate of mice.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:14 PM on June 29, 2007

Jackpot! Thanks for pointing out thomas j wise's excellent posting history. *settles in for a long night of exploring*
posted by LeeJay at 6:21 PM on June 29, 2007

Thanks, the Illustrated Book link is wonderful. I had been looking for something exactly like it.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 6:29 PM on June 29, 2007

err... Illuminated Books, I mean.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 6:30 PM on June 29, 2007

Lovely!
Thanks for these.
posted by stagewhisper at 7:15 PM on June 29, 2007

Nice. Although it's a pity that it seems to be impossible to get image files from this.
posted by jouke at 10:01 PM on June 29, 2007

Thanks for all of this but it seems to be impossible to get image files from this.
posted by believe at 10:44 PM on June 29, 2007

The Database of M-V W-E Illustration is a splendid resource, but a very peculiar one. What is the point of digitizing, say, one of Millais' wonderful illustrations for Trollope's Orley Farm -- this one, for example: There was sorrow in her heart, and deep thought in her mind -- and solemnly indexing it under such headings as:

built environments > features and fittings > window-shutters
physical positions > postures > sitting
furnishings > cupboards

while providing, as far as I can see, no information whatsoever about the novel, the characters or the plot? All very odd, and I can't understand what the creators of this database thought they were doing, or who they were doing it for. But maybe there are graduate students writing dissertations on 'The Window-Shutter in Victorian Fiction' for whom this will be a magnificent resource.
posted by verstegan at 1:48 PM on June 30, 2007

Wonderful, but absolutely worthless if I can't download the Tiffs.
posted by Grod at 4:31 PM on June 30, 2007