Playbills, pantomimes and patent medicines

As the festive season still has another week to run, my mind naturally turns to panto (‘Oh no, it does’nt’). And indeed the history of pantomime. One treasure trove of all matter Victorian, Christmassy and theatrical is the John Johnson Collection. You can browse by subjects – human freaks, minstrels, dioramas, flea-circuses or whatever else takes your fancy – or search by keyword. If you look for pantomimes, you’ll find literally hundreds of adverts, playbills, songsheets, newspaper cuttings and more. And it’s not just about entertainment – there are sections devoted to crime (‘Trial and execution of William Crouch, for the murder of his wife at Marylebone’) and advertising. Which of course is where the patent medicines come in. If only the NHS weren’t so hide-bound we could all be using Dr De Jongh's (Knight of the Order of Leopold of Belgium) light-brown cod liver oil, prescribed by the most eminent medical men throughout the world as the safest, speediest, and most effectual remedy for consumption, bronchitis, asthma, coughs, general debility, rheumatism, gout, neuralgia, diseases of the skin, rickets, infantile wasting, and all scrofulous affections and I’m sure we’d all be better for it.

The John Johnson Collection can be found at the Exclusive Resources page at http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/libraries/247/exclusives/. Scroll down to Art. And if your interest has been aroused by any of the Wonderful Phantasmagoria or Terrible Crimes you’ve read about, you can always check The Times or Guardian (see the same page under Newspapers) for the real story (William Crouch was not just a murderer but a bigamist too and there was a lively argument in The Times letters page about whether he was insane or not).

Gender, genetic modification and guinea-pigs!

‘Have you got anything on gender issues?’ Or climate change or pornography or alcoholism or abortion or homelessness or gambling or any of the other hobbies Young People have nowadays? We’ve all had these questions from teenagers doing projects and we’ve all wandered over to the shelves hoping that all the books on animal rights aren’t out. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a single site you could use for all your homework needs on these issues? Well now there is and, imaginatively it’s called Issues Online. Some of you may know the Issues series of books – useful A4 sized volumes full of excellent articles on subjects like euthanasia and global warming. Well, this is the online version and jolly useful it is too with topics ranging from one-parent families to cloning.

You can find it on the Gateway in the Society & Citizenship section and also on the Exclusive Resources page (http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/libraries/247/exclusives) under Social Issues.

‘This is all very find and dandy but where are the guinea-pigs?’ I hear you cry! On the Westminster Advent Calendar (linked from the library homepage), that’s where. Click on the link for the 2nd of December and sit back and enjoy the legendary Guinea Pig Theatre’s moving adaptation of A Christmas Carol.