Recent Acquisitions 2003-2007: Selected Books, Manuscripts, & Works on Paper

The Lewis Walpole Library is delighted to announce the opening of the first exhibition being held in its new exhibition space. Following a year and a half of extensive renovations, the Library fully reopened to readers and visitors in fall 2007. The exhibition, Recent Acquisitions 2003-2007: Selected Books, Manuscripts, & Works on Paper, presents, highlights, and celebrates the range of materials acquired over the last five years.

The Library’s collection of books that were owned or written by Horace Walpole continues to grow, with such nine titles exhibited. Many of these are annotated by Walpole, and an autograph letter signed by Walpole represents the rich acquisitions of manuscript materials. Eighteenth-century periodicals, extra-illustrated volumes, as well as groups of ephemera are just some of the items acquired to support the study of eighteenth-century Britain.

The prints and drawings on view, with works by James Gillray, George Moutard Woodward, Isaac Cruikshank, and Thomas Rowlandson, represent important additions to the Library’s renowned collection of eighteenth-century satirical prints and caricatures. In addition, aquatint and watercolor topographical views, mezzotint portraits, and the drawing of a Wedgwood design represent other areas of the Library’s collecting strength.

The Lewis Walpole Library is a major research center for 18th-century studies and the prime source for the study of politician, writer and architectural innovator Horace Walpole and the home he designed, Strawberry Hill. The Library, and its magnificent collections, were donated to Yale by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis and Annie Burr Lewis and is a department of the University Library.

The exhibition will run through early April 2008. For more details, to make an appointment to visit, or for directions, e-mail walpole@yale.edu or visit www.library.yale.edu/walpole/.

Contact: Geoffrey Little

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Page Last Updated: 11/24/2009