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'A Storehouse of Past and Present Manners and Customs': the Private Scrapbook becomes a Communal Record in the Journals of William Hone

Author: Louis James

Abstract

The early-nineteenth-century private scrapbook and family album is in direct parallel with the format of the miscellanies of curious and ‘useful' information in early Victorian popular periodicals. An unacknowledged pioneer in this transition from private artefact to print culture was William Hone's The Every-Day Book, which not only offered a collage of English life and customs, but invited readers to contribute to it from a private ‘scrap-book, or portfolio or … collection.' In effect, Hone was proposing social history written by the people. Many decades before the Internet created the surfer-interactive ‘Wikepedia', Hone proposed a ‘storehouse' of knowledge created by its readers.

Keywords:

How to Cite: James, L. (2007) “'A Storehouse of Past and Present Manners and Customs': the Private Scrapbook becomes a Communal Record in the Journals of William Hone”, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century.(5). doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/ntn.467

  • Fig. 1 William Hone, title page to The Every-Day Book (1826). Author's collection.
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    Fig. 1
    William Hone, title page to The Every-Day Book (1826). Author's collection.
  • Fig. 2 [George Cruikshank?], Bona Dea - The Earth , (1826), unsigned wood engraving. Private collection
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    Fig. 2
    [George Cruikshank?], Bona Dea - The Earth , (1826), unsigned wood engraving. Private collection

    Frontispiece to The Every-Day Book, Vol I, p. ii.

  • Fig. 3 UnattributedMay, (1827), wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 3
    UnattributedMay, (1827), wood engraving. Author's collection.

    From The Every-Day Book, vol II, cols 567-8.

  • Fig. 4 Unattributed, Festival of Cobblers of Paris, August 1, 1641, (1827), wood engraving from unidentified contemporary original. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 4
    Unattributed, Festival of Cobblers of Paris, August 1, 1641, (1827), wood engraving from unidentified contemporary original. Author's collection.

    From The Every-Day Book , vol II, cols 1057-1058.

  • Fig. 5 George Cruikshank, THE ELEPHANT, as he laid dead at Exeter Change (in March 1826), (1827), wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 5
    George Cruikshank, THE ELEPHANT, as he laid dead at Exeter Change (in March 1826), (1827), wood engraving. Author's collection.

    From The Every-Day Book, vol II, cols 321-322.

  • Fig. 6 Unattributed, Francis Grose, Esq., F & A. etc. (author of Antiquities of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland), (1826), wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 6
    Unattributed, Francis Grose, Esq., F & A. etc. (author of Antiquities of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland), (1826), wood engraving. Author's collection.

    From The Every-Day Book, vol I, cols, 665-666.

  • Fig. 7 [George Cruikshank?], 'The Tempation of St Anthony', (1826), wood engraving, Author's collection.
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    Fig. 7
    [George Cruikshank?], 'The Tempation of St Anthony', (1826), wood engraving, Author's collection.

    From The Every-Day Book, vol I, cols 113-114.

  • Fig. 8 Unattributed, The Tree of Common Law, (1826), wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 8
    Unattributed, The Tree of Common Law, (1826), wood engraving. Author's collection.

    From The Every-Day Book, vol I, cols 233-4.

  • Fig. 9 [George Cruikshank?], Somer Town Miracle, (1826), unsigned wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 9
    [George Cruikshank?], Somer Town Miracle, (1826), unsigned wood engraving. Author's collection.

    From The Every-Day Book, vol I, cols 473-474.

  • Fig. 10 'Sears', May-day in Hitchin, in Hertfordshire, (1826), wood engraving. Private collection.
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    Fig. 10
    'Sears', May-day in Hitchin, in Hertfordshire, (1826), wood engraving. Private collection.

    From The Every-Day Book, vol I, cols 567-568.

  • Fig. 11 George Cruikshank, April 1 - All Fools Day, (1826), wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 11
    George Cruikshank, April 1 - All Fools Day, (1826), wood engraving. Author's collection.

    From The Table Book, vol I, cols 409-410.

  • Fig. 12 Unattributed, Breughel's Concert of Cats, (1826), wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 12
    Unattributed, Breughel's Concert of Cats, (1826), wood engraving. Author's collection.

    From The Table-Book, vol I, cols 1105-1106.

  • Fig. 13 [George Cruikshank?], Chimney Sweepers on May-Day, (1826), unattributed wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 13
    [George Cruikshank?], Chimney Sweepers on May-Day, (1826), unattributed wood engraving. Author's collection.

    From The Table-Book, vol I, cols 583-4.

  • Fig. 14 George Cruikshank, Very deaf, indeed, (1827), wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 14
    George Cruikshank, Very deaf, indeed, (1827), wood engraving. Author's collection.

    The Table Book, vol II, cols 1553-1554.

  • Fig. 15 Unattributed, Carrying the "Holly Tree" at Brough, Westmoreland, (1827), wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 15
    Unattributed, Carrying the "Holly Tree" at Brough, Westmoreland, (1827), wood engraving. Author's collection.

    From The Table-Book, vol II, p. 29.

  • Fig. 16 Unattributed, St Thomas a Becket, (1827), wood engraving. Author's collection.
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    Fig. 16
    Unattributed, St Thomas a Becket, (1827), wood engraving. Author's collection.

    From The Table-Book, vol II, cols 929-930.