Yale University Library Research Guides: British Eighteenth-Century Studies Electronic Resources: Primary Sources: Images

Caricatures and Satires (Images)

Here are links to digital collections of British eighteenth-century caricatures and satires available online. Try searching within these by title or name.

British Museum Collection Online The British Museum has the greatest collection of British eighteenth-century caricatures and satires in the world. Their collection is fully searchable online.
Brown University--JCB Political Cartoons A database of graphic political cartoons of the colonial Americas, from Hudson Bay to Tierra del Fuego, drawn entirely from primary sources printed or created between 1492 and ca. 1825.
Collage: The London Picture Archive Collage is one of London’s finest picture archives. Managed by London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), it provides free online access to over 250,000 images of London from the collections at LMA and Guildhall Art Gallery.
James Gillray: Caricaturist--Collections List of collections of which the site creator is aware, the numbers of prints and drawings they appear to have, and the current status (as of May, 2015) of their online access. Includes links to the collections
Library of Congress -- Cartoon Prints, British The approximately 9,000 cartoon prints (approximately 8,500 distinct images) in the British Cartoon Prints Collection at the Library of Congress were published primarily between 1780 to 1830, an era dominated by the prodigious talents and prolific efforts of such famous caricaturists as James Gillray and George Cruikshank. The cartoons highlight aspects of British political life, including tensions with its colonies and other nations, as well as society, fashion, manners, and theater.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Browse the Met's collection of British caricatures or search the collection.
National Library of Medicine -- Images from the History of Medicine Images from the History of Medicine (IHM) provides access to over 70,000 images in the collections of the History of Medicine Division (HMD) of the U.S National Library of Medicine (NLM). The collection includes portraits, photographs, caricatures, genre scenes, posters, and graphic art illustrating the social and historical aspects of medicine dated from the 15th to 21st century. (the link here shows search results for "Caricatures")
National Library of Wales - Thomas Rowlandson The bulk of the Rowlandson collection at the National Library of Wales stem from his landscape studies in Britain with the majority representing the Welsh landscape.
National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery's collections include caricatures.
Northwestern University Charles Deering McCormick Library– William Hogarth and 18th Century Print Culture Hogarth and 18th-Century Print Culture commemorates the 300th anniversary of one of Britain's most influential artists. This exhibition critically reassesses the satirical graphic work of William Hogarth (1697-1764) by highlighting a variety of eighteenth-century themes that are of particular fascination to a contemporary audience.
NYPL Digital Gallery - Beta site New York Public Library - thousands of digitized images from the Library's collection, including caricatures and satires.
NYPL Digital Gallery - Tilden Caricature Collection New York Public Library. Samuel J. Tilden bequeathed the Library his collection of British caricature, including a scrapbook assembled by Horace Walpole, a near-complete collection of prints by William Hogarth, and one of the most significant collections of prints and working drawings by James Gillray in the United States.
NYPL Exhibition - James Gillray New York Public Library. The golden age of English caricature, extending from the late 1770s to the second decade of the nineteenth century, encompasses the life of its leading exponent, James Gillray (1756–1815), who contributed in no small measure to the brilliance and audacity of the political, personal, and social satires of this period.
Oxford University Library – Prints from the Curzon Collection: Images of Napoleon and British Fears of Invasion, 1789 - 1815 The Curzon Project offers digital images of political cartoons from the period of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars. A selection of 1400 prints has been made, of both British and Continental European publications, focusing on changing representations of Napoleon and on British fears of invasion during the period 1793-1805.
Princeton University - Comic Art at Princeton University An Online Exhibition Curated by Henry Martin, Class of 1948. Several Princeton collections have strong holdings in comic art, cartoons, and pictorial satire. The Graphic Arts Collection has several thousand caricatures in the form of prints or drawings, mainly in the Dickson Q. Brown '95 Collection of Thomas Rowlandson and the Richard W. Meirs '88 Collection of George Cruikshank.
Princeton University - Cruikshank Artwork at Princeton University Few artists have made such a profound impression on the popular imagination as the illustrator and caricaturist George Cruikshank. The Princeton University Library has more than six hundred of his prints, ridiculing the extravagant foibles of High Society, the imperial pretensions of Napoleon, the dissipated conduct of the Regent, and the petty intrigues of Cabinet officials. This web site includes a catalogue of the drawings and an interactive exhibition of prints and drawings.
Royal Collection Trust - Exhibition: High Spirits, the Comic Art of Thomas Rowlandson Through Rowlandson’s drawings and prints, the exhibition examines life at the turn of the 19th century.
A Draft List of Published book and periodical contributions by Robert Seymour - by Brian Maidment Brian Maidment, University of Salford (UK) presents the beginnings of a bibliographical investigation into Seymour’s published work. The artist and engraver Robert Seymour is chiefly famous for two related things – his role as the first illustrator and (perhaps) part-instigator of Dickens’s first novel Pickwick Papers (1836-1837) and his untimely suicide at the early age of 38. But, for all his early death, Seymour’s output was both large and varied.
Wellcome Library - Wellcome Images Wellcome Images is one of the Wellcome Library's major visual collections. Part of Wellcome Collection, a major new à¤ƒ30 million public venue developed by the Wellcome Trust, the Library has over 750 000 books and journals, an extensive range of manuscripts, archives and films, and more than 250 000 paintings, prints and drawings.
William Hogarth: Links to Online Image Archives of Paintings and Prints by Hogarth Image Galleries of Paintings and Prints by William Hogarth, part of the site "William Hogarth: The Site for Research on William Hogarth" maintained by Bernd Krysmanski.
Yale University - Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library - Auchincloss volumes Complementing Yale's unparalleled collection of eighteenth-century English satirical prints, both at the British Art Center and at Farmington, the Beinecke received nearly two thousand prints by Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray in the late 1970s as a bequest from Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, 1920. The collection also includes four original watercolor drawings by Rowlandson and a profile drawing of him by his friend John Bannister.
Yale University - Medical Library - Prints and Drawings The Cushing/Whitney Medical Library's Collection of Prints and Drawings shows how artists have portrayed issues and events related to health and medicine over six centuries.
Yale University - The Lewis Walpole Library - Digital Images Collection The collection of digital images represents a portion of the Lewis Walpole Library’s collections of eighteenth-century British prints, drawings, ephemera, and material related to the world in which Horace Walpole lived. Topics covered include politics, fashion, famous figures, notable places, society, daily life, trade, architecture, collecting, antiquities, the performing arts, fine and decorative arts, natural history, and more.
Yale University - Yale Center for British Art

General -- Art, Cultural, Historical Images

Here are links to electronic resources with general collections of art, cultural, and historical images that include British eighteenth-century works.

See also Yale Digital collections (in box at upper left)

ARTstor
Bridgeman Art Library Founded in 1972, the Bridgeman Art Library works with museums, galleries, collections and artists to provide a central resource of fine art and archive footage for reproduction to creative professionals. Every subject, concept, style and medium is represented, from the masterpieces of national museums to the hidden treasures of private collections.
British Library Images Online Images Online is the Picture library of the British Library, the national library of the United Kingdom.
British Museum Images Images from the British Museum collections, depicting world culture and history including ceramics, sculpture, prints, drawings, and paintings.
Google Cultural Institute - Art Project Museums large and small, classic and modern, world-renowned and community-based from over 40 countries have contributed more than 40,000 high-resolution images of works ranging from oil on canvas to sculpture and furniture.
Library of Congress The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) contains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and, in some cases, other units of the Library of Congress. The collections of the Division include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials of the United States
Metropolitan Museum of Art Browse works from A.D. 1600-1800 or search the collection.
National Portrait Gallery (UK) The Gallery was founded in 1856 to collect portraits of famous British men and women. Explore over 195,000 portraits from the 16th Century to the present day. Search by sitter or artist surname within over 195,000 portraits.
National Trust Collections (UK) Discover and view the national inventory of Collections at all National Trust Places - from fine art and furnishings in grand show rooms to many rarely seen items from behind closed doors.
Royal Collection Trust The Old Maps Online Portal is an easy-to-use gateway to historical maps in libraries around the world. It allows the user to search for online digital historicla maps across numerous different collections via a geographical search. Search by typing a place-name or by clicking in the map window, and narrow by date. The search results provide a direct link to the map image on the website of the host institution.
University of Wisconsin - Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture: Image and Text Collections The Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture collects and creates electronic resources for study and research of the decorative arts, with a particular focus on Early America. Included are electronic texts and facsimiles, image databases, and Web resources.
VADS (Visual Arts Database) VADS is the online resource for visual arts. It has provided services to the academic community for 12 years and has built up a considerable portfolio of visual art collections comprising over 100,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in learning, teaching and research in the UK.
Your Paintings UK Your Paintings is a website which aims to show the entire UK national collection of oil paintings, the stories behind the paintings, and where to see them for real. It is made up of paintings from thousands of museums and other public institutions around the country.

Special Topics (Images)

Here are links to online collections of digitized primary source visual materials focused on particular periods (pre-1700, Victorian), subjects (medicine, military), or formats (gravestones, maps).

British Printed Images to 1700

Brown University - Prints, Drawings & Watercolors from the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection This 15,000 individual prints, drawings, and watercolors from The Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection. The artwork vividly documents all aspects of military and naval history, with emphasis on the history and illustration of world military and naval uniforms from the 17th century to the present. In addition to the material on military and naval dress, this digital collection includes portraiture, caricatures, and much more.
Country Life Picture Library These exceptional images date from the launch of Country Life magazine in 1897 through to the present day. The collection is based around the historic and modern day images of houses and gardens, specially commissioned for the magazine. The collection also features historic buildings and churches; ever-changing landscapes photographed in all seasons; a wide range of quintessential country pursuits and social events; agriculture and animals.
Database of Mid-Victorian wood-engraved Illustration Welcome to the Database of Mid-Victorian Illustration (DMVI), which contains records and images of 868 literary illustrations that were published in or around 1862, providing bibliographical and iconographical details, as well as the ability for users to view images at exceptionally high quality.
David Rumsey Map Collection The David Rumsey Map Collection was started over 25 years ago and contains more than 150,000 maps. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century maps of North and South America, although it also has maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania.
Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture: Image and Text Collections The Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture collects and creates electronic resources for study and research of the decorative arts, with a particular focus on Early America. Included are electronic texts and facsimiles, image databases, and Web resources. Made possible by the Chipstone Foundation, the project is produced at the University of Wisconsin Madison General Library System.
18th-Century Notebook--Apparel This website primarily collects links to extant garments from the 18th century for women, men, and children, along with references, patterns, and other useful information. Links to useful resources, including patterns, can be found in the yellow boxes on the right-hand side of each page.
18th-Century Notebook--Other Topics relating to 18thC Material Culture Primary sources Agriculture, farming, gardening, and husbandry Beekeeping Candles and candle-making Etiquette and manners Soap Life in 18th century America Runaway ads More primary sources, including letters and journals On food and drink Cookbooks Beer Bread Butter churns Chocolate Coffee and coffeehouses Gingerbread Inns & Taverns Mead Punch Spruce beer Tea Material culture of play Dolls Board games Playing cards Other games Pantin Rattles Toys Occupations & material culture relating to textiles and needlework Chatelaines and equipages Coats of arms as embroidered by New England schoolgirls Dyes and dyeing Housewifes (hussifs, sewing rolls) Knitting (and knitting sheaths) Knotting Lacemakers Laundry Marks (initials/dates) on clothes and linens Milliners and millinery shops Patched clothing Pincushions, and wearing pincushions Sewing kits (including work-baskets, work-tables, hussifs, needlecases, etc.) Spinning with a distaff and spindle Wall pockets Work-bags Yarn-winding tools, including niddy-noddies and clock reels Occupations & material culture relating to lighting Primary sources relating to candles and candle-making Chambersticks Lanterns Miscellaneous other stuff Bed warmers Beekeeping Birdcages Blacksmiths Books for young readers about 18th century life and history Brooms Babywearing and baby slings Camp followers Ear trumpets Fishing - Angling Floor cloths Flower sellers Booths at fairs Hornbooks Ice skating Knife grinders Mops Napping Peglegs Pickpockets Pottles Recipes for Fashion (1753) Sedan chairs Tinkers Toilettes, dressing tables, and dressing rooms Wallets Watering cans Wheelchairs
Farber Gravestone Collection
King's Topographical Collection -- British Library The Topographical Collection of George III contains drawn and printed maps, views and atlases produced between 1500 and 1824.on Flickr
Locating London's Past This website allows you to search a wide body of digital resources relating to early modern and eighteenth-century London, and to map the results on to a fully GIS compliant version of John Rocque's 1746 map.
National Library of Medicine (US) - Images from the History of Medicine Images from the History of Medicine (IHM) provides access to over 70,000 images in the collections of the History of Medicine Division (HMD) of the U.S National Library of Medicine (NLM). The collection includes portraits, photographs, caricatures, genre scenes, posters, and graphic art illustrating the social and historical aspects of medicine dated from the 15th to 21st century.
Old Maps Online The Old Maps Online Portal is an easy-to-use gateway to historical maps in libraries around the world. It allows the user to search for online digital historicla maps across numerous different collections via a geographical search. Search by typing a place-name or by clicking in the map window, and narrow by date. The search results provide a direct link to the map image on the website of the host institution.

Digital Image Collections at Yale

Lewis Walpole Library Digital Images Collection The collection of digital images represents a portion of the Lewis Walpole Library’s collections of eighteenth-century British prints, drawings, ephemera, and material related to the world in which Horace Walpole lived. Topics covered include politics, fashion, famous figures, notable places, society, daily life, trade, architecture, collecting, antiquities, the performing arts, fine and decorative arts, natural history, and more.
Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill Collection The database will include a record of all of the art and artifacts from Horace Walpole's collections, some of which are now in the Lewis Walpole Library's collections. Images, descriptions, provenance information as well as the former locations of the pieces within Strawberry Hill are included.
Recent Antiquarian Acquisitions Blog The Recent Antiquarian Acquisitions blog features new additions of early materials to the Lewis Walpole Library’s collection.
Arts Library -- Image Resources Collection Image Resources by Subject This section provides assistance with image resources orgainzed by subject area categories. The resources are intended to draw attention to (1) essential collections offered by major institutions, (2) general resources with reliable information, and (3) special collections of particular significance for research needs. The listing is intended to serve as a starting point for our patrons.
Beinecke Digital Collections
Yale Center for British Art Collections Search across the Yale Center for British Art's online catalogue, currently representing over 100,000 records from the Center's collections. All records from the Center’s collection of Paintings and Sculpture, Prints and Drawings, and Reference Library are searchable online.
Yale University Art Gallery Collections Search the collections of the Yale University Art Gallery
Yale University Library Digital Collections The Library's Digital Collections, available via a browser, are listed below. Internet Explorer is the preferred browser for accessing these collections. Click on a collection to find out more about what it has to offer.
Yale Medical Library Digitized Collections The Cushing/Whitney Medical Library's Collection of Prints and Drawings shows how artists have portrayed issues and events related to health and medicine over six centuries.
Peabody Museum of Natural History Collections
Yale Digital Content Search 1,500,000 records; 250,000 digital assets from across Yale's collections

Finding Graphic Material in Orbis

Unlike most Yale images collections, the Lewis Walpole Library's collection is cataloged in Orbis, Yale's Library catalogue, with links to images in the Digital Images Collection online. Records include a link to the digital image.

To find graphic materials in Orbis:

Go to Advanced search.
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Next to Type: select Visual Materials
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For more info, click here.

Suggested Genre/Form Terms for Searching for Images in Orbis

Suggested Genre/Form terms to search on:

   Satires (Visual Works)
   Caricatures
   Political cartoons
   Portrait Prints
   Group Portraits
   Advertising cards
   Bookplates
   Invitations
   Trade Cards
   Theatrical Productions
   Playbills
   Etchings
   Engravings
   (and other media like Watercolors, Aquatints, Graphite drawings, etc.)

Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum: Division I. Political and Personal Satires

This Catalogue comprises descriptions, historical and biographical explanations and illustrations, measurements, and other details of satirical prints and drawings in the British Museum. Volumes include introductory essays, and later volumes include indexes. Volumes 8 and 11 available temporarily through Hathi Trust.

Vol. I
1320 to APRIL , 1689 (No. i to No. 1235)
Internet Archive
Vol. 2
June 1689 to 1733 (No. 1236 to No. 2015)
Hathi Trust
Vol. 3, Part I
March 28, 1734 to c. 1750 (No. 2016 to No. 3116)
Hathi Trust
Vol. 3, Part II
1751 to f. 1760 (No. 3117 to No. 3804)
Hathi Trust
Vol. 4
1761 to c. 1770 (No. 3805 to No. 4838)
Internet Archive
Vol. 5
1771 to 1783 (No. 4839 to No. 6360)
Internet Archive
Vol. 6
1784 to 1792 (No. 6361 to No. 8283)
Internet Archive
Vol. 7
1793 to 1800 (No. 8284 to No. 9692)
Internet Archive
Vol. 9
1811 to 1819 (No. 11704 to No. 13500)
Internet Archive
Vol. 10
1820 to 1827 (No. 13501 to No. 15496)
Internet Archive

Digitized Standard Secondary Sources Referred to in Orbis Catalogue Records for Images

Catalogue of engraved British portraits (v. 1)
A-C
Catalogue of engraved British portraits (v. 2)
D-K
Catalogue of engraved British portraits (v. 3)
L-R
Catalogue of engraved British portraits (v. 4)
S-Z
Catalogue of engraved British portraits (v. 5)
Groups
Catalogue of engraved British portraits (v. 6) Supplement and Indexes
Grego, J. Rowlandson the caricaturist (v. 1)
Grego, J. Rowlandson the caricaturist (v. 2)
Smith, J. C. British mezzotinto portraits (v. 1) British mezzotinto portraits : being a descriptive catalogue of these engravings from the introduction of the art to the early part of the present century : arranged according to the engravers, the inscriptions given at full length, and the variations of state precisely set forth : accompanied by biographical notes, and appendix of a selection of the prices produced at public sales by some of the specimens, down to the present time. (From Adams to Faber)
Smith, J.C. British mezzotinto portraits (v. 2) From Faithorne to Miller.
Smith, J.C. British mezzotinto portraits (v. 3) From Moore to Vispre
Smith, J.C. British mezzotinto portraits (v. 4) From Walker to Young Also Engraver not ascertained, Appendix, Additions & Corrections, etc.
Wright, T. Historical and descriptive account of the caricatures by James Gillray Avaialble through Internet Archive
Wright, T. The works of James Gillray, the caricaturist : with the story of his life and times Available through Hathi Trust

Related Yale Subject Guides: Images: Art, Cultural, Historical

Art Market, Auction Catalogues & Provenance Research This guide will help researchers in art history better use available tools for investigating provenance, auction records, and understanding the appraisal of works of art.
Arts Databases
British Country Houses, Gardens, and Castles This page is intended to guide users through the resources needed to study Castles, Country Houses and Gardens of England, Scotland and Wales.
History of British Art This page is intended to guide users through the resources needed to study British history of art. The tabs at the top of this guide help to navigate the primary and secondary sources essential to the study of British history of art. There are also tabs that pertain to specific topics
Image Resources Yale University's Arts Library Digital Services guide to digital image resources.

British Eighteenth-Century Studies Electronic Resources: Primary Sources: Images