Visual Materials, 1567-1990

Extent:

35 boxes, approximately 8500 items

Scope and content:

Contains engraved portraits, maps, landscapes, architectural renderings, and other subjects that portray many of the important people and places of 18th and 19th century England as the Wesleys and their contemporaries might have known them. Formats include engravings, wood-block prints, photographs, and plates removed from 20th century books and calendars. The People Subseries is devoted almost entirely to Wesley family portraits, the bulk of it to John Wesley, who was one of the most frequent subjects of portraits in 18th century England. The Places Subseries houses some 300 engravings of landscapes and architectural sites. Scenes depicted include many well-known historical sites--Edinburgh Castle, King's College Chapel, Stonehenge--as well as others less familiar to a modern eye, such as Bath or Tintern Abbey as they might have appeared to the young Jane Austen or William Wordsworth. The Magazines Subseries contains groupings of portrait prints from various Methodist and other denominations' magazines from the late 18th through early 20th centuries. In the Maps Subseries are found approximately 250 maps, predominantly consisting of engraved prints from the 18th century. The Subjects Subseries houses images of literary, Biblical, and mythical scenes; pastoral and animal scenes; and painted and photographic copies and reproductions of well-known 18th and 19th century artists. Finally, a small Photographs Subseries houses albumen, panoramic, and modern black-and white prints, and glass plate negatives. Images portray individuals, churches, and scenes from Europe and the Americas.

RELATED MATERIALS: In addition to materials housed in this series, several thousand other engravings can be found in: the Wesley Family Series, Wesley Family Portraits Subseries; Volumes Series, Albums and Scrapbooks Subseries; and the Methodist Class and Band Tickets Series.

Processing information:

[Duplicates have not been weeded in most subseries, but it should be noted that for many items published prior to about 1820, apparent duplicates may show the minute variations common to copperplate printing. This is especially true in the various portraits gathered under "People," where FB often penciled notes that label "copies" as A, B, C, etc. and indicated points where the printing plates began to wear down and lose definition during subsequent print runs.]

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