Collection items

Advertisement for Lipton's tea

Advertisement, Image

This advertisement is for tea manufacturing company, Lipton’s Tea. It features an illustration of an Indian woman dresse...

Album of Baha’i calligraphy

Manuscript Created date: early 19th – early 20th century

An album of Baha’i calligraphy including childhood calligraphic exercises by Baha’u’llah and tablets by Baha’u’llah copi...

Baha’i ‘Revelation’ Writing

Manuscript Created date: late 19th century

A collection of ‘revelation writing’, made under the direction of Baha’u’llah. What is ‘revelation writing’? As Baha’u’...

Banarasa-vilasa, Jain religious poetry

Manuscript Created date: 19th century

An anthology of Jain Digambara religious poetry. What is the manuscript? The Banārasī-vilāsa is a collection of philoso...

Charles Booth's London Poverty Map

Map, Image

Charles Booth, a shipowner, sought to refute socialist allegations that a quarter of London’s population lived in povert...

Christmas card with picture of tea leaves

Card, Illustration, Image Created date: c. 19th century

Sir Henry Cole devised the first Christmas card in 1843, but it wasn’t until the 1880s that festive cards were mass prod...

Cigarette Cards depicting soldiers of the West Ind...

Cigarette card Created date: c. 1890s

These cigarette cards, and others such as Philips cigarettes, were typical collectors items at the turn of the 20th cent...

Collection of rules for Buddhist monks

Manuscript Created date: 19th century

This palm leaf manuscript contains Bhikkhu Patimokkha and Bhikkhuni Patimokkha (rules to be obeyed in communities of mon...

Coloured illustrations of Buddhist heavens and hel...

Manuscript, Illuminated manuscript, Image Created date: 19th century

A folding book manuscript in 59 folds made in Upper Burma. It has tooled leather covers with paper labels dated Manadala...

Corrected typescript of Act I of Lady Windermere's...

Manuscript, Draft, Playscript Created date: 1892

This is a typescript of Act I of Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde, which contains many handwritten changes and addit...

Depiction of a procession during the Buddhist Thad...

Manuscript, Paper folding book Created date: 19th century

A 19th-century Burmese folding book manuscript. What does it show? This manuscript contains images of eight festivals in...

Extracts from the Tipitaka

Paper folding book, Manuscript Created date: 19th century

An 19th-century funeral or commemoration book. About the manuscript This Thai folding book (samut khoi) made from mul...

Group photograph from Lady Windermere's Fan

Photograph, Image

This image was taken by Alfred Ellis of the first production (1892) of Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan at St Ja...

Henry Irving’s annotated playscript of King Lear,...

Book, Playscript, Manuscript annotation Created date: 1892

Henry Irving (1838–1905) was a popular Victorian actor-manager who directed and performed in numerous Shakespeare plays ...

'Hyde Park Gate News', a magazine by Virginia Wool...

Manuscript, Periodical, Ephemera, Drawing, Image Created date: 1891–95

These are the 69 surviving issues of ‘Hyde Park Gate News’, a family magazine produced by Vanessa Stephen (afterwards Be...