New Exhibition - Street Literature
On display in Special Collections through March is a new exhibition on street literature. For over 400 years, news was disseminated to the poor and uneducated masses in England, Ireland, and other European countries through street literature. Many forms eventually reached America and other parts of the world. Street literature was a mirror of society, with its half-truths, lies, folk poetry, romances, and all manner of other foibles. Every imaginable subject was covered: politics, church propaganda, birth, death, love, marriage, adultery, murders, executions (often including what was claimed to be a final letter/confession by the accused), other crimes, sea adventures, and wars.
This exhibit concentrates on types of street literature in England in the 16th through 19th centuries: how it was produced; the subjects it embraced; two of the chief publishers of the 1800s; and samples and copies housed in the University of Iowa Libraries.
Recently added to the considerable culinary collections here in Special Collections are three alehouse licenses. They were all granted in the county of Kent, England, allowing their owners the right to “Keep a common alehouse or victualling-house.” Of course they also require the owners to “suffer no disorder to be committed, or unlawful games used,” something even modern-day alehouse patrons can relate to. These legal documents, like many at the time, are printed on vellum (more durable than eighteenth century paper) and can be viewed at the links below:
