Charles Dickens at 200
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Authors
Special Collections Staff
Date
2012-04-02
Type
Language
en
Keyword
exhibition , Charles Dickens
Alternative Title
Abstract
Charles Dickens at 200
Library Exhibit, 2 April - 31 December, 2012
Queen's Special Collections joins the global celebration of the man and his great
achievements by showing some of the treasures in its rare and valuable Dickens
holdings.
The Dickens Collection at
Queen's began in 1968 with the acquisition of the library of
Walter Millen of Ottawa whose sister, Charlotte Millen, sold
the collection to the University after her brother's death. At
the time the collection included first editions of 23 novels, a
handsome set of Household Words and All the Year
Round, and other articles of interest. Several novels
appear in their original part-issue serial format. Since 1968
additional gifts and purchases have expanded the
collection to more than 700 volumes.
For a few months the Dickens Exhibit showed many of
these items, usually available only to Victorian scholars, to
the interested public. The display foregrounded Dickens'
visits to North America, including Kingston; the invention of
"part-issue" serial publication for Dickens' novels; the
advertisements surrounding the text of the novels that
illuminate the cultural context in which he wrote; the
illustrators of the novels and stories; and Dickens as journalist and publisher.