Bound to Please: The Iconic Victorian Binding in an Era of Industrialisation and Mechanisation

10th August - 10th October 2015

Curator: Lee Hayes

The Victorian era (1837-1901) was an exciting time. Rapid and unregulated industrialisation brought with it tremendous social and political change and saw technological advancements in nearly every sphere. Book binding was no exception.

This fascinating exhibition explores the evolution of the book as it transitions away from the traditional methods of hand-binding towards the exquisitely gilt-blocked and mass-produced publishers’ cloth binding.

This stunning selection of books from both the Rare Books & Special Collections Library and the curator's own personal collection was displayed in the Rare Books & Special Collections foyer in 2015.

The Victorian Era

On the 20th of June 1837, at the age of just 18, Alexandrina Victoria Kent ascended the British throne.  She would become England’s longest serving monarch, reigning until her death in 1901, and although this record is set to change in September 2015, Queen Victoria remains the first British monarch to see her name given to the period of her reign whilst still living.

The Victorian Age was an exciting time.  It was a period of dramatic and unpredictable change that brought England to its highest point of development as a world power.  Advancements were made in every sphere.  From medicine to manufacturing, from education to science, not one field was left unturned. There were challenges to religion, with Darwin’s theories of evolution and natural selection undermining the position of the Church, along with changes to the size and location of the population as large numbers of agricultural workers migrated from the country to the cities in search of factory work.

Improvements in steam transport, particularly during the second Industrial Revolution (1840-1870), combined with large-scale production of textiles and machine tools, further accelerated and expanded the economies of Europe, eventually laying the path for a global economy that favoured industry over agriculture.  There were fundamental changes on the home front too.  Widely disseminated was now the ideology of separate spheres for men and women; the latter assigned the private sphere, a haven away from that chaotic, public world of commerce and politics considered the domain of the (middle or upper- class) man.  The social classes of England were reforming.  Middle classes were steadily growing and a new wealthy commercial class was emerging.

The Victorian Age certainly began with a confidence and optimism that led to prosperity and social advancement for many.  However, it was also a period fraught with complexities.  Such rapid and unregulated industrialisation brought with it an uncertainty about Britain’s place in the world; it had dispossessed farmers from their land, trapping thousands of families in poverty-stricken, over-crowded cities and deprived rural women of valuable employment as their jobs disappeared into the factories.  The gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” widened considerably and, for many, the rate of change was utterly alarming.  England had transitioned from a way of life based on the ownership of land to a modern, urban economy which brought with it a host of social and economic problems.

For this, we owe a lot to the Victorians.  Theirs was a period of astonishing innovation and change.  We see evidence of its legacies in almost every aspect of our daily lives.  Before the Victorians, major industrialisation was confined to just a few small English towns.  Now the entire world is covered with factories and railways.  Before the Victorians, democracy was just a dream of a few political theorists.  Now it is a political goal towards which the world strives.  Before the Victorians, literacy was a skill possessed by the educated middle and upper classes.  Now we can all enjoy a good book…