Illustration of the Snow Queen from Andrew Lang’s The Pink Fairy Book published in 1897 (Lan PZ8.L2P5). The original fairy tale of the Snow Queen was written by Hans Christian Anderson, first published in 1844, and…
Illustration of a reindeer from one the engraved plates in Johannes Schefferus’ Lapponia, a history of Northern Scandinavia and the Sami people. A noted Swedish humanist, Johannes Schefferus’ account of Northern…
Colour illustration of a Christmas tree from The Gift Book for all Seasons: A book of Instruction and Amusement for All Young People, 1860 (rper AP4.G5B6). While there has been a long tradition of decorating homes with…
The Scottish folklorist Alexander Carmichael edited the songs, lore and poems of the Gaelic speaking regions of Scotland in the work Carmina Gadelica, 1900 (r PB1631.C2). Carmichael records that ‘Christmas chants’ were…
Title page and frontispiece from A Christmas Carol in prose by Charles Dickens, c.1885 (s PR4557.C5). A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, to give the work its full title, was the first, and…
Illustration of the robin or robin redbreast (Erithacus rubecula) from the hand-coloured engraved plates of Prideaux John Selby’s Illustrations of British ornithology, published in 1841 (rfx QL690.S3 Volume 1). Selby…
Engraved illustration by Robert Seymour of a pantomime performance in Thomas Hervey’s The book of Christmas, published in 1836 (s GT4895.H2). Pantomime is a musical comedy stage show which has become popular in Britain…
Illustration of English fashion for the month of December in 1832, from The Royal Lady’s Magazine and Archives of the Court of St. James’s (rper AP4.R6L2 Volume IV). In the dedication to the Queen, the proprietors and…
Christmas Rose or Helleborus niger from the first volume of Curtis’s botanical magazine, 1787 (rper QK1.C8M2 Volume 1). Despite its name, the Christmas Rose is not really a Rose but is rather from the buttercup family…
This year Echoes from the Vault will be posting an image of winter or Christmas from our collections every day from the 1st to 25th December. We hope you enjoy our Special Collections themed advent calendar! For the…