Bibliothèque Nationale de France: press posters and more

Another post about one of my favourite sites: Gallica,  the Bibliothèque Nationale de France's digital library.  Gallica in fact goes far beyond the holdings of the BNF, covering some 40 other institutions with compatible collections, including the Collège des Irlandais de Paris, the National Library of Brazil, the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève (which has superb ephemera collections not yet digitised I think), the Cité internationale de la bande dessinée et de l’image, and the Library of Congress (joint France in America project).

I particularly liked the press publicity posters exposed through Twitter and Facebook yesterday.  Clicking on "informations détaillées" not only shows the metadata for the object but the user can click through to other works by the same illustrator or to further searches by associated terms. The menu on the left facilitates limiting the result set to specific artists, centuries or country.  There is an English language version too.

(C) Bibliothèque Nationale de France

The search screen is well designed. I used: Text : affiche  Limited by language:- Anglais and Document type : - Image to find 243 superb English posters with a further 58 results substituting publicité for affiche.  This site is very well worth exploring, especially for Francophiles and those interested in lithographed posters.

(C) Gallica. Bibliothèque Nationale de France



 

The British Book Trade Index

The BBTI, hosted at the University of Birmingham is a superb tool for dating booktrade and other ephemera. Covering a multiplicity of book-related trades, such as ink maker, gold beater, engraver, lithographer, auctioneer, librarian/owner of circulating library, stationer, and publisher, the resource goes far beyond dating booktrade ephemera and is helpful in dating any ephemera with an imprint. Its scope is England and Wales to 1851. Aseparate Scottish booktrade index is hosted by the National Library of Scotland.

Information given about each tradesman includes (where known) dates of birth and death, addresses with associated dates, apprenticeships, successors, and trades. Sources of information are given and contributions can be made to the database.

As an example, this is the BBTI information for Abel Sweetland of Exeter, enabling us to date the trade card in the John Johnson Collection to 1783-85 and that of his widow Margaret to 1787-96.

(C) BBTI

JJ Coll Provincial Booktrade 2 (13)

John Johnson Collection digital projects

(c) Proquest

The website contains links to our digital projects:
The John Johnson Collection: an archive of printed ephemera (free in UK to HE, FE, Schools and Public Libraries). Themes: Advertising; Crime, Murders and Executions; 19th Century Entertainment; Popular Prints; Booktrade

Oxford Digitial Library: 18th century Entertainment; Writing Blanks and Board Games

VADS: this site includes Political Cartoons and Trades and Professions Prints from the John Johnson Collection

Toyota Project: Motor Cars; and selected images of other forms of transport

Ballads (all Bodleian Ballads, including those from the John Johnson Collection)