Detail of illustration from A Christmas Carol that depicts a group of children hugging a woman.

Season’s Greetings from Archives & Special Collections

Happy holidays and season’s greetings from SCU Archives & Special Collections! Although we can’t join all of you in person, we’d love to share with you some holiday cheer from our vault. 

To start with a Christmas classic, SCU Archives & Special Collections is pleased to have a copy of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, that was illustrated by Arthur Rackham. This edition was published in 1915 and features 12 color mounted plates accompanied by guard sheets with descriptive letterpress. It was limited to only 525 copies. We’ve included a few of the illustrations here for your viewing pleasure:

Caption from book: “Bob Cratchit went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas Eve.”
Caption from book: “A flushed and boisterous group.”
Caption from book: “Laden with Christmas toys and presents.”

Other books illustrated by Arthur Rackham and held in our Special Collections include Irish Fairy Tales, The Romance of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, and The Vicar of Wakefield.

For a more religious experience of the season, we turn to Richard Gilmour’s Bible history: Containing the Most Remarkable Events of the Old and New Testaments. This book was published in 1904 for use by Catholic schools in the United States. Within its 320 pages are many illustrations, including the ones below that depict the story of Jesus’ birth: 

Shepherds kneel before the Holy Family after the birth of Jesus.
Three Kings from the East come to pay their respects to the Christ child.

These are just two of the many illustrations featured in this book, no doubt included to capture the minds and imaginations of the children who would use this book to study. Also held in our collections are the 1881 and 1924 versions of the text.

And finally, what holiday season would be complete without some adorable cold-dwelling animals? The illustrations below come from our copy of Illustrated Natural History of the Animal Kingdom, Volume 1, which was written by Samuel G. Goodrich and published in 1859:

Polar Bears on the Ice.
The Common Seal.

We hope these holiday images brought you some cheer. Our Christmas wish is that 2021 will allow us to welcome you back into our Reading Room, but until then, we’re still here for you virtually.

We wish you a safe and restful holiday season!

Featured Image: detail of illustration by Arthur Rackham created for the 1915 edition of A Christmas Carol.