Research: Celebrations – Victorian and Edwardian Greeting Cards
Digitising a collection of nineteenth-century greeting cards from Manchester Met’s University Special Collections Museum to make them more accessible to the public and for academic study.
Summary
Research summary
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January to September 2022
This project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and aims to digitise, organise and study a collection of greetings cards from the 1840s to the 1920s.
Although the traditional greetings card industry is in decline, the COVID-19 lockdowns showed the value of communication in all forms.
Looking back on the designs, messages and sentiments of Victorian and Edwardian cards is a way of understanding historic celebration and ritual. This can help us consider their uses in a world altered by the pandemic.
The Seddon Collection has more than 32,500 Victorian and Edwardian greetings cards, held by our University’s Special Collections Museum.
The project engages with the public on collections-based research. Partners Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, Death Café Chorlton and Manchester Met’s Poetry Library will host creative workshops with children and adults.
Other features of the research project include:
- an inclusive online exhibition celebrating the appeal of greeting cards—co-curated with workshop participants
- an exhibition at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House co-curated with workshop participants
- a blog that aims to reach a wider, non-academic audience
- an online catalogue of selected digitised images from the Seddon Collection—starting with about 500 as a pilot
Page header image © Special Collections Museum
Team
Research team
Lead researcher
Co-researchers
- Dr Emma Liggins
- Stephanie Boydell
Collaborating with:
- Special Collections
- The Poetry Library
- Chorlton Death Café
- Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
Contact information
Contact us
For general enquiries about our nineteenth-century research, you can contact its lead Dr Rachel Dickinson.