Exhibitions

Dreams or Swords
Books of social and cultural change

8 July – 1 November 2002

This exhibition is mounted to mark the London 2002 conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing, hosted by the Institute of English Studies at the University of London, Senate House, 10-13 July 2002. It complements the plenary lecture, by Peter Burke, 'The book: agent, expression or catalyst of social and cultural change', and develops this theme over five hundred years of the printed word.

The quotation from the American Imagist poet Amy Lowell (1874-1928) provided a pithy starting point for the exhibition:

All books are either dreams or swords,
You can cut, or you can drug, with words

Exhibition Brochure

The exhibits, taken from the collections of Senate House Library, provide a glimpse into the

intellectual powerhouse of books, pamphlets, periodicals, archives, manuscripts and artefacts stored in the Library's Book Tower. Some material may be familiar, some less so. Collectively, the exhibition exemplifies the rich and extensive heritage of Senate House Library collections and suggests paths for further exploration or study.

Exhibition Cases

The exhibition is designed to provide an array of insights into works of social and cultural change in the last five hundred years and the display cases are arranged along the following themes:

• Travel – broadening our vision
• Print in conflict: 17th century England
• Piers Plowman: from manuscript to virtual resource
• Scholarly debates: the Bacon-Shakespeare authorship controversy
• The long road to equality for women
• Astronomy - celestial debates
• Gaming and the lottery

Access

Access to the exhibitions held in Senate House Library is free. Please enquire at the Library Membership Desk for an Exhibition pass. For further information call 020 7862 8415