A previously unknown comic manuscript by Charlotte Augusta
Sneyd (1800-1882) recently came to light in New York. The volume of fourteen
original pen-and-ink drawings has now been acquired by the Library and safely returned
to Keele for the University’s Sneyd Archive.
Charlotte lived at Keele Hall for much of the nineteenth
century and was an accomplished amateur artist, producing paintings and
drawings for the amusement of family and friends. This charming manuscript
offers a satiric view of gender roles in Victorian England in the form of a
prospectus of English grammar, with tenses of verbs illustrated by scenes of
social aspiration and disaster. Many of the drawings feature an unmarried
middle-aged woman contemplating who she was, is, and will be - no doubt based
on Charlotte herself, who never married and had children.
To find out more, or to view the manuscript, please contact
the Special Collections and Archives at h.burton@keele.ac.uk
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