Nineteenth-Century British Pornography: Sources and Materials

Lisa Z. Sigel is Professor of History at DePaul University, Chicago. She has a well-established publication record in the histories of pornography and sexuality.

• Part 1: Social Control1.1 Social Control in the late 19th Century Metropole1. 1.1 Obscene Publications Act of 1857, (Lord Campbell’s Act’), Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates third series, 1857, and 1.2 Parliamentary Debates about the Obscene Publications Act, 1857.2. Letter of Mr. Pritchard to Lord Campbell, Society for the Suppression of Vice, ‘Social Evils Extract Album’ January 1858 3. The Queen, on the Prosecution of Henry Scott, Appelant v. Benjamin Hicklin and Another, Justices of Wolverhampton, Respondents, L.R. 3 Q.B. 360 (1868). Court of the Queen's Bench. Cockburn, C.J., Blackburn, Mellor, and Lush, J.J. sitting. 4. Central Vigilance Committee for the Repression of Immorality, A Short Manual of the English Law on the Subject (London: Hatchards, 1885). 5. Pernicious literature: debate in the House of Commons: trial and conviction for sale of Zola's novels. With opinions of the press. National Vigilance Association (Great Britain), London : National Vigilance Assoc., [1889].6. The Stoppage of Letters to or from Dealers in Obscene Matter,’ Home Office, 1898, HO 45/9752/A59329. INDECENT PUBLICATIONS Etc. and Chart of Warrants to and from Dealers in Obscene Matter, Home Office, 1898, HO 45/9752/A59329.7. Parcel post: imports of indecent or obscene articles dealt with by General Post Office (GPO), 1900.8. Obscene pamphlets, stopping in post. 1901. Case: for the Opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown. The Solicitor General. A Consultation is requested. See Opinion on this case. 9. ‘Report from the Joint select committee on lotteries and indecent advertisements, together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, and appendices.’ Great Britain. London, Printed for H. M. Stationery off., by Vacher and sons, 1908. Excerpts. 10. National Vigilance Association. Annual Reports.1905.1906.1917.1918.11. National Vigilance Association, Translation, [Possibly from French].12. ‘Mails censored by Military Authorities. Treatment for obscene literature and photographs, betting and lottery letters, etc’1.2 Social Control in the Empire 13. ‘Despatches to India and Bengal (Original Drafts), Dec 1857-Jan 1858, p. 1165- India Legislative Department 6 January 1858.14. ‘Confiscation in Madras of copies of the Kama Sutra, The Perfumed Garden, and the Ananga Ranga as being obscene literature’, India Office Records and Private Papers, 13 Sep 189715. ‘The manager of Thacker and Company, chief booksellers of Bombay, prosecuted for the sale of obscene books and pictures’, India Office Records and Private Papers, 24 Jun 189816. Steps taken to prevent sale of indecent photos 1907. Port Said. 17. ‘Prosecution of a bogus Indian firm offering indecent photographs to a female English photographer’, India Office Records and Private Papers, 12 Jun 1912-4 Mar 1913.18. ‘Importation into India from Germany of kinematograph films of an indecent nature,’ India Office Records and Private Papers, 10 Jun 1913.19. Letter from a Birmingham print dealer enclosing a request from India for indecent photographs’, India Office Records and Private Papers 11-17 Feb 1911.20. Basutoland: proclamation ban on sale or exhibition of obscene publications. 21. Objectionable Literature 1.3 Social Control in the Courts22. Old Bailey, Records of those who came before the Central Criminal Court for obscenity related issues. Part 2. Newspapers2. 1. Newspaper archives,23. ‘Surrey Sessions’, Morning Advertiser, 23 October 1832, ‘Objectionable French Post Cards,’ p.167.24. ‘Southwark’ Morning Advertiser, 5 February 1847.25. ‘The Abominations Op Holywell Street’, Morning Advertiser, 25 September 1851, p. 6.26. ‘Extensive Seizure of Obscene Books and Prints Dublin’, Cork Examiner, 21 December 1857, p. 3.27. ‘Criminal and Police’, London and China Express, 10 June 1859, p. 327.28. ‘Selling Improper Books,’ Cork Examiner, 5 October 1861.29. ‘Death In Gaol Of ‘Dugdale’ The Notorious Seller of Indecent Prints’, Maidstone Telegraph, 21 November 1868, p. 3.’30. Obscene Importations’, The Cornwall Chronicle, Wed. 7, March, 1866.31. ‘Police Intelligence’, Daily Telegraph & Courier (London), 4 March, 1871, p. 2.32. ‘Obscene Books’, Belfast Telegraph, 21 April 1871, 4.33. ‘Another Seizure of Indecent Prints’, Abergavenny Chronicle, 8 July 1872, p. 4.34. ‘A Strange Career’, Belfast Telegraph, 10 December 1874, p. 4.35. ‘Importation of Obscene Photographs’, The Age (Melbourne,) Saturday 6 February 1875, p. 7.36. ‘Alleged Indecent Photographs of Zulus’, Birmingham Daily Post, 24 October 1879, p. 5.37. ‘Selling Obscene Photographs’, Glasgow Evening Post, 22 September 1883, p. 3.38. ‘Photographs of the Nude’, Eastern Evening News, Thursday 28 October 1886.39, ‘The Rabelais Pictures. Twenty-One to be Destroyed’, The Globe, 13 November 1890.40. ‘Charge Under the Post Office Protection Act’, Croyden Guardian and Surrey County Gazette, 14 January 1893, p. 3.41. ‘Indecent Postcard Traffic’, Sheffield Evening Telegraph - Saturday 15 September 1906, p. 3. 42. ‘An Indecent Peep-Show’, South Wales Daily News, 31 October, 1894.43. ‘Indecent Postcard Case: Decision Varied on Appeal’, Derry Journal, Wednesday 18 October 1905, pp. 6-7.44. ‘Criminous And Vicious Literature’, The Bedfordshire Mercury, Friday, April 15, 1904. 45. ‘Indecent Postcards’, Bendigo Advertiser, Weds. 21 Feb 1906, p. 5.46. ‘Objectionable Literature’, Finsbury Weekly News and Chronicle, Friday 30, July 1909, p. 4.47. ‘Purity Crusade’, Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Friday 23 April 1909, p. 15. 48. ‘Berlin Police Mistake’, London Evening Standard – Weds. 17 December 1913, p. 6.49. ‘Indecent Photos’ Buluwayo Chronicle (Zimbabwe), October 23, 1914, p. 4. 50. ‘Alleged Obscene Postcards. Seizure by Police’, Eastbourne Chronicle, 26 August 1916, p. 2.2.2 The Vigilance Record: The Organ of the National Vigilance Association, London. 51. ‘Seizure of Indecent Photographs’, The Vigilance Record, No 5, Vol. viii, Strand. London, Jan. 1895, pp. 36-7.52.‘Objectionable French Post Cards’, The Vigilance Record, High Holborn, December 1901, p. 167.53. ‘Vigorous Action Against Obscene Publication in Sydney’, The Vigilance Record, High Holborn, December 1901, p. 172.54. ‘A Serious Charge’, The Vigilance Record, London, March 1902., No. 3 1901, p. 22.55. ‘Indecent Cards in the Market’, ‘Indecent Photographs’, The Vigilance Record, London, April 1902., p. 30.56. ‘Indecent Pictures in Mutoscopes’, The Vigilance Record, London, May 1902., p. 39.57. ‘Objectionable Post-Cards’, The Vigilance Record, No. 11, November 1904.58. Vigilance Record, No. 2 [new series], Feb. 1905, p. 16.59. Vigilance Record, No. 12 [new series], Dec., 1905, p. 100.60. ‘Bad Literature and Indecent Articles in Shop Windows’, Vigilance Record, No. 12 [new series], Dec., 1906, p. 100.61. ‘Police Crusade against Indecent Postcards’, Vigilance Record, No. 3 [new series], March 1906, p. 22.62. ‘Indecent Pictures and Indecent Cards’, ‘Police Crusade against Indecent Postcards’, Vigilance Record, No. 4 [new series], April 1907, p. 32.63. ‘To Stop the Sale of Objectionable Postcards’, Vigilance Record, No. 8 [new series], August, 1908, p. 62.64. ‘Obscene Pictures and the 'Black Peril’ in South Africa’, Vigilance Record, No. 7 [new series], July 1911, pp. 54-55.65. ‘The Sale of Indecent Pictures in Bulawayo, South Africa’, Vigilance Record, No. 9 [new series], September, 1911, p. 72.2.3 Clipping Files66. ‘Morning News,’ March 19, n.d.Part 3. Mass Market Materials 3.1 Catalogues 67. ‘General Catalogue 22,’ [A Collection of catalogues and lists, some in ms] 68. Erotic Photos, [A Collection of catalogues and lists, some in ms ]69. Catalogue of rare curious and voluptuous, Reading, 1897. 70. [A Leaf Advertising some erotic novelties. London, c. 1900?] 3.2 Pamphlets71. The Honeymoon of Louise Cornoue, Amsterdam, translated from the French. 1906.3. 3 The Penny Press 72. Examples of The Penny Press, Photo Fun, New Photo Fun, New Fun, Fun, Illustrated Bits, Bits of Fun, Little Bits of Fun, London Life 73. ‘King's Bench Division’, The Times, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 1902 Iss. 36695, p. 3.74. ‘High Court Of Justice’, The Times, Thursday, Feb. 20, 1902, Issue: 36696.75. ‘Objectionable Literature’, Daily Telegraph & Courier’ 16 July, 1909.76. ‘News in Brief’, The Times, Saturday Feb 17, 1917, issue 21405.77. Manchester Evening News, 6 March, 1917, p. 5.78. ‘Bits Of Fun’, The Times, October 20, 1920, p. 9.3.4 Images79. Mass Market ImagesTwo men engaged in sexual act, 189-.Two men in drag, one fellating the other, 188-.Photolithographic Print of Engravings, Courtesy: James Gardiner.Section of a silver collotype of a painting, Courtesy: James Gardiner.Three allegorical personifications of womankind. Coloured halftone, 1898, after A. Vignola, 1897. Untrodden Fields (1898) by Dr. Jacobus X, aka Louise Jacolloit (1837-1890). A young woman, full-length, posed naked sitting on a table with her feet on a fur-covered stool, in a photographic studio. Photograph, ca.1900.Cover: Photo Bits, Charles and Co., Gold and Co. case file, MEPO 3/2459 Distribution of obscene books, literature and photographs: general correspondence, reports and specimens mentions Photo Bits. Catalogue copy of 10 thumbnail photographs.Card featuring a line of people having sex, unnamed, n. p, n.d.Card, Moroccan woman nude to the waist, Paris, n.d. Postcard, Man and women having sex, n.d. [1900s?].Postcard, close-up penis and vagina during sex.Postcard, Wasp-waist, taken from a publication.Postcard, ‘A curious Boy’ stamp from Egypt. Sent to Holland. Bought in UK.Postcard, ‘Jeune Femme Kabyle paree de ses bijoux.’Postcard, photolithograph of a painting, ‘Salon de ‘’Ecole Francaise 1907 Jeune Fille, par Paul Leroy. Image printed to card stock, women in underclothes with stockings and fan, n.p., n.d.Wilhelm von Gloeden, Two naked Sicilian boys in a rocky setting. 1900.Couple, card #2501, Lehnert & Landrock, Tunis, n.d. print on postcard back.Woman, Card number 2509, Lehnert &Landrock, Photograhers, Tunis, n.d. printed on postcard back.Index