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Past Exhibitions


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Samuel Johnson’s Garret Lexicography: Desks, Drudges and the Dictionary

Opening 13th June 2024

This summer, visit our exhibition showcasing new aspects of Johnson's garret lexicography, exploring why the garret was so important in Johnson's move to Gough Square.

“What Age! What Nation! has not known its Garrets filled with its greatest Men? When...was Learning itself famous, that Garrets were not so too?”

We'll also be exploring how Johnson and his assistants worked on the Dictionary before it was published in 1755. As part of this, we'll be presenting the history – and mystery – of Johnson’s 'Dictionary Desk'.

In making a dictionary, Johnson stressed, a desk was vital. 'You can make a poem walking in the fields or lying in bed', he stated. But, in every case, 'composing a Dictionary requires books and a desk'.

The star attracttion of this exhibition is Johnson’s ‘dictionary desk’, currently at Pembroke College, Oxford, which will be returned to the garret for the first time since the dictionary was written here. This exhibition charts the journey of the desk of the past 250 years, and how the dictionary was compiled. Join us to explore the desk's links to Charles Dickens, Thomas Carlyle, and Johnson's lost godchildren.

We’ll also be investigating how to write a dictionary by hand and looking at the significance of often-forgotten role of his assistants.

This exhibition is the result of a collaborative project funded by TORCH at Oxford University: ‘Rethinking Johnson's House of Words’. The research project redirects attention to the garret in which Samuel Johnson completed his English dictionary in 1755 as a writerly and collaborative space, and the birthplace of a book of international cultural significance.

This exhibition is a close collaboration between Celine Luppo McDaid, the Director and Curator of Dr Johnson's House, and Prof. Lynda Mugglestone, professor of English Language at Pembroke College, Oxford, and will reunite physical space and lexicographical practice. This funding from TORCH facilitates a public benefit from their shared interest in rethinking where, why and how Johnson’s dictionary was compiled.

A programme of in-person and online public events and workshops will be delivered, alongside outreach events to enhance established links with schools. This will include 'Dictionary drop-ins' with Prof. Lynda Mugglestone!

Watch this space for further announcements - preliminary research for the project is already revealing some exciting and unexpected directions!

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From July 2023


‘Gratifications of the Palate’: Cuisine in the Age of Samuel Johnson

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From July 2023

Join us to discover 18th - century society through the lens of food and drink.

Johnson greatly esteemed companionship and conversation and was known for celebrating conviviality, and as such he highly valued opportunities for dining with friends. During his lifetime he established a number of dining societies, known as ‘clubs’, where he could gather together the leading minds in a variety of fields and disciplines to eat, drink and debate, at least one of which is in existence to this day. This exhibit is inspired by Johnson’s attitude to the value of sharing food and drink with family and friends and offers an insight into what was typically available, from the richest to the poorest of plates, during the ‘Age of Samuel Johnson’.

This exhibition explores some of the prominent food and beverage cultures of the 18th century, with a particular emphasis upon the experiences of Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, and their contacts and associates in England and Scotland. Join us to explore the four themes: taverns and inns; the growth of tea and coffee consumption during this period; the range of street foods available; and home cooking and entertaining during this era.

Johnson directly: ‘People have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat; for my part, I mind my belly very studiously and very carefully, and I look upon it that he who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind any thing else.’

This exhibition is curated by Professor Sheila T. Cavanagh of Emory University in conjunction with Celine Luppo McDaid, The Hyde Director and Curator of Dr. Johnson’s House. Prof. Cavanagh thanks the Emory Fund for Public Scholarship, the Guildhall Library in the City of London, the London Metropolitan Archives, and the Trustees of Dr. Johnson’s House for their support of this exhibition. Special thanks are also owed to Guildhall Librarian Peter Ross.

Free with standard admission

 

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Johnson and Satire

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From July 2021 - July 2023

Join us to discover 18th - century society through the lens of satire from a variety of key artists of the period and beyond.  London at this time was full of inequalities and hardships but also humour and innovation, especially within the work of the many satirists operating during this time.  The prints, paintings and other printed material on display explore Johnson’s significance in London society and as a popular subject for its contemporary satirical artists, but also how crucial his own writing was in addressing various social issues, often in a satirical tone.

Free with standard admission

 

 

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Queen of the Blues

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From July 2021 - July 2022

Queen of the Blues is a set of community created responses to the life, work and letters of Bluestocking, Elizabeth Montagu and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This exhibitionhas been created and filmed by Unity Arts, in collaboration with Dr Johnson’s House. Queen of the Blues was the name given to Montagu by Samuel Johnson and the pieces that are displayed have been created during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The artwork, 3D installations, audio, photographs and information panels came out of online workshops, heritage trips in pairs and one to one socially distanced meetings with the researchers and artists. Alongside these artworks, you can see Elizabeth Montagu's letters and portraits of Montagu and Johnson from the Dr Johnson's House collection.
You can view an online preview of the exhibition here.

Free with standard admission

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Johnson and Boswell at the Tea Table

Detail from Tea, by Thomas Rowlandson after Samuel Collings, 1786

James Gilray' print of Johnson

Detail from Apollo and the Muses inflicting penance on Dr Pomposo round Parnassus by James Gillray

Elizabeth Montagu artwork

Queen of the Blues artwork from Unity Arts participants

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