Mary Dorothy George

Last updated
M Dorothy George
Born
Mary Dorothy George

1878 (1878)
Died1971 (1972) (aged 93)
London, England
Occupation Historian,
Known forHistorian

M Dorothy George (18781971), née Gordon, was a British historian best known for compiling the last seven volumes of the Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum , the primary reference work for the study of British satirical prints of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. [1] . Educated at Cambridge University she graduated in 1899 with a first class degree in History [2] . During the first World War she worked in British Intelligence for MI5 [2] ; before returning to academia as a research scholar at the London School of Economics.

Historian person who studies and writes about the past

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is concerned with events preceding written history, the individual is a historian of prehistory. Some historians are recognized by publications or training and experience. "Historian" became a professional occupation in the late nineteenth century as research universities were emerging in Germany and elsewhere.

The twelve volume Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum is the primary reference work for the study of British satirical prints of the 18th and 19th century. Most of the content of the catalogue is now available through the British Museum's on-line database.

Contents

George's work on the BM Satires, begun in 1930 on the invitation of the Museum Trustees [2] [3] , was a massive work of great scholarship [2] that systematised a large corpus of previously undocumented source material and recorded its complex historical context. Her work covered over 13,000 prints from the "golden age" of British satirical printmaking and its leading artists such as Matthew Darly, James Sayers, Robert Dighton, James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson, Isaac Cruikshank, Richard Newton. Charles Williams, William Heath, Isaac Robert Cruikshank and George Cruikshank, and many others. The catalogue entries were scanned as part of the British Museum's ongoing digitalisation project of its collections [4] and provide the basis for many of the entries on the British Museum on-line catalogue.

James Sayers British engraver

James Sayers was an English caricaturist. Many of his works are described in the Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum which has an extensive holdings of his works collected at the time of original publication by Sarah Sophia Banks.

Robert Dighton British artist

Robert Dighton was born c.1752 in London and died there in 1814. An English portrait painter, printmaker and caricaturist, he was the founder of a dynasty of artists who followed in his footsteps.

James Gillray English caricaturist and printmaker

James Gillray was a British caricaturist and printmaker famous for his etched political and social satires, mainly published between 1792 and 1810. Many of his works are held at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Bibliography


See also

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Thomas Rowlandson British artist

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Richard Newton (caricaturist) British artist

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Charles Williams (caricaturist) British caricaturist, etcher and illustrator

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Mary and Matthew Darly English printsellers and caricaturists

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John Collett (artist) British artist

John Collet or Collett was an English satirical artist. .

William Humphrey (1740?–1810?) was an English engraver and printseller.

Piercy Roberts was an English publisher, printmaker, and caricaturist active between 1785 and 1824. Most of his prints are caricatures, some after his own designs and some after others such as George Moutard Woodward. He collaborated with Thomas Rowlandson on several prints, most notably a pair of portraits of Josephine Beauharnais and Napoleon.

William Holland was a leading London print seller and radical publisher who was fined £100 and imprisoned in 1793 for a year for seditious libel.

Frederick George Byron, was an English amateur artist and caricaturist, and an uncle of the poet the 6th Lord Byron.

Elizabeth Jackson was a London print seller, significant in particular for being the publisher of nearly seventy prints by the young Thomas Rowlandson in the mid 1780s.

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References

  1. Pottle, Mark. "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004: George née Gordon, (Mary) Dorothy(1878–1971)".
  2. 1 2 3 4 Dictionary of National Biography. ibid.
  3. Baker, James (2019-02-26). Mary Dorothy George (Speech). Defining Curatorial Voice seminar. University of Sussex. As recorded in a note by Cambell Dodgson 12th July 1930 at a meeting of the British Museum Board of Trustees; see Vol 62, July 12 1930 British Museum Archive
  4. Griffiths, Antony (2010). [www.jstor.org/stable/25767237 "Collections Online: The Experience of the British Museum"] Check |url= value (help). Master Drawings. 48 (Autumn2010): 356–367. JSTOR   25767237.