Punch’s Pocket Book – Presentation
Punch, or the London Charivari (1841-2002) is certainly one of Britain’s central cultural institutions. Launched in July 1841 in the satirical tradition of Figaro in London (1831-1834) and the Parisian Charivari (1832-1937), it quickly relinquished the unpolished humour of its predecessors to become a well-mannered observer of its times, whose political, scientific and cultural evolutions it went on to mock for 150 years.
Among the cluster of Punch related products circulated by the magazine’s publishers, Bradbury & Evans, to support the fledgling magazine in a highly competitive market, was a little annual called Punch’s Pocket Book (1843-1881). Designed to appeal to an urban, mobile and affluent readership, it was a small notebook bound in soft leather combining serious information with amusement. Its first part offered a condensed version of the information found in Punch’s Almanack: a calendar including a cash account section, a diary and memoranda section, and up-to-date business information. For many readers, the publication’s memorandum pages were also a repository of daily observations and a record of their public and private life.
The second part, devoted to light reading and entertainment, contained a selection of stories, songs, ballads and cartoons similar to those found in Punch, interspersed with thumbnail silhouettes, in the tradition of the comic press of the Regency. Many of the stories were written by Mark Lemon, Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, William Makepeace Thackeray, Percival Leigh, Horace Mayhew, Sterling Coyne, and others of the staff. Later on, Shirley Brooks came to be in charge of much of the writing. Its lavish use of images efficiently showcased the work of the senior Punch artists who received substantial end-of-year bonuses, in particular for the Pocket Book’s distinctive hand-coloured fold-out frontispieces.
Punch’s Pocket Book Archive – Project Overview:
In line with The Punch Historical Archive (1841–1992) launched in 2015 under the supervision of Clare Horrocks (Liverpool John Moores University) and Seth Cayley (Gale Cengage Publishers), Punch’s Pocket Book Archive is an international digital project the primary objective of which is to create a fully searchable open-access archive from a complete collection of Punch’s Pocket Book – some thirty-nine volumes representing approximately 5,000 pages. Initiated in 2022 by the unexpected gift of a fairly complete collection of the little annuals, the project began at Caen Normandie (ERIBIA UR 2610) and was soon extended to include its present international partners, The Long Nineteenth-Century Network at Manchester Metropolitan University and the Punch and the Nineteenth Century Periodical Press Project at Liverpool John Moores University.
The venture is supported by the Center for Research in the Humanities (MRSH) at Caen Normandie as part of the “ExcellencES sous toutes ses formes” call for projects (Investments for the Future Programme (PIA) – France 2030), and the Pôle Document Numérique has agreed to digitize the whole collection.
The project has recently been awarded two grants:
- The International Partner Laboratories Grant (Caen Normandie, 2024-2026) – Grant awarded on March 1, 2024.
- The Patrick Leary Field Development Grant (Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (2024-2025) – Grant awarded on June 14, 2024.
Punch’s Pocket Book Archive is scheduled to unfold over a period of five years, starting in September 2024 and ending in August 2029. Throughout this period, the collection of 39 pocket books (1843–1881) will be scanned, transcribed, annotated, edited and uploaded onto the proposed website in instalments of 3 to 9 volumes: 3 volumes in 2024–25, and 9 volumes every year from 2025–26 to 2028–29. These repeated phases being interdependent, all collaborators and subcontractors involved, be they technical, commercial or academic, will work in close consultation with one another. Related research events involving MA and PhD students as well as postdoctoral researchers will be organised regularly, and run throughout project’s five-year duration.
The first of these events, “‘We Are Amused’: Victorian Humour and the Digital” will be take place on 7-8 November 2024 at Caen Normandie. The call for papers is now closed.