The Dawson Turner Collection of Printed Ephemera and Great Yarmouth

Abstract

• This article provides an introduction to an important collection of printed ephemera held at the British Library and created by Dawson Turner (1775-1858). This ten-volume collection was acquired by the British Museum in 1859 and 1873 and is significant as it includes a wealth of material relating to life at Great Yarmouth between 1732 and 1862 and covers a wide range of subject areas including entertainment, politics, science and transport. After providing a brief introduction to the history of the collection this article explores its contents by considering how the ephemera collected by Turner sheds light on four particular aspects of nineteenth-century life at Great Yarmouth, namely, politics, religion, science and transport.