Uni exhibition attracting widespread interest

A UNIVERSITY of Otago exhibition on 19thcentury periodicals which entertained the masses before the advent of radio and TV is attracting national and international interest.

The exhibition, titled ‘‘All the Year Round: Exploring the NineteenthCentury Periodical’’, is on display at the University of Otago central library until August 31.

The exhibition has been curated by Grace Moore, a visiting Victorian studies scholar from the University of Melbourne, and Tom McLean, of the Otago department of English and linguistics.

Dr McLean said the exhibition had attracted national media interest, and some overseas academics had asked for details of the items on display.

The exhibition included works from the Dunedin Public Library, the Hocken Library and private collections, including the Olga and Marcus Fitchett Collection, as well as the university’s Special Collections.

‘‘We’ve drawn on Dunedin’s incredible wealth of literary archives,’’ he said.

Dr Moore said that 19thcentury periodicals were the television of their day.

‘‘They offered riveting serials, lifestyle recommendations, vivid illustrations by leading artists, and the inevitable advertising . . . They were shared among readers, who discussed their contents avidly,’’ she said.

The exhibition charted the rapid expansion of periodical publication from the early years of the 19th century, to the last decades of Queen Victoria’s reign, when the Boy’s Own and Girl’s Own papers catered to an expanding young readership, and Sherlock Holmes’ appearance in The Strand inspired a devoted following.

‘‘All the Year Round’’ takes its title from Charles Dickens’ weekly journal, which reached tens of thousands of readers and featured many of his now classic novels.