Learning Aids
Explore sample syllabi, interactive teaching aids, online exhibits, and more.
News and Discussion
Learn about upcoming lectures, events, projects, calls for papers, and more.
Scholarly Resources
Access a selected list of scholarly resources relevant to 19th-century studies.
ABL Resources
Learn about the many resources, events, and fellowships offered by the Armstrong Browning Library.

Category Archives

Archive of posts published in the category: ABL Rare Item Analyses by Students

Textual Revisions and Constructed Narratives in Elizabeth Barrett’s “The Cry of the Children”

Bound copy of 1843 Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine featuring the first version of EBB’s “The Cry of the Children.” Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “The Cry of the Children.” Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine 44 (August 1843). CCCXXXIV. Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T. Cadell and W. Davis: pp. 260-262. ABLibrary Periodicals Rare…

Letter from Percy Florence Shelley to Tom Taylor, Jan. 11, 1871

Letter from Percy Florence Shelley to Tom Taylor, Jan. 11, 1871 Rare Item Analysis  by Emily Bell, Catherine Burr, and Alex Ueckert Percy Florence Shelley, the son of the famous romantic poets, Percy and Mary Shelley, decided to take a different route in his…

William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience

William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience (London: W. Pickering, 1839) ABLibrary Brownings’ Lib X BL 821.7 B636s 1839 Rare Item Analysis by Hannah Johnson, Annie McCausland, and Cody Shreffler This rare-item is a first edition of the first volume of William Blake’s (1757–1827)…

The Ghost Annotators of Coleridge’s First Edition of Biographia Literaria Explained?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, or, Biographical sketches of my literary life and opinions (London: Rest Fenner, 1817), first edition. Armstrong Browning Library 19th Century Collection: PR4476.A1 1817b v.1 & 2 Rare Item Analysis: The Ghost Annotators of Coleridge’s First Edition of Biographia Literaria Explained?…

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “On a Portrait of Wordsworth by B. R. Haydon”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Mr. Haydon’s Portrait of Wm. Wordsworth. [1 p.] [ca. 1842]. Holograph sonnet unsigned. Published in The Athenaeum, 29 Oct. 1842. Later published in her Poems (1844). Leaf 3 recto of her autograph notebook. Browning Guide D0617 Rare Item Analysis  by Ann Vondrak, Meagan…

Augusta Webster’s A Woman Sold and Other Poems

Augusta Webster, A Woman Sold and Other Poems. 1st ed. 1867 (ABLibrary 19thCent PR5766.W2 W66 1867) Rare Item Analysis by Carina Zuniga Augusta Webster succeeded Robert Browning and Lord Alfred Tennyson in her use of the dramatic monologue, but she added a flare of…

Private and Public Interpretations of John Keble’s The Christian Year

John Keble. The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and holydays throughout the Year. 2nd ed. Oxford: Printed by W. Baxter, for J. Parker and C. and J. Rivington, 1827 (ABL 19thC Collection PR4839.K15 C4 1827) Charlotte M. Yonge. Musings over the “Christian…

Early Edition of Tennyson’s In Memoriam

Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam. Third ed. London: Edward Moxon, 1850 with inscription and annotations. (ABLibrary Rare X 821.81 T312in 1850b) Rare Item Analysis: Early Edition of In Memoriam owned by Emily Jesse (née Tennyson) by Meg Wilder The Armstrong Browning Library holds a unique item…

Robert Browning’s Bells and Pomegranates

Robert Browning, Bells and Pomegranates (1841-46) pamphlet collection copy six in eight parts (ABLibrary Rare X 821.83 P1 M937b c.6) Rare Item Analysis: by Alexa Welch Robert Browning published his famous work, Bells and Pomegranates, in the form of eight separate pamphlets. The purpose of…

Images of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, 4th ed. inscribed to W. M. Rossetti from the Authoress with frontispiece of EBB (Browning Guide C0013.1) EBB engraving for the 4th ed. of Aurora Leigh touched up by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Engraving by T.O. Barlow based on a photograph by…