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Queen Mary,
University of London Archives have recently completed a project to digitise
The Palace Journals, the weekly
newspaper of the People’s Palace, which was published between
1887 and 1893. The Journals are available to view online: http://www.library.qmul.ac.uk/archives/digital/palace_journal
The People’s Palace was a philanthropic endeavour to provide
culture and education to the people of East London. It opened 125 years
ago in 1887 and included facilities such as an entertainment hall, called ‘The
Queen’s Hall’, a winter garden, swimming pool, library, tennis courts and
gardens. The Palace Journals provide
a unique contemporary account of the early years of the People's Palace and
it's role in the East London community during the late Victorian period.
The Palace Journals
include features about the People’s Palace, such as: news of clubs and
societies, including the Debating Society, the Cycling Club and the Ramblers;
and programmes for events, such as concerts, dog shows, flower shows, and
lectures. Also included are articles on many different topics such as, ‘The
Blunders of Elementary Education’, ‘Sensational Thrillers’, and ‘Strange
Pets’. Many issues feature serialised stories by authors including Walter
Besant and Edgar Allan Poe.
In addition, the Journals
include advertisements, for products including Harness’ Electropathic Belts.
These electric belts were claimed to ‘promote the circulation, assist
digestion, and promptly renew exhausted nerve force’ whilst ‘the mind is
maintained in a buoyant, cheerful state, and every faculty is stimulated to the
highest condition of intellectual strength’!
A complete catalogue of the People’s Palace collection is
also now available via the archives catalogue http://archives-catalogue.library.qmul.ac.uk/CalmView/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=QMC%2FPP
The archives of the People’s Palace include correspondence relating to the
establishment of the institution, programmes for events such as concerts,
minute books of societies, photographs, medals awarded to students, press
cuttings and ephemera, dating from 1885 to the 1950's.
