About This Site
The Collection
The Napoleonic satires housed in the Anne S. K. Brown Military collection of the John Hay Library represent several important gifts made to the library in the 20th century. In addition to the Napoleonic satires located in the military collection bequeathed by Ms. Brown, Paul Revere Bullard (Class of 1897) and William H. Hoffman contributed a variety of significant objects with a Napoleonic theme. In addition to print caricatures and satires, their donations include historical volumes, manuscripts, sculpture, and some paintings.
These gifts were presented by their donors to the John Hay Library in the hope that their collections would be accessible to members of the Brown academic community and to the community at large, for purposes of research and pleasure. In digitizing these images and making them available to the internet community, these prints are made being available to a wide audience for uses beyond traditional academic research. Perhaps neither the donors nor their families could have imagined their gifts could be made so publicly accessible. Considered with other forms of military memorabilia, satiric prints serve as a reminder that printed images were effectively used as a weapon of sorts. As such, satires made in Britain and continental Europe that depict Napoleon as a diminutive brat combat Napoleon's self-constructed imperial image as a powerful god-like ruler. Satires such as these participate in a broad conversation that spans genres to suggest that the official French images of Napoleon are no more authentic or permanent than the satiric image. To this day Napoleon's imperial image is popularly conflated with his satirical representation — namely his short stature, which is largely a satiric invention.
Technical Information
The satires were scanned at 600 dpi, 24-bit color and saved as uncompressed TIFF images. The TIFFs were then migrated to JPEG (125, 750, 1500, 3000 pixel) and MrSid (3000 pixel) images for distribution via the web. The scans were cataloged by Hope Saska in the IRIS image cataloging tool using the VRA core categories. The IRIS records were then uploaded to Luna Insight and further converted into XML records for inclusion in the central database.
A note of thanks
The introduction to this project was facilitated by my dissertation advisor, K. Dian Kriz, who exposed me to the world of Napoleonic caricature in her graduate seminar on art in the Napoleonic era and subsequently introduced me to Rosemary Cullen at the John Hay Library. Ms. Cullen enthusiastically supported this project and envisioned its possibilities for success and, importantly, she sought funding from the Brown Graduate School to make my participation possible. Peter Harrington, Curator of the Military Collection at the John Hay Library, watches over these images and other artifacts including thousands of objects, albums and paintings. Mr. Harrington welcomed my presence in the collection and was generous with his time; he answered my numerous questions and requests to access the materials with alacrity. Kudos also to Patrick Yott whose road map and creative vision for this project has resulted in a site that is a pleasure to navigate. Mr Yott's commitment to the success of this project is indeed evident throughout its results.
There are several sources that have formed my understanding of these images. Among them, I (like most scholars of British caricature) owe my greatest debt of gratitude to Mary Dorothy George, who was keeper of prints and drawings in the British Museum. The multi-volume catalog organized by Ms. George and her staff has been at my right hand throughout the process of writing descriptions for the British images. In particular, her identifications of various figures in the prints, and the identification of many now-obscure events has been invaluable to me. Other authors who have been of great help to me are Diana Donald and Catherine Clerc, whose scholarship provides cultural framework through which to understand the images. Diana Donald's work on British satire creates a vivid picture of the cultural practices that influenced how satires and caricatures were used and created in London during the reign of George III. Catherine Clerc's study of French satirical prints likewise offers insight into the imagery used by French satirists.
— Hope Saska