Charles Dickens at 200

Abstract

Charles Dickens at 200 Library Exhibit, 2 April - 31 December, 2012 Queen's Special Collections joins the global celebration of the man and his great achievements by showing some of the treasures in its rare and valuable Dickens holdings. The Dickens Collection at Queen's began in 1968 with the acquisition of the library of Walter Millen of Ottawa whose sister, Charlotte Millen, sold the collection to the University after her brother's death. At the time the collection included first editions of 23 novels, a handsome set of Household Words and All the Year Round, and other articles of interest. Several novels appear in their original part-issue serial format. Since 1968 additional gifts and purchases have expanded the collection to more than 700 volumes. For a few months the Dickens Exhibit showed many of these items, usually available only to Victorian scholars, to the interested public. The display foregrounded Dickens' visits to North America, including Kingston; the invention of "part-issue" serial publication for Dickens' novels; the advertisements surrounding the text of the novels that illuminate the cultural context in which he wrote; the illustrators of the novels and stories; and Dickens as journalist and publisher.