Exhibitions

though no man has anything, yet they are all rich; for what can make a man so rich as to lead a serene and cheerful life, free from anxieties; neither apprehending want himself  

Thomas More, Utopia

To mark the 500^th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia in Leuven in 1516, Senate House Library has mounted a thought-provoking exhibition and programme of public engagement events including lectures, film screenings, an arts workshop and an academic symposium. The season is a celebration of More’s influential book and its enduring influence in politics, economic and social reform, literature and popular culture. It revolves around the idea of how the concept of the ideal society has travelled and evolved across time and place: from Renaissance England to the liberation movements of Africa and Latin America in the second half of the 20^th century, from the egalitarian communities and garden cities imagined by British, French and American philanthropists in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, to the depiction of futuristic visions of the world that led to the emergence of science fiction as a literary genre. Finally, it will also address how utopian and dystopian visions have influenced popular culture in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. The exhibition draws primarily from Senate House Library’s extensive collection and also includes items from the deposited archives and special collections of the Institutes of Commonwealth and Latin American Studies.

• Utopia and Dystopia

  October 03, 2016 to December 17, 2016

  though no man has anything, yet they are all rich; for what can make a man so rich as to lead a serene and cheerful life, free from anxieties; neither apprehending want himself   Thomas More, Utopia   To mark the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s Utopia in Leuven in 1516, Sena…

• Metamorphosis Othello Room 101

  May 31, 2016 to September 17, 2016

  Join us in this exclusive opportunity to journey through the seven ages of Shakespeare, and track the evolution of his texts from the 17th century to the 21st. Curators of the exhibtion Shakespeare: Metamorphosis will discuss and display rare texts in the intimate setting of the original room 101. T…

• Not with words but with things

  January 18, 2016 to March 22, 2016

  Senate House Library has amassed numerous artefacts, to support teaching, to record the history of the University of London, to honour their original owners or simply as curiosities. Amongst the Library’s millions of printed volumes and archival papers, the ultimate significance of these objects is…

• LIBER 2015: Pleasant verse and prose col'd story book

  June 19, 2015 to September 21, 2015

  This children’s book is one of the items selected from the collections of Senate House Library for the collaborative exhibition London: Power, Progress and Pleasure. Written by professional writer Harriet C. Long under the anonymity of her married name, it is a stridently optimistic and proud depict…

• Images from Gallipoli

  April 22, 2015 to May 31, 2015

  Anzac Day is commemorated by Australia and New Zealand on 25 April every year to remember members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who landed at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. 2015 marks the centenary of the landings at Gallipoli. This exhibition makes available a select…

• Boulez selon Boulez at 90

  March 19, 2015 to March 18, 2016

  ‘Authenticity is a thing which does not exist. Truth does not exist. Works are done only to be interpreted. Really.’   --Pierre Boulez (b.1925) This quote of Pierre Boulez, the maestro composer, conductor, educator and erstwhile 'bad boy of classical music' is as relevant today as it was in 1996. T…

• Duty and Dissent: Satire (December 1917)

  January 12, 2015 to June 05, 2015

  Satire was a broadly anti-war magazine, containing grimly humorous cartoons, announcements from sympathetic movements and reports of government activity, both journalistic and satirical. It began publishing in December 1916, and each of its thirteen monthly issues was inspected and blacklisted by th…

• Duty and Dissent: War Posters

  January 12, 2015 to June 05, 2015

  Before the passing of the Military Service Act in 1916, the British army relied on volunteers to maintain numbers.The Parliamentary Recruiting Committee was therefore created in August 1914 to encourage enlistment. The Committee relied on the networks of local political organisations who could distr…