Evanion Collection

Henry Evans in 1904.

The Evanion Collection is a collection of printed Victorian ephemera in the British Library created by the conjurer, ventriloquist and humorist Henry Evans who used the stage name 'Evanion'.^[1]

Contents

The collection of around 5,000 items was purchased by the British Museum Library in 1895 and includes:^[1]

• Posters recording popular Victorian entertainments in Music Halls, Palaces of Variety, Theatres, and Circuses. These include performers such as Marie Lloyd, Dan Leno, Maskelyne and Cooke, and Evanion himself.
• Advertisements and price lists for clothes, food, medicines, household items and domestic goods, together with Trade catalogues and cards which illustrate everyday life in Victorian England in the second half of the nineteenth century.
• Tickets for theatrical performances, race meetings, lectures and exhibitions.

Harry Houdini described seeing the collection for the first time as follows: With some hesitancy of speech but the loving touch of a collector he opened his parcel. "I have brought you, sir, only a few of my treasures, sir, but if you will call - " I heard no more. I remember only raising my hands before my eyes, as if I had been dazzled by a sudden shower of diamonds. In his trembling hands lay priceless treasures for which I had sought in vain … In the presence of his collection I lost all track of time.^[2]

Many items from the original collection relating to magic were acquired by Houdini and are now owned by the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.^[3]

See also

• Henry Evans (Evanion)

References

Further reading

• "The Evanion Collection" by E. Harland in The British Library Journal Vol. 13, No. 1 (Spring 1987), pp. 64-70.

Sample items from the collection

• Advertisement for teas by Cooper, Cooper and Co., 1887.
• Poster for Maskelyne and Cooke's Marvellous Entertainment at the Egyptian Hall, London, 1887.
• Seed catalogue by Webb and Sons, the Queen's Seedsmen, 1885.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to British Library Evanion collection.

• British Library Evanion Collection search page.
• British Library Evanion Collection Online
• Evanion at illusionwiki.com.

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Named collections	Ephemera Ettridge Collection Evanion Collection Francis Place Collection Jaffray Collection National Reports Collection Literature Ashley Library Cotton Library Dexter Collection Durrell Collection Eccles Collection Ediciones Vigía Garrick Collection Hannas Collection Harold Pinter Archive King's Library Leyden Medical Dissertations Paston Letters Thomason Collection Todd-Bowden Collection of Tauchnitz Editions Manuscripts Arundel Manuscripts Coptic Language Collection Cotton Collection Egerton Collection Harleian Collection Royal manuscripts King's manuscripts Lansdowne manuscripts Stowe manuscripts Syriac Collection Stefan Zweig Collection Maps Beudeker Collection Newspapers Burney Collection Philatelic Bailey Collection Blackburn Collection Bojanowicz Collection Booth Papers Burnett Collection Campbell-Johnston Collection Chismon Collection Chinchen Collection Contributions Agency Collection Crawford Library Crown Agents Archive Crown Agents Collection Davies Collection Ewen Collection Feldheim Collection Fitzgerald Collection Fletcher Collection Foreign & Commonwealth Office Foreign Office Collection General Collection Ginger Collection H.M. Customs and Excise Collection H.M. Stationery Office Collection Harrison Collection Harrison & Sons Collection Hasluck Collection Heys Collection Imperial War Museum stamp collection Inland Revenue Stamping Archive Johnson Collection Kaluski Collection Kay Collection Langmead Collection Landmark Trust Lundy Archive McInroy Collection Model Collection Monks Collection Mosely Collection Muraleetharan Papers Murray Collection Photograph Collection Postal Authority Publicity Collection R.P.S.L. Handouts Collection Row Collection Ryan Collection Seymour Collection Scott Collection Shelley Collection Sherborn Collection Smith Collection Supplementary Collection Tapling Collection Treasury Excise Correspondence Turner Collection of Forgeries Turner Collection of Newspaper Tax Stamps Turner Collection of Railway Letter Stamps U.P.U. Collection Walker Collection Williams Papers Wilson-Todd Collection Sound British Library Sound Archive Oral History of British Science St Mary-le-Bow Debates
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