Near Cervia, 7 May 1867. Houghton Library MS Typ 55.26 NI.L10

Houghton Library is proceeding with the digitization of their Edward Lear manuscript holdings, and a few days ago a new resource was made available: Edward Lear Landscape Drawings, 1838-1884.

Near Jabalpur: Falls of the Narmada, 28 November 1873. Houghton Library MS Typ 55.26 NII.R1.

The document contains over 3,500 links to good-resolution scans of Lear’s drawings arranged in chronological order, an invaluable resource. Read Houghton Library Blog’s announcement.

When I heard about this, I suddenly realised that I had not annouced several other resources that the library had been placing online, in particular Edward Lear miscellaneous drawings, 1849-1866 (MS Typ 55.14) which includes a wealth of drafts and proofs of the nonsense.

Edward Lear self-caricature and signature. Houghton Library MS Typ 55.14.

I have therefore decided to publish a document I have been preparing for some time. It contains a list of some of the Lear manuscripts in public collections I know of. This is clearly far from complete, and at the moment only includes the Houghton material, and not even all of it, but I’ll keep updating the list in the coming weeks.