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]

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]

References

1 2 The Evanion Collection. British Library 2011. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
↑ Houdini, Harry. The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin. New York: The Publishers Printing Co., 1908, pp. 22-23. Electronic version here.
↑ Evanion Collection, 19th C Ephemera Collection by Conjuror and Ventriloquist Henry Evans (1832?-1905). Morbid Anatomy 23 February 2009. Retrieved 19 July 2011.

Sample items from the collection

External links

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British Library

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

Other

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Evanion Collection

Contents

See also

References

Further reading

Sample items from the collection

External links