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The division's British Cartoons (8,500 prints, 1621-1832) include visual commentaries on British politics, culture and manners, as well as the developing American political consciousness. Women appear in the prints, often as symbols, but the prints also satirize courtship, marriage, fashion, and women's involvement in politics. Some feature women well known in social and literary circles at the time. Determining the degree of women's representation and its significance is a research challenge awaiting attention.
Descriptions for all of the prints can be searched in the online catalog, where the collection has its own listing, "Cartoon Prints, British." A portion have been digitized, generally as a result of researchers purchasing copies. For images that have not been digitized, subject access relies on keywords in the title and summary, so it's helpful to try synonyms and terminology that would have been current at the time the prints were made. For example, "Criminal conversation" was apparently a legal term for adultery, sometimes shortened to "crim. con."—found in the descriptions of several prints.
The items in the collection are also listed in a combination of published and unpublished finding aids:
Microfilm serves as a reference surrogate for the original prints.