Revolution!

Bolshevik soldiers in conflict with Ukrainian RADA soldiersThis exhibition was originally held in the spring of 2017 to mark the centenary of one of the most tumultuous events of modern times, the Russian Revolution. The exhibition is now available to view online here.

The revolutions in Russia of February and October 1917 shaped the coming century for the nations that would become part of the Soviet Union and their neighbours and influenced international relations across the world. The sections of the exhibition concerning the Russian Revolution show some of the Foyle Special Collections Library’s unique and distinctive holdings concerning these events and their aftermath.

Elsewhere in this exhibition we explore the concept of revolution more broadly, examining other significant revolutions of modern times: the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the American and French Revolutions of the late 18th century and the Haitian revolution (1791-1804), when former slaves overthrew their masters and established an independent state.

All the revolutions featured in the exhibition warrant an individual exhibition of their own, and for this reason the items reproduced give only a snapshot of the Library’s wide and eclectic holdings. This is especially true of the sections on the Scientific Revolution, where we show such epoch-defining publications as Charles Darwin’s On the origin of species, and on literary revolutionaries, where an inscribed copy of the poems of Allen Ginsberg reminds us of the revolutionary sensibilities which writers and artists can transmit to their audiences. We would like to thank Professor Jeremy Adler for his assistance with the curation of this latter section.

In the final section, we exhibit contributions from colleagues across King’s, who have written a wide selection of features about their interest in or experience of the topic of revolution and societal and cultural change. Topics include architecture, Surrealism, Freud, Ghana, Italy, and Northern Ireland. We are grateful to our guest curators for their contributions.

Unless otherwise stated, all items in this exhibition are from the holdings of the Foyle Special Collections Library.

Exhibition curators: Heather Anderson and Adam Ray.

Please note: this exhibition originally ran from 30 January to 20 May 2017 in the Weston Room of the Maughan Library, King’s College London and is now available to view as an online exhibition only.

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