HOYFM.ACL2024.42 - Scrapbook Collection

W.H. Malcolm Newspaper and Signature Scrapbooks

Reference code: HOYFM.ACL2024.42/2
Level of description: Series
Title: W.H. Malcolm Newspaper and Signature Scrapbooks
Scope and content: W.H. Malcolm, from Holywood, Belfast, was a 'skilled amateur penman,’ member of the Holywood Literary and Scientific Society, and member of the ‘Union Club.’ He evidently had connections with many actors, comics, and dramatists from the contemporary West End through visible correspondence. His newspaper scrapbooks contain a letter from Charles Dickens to James Emerson Tennent, signatures from three previous British Prime Ministers, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, and dozens of other famous individuals. Notably, he must have had contact with Robert Peel, Dr. Montgomery, and James Emerson Tennent due to the number of their signatures. His books combine these signatures with news stories about the individual, transporting the reader back to the middle of the 19th century. Unfortunately, the life of W.H. Malcolm remains largely a mystery, but the variety of famous, influential people’s signatures he possessed is astonishing. Contents: 2 scrapbooks: booklets of extensive newspaper cuttings dating from the 19th century attributed to W.H. Malcolm; autographs of: George Smith, Chief Secretary of British Cyprus in 1879; William Bruce, Irish Presbyterian Minister and Educator; Sir James Graham (1792-1861), British Home Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty; John Edgar, James Morgan, R.W. Dyke; Rev. Dr Porter; Thomas McClure, MP for Belfast and Londonderry; Alexander Mitchell, a blind engineer; Dr Montgomery; Grace H. Darling, lighthouse keeper and rescuer; Lord Bougham; the contemporary Earl of Derby; Richard Davidson, MP for Belfast; John Duke Coleridge; Robert Patterson; Robert Lloyd Patterson; Milner Gibson MP; Alexander Nasmyth, Scottish painter; Charles Matthews; Henry Holliday, Victorian painter; Henry Osborne; Isaac Bell; Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802-1838), English Poet and novelist who influenced American writers such as Edgar Alan Poe; James Sheridan Knowles (1784- 1862), an Irish dramatist and actor; Helen Faciut (1817-98), an English actress; Anna Maria Hall (1880-81), an Irish novelist; Thomas Sinclair (1838-1914), Ulster-Scots businessman and politician who drafted the Ulster Covenant; Robert Peel (1788-1850), twice British Prime Minister and the ‘father of modern British policing; William Sharman Crawford (1780-1861), an advocate for catholic emancipation; a note from James Wilson; Dr William Drennan, a physician and writer; John Russell (1792-1878), twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Dr Henry Cooke (1788-1868), an opponent to Catholic mobilisation under Daniel O’Connell; Marie Taglioni (1804-1884), a Swedish romantic era ballet dancer, central figure in the history of European dance, with a note in French (1846); William MacCready (1793-1873), an English stage actor during the Regency period; The Countess of Harrington; Alexander Gordon, the 4th Duke of Gordon; Signature of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States of America (1879); (PAGE 115); George Cruikshank (1792-1878), a famous illustrator in ‘Punch,’ who worked with Dickens; Charles Swain (1801–74), an English poet and engraver, along with a letter; Sir Henry Irving (1838–1905), an English stage actor in the Victorian era, prominent in the West End; Tom Hood (1835–74), an English playwright, humourist, and author; Edward Askew Sothern, a comedian well known in Britain and the USA, James Emerson Tennent, colonial secretary in Ceylon, MP for Belfast and Lisburn; Sir Francis Burdett, MP and proponent of universal male suffrage; Keshub Chunder Sen, Hindu philosopher and social reformer (includes a letter); Adalina Patti, an Italian opera singer who, at the height of her career, was world-famous and earned incredible sums as one of the most famous sopranos ever (signed sheet music with notes); James Young Simpson, a Scottish obstetrician who revolutionised anastasia use and advocated for midwives; Jozsef Joachim, a Hungarian violinist, conductor, and composer based in Germany (annotated sheet music and signature); Thomas Mayne Reid, a British novelist who fought in the US-Mexican War; Lady Hallé, a Czech violinist and chamber lady; John Bright, a British radical, liberal statesman and fantastic orator; J.H. Foley, an Irish sculptor working in London; David Brewster, the father of modern experimental optics; Richard Cobden, anti-Corn Law League politician; Sir James Kaye Shuttleworth, founder of Plymouth Marjon University; Dr Neil Arnott, Scottish inventor of the waterbed and pioneer in heating and ventilation systems; a letter and signature from George Peabody, the father of modern philanthropy; John Tyndall, Irish physicist and founder of the greenhouse effect; John Franklin, a British Royal Navy officer and arctic explorer; Sir William Chambers, a Swedish architect who designed Somerset house; John Ruskin, Victorian era polymath; Thomas O’Hagan, Lord Chancellor of Ireland; a letter from James Wilson requesting to marry into the family; letter from Daniel O’Connell (1777–1847), the acknowledged leader of the Roman Catholic Majority in Ireland who helped enact Catholic emancipation and was elected MP twice; a letter from Charles Dickens to James Tennant concerning Cylon (1863) (page 12); a signed note from Madame Ristori (1822–1906), a distinguished Italian tragedienne, stating ‘“Nulla e piu grande dell’amor materno” (Nothing is greater than maternal love). Second Volume: Contents: newspaper clippings booklet containing various signatures from: Lord Morpeth, Lord O’Neill, Mr. Mozoomdar, Lord Derby; Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon, Scottish representative; Mr Ira Aldridge (1807-67), an American-born, British actor known for his portrayal of Shakespeare; John Scott Porter, Irish Biblical scholar and Unitarian Minister; Charles C. Piazzi (1819-1900), British astronomer noted for his studies of the Great Pyramids of Giza; Henry James Byron (1835-84), a prolific English dramatist, writer, and actor; General Elphinstone (1782-1842), British army officer and son of the director of the East India Company; Theresa Yelverton, an English writer who caused the Yelverton case, eventually resulting in mixed religion marriages in Ireland; James Planche (1796-1880), a prolific British dramatist who brought accurate costumes into theatre; William Charles MacCready, British stage actor; a letter from the Earl of Dufferin, significant figure in the court of Queen Victoria and Governor General of Canada; James Martineau (1805-1900), a British religious philosopher, described as “the greatest of living thinkers”; Hamilton Rowan, founding member of the Dublin Society of the United Irishmen; Cardinal Paul Cullen (1803-1879), the first Irish Cardinal; a letter to Mr. Malcolm from G. V. Brooke, a famous stage actor in England, Ireland and Australia; Sir Samuel Browne (1824-1901), a recipient of the Victoria Cross for being a British Army Cavalry Officer in India; a letter from Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh, Irish Politician and aristocrat; William Parsons (1800-67), third Earl of Rosse, president of the Royal Society, Irish astronomer; Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount of Palmerston/ Lord Palmerston (1784-1865), twice British Prime Minister known for a dominant role in British foreign policy (PAGE 111); Sir James Clarke Lawrence (1820-97), Lord Mayor of London and MP; Barry Sullivan (1821-91), an acclaimed English stage actor; Samuel Carter Hall, a famous Irish Victorian era journalist ; John Lawrence Toole (1830-1906), an English comic actor and theatre producer in the West-End; Charles Swain; William Benjamin Carpenter (1813-85), an English Physician, instrumental in the early periods of University of London; A letter to the editor of ‘the Times’ to the mayor general (1847).