February 5th marked the launch of the online exhibition, ‘Picturing the News: The Art of Victorian Graphic Journalism’, co-curated by Professor Cathy Waters and Dr Ruth Brimacombe and funded by the AHRC.

The resource examines the work of Special Correspondents William Howard Russel (The Times), George Augustus Sala (Daily Telegraph and Illustrated London News), and Archibald Forbes (Daily News), and the Special Artists William Simpson (Illustrated London News), Sydney Prior Hall (The Graphic) and Melton Prior (Illustrated London News). In addition to biographical information on these writers and artists, the exhibition examines their artistic practice, the techniques they used, and their influence on contemporary journalism and the ways that readers perceived foreign events.

‘Picturing the News’ also provides a range of examples of the artists’ work embedded within individual essays (which function as clear and well-developed interpretation panels for the various virtual ‘rooms’ or ‘areas’ of the exhibition), which can be expanded and examined in high resolution versions.