A Tour Of The New York Public Library's Romantic Treasures
15 photos
<p>Curator Liz Denlinger described Shelley as "an inveterate doodler." </p>
<p>A satirical political cartoon called "New Morality," done in watercolors, by James Gillray, mocking the French Revolution. It was printed in the <em>Anti-Jacobin Magazine Review</em> circa 1798. </p>
<p>The small gray donkey holding the "Justice" sign in the lower left is Mary Shelley's father, political philosopher William Goodwin.</p>
<p>A journal of Percy Shelley's early, unpublished poetry, believed to have been kept by his granddaughter, Una Deane Esdaile. These works weren't published until 1963, and it's possible that Mary Shelley never even knew they existed.</p>
<p>The first known Percy Shelley poem, written when the author was 10. It's called "A Cat In Distress" and is written in his sister's handwriting.</p>
<p>A sketch of a floatation device popular during Shelley's lifetime. He later drowned in a sailing accident just before his 30th birthday. </p>
<p>A scarf ring worn by Percy's daughter Ianthe (with his first wife, Harriet Shelley).</p>
<p>Harriet Shelley's suicide note (our <a href="http://gothamist.com/2009/05/05/nypl.php#photo-23">2nd glance</a>). She drowned herself two years after Percey ran away with a then 16-year-old Mary Goodwin (later Shelley). </p>
<p>A receipt from one of Lord Byron's trips to Venice, circa 1818, in which he racks up some 551 Francs worth of alcohol, mustard, and, inexplicably, fish sauce. </p>
<p>A lock of hair from Allegra, Lord Byron's illegitimate daughter with Mary Shelley's stepsister Claire. Allegra died at age five. </p>
<p>Ivory alphabet chips that were popular as children's toys. </p>
<p>Canto XVI of Lord Byron's <em>Don Juan</em>, circa 1823.</p>
<p>Literary journals that were passed among Lord Byron and his politically-minded friends. </p>
<p>The checkout ticket on the back of the journals, stipulating that each borrower must pass the booklet along to the next person within three days. </p>
<p>Perusing the Pforzenheimer Collection.</p>