Humour Gallery

1855 Punch Dinosaurs Crystal Palace

1855 Cartoon from Punch's Almanac of that year, ascribed to John Leech. "A visit to the antediluvian reptiles at Sydenham - master Tom strongly objects to having his mind improved". Clockwise from top; Iguanodon (with bird on its wrongly ascribed horn), Megalosaurus, Hylaeosaurus, prehistoric gharial (teleosaurus), ichthyosaur. The actual exhibits were designed to fit the victorian ideal of educating the masses. They were the work of artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (based on the research of Owen, Mantell, Buckland, Conybeare and others). The Crystal Palace Antediluvians were the first life-size reconstructions of dinosaurs, and this cartoon indicates that many saw them as nightmarish monsters of a former age. Children would love dinosaurs ever after

© This image is Paul D. Stewart 2009. Do not reproduce without permission of the photographer at Stewartpauld@aol.com

Smoking club, 18th century artwork

Smoking club, 18th century artwork. The practice of smoking tobacco was popularised in England and Ireland in the 1580s and 1590s by the English soldier and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh (c.1552-1618). This artwork, by the English caricaturist James Gillray (1757-1815), shows members of the House of Commons puffing smoke at each other. Those present include the Speaker (left) Charles James Fox (1749-1806), the Prime Minister (second from left) William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806) and the Home Secretary (second from right) Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville (1742-1811). This copy of this artwork was published in the work Tobacco, its History and Associations (1859) by the English engraver Frederick William Fairholt (1814-1866)

© GEORGE ARENTS COLLECTION/NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY/ SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

The first knitting club for men!. The first mens knitting club has been formed

The first knitting club for men!.
The first men's knitting club has been formed in Prague with the avowed object of propagating and teaching the art of knitting among men'.
The club has already 50 members, including business and professional men, young men, and old men with beards. The club meets regularly, when the atmosphere is filled with the steady clicking of the knitting needles as busy masculine figures we've socks, pullovers and other useful articles.
Photo shows, a bearded member of the club giving all his attention to the work in hand. His neighbours on either side seem equally determined to produce a nice even stitch.
27 January 1938

© TopFoto.co.uk