Exhibition: "Street Life: The 'Cries' in British Visual Culture, 1711-1877"

The exhibition explores the long-established genre of the “Cries,” or the representation of street vendors “crying” or broadcasting their wares.

The chronological scope of the exhibition is between 1711, when the first edition of Marcellus Laroon’s Cryes of the City of London was issued, and the publication of John Thomson’s Street Life in London in 1877.  The focus is primarily on British print culture, but the exhibition also includes works in other media and is transnational in scope, with depictions of vendors in Calcutta (present day Kolkata), the British Caribbean, Lima, New York, and Paris as well.

Although the “Cries” genre encapsulated vendors with a wide range of wares, we are focusing on works depicting vendors of foodstuffs, and researching the kinds of produce, dairy products, fish, meat and baked goods that were sold on the streets of cities at this period.

The exhibition, which is on view through August 21, is free and open to the public Wednesday afternoons from 2-4:30 pm and other times by appointment.