Author: MMcGlynn

ideas for engaging with sources can be found in They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Berkenstein. I include here a link to the full book but also post chapter 5 here: Chapter-5_-Distinguishing-You-from-T

1930s Men’s Suits & Sportscoats History

1950s Men’s Fashion History for Business Attire

Prior to decimalization in 1971 Britain used a system of pounds, shillings and pence. (‘£sd’ or ‘LSD’). The smallest unit of currency was a penny, the plural of which was pence (or pennies). There were 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound. The pound came in the form of a paper bill, called a note, or a gold coin, called a sovereign.

1 farthing (the lowest value coin) = 1/4 penny
A ha’penny (Half penny – a copper coin) = 1/2 penny (pronounced “heipni”)
1 penny (a copper coin) = one of the basic units (1d)
Threepence or Thruppenny Bit = 3 pence (pronounced “thrupence”)
Sixpence (a silver coin also called a ‘tanner‘) = 6 pence
1 shilling = 12 pence (1s)
1 florin (a silver coin that numismatists regard as one of the most beautiful medieval English coins) = 2 shillings
A half-crown = 2 shillings and 6 pence
1 crown = 5 shillings = 1/4 pound
1 pound = 20 shillings = 240 pence (£1)
1 sovereign = a gold coin with a face value of one pound (about .24 ounces of 22 carat gold)

Farthings were not produced after 1956 and were withdrawn in 1960, because of inflation. In preparation for decimalisation, the ha’penny was withdrawn in 1969, with the half-crown being withdrawn the year after.

A penny was often called a copper after the metal it was minted from.

Pound coins were not minted before the 19th century – the silver equivalent of the pound circulated in shillings and crowns.

A guinea (first issued on February 6th, 1663) was sometimes used as a unit of account. A guinea was a gold coin, originally made of gold from the Guinea coast of Africa, worth 21 shillings (or one pound and 1 shilling) in old British money. A guinea was considered a more gentlemanly amount than £1. A gentleman paid his tailor in shillings, but his barrister in guineas.

One shilling is now equal to five (new) pence making a guinea worth one pound and five pence in today’s currency (£1.05).

Slang Terms for British Money

The slang term for a pound or a number of pounds sterling is ‘quid‘ or ‘nicker‘ and there are other slang terms for various amounts of money. The slang money expression ‘quid‘ seems first to have appeared in late 1600’s England, probably derived from the Latin ‘quid pro quo‘ – ‘something exchanged for something else‘. The term ‘nicker‘ is probably connected to the use of nickel in the minting of coins.

The old slang term for a shilling was ‘bob‘’and for a guinea – ‘yellow-boy‘.

Source:  http://www.studyenglishtoday.net/british-money.html

W.B. Yeats is known for reworking his poems even after they were published. Here is an image of one draft of “The Second Coming.”

A first edition of Mrs. Dalloway, from 1925.

As we will discuss in class, it is possible to map with precision the routes that various characters take through the novel on this Wednesday in June, 1923. I’ve found a couple websites that make interesting efforts:

This site, from the Viginia Woolf Society of Great Britain, gives us an incredibly precise, turn-by-turn recreation of the novel’s movements in the early sections. http://www.virginiawoolfsociety.org.uk/resources/a-mrs-dalloway-walk-in-london/

This site, which appears to have prepared for an undergraduate course at Georgia Institute of Technology, has multiple maps and good timelines for a number of characters. While the material included under “analysis” seems more like plot summary to me, the visuals here are worth a look–but be careful, since there are plot spoilers on the character pages. http://mrsdallowaymappingproject.weebly.com/index.html

Here’s what the original text looked like, with photographs from the Tate Gallery in London and a pdf link to a copy held by the University of Pennsylvania.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/v/vorticism/blast-radical-vorticist-manifesto

Anyone want a field trip? This exhibit looks wonderful; the NYPL at 42nd St. has amazing archival material, specializing in British and American materials of the last 200 years. They even have 153 Woolf-related items in “The William Beekman Collection of Virginia Woolf and Her Circle,” from manuscripts to letters and artwork; the general collection has her walking stick and family portraits.

More info here: https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/virginia-woolf

Students who visit the site and send a picture of their favorite part of the exhibition will have 5 points added to their semester’s total.