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Punch's Pocket Book Archive

@punchspocketbook.bsky.social

Punch's Pocket Book Archive is an international ANR-funded project based at @universite-caen.bsky.social It aims to deliver a fully searchable archive from a complete run of Punch's Pocket Books (1843-1881), an ancillary publication of Punch.

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Punch's Pocket Book Archive @punchspocketbook.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Victorian passports were so much cuter than ours, and looked very much like pocket books! This one belonged to Dr Bruce Bremner, a Scottish physician based in India, who travelled with his wife to Bombay (present-day Mumbai) in 1853.

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Punch's Pocket Book Archive @punchspocketbook.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Working on Victorian graphic art often brings wonderful surprises like this sketch of Alice and the dodo in one of Tenniel's sketchbooks, ca. 1865. From the Harry Elkins Widener collection at the Houghton Library, @harvard.edu

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Punch's Pocket Book Archive @punchspocketbook.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Just a cat playing with a yarn ball, in a pocket book. From John Leech's frontispiece to Punch's Pocket Book for 1852.

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Punch's Pocket Book Archive @punchspocketbook.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

"Mr Ritchee's dinner - Where I almost took too much wine. Very good." W. M. Thackeray, almost drunk. Punch's Pocket Book for 1856, at the NYC Public Library.

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Punch's Pocket Book Archive @punchspocketbook.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Dickens's chair and desk, here at the New York Public Library.

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Punch's Pocket Book Archive @punchspocketbook.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Punch's Pocket Book entry of the day: "Music at home. Used 12 sherry, 2 mead, 2 claret, 3 port, 9 champagne." Pity I could not attend that performance.

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Punch's Pocket Book Archive @punchspocketbook.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Punch's Pocket Book entry of the day: 'Nothing particular - Oyster dinner.' That may well be the title of my next paper. Fantastic day at the Robert D. Farber Archives and Special Collections, Brandeis University.