British Cartoon Archive facts for kids
The British Cartoon Archive (BCA) is a special place at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England. It keeps a huge collection of cartoons from British newspapers and magazines. These cartoons often show funny or thoughtful pictures about politics and society.
The BCA started in 1973. It has over 130,000 original drawings by 350 different cartoonists. You can also find 90,000 newspaper clippings and many books and magazines there. Their website lets you explore over 200,000 cartoon images for free. The archive is inside the Templeman Library and has a gallery you can visit.
How the British Cartoon Archive Started
The idea for a place to study political and social cartoons began at the University of Kent in 1972. People became more interested in cartoons after a successful art show called "Drawn and Quartered" at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
A teacher named Dr. Graham Thomas from the university's politics department started looking for old cartoon collections. He found that many national newspapers were happy to give away the cartoons they had.
Building the Collection
The idea of a "Cartoon Study Centre" quickly grew. The first big delivery of cartoons arrived from Fleet Street, a famous street in London known for newspapers. This first batch included 20,000 original drawings, weighing over three tons!
In November 1973, the University of Kent officially opened the "Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature." Within ten years, the collection had grown to 70,000 original drawings. By 2009, it held 130,000 original drawings. This made it the largest collection of British cartoon artwork by far.
Going Digital: Cartoons Online
In 1988, the BCA started creating a computer list of its cartoons. By 1990, they began adding digital pictures of the cartoons to this list.
In 1996, about 18,000 catalogued cartoons were put on a CD-ROM. Just three years later, in 1999, all 30,000 catalogued images became available on the BCA website. Today, this online list has over 200,000 images. For some major collections, researchers can even see different versions of a cartoon. This includes the original drawing, early prints, and the final version as it appeared in newspapers.
