Visual materials such as cartoons, drawings and photographs can be invaluable
resources for research, but often they lack clear information about what they depict.For instance, the "Egyptian Red Book" is filled with cartoons that do not identify their
authors or the characters they represent with their drawings. Identifying the characters isone of the first steps toward understanding the meaning of the cartoons and, thus, the message
of the "Red Book" itself. Here we will provide a guided exploration of the research process insearch of the identities of the many characters found in "The Egyptian Red
Book."
Introduction
"The Egyptian Red Book" (1885) is one of the many resources about
ninteenth century Egypt available through the
Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA) .
This satire of Britain's handling of the siege of Gen. Charles Gordon's forces in Sudan (then part of Egypt) contains anumber of cartoons, along with quotations from England's leaders. The figures in satiric cartoons typically
are obvious to informed readers during the time period when they were published, but arelikely mysterious to non-experts in later generations.
As we flip through the pamphlet, one question repeatedly comes to thefore:
"The Three Graces" ("The Egyptian Red Book")"The Military Authorities" ("The Egyptian Red Book") Who are these guys?
"The Mummy Government" ("The Egyptian Red Book") We will use library resources to answer that question as well
as to determine how these particular personages fit into the larger story contained in the "Red Book." Ifyou would like to begin with the story itself, please visit our
Getting the whole story behind the Egyptian Red Book module.
Going to the source: works by the same publisher
Back cover of "The Egyptian Red Book"
If we take a look at the back cover of the Egyptian Red Book, we find two
other publications listed that are, according to the publisher, "Uniform with the 'EgyptianRed Book." These are "The Gladstone Almanack" and "The Liberal Mis-Leaders." Let's take
a look at what else we might be able to find by the publishers, William Blackwood&Sons, on WorldCat. If you are unfamiliar with
WorldCat , please visit our
WorldCat
module for a brief tutorial.
Searching by publisher
To begin, visit the
WorldCat homepage . Type in the title "Egyptian Red Book" and then locate it in the
search results. We wantto find as many similar works by our publishers as we can. Open a new window and try
performing a search for William Blackwood under publisher and caricatures and cartoons undersubject. Your query should look like this:
We find many promising sources right away:
"The Irish Green Book" (1888), by George Stronach and George R. Halkett For a brief discussion of "The Irish Green Book," see the
What is a Red Book module."A Diary of the Gladstone Government" (1885), by George Stronach and George R. Halkett This seems to be just the thing, as does the following.
"The Caricatures of Gillray" (1818), by James Gillray Because the "Egyptian Red Book" provides no information about its author(s), we cannot be
certain if George Stronach and George R. Halkett created it as well as "The Irish GreenBook." But the connection with William Blackwood is strong enough
to investigate the possibility.
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Source:
OpenStax, Studying political satire: "the egyptian red book". OpenStax CNX. Sep 19, 2006 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10290/1.6
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