Blanket Gallery

Vagrants asleep in Green Park, Central London

During their daytime opening hours, London's parks provided a pleasant place for the city's tramps and vagrants to sleep. Green Park, shown here, was typical. One of the sleepers, at the left of the scene, appears to have brought his own blanket

© Mary Evans / Peter Higginbotham Collection

1902, Asleep, Blanket, Central, Edwardian, Grass, Green, Historical, History, Homeless, Homelessness, Hours, Housing, Opening, Park, Parks, Poverty, Sleep, Sleepers, Tramps, Vagrants, Workhouse, Workhouses

Family of street entertainers performing in Paris, 1815

Woman balancing on a candlestick on a table, while a child walks on its hands. Later, Madame Herculanus fixes two anchors in curling papers to her hair, and lifts an anvil with her hands as if picking up a hairpin. Handcoloured engraving from Pierre de la Mesangere's Le Bon Genre, Paris, 1817. Woman balancing on a candlestick on a table, while a child walks on its hands. Later, Madame Herculanus fixes two anchors in curling papers to her hair, and lifts an anvil with her hands as if picking up a hairpin. Handcoloured engraving from Pierre de la Mesangere's Le Bon Genre, Paris, 1817. Date:

© Florilegius/Mary Evans

Allegorical representation of Africa

Allegorical representation of Africa, showing a woman lying on a blanket on top of a lion and bushel of wheat, with hieroglyph-covered buildings and columns in the background. Handcoloured copperplate engraving by Andrea Bernieri after an illustration by Andrea Appiani from Giulio Ferrrario's Costumes Antique and Modern of All Peoples (Il Costume Antico e Moderno di Tutti i Popoli), Florence, 1843. Date:

© Florilegius/Mary Evans