We are delighted to offer two PhD placements for 2025 within the Eccles Institute for the Americas and Oceania. The scheme offers doctoral researchers from all disciplines the chance to develop and apply transferable skills and expertise outside the university sector.

PhD placement projects offered by the British Library cover activities ranging from cataloguing, conservation and interpretation to policy research, resource development and research or community engagement. The duration for each placement is 3 months (or part-time equivalent). Most placements are also suitable for part-time students, and there may be opportunities to undertake placements remotely which will be indicated on the individual project profiles. 

For the full list of British Library placements on offer for 2025 visit our Research Collaboration webpages. See below for the placements related to the North and Latin American collections respectively.  

Examination of the British Library’s collection of American underground comix and related ephemera 

Are you interested in illustration, underground comix, or the history of comix publishing? Do you enjoy problem solving and project management? Would you like to come and work behind the scenes on collections in the cultural heritage sector? This PhD placement will give you an invaluable insight into the holdings of US underground comix and related ephemera at the British Library.  

You will be given the opportunity to understand collection management and library cataloguing systems, and you’ll be able to make a real difference in improving access to a number of important and unique items for the research, inspiration and enjoyment of future generations using the Library.  

Continuing legacy work in this area you will have the opportunity to use and develop previous work, including meticulous record-keeping and cross-referencing of donations of comix and related ephemera. Among the holdings which speak to this subject are rare items with unique illustrations and inscriptions which offer a fascinating picture of the underground comix landscape from the 1960s onwards.  

The collections are a cornucopia of material for interdisciplinary research examining comics/x, book dealing, publishing, and/or illustration. Underground and alternative comix are important to the study of 20th century American countercultures, offering socially relevant reflections on subjects that would often be excluded from mainstream publishing, for example sexuality, violence and drug use. 

For more information see the full placement description. For enquiries related to this placement email [email protected] FAO Rachael Culley, with 'American underground comix and related ephemera' in the subject line. 

A selection of works by Aline Kominsky-Crumb from the British Library’s collection donated by J. B. Rund: Drawn Together by Aline Kominsky-Crumb & Robert (Basel: Cartoonmuseum Basel, [2016]), RB.31.b.431; Need More Love by Aline Kominsky Crumb (London: MQ, [2007]), YD.2019.a.366; Love that Bunch by Aline Kominsky Crumb (Seattle: Fantagraphics, 1990), YA.1993.b.10691; The Complete Dirty Laundry Comics by Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb and Sophie Crumb (San Francisco: Last Gasp Eco Funnies, [1992]), RF.2000.b.44. And example of inscription from Robert Crumbs and Aline Kominsky-Crumb to their ‘good friend’ Jeff (J. B. Rund) inside The Complete Dirty Laundry Comics, RF.2000.b.44.

Afro-Brazilian History and Culture in Print: Surveying the British Library Collections 

Afro-Brazilian history and culture is central to our understanding of Brazil and the wider world. Building on the work of Afro-Brazilian activists, Brazilian society has seen a reckoning with the country’s racism and colourism in recent years bringing Afro-Brazilian voices to the fore.  

The British Library holds extensive collections relating to, and created by Afro-Brazilians, from Brazil, Portugal, as well as material connected to colonial Brazil and the Transatlantic slave trade. Despite this, our understanding of the Library’s holdings of published material in this area requires significant improvement.  

In the context of these current debates challenging racism and, specifically, a forthcoming UK/Brazil Season of Culture 2025-26, this is a timely project to increase access to important, interconnected, but also underrepresented areas of the Library’s collection. It is envisaged that the placement student would survey the Library’s holdings of published material relating to and created by Afro-Brazilians in order to produce a bibliography / research guide, as well as helping us to recognise gaps in our collection and working with the Latin American curators to identify material which could be acquired to remedy these. 

For more information see the full placement description. For enquiries related to this placement email [email protected] FAO Laurence Byrne/Iris Bachmann, with ' Afro-Brazilian History and Culture in Print PhD placement' in the subject line. 

Illustrations by Carybé for the exquisite ‘Iconografia dos Deuses Africanos no Candomble da Bahia’ (Iconography of the African Gods in the Candomblé of Bahia' with texts by Jorge Amado, Pierre Verger and Waldeloir Rego. (BL shelfmark 37/Cup.408.rr.7)

 

 

 

Velma Pollard, the Jamaican cultural activist, educator, linguist and writer, passed on to the realm of the Ancestors on Saturday 1st February 2025. The Caribbean literary community is in mourning for this daughter of the region who was passionate in her love of the Jamaican nation language/patwa, and Caribbean culture in general.

Both Pollard and her sister Erna Brodber (social activist and writer) were brought up immersed in an understanding
of the heritage and value of indigenous and traditional knowledge.

Winning the Casa de las Americas Prize in 1992, for the novella Karl, Velma Pollard continued to build on an impressive body of creative writing, with five collections of poetry and three short story collections. Her book Dread Talk: The Language of Rastafari became a instant classic and many others are staples of the Caribbean literary canon.
Her impactful research focus on Caribbean women writers, Creole languages emanating from the Anglophone Caribbean, as well as the language of Caribbean literature, would find Pollard bringing forth texts like 'Anansesem - A Collection of Folk Tales, Legends and Poems for Juniors', 'Considering Woman' and 'From Jamaican Creole to Standard English: A Handbook for Teachers'.

The British Library holds titles about and by Velma Pollard. The following are some examples of what can be accessed:

Erna Brodber and Velma Pollard: Folklore and Culture in Jamaica by Violet Harrington Bryan YC.2023.a.841
Karl: Monologue - in the mind of - a man! by Velma Pollard YK.2009.a.31871
The Best Philosophers I Know Can't Read or Write by Velma Pollard YK.2008.a.5992
Anansesem: A collection of folk tales, legends and poems by Velma Pollard YD.2005.a.4795
From Jamaican Creole to Standard English: A Handbook for Teachers by Velma Pollard YA.2001.b.1763
Dread Talk: The Language of Rastafari by Velma Pollard YA.1994.a.18156

 

Go well Ms. Pollard and Thank You! May You be in the joyous company of the Ancestors.

Nicole-Rachelle Moore
Curator, Contemporary Caribbean Collections

The Eccles Institute and BAAS’s America Now! series continues on Tuesday 23 January 2025, with ‘The Inauguration of a New President: Where Will American Politics Go From Here?’ Ahead of the event, here’s a closer look at the speakers joining us for the evening, and some materials related to presidential inaugurations in the Library’s collections. 

In his inauguration speech in January 2017 Donald Trump promised to ‘make America great again’ and stem the ‘American carnage’ he saw in US society. Coming just weeks after the January 6 insurrection at the US Capital, Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration speech urged the American people to come together, even though he conceded that ‘speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days.’ Donald Trump returned to power as President of the United States on 20 January 2025, after an election cycle marked by violence and division.

President Joe Biden, joined by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and their children Ashley Biden and Hunter Biden, takes the oath of office as President of the United States Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Following the inauguration, we will reflect on 2024’s electoral activity in the US, and the role of democracy in American political life, in our first American Now! event for 2025. What will the new President mean for the future of the US, and the world? 

Chaired by our friends at BAAS, the event will include a panel of experts to lead what’s sure to be a fruitful and frank discussion:  

Ursula Hackett (Royal Holloway)  

Ursula Hackett is Reader in Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London. She specialises in the study of public policymaking and litigation in the United States, with a particular focus on religion, race, and education. Dr Hackett is the author of America's Voucher Politics: How Elites Learned to Hide the State (Cambridge University Press) and the essay writing guide, Brilliant Essays (Bloomsbury Study Skills). In the academic year 2023-4 she was a British Academy Mid-Career Fellow. 

Amy Tatum (University of Bournemouth) 

Amy Tatum is a Lecturer in Communication and Media at Bournemouth University. Her research explores gender and political leadership, political psychology and representation. Her recent work explores the impact of generative AI on US politics and the psychological responses to women in political leadership.   

Nick Witham (UCL) 

Nick Witham is Professor of American Studies and Dean of Social and Historical Sciences at UCL. He is a historian of American culture and politics. His most recent book is Popularizing the Past: Historians, Publishers, and Readers in Postwar America (University of Chicago Press, 2023). 

So what is the inauguration? Inauguration Day is when the president-elect and vice-president-elect are sworn in and take office. George Washington was sworn in as the nation's first president on 30 April 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York. 

Engraving from Seventeenhundred and seventysix, or the War of Independence; a history of the Anglo-Americans, from the period of the Union of the Colonies against the French, to the inauguration of Washington, the first President of the United States of America by Benson John Lossing, BL shelfmark: 9604.c.3. 1847 edition (pictured here) available via GoogleBooks.

To mark this historic day, here is the speech that Washington made to the Senate and the House of Representatives on 30 April 1789, taken from the Chester Chronicle, Friday 26 June 1789 (BL shelfmark: MFM.M18894).

Washington's speech made to the Senate and the House of Representatives on 30 April 1789, taken from the Chester Chronicle, Friday 26 June 1789 (MFM.M18894). Part 1.

 

Washington's speech made to the Senate and the House of Representatives on 30 April 1789, taken from the Chester Chronicle, Friday 26 June 1789 (MFM.M18894). Part 2.

Washington's speech made to the Senate and the House of Representatives on 30 April 1789, taken from the Chester Chronicle, Friday 26 June 1789 (MFM.M18894). Part 3.

The ceremony today typically takes place at the US Capitol building in Washington, DC. However, it was announced last week that Trump’s inauguration would happen indoors due to dangerously cold weather being forecast in Washington. The address and other speeches took place inside the US Capitol's rotunda, rather than outside the building. The last president to be sworn-in indoors was Ronald Reagan in 1985, when cold weather also plagued the US Capitol. 

Vice president-elect JD Vance was the first to take his oaths of office on Monday 20 January 2025, followed by Mr Trump, at around midday local time (about 5pm UK time). 

John Roberts, the chief justice of the Supreme Court (for more information on the Supreme Court read our previous blog in the America Now! series), administered the oath to the incoming president. Mr Trump held up his right hand while taking his presidential oath as first lady Melania Trump stood next to the him holding two Bibles, one being her husband's personal Bible which was given to him by his mother, and the other the Lincoln Bible that President Abraham Lincoln used to take the oath of office in 1861. 

In recent years, inaugurations have attracted famous faces to sing the national anthem on the steps of The Capitol. Beyoncé and Lady Gaga have occupied this role in 2013 and 2021 respectively. Yesterday, country-folk singer Lee Greenwood, prior to the start of the inauguration ceremony, offered a rendition of ‘God Bless the U.S.A.’, followed by Carrie Underwood performing ‘America the Beautiful’ (see F.1893.w.(51.)), and opera singer Christopher Macchio closed with the national anthem 'The Star-Spangled Banner’ (of which the the Library holds various scores). 

Turning to Library collections on contemporary political ephemera, over 60 years of American electoral history can be seen via the Philip Davies Collection of US election archive material (Add MS 89357) which was donated to the Library in 2018. The material gives a picture of the competing sides of the US political landscape from the 1950s to the 2010s, and includes election campaign placards, newspaper cuttings, nomination petitions and promotional scripts for telephone calls made to recruit votes.  

Specifically, users can look at a Barack Obama Pride Poster supporting LGBT rights (Add MS 89357/4/27), President Trump's Inauguration Invitation 2017 (Add MS 89357/3/3), Democratic vs Republican flyer on environmental issues from 2000 (Add MS 89357/1/10), 1988 promotional posters for ‘Bold Leadership, New Direction’ under Jesse Jackson (Add MS 89357/1/7) and campaign posters calling for the protecting of women’s health (Add MS 83957/1/14). 

More on this collection can be read on our blog from 2019. 

America Now! is organised by the Eccles Institute and BAAS, and supported by the US Embassy London. You can book tickets for our next event in the series now: True Crime in the USA Tickets | Tuesday, 25 Mar 2025 at 6:30 PM 

Please note: as a result of the cyber attack in 2023, access to some of our collections and online resources is limited. Visit our website for full details of what is currently accessible. 

W Stands for Women, Bush–Cheney campaign, 2004 (Add MS 89357/1/10)

Images of President Trump's Inauguration Invitation ticket and programme, 2017 (Add MS 89357/3/3)

Images of President Trump's Inauguration Invitation ticket and programme, 2017 (Add MS 89357/3/3)