The next week is your last chance to access trials to digital archives of The Sketch & The Bystander – trials close on 19 April. Information and access links for the trials are at E-Resources trials. If you like what you see, please give us feedback via the trial feedback link, to help to build a case for purchase.
The Sketch began publication in 1893 as a light-hearted sister paper to The Illustrated London News and described itself as ‘A Journal of Art and Actuality’. It was published weekly and was for ‘the cultivated people who in their leisure moments look for light reading and amusing pictures, imbued with a high artistic value’. The Sketch was the first newspaper to publish the short stories of Agatha Christie, who wrote 49 stories for the paper between 1923 and 1924.
Established in 1903, The Bystander joined a series of publications belonging to The Illustrated London News (ILN). In 1940 The Bystander merged with its sister title: The Tatler. It thus became known as The Tatler and Bystander. Much like its successor, The Bystander focused on British “high society”, thereby appealing to a conservative, affluent readership. Publishing articles on fashion, theatre, and sports, this publication reflected everyday life amongst Britain’s social elite, its coverage typically defined by a suitably whimsical, satirical tone. This collection includes over 136,000 images collated from nearly 2,000 issues of The Bystander, published between December 1903 and October 1940.
