An Interesting Couple

John Leech

Wood Engraving

They can't think where Mamma can have got to — they have been looking for her everywhere. (N.B. The most remote Refreshment -room selected)

No. XII in the Punch series, “Memorials of the Great Exhibition. — 1851.”

This cartoon suggests how the Great Exhibition — and, some decades later, public museums — created culturally sanctioned places for young unmarried people to meet, however briefy, without chaperones.

Image from Internet Archive. Text and formatting by George P. Landow

[This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose without prior permission as long as you credit this site, the Internet Archive, and the University of Toronto library.]