Hand writing history: 200 years of personal diaries. The Weston Room, Maughan Library.

Wednesday 17 April to Sunday 13 October 2024. Open: 10.00-17.00 daily. Free entrance

For the past 40 years artist Dylan Jonas Stone has collected personal diaries, and his unique collection now numbers over 200 diaries, acquired at flea markets, car boot sales and online, as well as other printed and manuscript ephemera. The diaries range in date from the first decade of the 19th century to the present day. They document the lives of ordinary people, their joys and sorrows, the humdrum occurrences of daily existence and those occasions when global events intervened to change those lives for better or worse.

This exhibition has previously been shown at venues in New York, Orkney and Norfolk, and each time Stone has worked with the hosting institution to adapt the content to its setting. Here at King’s we have complemented the Dylan Jonas Stone Collection with selected items, including diaries, from our own special collections and archives to take the visitor on a chronological journey through 200 years of individual human lives.

For more information and to print an entry ticket please see the Maughan Library exhibitions page