Worlds Beyond: Miniatures and Victorian Fiction with Laura Forsberg

The Athenaeum was established in 1814 as a subscription library, at a time when the free public library system did not exist and collections of books, available for reading or research, were still mostly limited to institutions, schools or colleges.The Athenaeum of Philadelphia nurtures curiosity in members and neighbors, strengthening community through learning and discourse.The Athenaeum of Philadelphia is one of 16 membership libraries that collaborate through the Membership Libraries Group. Some, like the Charleston (est. 1748), New York Society (est. 1754), and Newport (est. 1741) libraries, date from the 18th Century.

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Laura Forsberg is the author of Worlds Beyond: Miniatures and Victorian Fiction

In 1856, Elizabeth Gaskell discovered a trove of handmade miniature books created by Charlotte and Branwell Brontë in their youth that, as Gaskell later recalled, “contained an immense amount of manuscript, in an inconceivably small space.” Far from being singular wonders, these two-inch volumes were part of a wide array of miniature marvels that filled the drawers and pockets of middle- and upper-class Victorians. Victorian miniatures pushed the boundaries of scientific knowledge, mechanical production, and human perception. To touch a miniature was to imagine what lay beyond these boundaries. 

In this illustrated talk, Laura Forsberg guides listeners on a lively trip through Victorian literature, microscopic science, art history, children’s culture, and book production to show how miniatures offered scripts for expansive fantasies of worlds beyond perception. 


Laura Forsberg is an Assistant Professor of English at Rockhurst University in Kansas City. As a literary historian of Victorian culture, her scholarship uses literature as a means to understand the intellectual and imaginative implications of material objects and cultural beliefs. Laura completed her book, Worlds Beyond: Miniatures and Victorian Fiction, with the support of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. She earned her A.B. from Princeton University and her Ph.D. from Harvard University. Purchase a copy of the book from <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/12358/9780300233810" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Bookshop.org</a>
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Worlds Beyond: Miniatures and Victorian Fiction with Laura Forsberg

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