Animals in the Archive

The images of animals in this exhibition range in date from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. Some, like the fifteenth century dragon encircled with a banner bearing the words in dei nomine amen (‘in the name of God, amen’), and the cows depicted on an eighteenth-century map of fields at Guestwick, are incidental decorations. Others, like the swans’ heads from the register of swan marks, and the heraldic beasts in the ’Book of Chevrons’, are an integral part of the archival record or the main subject of a drawing or painting. All are taken from manuscripts in the Norfolk Record Office’s vast Designated collection of over 12.5 million items, which date from the eleventh century to the present day.