Archive:
Resources
These resources are a rolling Box Office Bears exhibition. Here, you can explore some of the materials and texts left behind by early modern bears, dogs, bulls, and humans. Each resource offers research insights, material descriptions, and glimpses into the world of sixteenth- and seventeenth- century England. They also include prompts for further study or for classroom use.
Find out about the history of bears in Nottingham by downloading our bear-map. It was designed by Owen Keefer as part of the Being Human Festival 2023.
What can the bone of an adult bear tell us about the life it led and the world around it?
What did pet dogs look like and how were they described? Although the idea of a “pet” does not quite exist in this period, this list contains detailed descriptions of a wide range of Elizabethan dogs owned by men and women of the age.
This is a probate inventory – a survey of goods and possessions taken after someone’s death. When Raphe Whitestones, bearward and yeoman, of Ormskirk in Lancashire died in 1622, a group of local people walked into his house and “assessed” every item thought to be worthy of documentation.
This cranium, from excavations at the Davies’ Bear Garden on London’s Bankside, contains the story of the life and death of this individual dog, which we can recover through zooarchaeological analysis.
These are pots modelled on bears used in baiting. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and poses, but are most frequently shown sitting upright on their hindlegs with a dog between their front paws.