“Think of me as pleading with the Vivisectors for the dear dogs I love so well.” – Edith Cole (1861? – 1927)
The photo is by – Mons Sala Arbus, Reading. M(argaret Solom)ons & Sala Arbus, 40 Friar Street, Reading. – opticians & photographers. To-date we have discovered almost nothing else about these photographers – but they sound ‘interesting’. Sala Arbus. London Gazette. No link whatsoever found to the rather more famous photographer Allan Arbus (or to Diane Arbus!
The Ernest Bell Library has always focused on collecting and preserving the records of anti-vivisection societies, details of anti-vivisection campaigns, anti-vivisection literature & anti-vivisection ephemera.
The early anti-vivisection societies cooperated with many celebrities – very effectively – but the battle against the vivisectors is still going on today!
Above this is a battered anti-vivisection postcard from ‘The National Canine Defence League’ (NCDL) – from circa 1905 – featuring the then-famous English theatre actress Edith Cole – aka “Mrs. William Wallace Kelly” aka “Mrs W. W. Kelly”.
~ The Irish-American actor William Wallace Kelly owned the rights to W. G. Wills’s hugely popular Napoleon and Josephine drama, A Royal Divorce, and made a fortune touring it with his wife Edith Cole. Play ownership was bolstered by building interests on Merseyside. In Birkenhead from 1897 Kelly was the proprietor of the old Theatre Royal and the lessee of the Metropole. In Liverpool in 1909 he bought the Queen’s Theatre from Granville Theatres Ltd. which had financed the reconstruction of the 2,000 seat theatre in 1904 out of the shell of an older and much renamed and relaunched venue. The theatre was renamed Kelly’s Theatre and programmed with popular dramas which attracted audiences from the dock areas.
Kelly the prominent citizen served on Birkenhead Council, was made an alderman in 1929 and three times refused a mayoralty. Kelly the showman cultivated the image of the flamboyant actor-manager – frock coat, silk top hat and huge buttonhole – further enhanced by the anecdotes which collected around his famous touring show. ~
Edith & William – possibly ‘opening’ the ‘Edith Cole Home for Dogs’ for the NCDL – in Birkenhead, Liverpool, England – date unknown – estimated to be circa 1915.
William is standing top left – to the left of the door displaying his – “…frock coat, silk top hat and huge buttonhole…”. – for sure they had not gone ‘all the way to vegan’ – but not too many people had at this time.
Edith is standing top right – to the right of the door.
The 6 dogs & the other 3 humans have not yet been identified!
An item from the Ernest Bell Library Collection.
An earlier image of Edith.
An item from the Ernest Bell Library Collection.
An earlier image of William.
[Image Number – ULPA1980.20.0764], Macauley’s Theatre Collection, 1980.20, Photographic Archives, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky.
