Blackbeard Fact and Fiction Exhibition
300 years after his death, people are still enthralled with the legend of Blackbeard. A new exhibition in the Special Collections Division, Blackbeard: Fact and Fiction, explores the evolution of his story through print. The exhibition will be available until January 11, 2019 on the 3rd Floor of Joyner Library in the North Carolina Collection. Curated by Sarah McClusky.
On display, a first edition of “A History of the Pyrates” by Captain Charles Johnson, believed to be a pseudonym for Daniel Defoe. This biographical history contains the first profile done on Blackbeard and the iconic image that people still picture him as today.
Photographs of remnants of paper found in a cannon recovered from the wreckage of Blackbeard’s flagship, Queens Ann’s Revenge are also on display. The discovery of paper in an underwater excavation is extremely rare. Joyner Library acquired a first edition copy of “A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World, Perform’d in the Years 1708, 1709, 1710 and 1711” by Edward Cooke, the book that the text on the remnants matched.
Courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Cultural and Natural Resources.
A selection of titles from the Joyner Special Collection’s Rare Book Department represent the pop culture fictional re-imagining of Blackbeard.
Visit the North Carolina Collection and explore this fun and informative exhibition. A bibliography is available upon request. For more information, contact Jennifer Daugherty, NC Collection Librarian at 328-0290.
