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The Brotherton Gothic: Vampires in Leeds

9th October, 2026

FROM THE CURRENT ISSUE

Article by Sarah Prescott and Rachel Eckersley.

A new exhibition opening in October 2026 draws attention to the remarkable scope of the Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds Libraries. Quite Shameless: Cultural Reflections on the Vampire traces the evolution of the vampire myth from its medieval origins to the 19th-century literary craze, culminating in the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1897. Along the way, it considers how the figure of the vampire became a powerful vehicle for expressing cultural anxieties surrounding race, migration, gender and sexuality.

The exhibition is drawn largely from the Brotherton’s rich holdings. At its core is a sequence of books and manuscripts spanning the period 1816 to 1897 which chart the literary development of the vampire in the UK. Manuscripts, letters and first editions are shown alongside contemporary periodicals, and this interplay of source material casts light on how representations of the vampire emerged and were subsequently popularised.

Although the Brotherton’s literary collections were not originally assembled with a specific focus on the Gothic, they provide exceptionally fertile ground for its exploration. Much of the early material derives from the library of Lord Brotherton, amassed during an intense period of collecting between 1921 and 1930. His initial emphasis on 19th-century literature, motivated in part by its relative affordability at the time, resulted in some fine and intriguing examples of the Gothic literary genre, many of which are displayed.

Origin Stories
Medieval manuscripts and early printed books, from Books of Hours to Icelandic sagas with their strangely animated depictions of death and references to revenants, also feature prominently in the exhibition. The influence of medieval and early modern portrayals of death and the undead on European vampire folklore is significant. La danse macabre or ‘Dance of Death’, an allegorical concept and artistic tradition of the later Middle Ages originating in a Europe ravaged by pestilence, famine and war illustrated the equalising power of death, a theme echoed in vampire stories. In both art and literature, the dead or a personification of death summon representatives from all walks of life to dance willingly with them to the grave.

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497–1543) drew his renowned Dance of Death series in 1526, and these were cut in wood by Hans Lützelburger (d.1526). The woodcuts began appearing in proofs soon after, and the first book containing them was published in Lyons in 1538 as Les simulachres & historiees faces de la mort. In Holbein’s designs almost all of death’s victims are dramatically caught in their everyday activities by a lone skeletal figure and there is no longer a dance procession, marking a change in attitude to, as well as portrayal of, death. His designs have been reprinted ever since and Leeds owns a 1790 edition of Holbein’s The dance of death, which also contains John Lydgate’s 15th-century adaptation of the French poem, ‘Dance of Death’, or his ‘Daunce of Machabree’.

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The Exhibition Quite Shameless: Cultural Reflections on the Vampire opens at the University of Leeds Library on 27 October 2026

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