Maypole Collection

The May-pole, 1866. Artist: Charles Cousen
The May-pole, 1866. 19th century imagining of Elizabethans celebrating May Day, an annual European tradition thought to have originated as a pagan fertility rite

Cartoon from Puck, between 1880 and 1889. Creator: Frederick Burr Opper
Cartoon from Puck, between 1880 and 1889

Cremorne Gardens - the Maypole Dance, 1858. Creator: Unknown
Cremorne Gardens - the Maypole Dance, 1858. Pleasure gardens in Chelsea, London. This delightful place of public resort was...the centre of great attraction, and was crowded by a brilliant company

View of the Rotunda in London's Ranelagh Gardens with a masquerade ball on the occasion... 1751. Creator: Fabr
View of the Rotunda in London's Ranelagh Gardens with a masquerade ball on the occasion of the birthday of the Prince of Wales on 24 May 1751, 1751-1753

May Ball, 1763. Creator: Jean-Michel Moreau
May Ball, 1763

May, August 30, 1793. Creator: Francesco Bartolozzi
May, August 30, 1793

May Day festivities, 1891. Plaiting the maypole at St Mary Cray, London. From The Graphic (9 May 1891)

Come Lasses and Lads, c1885, (1934). Creator: Randolph Caldecott
Come Lasses and Lads, c1885, (1934). Come Lasses and Lads, get leave of your Dads, And away to the May-pole hey. From " The Panjandrum Picture Book", illustrated by Randolph Caldecott

Annunciation to the shepherds: country dance. From Heures de Charles d Angouleme, c. 1480. Found in the Collection of Bibliotheque Nationale de France

Raising the May Pole, c1862. Artist: E Goodall
Raising the May Pole, c1862. Men haul the pole into position for May Day, an annual European tradition thought to have originated as a pagan fertility rite

Children performing a maypole drill, Southfields Infants School, Wandsworth, London, 1906. A group of girls dance around a maypole in the school playground, while other children look on

Girls dancing around a maypole, Hugon Road School, Fulham, London, 1907. A group of girls dance around a maypole in the school hall with their teacher supervising

Dancing around the maypole, Hugh Myddelton School, Finsbury, London, 1906. Children dance around a maypole in the school playground, watched by two teachers

The Rotunda and Ranelagh House in Ranelagh Gardens, Chelsea, London, c1760. Scene during a Jubilee Ball. In the foreground a crowd of costumed figures have gathered

Maypole, c. 1830-1840. Found in the Collection of Muse e des Beaux-Arts, Marseilles

Villagers Celebration, c1530, 1949. Artist: Nikolaus Meldemann
Villagers Celebration, c1530, 1949. Medieval villagers performing a nose dance during a celebration. From A Smile Among Friends. [Alb. Cammermeyers Forlag, Norway, 1949]

Queen of the May, 1886. Artist: BW Kilburn
Queen of the May, 1886. Stereoscopic card. Detail

Children dancing round a maypole, 1926. From An Outline of Christianity, The Story of Our Civilisation, volume 5: Christianity Today and Tomorrow, edited by RG Parsons and AS Peake

Dickensian Inns, Barnaby Rudge, the Maypole, Chigwell, c1800-1850
Dickensian Inns, Barnaby Rudge, the Maypole, Chigwell. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens, c1800-1850

Folly Triumphant, 1749. Artist: LP Boitard
Folly Triumphant, 1749. Illustration from Social Caricature in the Eighteenth Century... With over two hundred illustrations by George Paston [pseudonym of Emily Morse Symonds], (London, 1905)

Raising the May-Pole, c1854. Artist: E Goodall
Raising the May-Pole, c1854. Villagers raise a traditional maypole

The Dance of the Noses at Gimpelsbrunn, 1534. Beham, Hans Sebald (1500-1550). Private Collection

Popular festivities, mid 19th century. A young couple dance round a garlanded pole (Maypole) while a second couple wait outside the inn to take their turn

Raising the maypole on May Day in Barwick-in-Elmet, Yorkshire

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