After the success of last year’s submission to #ColorOurCollections, Eton College Library has turned another favourite item from our collections into a freely available colouring book. This year, our submission features woodcut illustrations from Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calendar, published by the Kelmscott Press in 1896 (ECL shelfmark Lu.4.11).

^{Woodcut illustrations for February from the Shepheardes Calendar (Lu.4.11).}

Launched in 2016, Color Our Collections is an annual event hosted by the New York Academy of Medicine. The colouring sheets and books are drawn from hundreds of libraries, archives and museums around the world, and can be downloaded for free, coloured in, and shared on social media.

Whether you are looking for a new way to engage with libraries, archives and museums or something mindful to distract you from everyday life, we think these colouring books are ideal!

^{Woodcut illustrations for April from the Shepheardes Calendar (Lu.4.11)}

The Shepheardes Calender was Edmund Spenser’s first major poetic work, first published in 1579. The poems are accompanied by woodcuts featuring Colin Clout, a folk character popularised by the poet John Skelton, depicting his life as a shepherd through the twelve months of the year.

This 1896 edition, with evocate Pre-Raphaelite woodcuts and large initial letters, was published by the Kelmscott Press founded by William Morris and Emery Walker. It is one of only fifty-three books published by the Press between 1891 and 1896—each one designed by Morris and printed by hand in limited numbers.

Download our colouring book below or via NYAM, and browse it and other submissions on the ColorOurCollections homepage.

If you use Twitter, be sure to share using the hashtag #ColorOurCollections and tag us at @EtonCollLibrary!