Google Arts and Culture Releases an Online Version of The British Library’s Harry Potter Magic Exhibition

From the Google Blog:

“Harry Potter: A History of Magic” is an exhibition from the British Library containing rare books, manuscripts and magical objects from the British Library’s collection, capturing the traditions of folklore and magic from across the world, which are at the heart of the Harry Potter stories.
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“The British Library is thrilled that our blockbuster ‘Harry Potter: A History of Magic’ exhibition can now be viewed on Google Arts & Culture. We’ve used medieval manuscripts, precious printed books and Chinese oracle bones to explore magical traditions, from the making of potions to the harvesting of poisonous plants, and from the study of the night sky to the uses of unicorns.”

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Star exhibits, including objects from Harry Potter creator JK Rowling’s personal archive and 360-degree interactive re-creations of galleries from the exhibition, launched on Tuesday morning on the Google Arts and Culture site. They will be available free, worldwide and in six languages, with more to be added – reflecting the phenomenal popularity of the books, which have now been translated into scores of languages including Greenlandic and Tibetan.
The site includes a rare interview with the illustrator Jim Kay, who after four years’ work is now little more than halfway through illustrating all seven Harry Potter books. He thought the first would take six months, but it took more than two years, and by the end of the third book he was “burned out and hallucinating”. He said the most difficult thing was drawing people on broomsticks without looking rude: “It’s very hard sitting somebody convincingly on a broom – you just dread broomstick moments.”

Read the Complete Overview Article
Direct to Harry Potter: A History of Magic

Filed under: Interviews, Libraries, News, Profiles