Bow Street Office

Bow Street Office

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Londoners crowd the Bow Street courtroom, waiting to appear before a Westminster magistrate who sits on a podium in the left background. Established in the 1740s, the court addressed minor crimes such as drunkenness, fighting and prostitution, and helped relieve pressure on higher courts such as the Old Bailey. By focussing on the waiting crowd, instead of those who adminster justice, the print conveys the city's popular energy.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.