AMENDMENT ACT
You will recall the recent label to an Oscar Wilde photograph at the National Portrait Gallery (UK) that contained several errors. It has now been fixed!
An enterprising reader alerted the photograph curator at the NPG to the trial by social media contained in my recent blog article.
That the jury had arrived at a correct verdict in this case, the curator could not persuade herself to entertain a shadow of a doubt. Apparently, it didn’t help that at the time of the gallery’s re-opening, the labels passed through many hands. But we are assured of the gallery’s contrition and that steps are being taken.
The first of these is that the label has been amended. The whistleblower-in-chief revisited the gallery to make sure and took the picture above.
Progress!
© John Cooper, 2024.
Keep up the good work, John! Astonishing the lack of education in places
where it is essential — museum curators, publishers’ editors etc. Even
proof-reading the amended version someone managed to leave in a single
quote mark after America.
An Italian alerted me to a similar but smaller nonsense at Madame
Tussaud’s (when did she lose her apostrophe?) before Christmas. The
exhibit labels all had national flags to indicate the identity of the
wax figures. Oscar’s caption had a Union Jack. Excusable, perhaps, since
Ireland was still part of the Union in those days, but don’t tell me the
caption writer was that sophisticated . . . I believe it has now been
changed.
Best
M
This is certainly much better than the original caption, but I believe some of “Reading Gaol” was written in Naples. Still, greatly improved!
Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS
Another contributor pointed out the still sloppy proof-reading of the stray apostrophe after “North America”. And it has also been noted that “comedic” is the wrong use of the word for a play like Earnest.
Thanks for keeping us all informed.
Brilliant!
>