While the notion of demonic creatures feeding on blood dates back millennia, the modern concept of the debonair vampire was born with the publication of the gothic horror novel Dracula (1897) by the Irish author Bram Stoker. In this video from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, two curators comb through the museum’s collection of materials – including books, photographs, paintings and even a curious take on Victorian taxidermy – to trace the development of the vampire idea since Stoker’s landmark work captured the public imagination. In doing so, they explore how vampires have remained culturally relevant by evolving to reflect the fears and anxieties of each passing age.
The key to a vampire’s immortality? Meeting the anxieties of the moment
Video by the Victoria and Albert Museum
Directors: Hannah Kingwell, Holly Hyams
9 February 2023
videoDesign and fashion
Beyond fortune-telling – the enduring beauty and allure of tarot
16 minutes
videoHistory of ideas
How to read ‘The School of Athens’ – a triumph of Renaissance art
25 minutes
videoArt
Finding the spirit of Haiti through a tour of its contemporary art
20 minutes
videoHistory of science
Insect aesthetics – long viewed as pests, in the 16th century bugs became beautiful
8 minutes
videoNature and landscape
After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint
15 minutes
videoArt
A young Rockefeller collects art on a fateful journey to New Guinea
7 minutes
