Scope and arrangement
The L. J. Binns caricatures (1901-1915) consists predominantly of British personalities, mainly, but not exclusively, drawn from the theater world. L. J. Binns signed all of these originals and many are autographed by the subject of the caricature.
The caricatures from the theater world include actors, actresses, playwrights, theatre managers and musicians. The caricatures consist of people working in the London theater scene, including a limited number of Americans working in England after the turn of the century such as Eugene Stratton and Hermann Vezin.
One folder contains the autograph of actress Lena Ashwell without any caricature. It is the only folder not to contain a caricature.
The caricatures of political leaders consists of more reform-oriented leaders of their day, such as one of the founders of the Labour Party, James Keir Hardie, and a campaigner against child prostitution, William Thomas Stead.
Two caricatures are of prominent caricaturists of that period, Sir Francis Carruthers Gould and Harry Furniss. The folder of Sir Francis Carruthers Gould, a pioneer of "picture politics" and sole illustrator of Picture Politics, contains two letters from Gould to L. J. Binns establishing a relationship between these two caricaturists.