You have to remember the importance of
George the Hamster in his
own time and age - not many people do. He was the first hamster, as far as we
know today, who was so bold as to attempt to communicate with humans and who
started off this entire preoccupation that rodent owners the world over now have
with their pets and rodent/human relations.
Indeed, if it hadn't been for George and his much
publicized and distributed series of short stories, I guess that the Rodent
Weekly would never have made the impacts into modern day society that it has
done and the popularity of the Hamster Presidential Campaign would have been
much reduced.
Yes, George the hamster has a lot to answer
for.
What many of the world's readership aren't aware
of, however, is that George's first stories began life as small booklets,
printed up at a local school and bound together for free distribution to the
entire friends and family circle of his owners, Lee and Kath Smith, who allowed
him free course to research into hamster history but who, in the first few
weeks, were willing to be used to commit the stories to writing before he learnt
how to use the word processor - and age which preceded the development of modern
day hamsterglyphics.
Those booklets, now saved for posterity in the National
History Museum in the UK, are mere copies of original documents long thought to
have been destroyed in a fire which swept through much of east England during
the mid-years of the nineties. However, many of the original drawings, produced
solely for inclusion in the booklets, have seen the light of day due to a
'Spring Clean' by George's owners, who discovered the originals in an old
photocopy box stuffed away in their attic.
Now on loan to the Washington National Portrait
Gallery, the pictures represent an early phase in George's artistic gifts and
are mainly in the form of sketches and portraits of rodents who sat for him
during those sessions when the booklets were being formulated.
Although these drawings would easily
fetch five figure sums of sunflower seeds were they put onto the open market,
Lee and Kath have graciously lent them to the Gallery for the entire month of
May and visitors can see, at no charge, the dexterity with which the early works
of George were put together.
Regular readers of the Rodent Weekly will be treated to
free guided tours of the exhibits and membership cards should be produced on
entry to the large grey rat who will be found sitting just behind the toilet
facilities on the Ground Floor level. Due to the anticipated popularity of the
exhibits, it's thought that there may be a delay upwards of thirty minutes
before a guide will be available on some days, but visiting rodents can make
themselves useful by running on the large volume of exercise wheels linked into
the Gallery's main electricity supply.
The reproductions of sketches in this article
appear courtesy of Lee and Kath Smith and by kind permission of the Gallery to
use their photographic record.
Ebony the Hamster writes
for the Rodent Weekly.
This article appears courtesy of that paper.
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