Quite Shameless: Cultural Reflections on the Vampire

Sink your teeth into this Quite Shameless exhibition and explore the rich and unsettling legacy of the vampire.

Discover unique materials from medieval, literary, medical and theatrical archives, alongside highlights from the Bram Stoker collection. This spooky season we invite you to explore how science, folklore and fiction have shaped the vampire’s enduring appeal.

This exhibition explores the vampire as a figure of literature, folklore, medicine, theatre and modern cultural anxiety. Moving from medieval dances of death and revenant traditions to the emergence of gothic literature, Quite Shameless: Cultural Reflections on the Vampire traces how the undead entered the imagination long before Dracula.  

The vampire lurks among us as both a monster and a mirror: the manuscripts, books, prints and medical objects seen here reflect fears of disease, sexuality, social disorder, foreignness, technology and bodily transformation.  

Here we glimpse a creature repeatedly remade for new times and new audiences, through materials rooted in Leeds collections and local connections. The vampire continues to ask what we desire, dread, exclude and cannot quite bury.

Image: John Bingley Garland, "Blood" découpage, ca. 1854 (detail). Elliott Collection MS Burne Jones.