It is 110 years since Prisoner C.3.3 was released from Reading Gaol having served two years hard labour for gross indecency and for the first time the prison door that was the barrier between Oscar Wilde and the outside world is being displayed to the public.
“Not only is it 110 years since Wilde was released but also 40 years since homosexuality was decriminalised,” said Tim Desmond, Chief Executive at the Galleries of Justice.
“We thought it was important to mark these events by focusing on the laws against homosexuality and how they affected one of England’s foremost wits and dramatists.”
The catalyst to Wilde’s downfall in the courts was the Marquess of Queensberry sending Wilde a card stating ‘For Oscar Wilde posing Sondomite’ (sic). The card was a reference to Wilde's relationship with the Marquess' son, Lord Alfred Douglas. Oscar sued for criminal libel but lost in the court with the result that the serious charge of being a sodomite was brought against him.
In addition to the symbolic prison door, which is part of the HM Prison Service Collection housed at the Galleries of Justice, the museum is asking celebrities with an interest in Wilde to complete a card with the sentence “Oscar Wilde was…”
So far the museum has had a response from Sir Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Joanna Lumley, Sir Paul Smith and Matt Lucas. Oscar Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland and Lord Alfred Douglas’s great nephew, Lord Gawain Douglas are also said to be contributing.
At the end of the exhibition the cards will be auctioned to raise money for the crime prevention activities that the Galleries of Justice promote, which are designed to ‘keep kids away from crime and out of prison’.
The exhibition begins on November 30 and runs until March 2008.
