October 2011 Archives

This schematic etching illustrates all four sides of a 1766 obelisk erected in Boston to celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act. Silversmith Paul Revere (1735-1818) helped to design the obelisk and the original etching. Our sheet was pulled in 1943 by Pennsylvania printmaker Richard E. Bishop off Revere’s copper plate.

The text at the bottom reads: “To every Lover of Liberty, this Plate is humbly dedicated, by her true born Sons, in Boston New England.” Followed by a poetic description of the iconography on each side of the obelisk: “1. America in distress apprehending the total loss of Liberty. 2. She implores the aid of her Patrons. 3. She endures the Conflict for a short Season, and 4. And has her Liberty restor[e]d by the Royal hand of George the Third.”

Through a series of owners, the plate was finally purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald (1891-1979) for $5,500 in the early twentieth century. Before donating it, along with a group of prints, to the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Rosenwald engaged the master printer Richard Bishop to pull a series of modern proofs (a common practice at the time). Nineteen prints were given to the major university collections in the area and fortunately, one was offered to my predecessor Elmer Adler for the Graphic Arts Collection at Princeton University.

François Colletet (1628-1680), Traittez des langues estrangeres, de leurs alphabets, et des chiffres (Paris: Iean Promé, marchand libraire, en sa boutique proche des Augustins, à l’enseigne du Cheual de Bronze, 1660). Cover signed: Charles Miton à Tours, no. 13. GAX copy is from the printing collection of Elmer Adler. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2004-3777N

Spine title: Unusual alphabets, Paris, 1660

1660 was a busy year for the poet and journalist François Colletet. He had a disagreement with his publisher, Jean Baptiste Loyson, who filed a lawsuit against the writer. This was either before or after Colletet left the firm, depending on whose version you read. Then, Colletet copied and republished a text on ciphers and the use of “foreign alphabets,” which may or may not have even been copied correctly. (No one seems to have cared enough to file a lawsuit against this.)

Why he ventured into this area of study is unclear. Later biographies mention only his shortcomings, such as The Saturday Review (July 1, 1871): “All readers of Bolleau, of instance, remember that unfortunate François Colletet, whose wretched poetry could not bring him in enough to buy his daily bread, and who used to wonder about from kitchen to kitchen in quest of a dinner.”

Later, Colletet decided to self-publish a journal about Paris but after only one issue had been released, he was arrested and sent to prison. See also: François Colletet (1628-1680), Le Journal de Colletet, premier petit journal parisien (1676) (Paris: Moniteur du bibliophile, 1878). RECAP: 0904.262

Special thanks go to Steve Ferguson for finding this lost book.

Unknown artist, Portrait of Emily Faithfull, ca. 1860-70. Watercolor with pencil. Graphic Arts GAX 2011- in process.

At the age of twenty-three, Emily Faithfull (1835-1895) fell in with a group of women led by Barbara Leigh Smith, who called themselves the “Langham Place Circle.” These ladies worked together to promote women’s suffrage and other social reforms, such as a campaign to have university examinations opened to women. In 1859, Faithfull and the others formed the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women.

In their search for skilled professions suitable for women, Faithfull and Bessie Parkes looked into the printing trade, specifically the position of the compositor. The two women bought a small press and took a few lessons to see if they were capable of performing this job, which of course they were.

On March 25, 1860, Faithfull used her own money to establish the Victoria Press with female compositors and proof-readers, and some men to do the heavy lifting. The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women apprenticed five girls to the Press at premiums of £10 each; others were apprenticed by relatives and friends.

Serious objections came from the London Printer’s Union, an all male organization, which claimed that women lacked the intelligence to be compositors (“The job requires the application of a mechanical mind and the female mind is not mechanical”).

At the same time, Faithfull had many supporters. Prominent authors including Alfred Tennyson, William Makepeace Thackeray, Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, and Anthony Trollope offered material to be printed and published by these women. The result was The Victoria Regia, A Volume of Original Contributions in Poetry & Prose (1861 (Ex) 3955.379).

On July 23, 1860, Emily Faithfull sent a letter to the editor of The Times (London). “So great is the success of this office,” wrote Faithfull, “that I have more work at this moment than my 12 women compositors can undertake, and I shall therefore be glad to receive six or eight girls immediately. They must be under 16 years of age, and apply personally at my office next week.”

The Victoria Press was a commercial success, operating for over twenty years, and leading to Faithfull’s appointment as “Printer and Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.”

The term Jansenist binding is an allusion to the Jansenists, a Christian theological movement that emphasized original sin, human depravity, and the necessity of divine grace, originating from the writings of theologian Cornelius Otto Jansen (1585-1638).

“In the reign of Louis XIV, also, by sheer reaction against the leaden showiness of the fashion set by the king, that there arose the simple style of binding called after Jansen, and adopted by the sect of Port Royal. The Jansenists bound their books soberly, with no gilding whatsoever on the sides, relying on the simple beauty of the leather in which their volumes were clad and decorating only the inside border, the dentelle, as it was called, from its resemblance to delicate lacework. These under decorated books were better bound in a technical sense than those of an earlier day.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), The Poetical Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London: Ellis and Elvey, 1900). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2011- in process.

The Push Pin almanac (New York: Push Pin Studios, 1953-1955). Graphic Arts collection GAX 2009-2161N

To read more about Edward Sorel's work and the exhibition at School of Visual Arts, see: http://www.schoolofvisualarts.edu/sa/index.jsp?sid0=201&page_id=482&event_id=1635.

Edward Sorel will have a public conversation with James McMullan on Tuesday, October 25, 7:00 p.m. at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street, NYC

Poor Richard Improved: Being an Almanack and Ephemeris … for the Year of Our Lord 1749: … Fitted to the Latitude of Forty Degrees, and a Meridian of Near Five Hours West from London: But May, Without Sensible Error, Serve All the Northern Colonies (Philadelphia: Printed and sold by B. Franklin, and D. Hall, [1748]). Graphic Arts (GAX) Hamilton 27.

“In 1732 I first published my Almanack, under the name of Richard Saunders; it was continu’d by me about 25 Years, commonly call’d Poor Richard’s Almanack. I endeavor’d to make it both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such Demand that I reap’d considerable Profit from it, vending annually near ten Thousand… . I consider’d it as a proper Vehicle for conveying Instruction among the common People, who bought scarcely any other Books. I therefore filled all the little Spaces that occur’d between the Remarkable Days in the Calendar, with Proverbial Sentences, chiefly such as inculcated Industry and Frugality, as the Means of procuring Wealth and thereby securing Virtue, it being more difficult for a Man in Want to act always honestly, as (to use here one of those Proverbs) it is hard for an empty Sack to stand upright.”—Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Autobiography

This issue of Poor Richard Improved is the first to contain woodcuts showing the astrological symbols and occupations of the months.

© Copyright Robert Berry and Josh Levitas

This visual adaptation of James Joyce’s 265,000 word novel is available for free on the internet and, after a well-documented struggle with Apple, through iTunes with an app on your smart phone. To make access easier for our students, we have added a direct link in our online catalog so that Princeton researchers searching “Ulysses” will be offered information on all versions of Joyce’s classic. Thanks go to Jennifer Baxmeyer, Electronic Resources Cataloging Coordinator for making this possible.

Besides the wonderful drawings by Detroit/Philadelphia artist Robert Berry, the book comes with an in depth reader’s guide. The team’s website notes, “Each page of the comic holds a direct link to our “Readers’ Guide” installments by Mike Barsanti. Mike’s comments on the novel’s events and themes, their depiction and various mysteries, are the first step into the deep waters of understanding Joyce. This part of the site is written in a blog format so that readers are able to ask questions and offer insights.”

Joyce’s novel was first serialized in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach in 1922. Like the original, Ulysses “seen” will be released serially, with two chapters, Telemachus and Calypso, available so far.

© Copyright Robert Berry and Josh Levitas

In 1933, a U.S. Federal court ruled that Ulysses was not obscene, granting it entry into the United States. However, a second censorship of Ulysses was announced in the New York Times June 13, 2010, with the headline: “Ulysses a Little Too Graphic for Apple.” Quoting their note: “The question of whether James Joyce’s Ulysses is obscene seemed to have been settled for more than 75 years. Until last week, that is, when the creators of a Web comic version of the classic novel, called Ulysses Seen, said that Apple required them to remove any images containing nudity before the comic was approved as an application for the iPad. Robert Berry … offered to pixelate the image or cover it up with a fig leaf, suggestions that were rejected by Apple.”

Happily, on June 14, 2010 the NYTs reported that Apple had decided that Berry’s Ulysses was not obscene after all. “After the makers of a Web comic version of the epic novel said last week that Apple had rejected several images that contained nudity, Apple reversed its decision on Monday morning and asked that the panels be re-submitted, said Chad Rutkowski, the business manager for Throwaway Horse, the publisher of “Ulysses Seen.” ‘They basically apologized,’ Mr. Rutkowski said. ‘They said they gave it a second look and realized that it wasn’t obscene or anything like that. They’re clearly drawing a distinction now and they understand what we’re doing.’”

Is Robert Berry a graphic novelist or a cartoonist? See his answer: http://video.whyy.org/video/1844806701/

Joseph Cundall (1818-1895), A Booke of Christmas Carols, Illuminated from Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: Henry O. Bohn, 1845). Plates drawn and lithographed by John Brandard (1812-1863). Graphic Arts GAX 2011- in process

Rockwell Kent (1882-1971), Twelve printing plates for the frontispieces of Giacomo Casanova’s Memoirs ([New York], 1925) Graphic Arts collection GAX 2011- in process. Copper line block relief plates attached to wood blocks.

Giacomo Casanova (1725-1798), Memoirs. Translated into English by Arthur Machen with an introduction by Arthur Symons, a new preface by the translator, and twelve drawings by Rockwell Kent. Priv. print. for subscribers only. ([n.p.] Aventurors, 1925) Rare Books (Ex) 14091.241.1925, v.1-12.

1925 was a busy year for Rockwell Kent. Newly divorced from his wife but still supporting his five children, Kent took on more commercial work then he might have preferred. This included the designs for 12 frontispieces to accompany a limited edition set of Casanova’s Memoirs, translated into English by Arthur Machen in 1894. 12,000 relief line cuts were printed for the edition of 1000, sold only to a group of subscribers identified as Aventuros. This was Kent first attempt to illustrate a major literary text and the project met with enthusiastic approval.

The following year, Kent was approached by R.R. Donnelley and Sons to repeat his success by illustrating another novel. Kent suggested Moby Dick, a project which was not completed and published until 1930 (sold out immediately). Then, late in 1927 and working into 1928, Kent, Elmer Adler, and the newly established publishing firm of Random House agreed to join forces on a deluxe edition of Voltaire’s Candide. Kent not only designed the book’s illustrations and its type but also the Random House logo, which they continue to use today.

In 1932, the New York firm of A. & C. Boni reprinted Memoirs, using only eight of Kent’s less salacious plates. This was done without Kent’s knowledge or permission, although they acknowledged the earlier edition with a note:
“The twelve volume Aventuros edition (New York, 1925) has been used as a basis for the present edition; the eight volume French edition (Paris, Garnier) has also been employed.”

Jules Bernard Luys was a French neurologist who began practicing medicine in 1857, first with the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, then to the Hôpital de la Charité. According to André Parent, writing for the Journal of Neurology (vol. 249, no.10, pp.1480-81), “Luys devoted the last period of his life to the study of hysteria and hypnosis. In doing so he became perhaps the most highly caricatured example of the fascination that hysteria exerted at the end of the 19th century, even upon individuals with a supposedly rational and scientific mind.”

“Luys imagined extravagant hypnosis experiments that were frequently performed during public sessions and attracted not only specialists but also le Tout-Paris. Most of Luys’ colleagues, however, were convinced of the scientific integrity of this courteous man whose foray into the mine field of hysteria cost him part of the scientific renown he took nearly forty years to acquire.”

Luys illustrated this book with 28 woodburytypes mounted four to a plate. Most of the photography was done by his son, George Luys (1870-1953), who was also a practicing physician.

See also:
Asti Hustvedt, Medical Muses: Hysteria in Nineteenth-Century Paris (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011). Firestone Library (F) RC339.52.C453 H87 2011

The community of Free Acres was founded on the ideals of Henry George, a 19th-century political economist. According to George, all land is a gift of nature and all people have an equal right to use the land and its fruits.

One of George’s followers, Bolton Hall (1854-1938) founded Free Acres in 1910. Originally just a social experiment, the community continues to thrive. Today, Free Acres is a seventy-five-acre wooded community of eighty-five households, located about 33 miles west of New York City within Berkeley Heights and Watching, New Jersey. People can own the houses on the lots they lease, but they can never own the land. All the land is held collectively by the community, along with a century old farmhouse and a spring-fed pool.

See http://www.freeacres.org/Content/PDF/GroupPhoto1930.pdf for a complete list of names of the Free Acres members seen here.

Al Delmar was a middleweight boxer from San Francisco. His first professional fight took place on June 23, 1920 against Earl Biddle. Delmar won this fight in a knock out and went on to win twelve more, losing seven, and had nine end in a draw.

Eddie McGovern, alias Iron Man, was a light heavyweight from San Francisco. He boxed from 1920 to 1932, winning sixty-two matches (thirty-four in a knock out), lost thirty-four, and finished in a draw thirty-four times.

These are only two of the nearly 1100 boxers whose photographs are preserved in an album recently acquired by graphic arts. Each portraits is numbered in the negative and, happily, a previous owner has gone to the trouble of listing the names of the boxers who could be identified. Goldie Burke, Pickles Martin, and Dynamite Murphy are among the men represented in these oddly criminal-looking mug-shots.

In the early 20th century, San Francisco was known as The Cradle of Fistic Stars, because of the number of boxers living there. Many began their training at the San Francisco Olympic Club, the oldest athletic club in the United State. It is curious that the use of photographic mug shots also began in San Francisco, where Chief of Police James Curtis established the practice in 1857.

“In an age largely given over to utilitarianism,” writes Elliot Anstruther, “it is gratifying to find purposes and persons at variance with the conditions around them, and in no field is the discovery more productive of satisfaction than in that of industry. …The introduction of machinery has nearly lost to us the self-reliant, consciously-proud figure of the English craftsman; the old Trade Guilds, with their dignified constitutions and worthy aims, had little in common with their corporate successors of to-day, and the stress of competition has driven thousands of women and girls into the already overcrowded ranks of suppliant labour.” (Introduction, The Bindings of To-Morrow. A Record of the Work of the Guild of Women-Binders and of the Hampstead Bindery (London: [Griggs & son], 1902). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) 2008-2402N.)

Thanks to the Guild of Women Binders, Anstruther concludes, “The future is full of promise for the reunion of industry and art, even if the final aspect of that reunion lies beyond the purview of our own years.”

Graphic Arts recently acquired this lovely example of an Art Nouveau style binding from the Guild of Women Binders. The vellum is stamped and decorated in gilt, with the name of the author and the title also stamped on the upper cover. The monogram ‘EB’ is a question. Dealer Charles Wood posits the initials refer to Ella Bailey, would worked with the Guild from 1898 to 1900.

Frank Karslake founded The Guild of Women-Binders in 1898, which operated until 1904. Besides Ella Bailey, some of the other women binders included Constance Karslake, Edith de Rheims, Florence de Rheims, Helen Schofield, Frances Knight, and Lilian Overton.

The provenance of our volume is also of interest. The book has the engraved bookplate of Clive Behrens, who married Evelina, the eldest daughter of Lord Rothschild. A note on the second fly reads: “From the library of Lady Rothschild.”

Le film vierge Pathé: manuel de développement et de tirage (The Virgin Pathé Film: A Handbook of Development and Printing) (Paris: Établissements Pathé-Cinéma, 1926). 155 pages with 107 samples of film. Graphic Arts GAX 2011- in process

In the early years of the twentieth century, the largest film production company was the Société Pathé Frères (Pathé Brothers Company). Founded in 1897, the company was at its height in 1920s when it unveiled the first home movie projector, the Pathé Baby. To accompany Princeton’s Pathé Baby film collection, we have acquired one of the company’s first publications explaining the secrets of processing “virgin” film. Plates offer incredible images of the mass production of thousands of silent movies, including the first newsreels, sports films, and animation. 107 examples of actual celluloid color film have been mounted in each volume.

Graphic Arts is in the last stages of digitizing and cataloguing 800 9.5 mm Pathé Baby films, which will be streamed online for the use of our students and faculty. This project was made possible thanks to the generous support of The David A. Gardner ‘69 Magic Project, given by Lynn Shostack in memory of her husband, David A. Gardner ‘69, and administered by Council of the Humanities.

Hyakunin Isshu: Uta Karuta (One hundred poets, one poem each, card game) (Japan: ca. 1850 or earlier). 200 cards in lacquer black box. Graphic Arts GAX 2011- in process.

Here are the rules, as posted by the University of Virginia:
There are two sets of 100 cards. On one set the complete five-line poems are printed. On the other set only the last two lines (“shimo-no-ku”) of each poem appear. Usually there are two players or sides. Each player takes twenty-five of the shimo-no-ku cards and spreads them in front of him or her. A third person, acting as reader, reads from the cards with the whole poems on them. As the reader reads the first lines of a poem, each of the two players tries to find the card with the corresponding final two lines. The first player to find the right shimo-no-ku card removes it from the playing area. If the card is in the opponent’s area, the player gives one of the cards from his or her own area to the opponent. The first player to get rid of all the cards in his or her own area is the winner.

Very similar to another set in the Cotsen Children’s Library (CTSN): Cards 55195

See also Peter McMillan, One hundred poets, one poem each: a translation of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008). East Asian Library (Gest): Western PL758.5.O4 A3 2008

Detail from Beer Street, 1751. Etching and engraving.

Support for the exhibition and this event was provided by the Friends of the Princeton University Library; Princeton University History Department; and Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. Our sincere thanks go also to a team of specialists who offered their advice on the show and its related events, including Linda Colley, Nigel Smith, James Steward, Stan Katz, Sandra Brooke, and John Burkhalter.

For more information, see our website: http://rbsc.princeton.edu/hogarth

A tape of the event has been archived here: http://hulk03.princeton.edu:8080/WebMedia/flash/lectures/20111007hogarthpanel.shtml

We recently acquired a flipbook from barcode artist Scott Blake. The tiny book features a portrait of Andy Warhol (1928-1987), created with the barcodes from Campbell’s soup cans. There’s also a portrait of Madonna created with the barcodes from her albums and a portrait of Oprah Winfrey made up of barcodes from the books in her book club. See more: http://www.barcodeart.com/artwork/portraits/barcodes/index.html

A wall-size mural of Elvis Presley was made of 2,400 bar codes. “It’s all the bar codes from Elvis CDs,” Blake said, “I go on the Internet and use sites like Amazon and Google and BarnesandNoble.com. I type in the word ‘Elvis’ and it gives all that UPC data for free. If you scan each bar code on Elvis’ face, it plays a song or a clip from youtube.com.”

Blake’s website, http://www.barcodeart.com/artwork/index.html includes a video clip from an ABC News interview a few years ago, along with a barcode clock.

Twenty-three-year-old editor Herbert Stuart Stone understood the power of advertising. In 1894, he commissioned artist Will Bradley (1868-1962) to create seven posters to advertise his new literary magazine The Chap Book. The first poster, often referred to as The Twins, is seen above. Originally based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Stone and Kimball relocated their publishing house and the magazine to Chicago, Illinois after six months. Thanks in big part to Bradley’s eye-catching designs, Stone’s semi-monthly magazine lasted until 1898, when it merged with The Dial.

There are two variation in The Twins; one on white paper and one on yellow. Each are signed in the bottom left, WILL H | BRADLEY ‘94. The press complained that if you squinted, Bradley’s design looked like an oddly-shaped red turkey.

Will H. Bradley, Poster for The Chap-Book, May 1894. Lithograph. Graphic arts poster collection.

Two nineteenth-century olla from the Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. Gifts of Nathaniel Burt, Class of 1936. An olla is a large wide-mouthed earthenware vessel used (as by Pueblo Indians) for storage, cooking, or as a container for water.

Our donor, Nathaniel Burt (1913-2003), was a writer, novelist, poet, composer, and educator. He taught in the Department of Music at Princeton University from 1939 to 1941 and 1950 to 1952. Later, he composed pieces in a wide variety of genres, including ballet, musical score, orchestral overture, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and short stories. Burt is best known for his two books on the American aristocracy: The Perennial Philadelphians (Firestone 1214.228.2) and First Families (Ex 3658.74.334). Burt lived in Princeton for over fifty years with his wife Margaret “Winkie” Clinton Burt.