Monthly Archives: October 2013

Magic Mirror Movies

Red Raven Magic Mirror Movies. Westport, CT: Morgan Development Laboratories, 1956. Original cardboard box with 5 vinyl picture discs, aluminum carousel with mirrors. Graphic Arts Collection

Based on the Praxinoscope, this optical toy merges sound and image. Each 33 1/3 record includes images on the paper label along with a short song. While the record plays, the images are reflected into the carousel turning on the spindle and a single moving picture is created.

The Morgan Company produced these records only from 1956 to 1961. Here is one example.

Sergeĭ Nikolaevich Khudekov

Sergei Nikolaevich Khudekov. Istoriia tantsev. Chast’ I–III. [The History of Dance. Part I–III]. S.Peterburg (1913, 1914, 1915). Purchased jointly by Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies; Mendel Music Library; and Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2013- in process.

Written by Thomas Keenan
Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Librarian, Princeton University Library

A survey of the history of dance written by the Russian dance critic Sergei Khudekov, who was also a collaborator with Marius Petipa on the libretto for the ballet La Badayère. These volumes were produced in a volatile sociopolitical and cultural environment: St. Petersburg at the end of the First World War, less than ten years after the 1905 Revolution and less than 5 years before the 1917 Revolution.

From a balletic point of view, Khudekov’s stock-taking of the history of dance appears at the time when Sergei Diaghilev was exporting a new Russian ballet that in many ways represented an aggressive departure from the academic narrative balletic tradition of which Petipa had been the most famous exponent.

Khudekov’s first volume, which covers the history of dance in the ancient world, opens with the declaration “Dance is the first chapter of human culture”, which is interesting given that it was published in 1913, the same year that the Paris première of Ballet Russes’ Le Sacre du Printemps scandalized its audience with the jarring primitivism of its rhythmic, tonal, and choreographic representation of pre-civilized man.

Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies also collaborated with Graphic Arts on this delightful volume:

Beaumont, Cyril W. Impressions of the Russian Ballet 1918. The Good Humoured Ladies. Decorated by A.P. Allinson. London, C.W. Beaumont. (1918). Purchased jointly by Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies and Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2013- in process

A small book produced by the English bookseller and dance historian Cyril Beaumont with hand-done watercolor illustrations by the painter Adrian Paul Allinson. The book is a response to a 1918 London performance of the Ballets Russes production of Les Femmes de Bonne Humeur choreographed by Leonide Massine. The ballet, based on a Goldoni play with music by Scarlatti, was the first of Massine’s to be staged in London.

After the initial breach with Nijinsky in 1913, Ballets Russes impresario Serge Diaghilev had reinstated Michel Fokine as the company’s principal choreographer. Massine, who had been discovered as a dancer by Diaghilev in 1913, replaced Fokine and made his debut as choreographer with Le Soleil de Nuit in 1915.

Cyril W. Beaumont set up shop in 1910 in Charing Cross Road as a bookseller specializing in literary classics, but switched his focus to dance after being profoundly impacted by performances of Diaghilev’s touring Ballets Russes company. Beaumont documented his early fascination with the Ballets Russes in a series of short illustrated books, each dedicated to an individual production.

For the books in this series Beaumont worked with a number of artists, including Ethelbert White and Randall Schwabe. The Good Humored Ladies, with illustrations by Adrian Paul Allinson, is the second in this series. Among the many monographs on ballet written by Beaumont, who would go on to become one of the most important dance historians of the twentieth century, are two on the Ballet Russes: Michel Fokine and His Ballets (1935) and Diaghilev Ballet in London (1940).

Praxinoscope

A slight improvement on the Zoetrope, the Praxinoscope employs the same elements: a moving drum loaded with a strip of paper holding a sequence of images. To these, the French scientist Charles‐Émile Reynaud added an inner circle of mirrors, one for each image. The reflected images proved brighter and clearer than ones viewed directly through slots in the drum.

The Praxinoscope in the Graphic Arts Collection is French, dating from around 1877. We also have a portable Praxinoscope Theatre.

Here is one example of a juggling sequence

1962 Tennis Pavilion

Paul Marvin Rudolph (1918-1997), View of Tennis Pavilion at Princeton University, 1962. Gouache drawing. Graphic Arts Collection 2013- in process. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Francis J. Anscombe.

An October 1911 Daily Princetonian reported that “Charles T. Butler ‘12 and Dean Mathey ‘12 were awarded the University “P” for winning the doubles championship in the intercollegiate tennis tournament played early in September.” It was Mathey’s second championship, following his 1910 win with classmate Burnham N. Dell.

A devoted supporter of Princeton, Dean Mathey (1890-1972) went on to serve as a trustee under Presidents Hibben, Dodds, and Goheen. Together with Joseph L. Werner ’21, Mathey proposed and funded a new tennis pavilion overlooking 27 tennis courts on Brokaw Field. The design won a 1962 Architectural Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Steel Construction, cited as “delightfully decorative and fanciful, romantic and playful—in the spirit of the time.”

Paul Rudolph (1918-1997), Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, created the initial design for the New York architectural firm of Ballard, Todd, and Snibbe, and the Matthews Construction Company of Princeton served as the general contractors. Rudolph’s gouache drawing was recently discovered and given to the Graphic Arts Collection by Mr. and Mrs. Francis J. Anscombe. An influential statistician, Professor Anscombe (1918-2001) taught at Yale, Cambridge and Princeton Universities.

2013-2014 Adler Book Collecting Prize

Deadline for entries: Monday, December 2, 2013

(c) Jane and Louise Wilson, Oddments Room II (Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle), 2008. C-print, Edition of 4. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York

The Elmer Adler Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize is endowed from the estate of Elmer Adler, who for many years encouraged the collecting of books by Princeton undergraduates.

It is awarded annually to the undergraduate student or students who, in the opinion of the judges, have shown the most thought and ingenuity in assembling a thematically coherent collection of books, manuscripts, or other material normally collected by libraries. The rarity or monetary value of the student’s collection are not as important as the creativity and persistence shown in collecting and the fidelity of the collection to the goals described in a personal essay.

The personal essay is about a collection owned by the student. It should describe the thematic or artifactual nature of the collection and discuss with some specificity the unifying characteristics that have prompted the student to think of certain items as a collection. It should also convey a strong sense of the student’s motivations for collecting and what their particular collection means to them personally. The history of the collection, including collecting goals, acquisition methods, and milestones are of particular interest, as is a critical look at how the goals may have evolved over time and an outlook on the future development of the collection. Essays are judged in equal measures on the strength of the collection and the strength of the writing.

Essays should be submitted via e-mail, in a Microsoft Word attachment, to Regine:
heberlei@princeton.edu by Monday, December 2, 2013 and should be between 9-10 pages long, 12pt, double-spaced, with a 1-inch margin. In addition to the ten-page essay, each entry should include a selected bibliography of no more than 3 pages detailing the items in the collection. A separate cover sheet should include your name, class year, residential address, email address, and phone number. Please note that essays submitted in file formats other than Microsoft Word, submitted without cover sheet, or submitted without a bibliography will not be forwarded to the judges.

Winners will receive their prizes at the annual winter dinner of the Friends of the Princeton University Library, which they are expected to attend. The first-prize essay will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Princeton University Library Chronicle. In addition, the first-prize essay has the honor of representing Princeton University in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest organized by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America. Please note that per the ABAA’s contest rules, the winning essay will be entered exactly as submitted to the Adler Prize contest, without possibility of revision.

DATE TO REMEMBER
Deadline for entries: December 2, 2013

First prize: $2000
Second prize: $1500
Third prize: $1000

Suggested readings from Paul Needham, Scheide Librarian:
Michael Sadleir, preface to his XIX Century Fiction (1951). Firestone 3579.079
A.N.L. Munby, Essays and Papers (1977). Firestone Z992.M958
John Carter, Taste and Technique in Book Collecting (1970). Firestone 0511.241.2.1970
G. Thomas Tanselle “The Rationale of Collecting,” Studies in Bibliography. Online at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/bsuva/sb

Megalethoscope

In the 1860s, Swiss-born Carlo Ponti, optician to King Victor Emanuel II of Italy, created a device called an Alethoscope for the viewing of both prints and photographs. Large or deluxe versions were called Megalethoscopes. Princeton University is very fortunate to have one of the few megalethoscopes still in existence along with a set of photographic slides.

There are holes in each print, barely visible from the front, and various sections have been trimmed so that the paper is thinner. When the top is open and the light hits the front of the image, we see a daytime scene. When the top is closed and the light comes from the back, we see the scene at night.

Below is a sequence of shots as the light moves from the front to the back of the photographic slide. The slide is slightly concave to fit inside the device and has become somewhat warped as the wood frame has dried over the years.

Thaumatrope

Trompe-l’oeil ou les plaisirs de Jocko, French, ca. 1837. Discs: 2 1/2″ diam.; set contains 24 discs. Graphic Arts Collection, optical devices

A thaumatrope is a small paper disc with two strings on either side. Half of a picture is on the front and the other half on the back. When you spin it between your fingers, the pictures appear to merge and form a complete scene. The Graphic Arts collection has a French set from the early 1800s. Here are a few examples.

For a set of smoother animations, see the wonderful Richard Balzer tumbler or website:
http://dickbalzer.blogspot.com/

Phenakistoscope

One of the optical toys not represented in the Graphic Arts Collection is an original Phenakistoscope. We do, however, have a modern facsimile with a nice variety of circular image sequences.

Here is one example of a slack rope dancer or acrobat.

Zoetrope strip for Halloween

The Graphic Arts Collection has a large selection of optical devices, including a zoetrope with hand colored image sequences.

Here is one for Halloween, entitled “Who’s that knocking at the door?”

Procter Hall, Princeton University

Procter Hall, Graduate College, Princeton University, ca.1913. Glass lantern slide. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. A. Perry Morgan. Graphic Arts Collection 2013- in process

2013 is the centenary of Princeton University’s Graduate College. An exhibition at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library highlights the College’s history: http://blogs.princeton.edu/mudd/2013/09/building-the-house-of-knowledge-the-graduate-college-centennial/

Back in Graphic Arts, Elizabeth and Perry Morgan, Class of 1946, generously donated a large, glass lantern slide of the Seven Liberal Arts window in Procter Hall, the College dining hall. Designed by William and Annie Lee Willet of Philadelphia, the stained glass window rises forty feet in height. The center row of images depicts the Seven Liberal Arts. The first four, the quadrivium, are arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. The other three, the trivium, being grammar, rhetoric, and logic.

At the bottom is an inscription: Nec vocemini magistri quia magister vester unus est christus,” or “And be ye not called master, for one is your master, even Christ.”

William Willet (1869-1921) and Anne Lee Willet (1867-1943) collaborated on mural and stained glass designs from their studio in Pittsburgh and then, Philadelphia. The Willets incorporated in 1909, only a few years before their work at Procter Hall. At William’s death, Anne Lee took over the business, which still continues today.

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