Yearly Archives: 2014

Deep Zoom

going to a fight cruikshank2How do you look at an entire panorama? Even harder, how do you capture and reproduce a panorama, especially for teaching? Our Digital Initiatives Developer and Analyst, Jon Stroop, has come up with a new image viewer: Loris, used in conjunction with OpenSeadragon MPUDL’s new deep-zoom viewer. Now our digital photographers can capture and post the entire strip, allowing you and me to play with the images in a way not possible with the original. Try it!

panoramaTwo of the panoramas from the Graphic Arts Collection have been transferred to this new site:

Robert Cruikshank (1789-1856), Going to a Fight. Illustra]ting the sporting world in all its variety of style and costume along the road from Hyde Park Corner to Moulsey Hurst, 1819. Aquatint and etching with hand coloring. Graphic Arts collection. GA 2005-01039; Permanent Link: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/5m60qs654

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Artist unidentified, Mister O’Squat: A Panorama, 1822. Hand colored etchings. London: Published by William Sams, Booksellers to his Royal Highness the Duke of York opposite the Palace, St. James Street, 1822). Box embossed: E.P. Sutton and Sangorski Sutcliff. Formerly attributed to Thomas Rowlandson (British, 1756-1827). Graphic Arts Collection. GA 2005.01039; Permanent Link: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/1v53jx72k

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Thank you Jon. Just in time for Prof. Anne McCauley’s upcoming freshman seminar: Funny Pictures: Caricature and Modernity.  FRS 157

 

Light Damage

sommer office3When Princeton University Library received the wonderful donation of over two dozen paintings and drawings by Cleveland artist William Sommer (1867-1949), several staff members immediately fell in love. Various prints and watercolors were distributed to offices within the library, where they remained for almost thirty years.

The works were donated to Princeton University thanks to the Mildred Andrews Fund in honor of Dr. William Milliken, ’11, *33 (1889-1978). Arrangements were made between 1985 and 1986 by Sommer’s foremost collector Joseph M. Erdelac (died 2004), and Peter Putnam ‘42, *50 (1927-1987). Less than one year later Putnam was tragically hit and killed while riding his bicycle.

Happily, we have learned a great deal about the damage light can do to works on paper, watercolor in particular, and we have removed the originals from permanent display. Unhappily, for this particular watercolor by Sommer, it was not quite soon enough. A facsimile has been created to hang in its place, cleaning up the years of darkening caused by over-exposure to light. The original, on the left, will be housed in a cool, dark drawer to preserve what is left for future generation.

Sincere thanks to all the staff members who participated in this transfer and rehanging.
sommer officeWilliam Sommer (1867-1949), Profile of woman in purple dress, seated in green chair, reading a paper, 1936. Watercolor. Graphic Arts collection. Gift of the Mildred Andrews Fund in honor of Dr. William Milliken. Formerly owned by Rev. Dexter Chenny, given to him by William M. Milliken, acquired from William Sommer.

 

The Liberation of Greece

liberation of greece3Attributed to Albert Anker (1831-1910), Greek battle plan, ca. 1900. Watercolor and pen. Graphic Arts Collection 2014- in process.

We believe Albert Anker painted this map to show the liberation of Greece, including the naval battle between the Athenian and the Peloponnese fleets. The sketch includes the handwritten description and index to the scene:

A Station de Phormios … la flotte athénienne = Phormios station … the Athenian fleet
B Flotte de Peloponnèse = Peloponnese fleet
C Flotte Athénienne marchand sur avant naupactus droits avant la bataille = Athenian merchant fleet advancing
D Peloponnèse avant la bataille dans la course simulé sur naupactus
C Fleet Athenian merchant on before Naupactus rights before the battle
D Peloponnese before the battle in the race simulated Naupactus
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William Henry Jackson’s selfie

jackson, william henry tower2William Henry Jackson, getting into his own picture. See the left side of the mountain below.

jackson, william henry tower of bableWilliam Henry Jackson (1843-1942), Tower of Babel. Garden of the Gods, [n.d. [1879-1897]. Albumen silver print. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00107

Thanks to the invitation of Professor Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden, photographer William Jackson traveled to the American west with the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey expedition and from 1870 to 1878 made thousands of photographic negatives. In 1879, he settled in Denver and opened a studio to print and sell his images in a variety of formats, large and small. Most of his prints are generally dated between 1879 when he finished traveling and 1897 when he merged with the Detroit Photographic Company and stopped printing his own work.

The image above is no. 1007. “View of a sandstone rock formation identified as the Tower of Babel, the Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs (El Paso County), Colorado”. The albumen print was contact printed from a mammoth glass plate negative.

 

jackson, william henry 1William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), Mount of the Holy Cross, [1879-1897, negative 1874]. Albumen silver print. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00106

jackson, william henry navaho2Jackson’s dog also getting into the photograph. See bottom right corner below.

jackson, william henry navahoWilliam Henry Jackson (1843-1942), Navajo Church. Near Fort Wingate, A.T., [1879-1897]. Albumen silver print. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00108

This is no. 1063 in Jackson’s sales catalogue, “A view of Navajo Church, a sandstone rock formation near Fort Wingate on the Navajo Indian Reservation in the Arizona Territory (New Mexico)”. We are fortunate to have a rare print of this view, which has not been cropped or printed with a vignette to remove the dog in the lower corner. (Note, the photograph is not over-exposed as this reproduction seems, just my own poor re-photographing.)

 

 

How d’ye like me? A droll mezzotint

how d'ye likeUnidentified Artist, How d’ye like me, 1772. Mezzotints. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.01193

how d'ye“The mezzotint droll [was] generally sold for a shilling plain, two shillings coloured. Drolls were usually non-political, exploiting amusing social situations, such as the pretensions of the city nouveau riche, rather than topical events.”

“The market for comic mezzotints, based on plates which often remained in print for decades, was dominated by relatively few firms, such as that of Carington Bowles, whose shop front is shown in a number of prints….”

“Many of these prints were engraved on copper plates measuring fourteen by ten inches and could if required be easily fitted into frames of a standard size.” – David S. Alexander, Richard Newton and English Caricature in the 1790s (Manchester University Press, 1998)

welladay this is my son             be not amazed

[left] After Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (baptized 1733, died 1794), Welladay! Is this my son Tom!, 1773. Mezzotint. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00628

[right] After Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (baptized 1733, died 1794), Be not amaz’d Dear Mother – It is indeed your Daughter Anne, 1774. Mezzotint. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00627

This pair of droll mezzotints were both published by Carington Bowles, from his shop at St Paul’s Church Yard. The droll prints were all made the same size, so they could fit in the same frame. See his shop window below.

AN00710365_001_lJohn Raphael Smith (1751-1812), Spectators at a Print-Shop in St.Paul’s Church Yard, 1774.
Mezzotint. (c) British Museum

Filmathèque Pathé-Baby

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In conjunction with our collection of French silent movies, available to stream online at:
http://rbsc.princeton.edu/pathebaby/node/2244 we are also acquiring the catalogues and indexes that went together with the films produced by the Société française du Pathé-Baby.

This directory lists over 4,000 films to purchase and watch on the Pathé home movie projector, primarily French and American but others as well. We will be posting a new series of films in the fall, many of which are listed in this volume.

Filmathèque Pathé-Baby France, [11e édition]. Paris: Société française du Pathé-Baby, 1931.

0213http://rbsc.princeton.edu/pathebaby/node/1711

Charles Grosvenor Osgood

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John Milton (1608-1674), 1800s. Earthenware. Acquired from the estate of Charles Grosvenor Osgood, 1964. Museum Objects collection. Ex 4980

 

This Staffordshire figurine of Milton comes from the estate of Charles Grosvenor Osgood (1871-1964), Holmes Professor of Belles Lettres. “His course in English Literature and the Classics was long a favorite among undergraduates,” wrote Alexander Leitch, “and the breadth of his interests is revealed by the subjects of some of his early works: The Classical Mythology of Milton’s English Poems; the Middle English poem, The Pearl; Selections from the Works of Samuel Johnson … In 1935 [Osgood] was persuaded to write a history of English literature for classroom use. It was called The Voice of England. ‘I have small excuse, I know,’ he wrote in the preface, ‘for rehearsing the old tale herein set down, except that it is an old story, and a good one, and many are the ways of telling it.’ Osgood’s way, reviewers agreed, was one of the best, and one colleague doubted that any textbook was ever written with such grace and lucidity.” A Princeton Companion (1978).

His work includes:

Charles Grosvenor Osgood (1871-1964), The Classical Mythology of Milton’s English Poems (New York: Henry Holt, 1900). Annex A, Forrestal: Princeton Coll. P96.6948.03

Charles Grosvenor Osgood (1871-1964), Milton’s ’Sphere of Fortune’ … [n.p., 1907] Annex A, Forrestal: Princeton Coll. P96.6948.05

John Milton (1608-1674), The Poetical Works of John Milton (New York: Oxford University Press [c1935]). Firestone Library (F) PR3550.F35

Charles Grosvenor Osgood (1871-1964), Poetry as a Means of Grace (Princeton: Princeton University Press; London, H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1941). Firestone Library (F) PN1136 .O8 1941

Charles Grosvenor Osgood (1871-1964), The Classical Mythology of Milton’s English Poems (New York: Haskell House, 1964). Firestone Library (F) PR3592.M96 O8 1964

Novak’s campus linocut

ppc drawingsHow do you transform this watercolor into an ink print? The artist Louis Novak solved the problem by carving a series of linoleum blocks and printing them successively onto a single sheet to make the Princeton Print Club’s 1943 membership print. Can you match the colors to the blocks?

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princeton print club1Louis L. Novak (1903-1988), Joline-Campbell Hall from Blair Court, 1943. Linocut. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2007.02141

Anne Marguerite Hyde de Neuville

hyde de neuville churchAnne Marguerite Hyde de Neuville (ca. 1749-1849), Church at Princeton, New Jersey with Girardin and Mary, 1813. Watercolor on paper. Graphic Arts Collection GA 047 Princetoniana. Acquired with funds contributed by the Friends of the Princeton University Library and by Bernard Kilgore, formerly Elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Princeton.

Inscribed “Mercredi 27 8 bre 1813 Princeton’s Church Giradin and Meriy” [Wednesday 27 October 1813 Princeton’s Church with Girardin and Mary]

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chTo continue reading about this watercolor by the Baroness Hyde de Neuville, see the Princeton University Library Chronicle, 29, no.2 (winter 1968):  http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/pulc/pulc_v_29_n_2.pdf

See also: Jadviga M. Da Costa Nunes, Baroness Hyde de Neuville: Sketches of America, 1807-1822 ([New Brunswick, N.J.]: Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey; New York: New-York Historical Society, 1984). Marquand Library (SA) ND1950.H9 A4 1984

Holzschnitte der Reyher’schen Buchdruckerey

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This remarkable printer’s sample book displays a wide and varied stock of woodcuts from the Reyher Printing House, founded in the seventeenth century by the German educator and scholar Andreas Reyher (1601-1673). The blocks shown include decorated and historiated fraktur alphabets, cartouches, scientific diagrams and illustrations, series of religious and vernacular scenes, astronomy, coats of arms, and an enormous number of vignettes. There is no record of another Reyher album in the United States and only two in Europe, held in German libraries.

 

 

The volume gives a particularly good overview of the range of woodcuts that would have available to a printer, showing the opportunities as well as the restrictions in his design choices. Most of the woodcuts appear to be from the seventeenth-eighteenth century, however some probably date to the late sixteenth century. It also demonstrates the continued importance of woodcut decoration into the nineteenth century.

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“The Reyher press has a fascinating place in history for its influence on the new theories of education expressed by its owner which were based on the educational precepts of Comenius and Ratke, modernizing and restructuring century old school plans. Andreas Reyher had studied theology and philosophy in Leipzig. He later served as rector of the gymnasium at Schleusingen and from 1641 held the same position at Gotha. Reyher viewed a printing house as an important tool in expressing his views and took over the shop of Peter Schmidt (active 1640-1644) when it became available. Reyher wrote and edited numerous texts in a wide variety of fields including languages (Hebrew, Greek and Latin), grammar, mathematics, logic, and theology. The firm remained in business up till modern times.”–Roger Gaskell
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Holzschnitte der Reyher’schen Buchdruckerey in Gotha [printed wrapper title] (Gotha: Reyher Buchdruckerey, 1810). Folio, 22 bifolia, 44 leaves, printed on one side only of laid paper. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process