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Yearly Archives: 2014
The Diary of George Templeton Strong
John O’Hara Cosgrave II (1908-1968), Original watercolor for the dust jacket of The Diary of George Templeton Strong edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas (New York: Macmillan, 1952). Graphic Arts Collection
The New York lawyer George Templeton Strong (1820-1875) began keeping a diary at the age of fifteen and continued until his death in 1875. The original, held by the New York Historical Society, was featured recently in Ken Burn’s PBS documentary on the American Civil War. A firm abolitionist, Strong’s diary offers a first-hand account of his efforts in support of the Union Army and the end of slavery in the United States.
In 1952, when Macmillan began preparing Strong’s diary for publication, the artist John O’Hara Cosgrave II (1908-1968) was commissioned to design the dust jacket. The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to hold the original watercolor, along with the final printed cover. Fortunate because the Princeton University Library, like many libraries, removes all the dust jackets from the books as soon as they are purchased.
Illustrations by the California-born watercolorist can be found in over 100 books, including Pardon My Harvard Accent (1941) by William G. Morse; Gnomobile (1936) by Upton Sinclair, Wind, Sand, and Stars (1939) by Antoine de Saint Exupéry; Come In and Other Poems (1943) by Robert Frost; Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (1955) by Jean Lee Latham; among many others.
To read selections, see: The Diary of George Templeton Strong edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas (New York: Macmillan, 1952). Firestone Library (F) E415.9.S86 A3 1952
Last Question on Friday Afternoon
The last reference question to come through at the end of a long week led us to this charming peep show Le Parc de Versailles. Our researcher wanted to know if the fourth panel in this tunnel book had figures and sculpture, like the others, or only a grass divider. This is a serious question because it means the artist wanted to place additional depth and perspective on the furthermost view.
This is not completely correct, the fourth panel is only grass in the center but there are figures and sculptures on either side. Seen from the tiny front window the grass is not visible, adding only perspective to the entire scene.
Side view.
Inside view between the third and fourth panels, looking into the fifth and sixth.
Inside view between the second and third panels. Our researchers writes, “Optique no. 8 will surely be the highlight of someone’s day…” The answer to this is yes.
B is for Beckett
Mary Jo Bang and Ken Botnick, B is for Beckett (St. Louis, Mo.: Emdash, 2012). Letterpress printed artist book, bound in the notched perfect method with hand-stamped lead front cover and spine of handmade, hand-dyed flax by Cave Paper in Minneapolis. 89 p. Copy 10 of 10. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process.
“This is the second collaboration between poet Mary Jo Bang and book artist Ken Botnick, this time publishing a one-line poem by Bang originally published in her collection, Elegy for E. Both projects have employed an unusual and complex printing method which involves moving the type in the bed of the press after each impression, in effect, the type “walks” off the page. When the book is closed the type reads clearly on the edge surfaces of the book as if printed direcctly on the edges themselves. The book is meant to be shown, and stored, on its side.”—prospectus.
311 Salted Paper Portraits of the United States Congress
James E. McClees (1821-1887), McClees’ Gallery of Photographic Portraits of the Senators, Representatives & Delegates of the Thirty-Fifth Congress (Washington: McClees & Beck, 1859). 311 salt prints in black morocco binding with ornate gilt decoration. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process
“In presenting this volume to the public,” wrote photographer James McClees in his introduction, “the publisher begs leave to remark that it is the largest collection of perfectly authentic Photographic portraits ever published; containing three hundred and eleven likenesses one-fifth of the size of life, each being a reflex of the features of the subject, and in no instance a copy from a painting or an engraving, and finished in the best manner for Photograph negatives taken by the publisher himself or his able assistant, Mr. Julian Vannerson, an Artist of acknowledged ability and artistic taste.” A long sentence for a lengthy project.
Graphic Arts Collection recently acquire this superb volume of three hundred and eleven salted paper portraits of the thirty-fifth Congress of the United States, that is, members dating from March 4, 1857 to March 4, 1859 during the first two years of James Buchanan’s presidency. Included are the Senators, Representatives, and Delegates, with their autographs reproduced under their portrait in facsimile, “procured from private letters and registers not written for publication.” This volume was meant to be the first of a series, although no subsequent volumes were every completed.
As a frontispiece, McClees created a photograph of the capitol taken from an original drawing by T.U. Walter, architect of the U.S. Capitol extension. Our volume also includes one additional salt print laid into the front cover of Charles Brooks Hoard (1805-1886), congressman from New York, along with a presentation inscription: “A testimonial of Friendship / Presented by / C.B. Hoard / March 1861.” This is a second portrait, in addition to the one bound into the volume.
McClees’ ambitious project had an extraordinary scope and the end result was beautifully realized. As he claims, it is the first and largest such collection of photographic portraits created in the United States. The images include the key figures in politics leading up to the Civil War, both Union and Confederate, nicely indexed at the front. Notable are the portraits of Andrew Johnson, Jefferson Davis, Sam Houston, Stephen Douglas, and Schuyler Colfax, although the list could go on and on.
Princeton’s Western Americana Collection also holds the McClees series of portraits made of the Native American Indian delegation: http://pudl.princeton.edu/collection.php?c=pudl0017&f1=kw&v1=mcclees. McClees first opened a daguerreotype studio in Philadelphia in 1845 and in 1851-52 he made daguerreotypes of Indian delegations visiting his studio in Philadelphia. When he perfected paper photography, the McClees studio produced another series of the Indian delegation on paper.
In the summer of 1857, McClees opened a second gallery at 308 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. and hired two additional photographers, Julian Vannerson and Samuel Cohner, to undertake the congressional photography project. They did their best to photograph every congressman, although some failed to show up as scheduled. Eighteen leaves are published with only the signature on the page.
Only five copies of is rare volume are currently listed at institutions: the George Eastman House, the University of Illinois, Indiana Historical Society, Library of Congress, and the New Hampshire Historical Society.
Robert Edmond Jones Directs an All Black Cast
Buried below this pastel design is the inscription, “To Ridgely from Bobby, 1917.” Bobby refers to Robert Edmond Jones (1887-1954), who was making a gift of his drawing to playwright Ridgely Torrence (1874-1950), The design is for their production of Simon the Cyrenian, one of three short plays that opened April 5, 1917 at New York’s Garden Theater under the heading Three Plays for a Negro Theater. Jones not only designed but directed the three productions, which each featured all Black casts. As one of the first straight plays to feature Black actors exclusively, without melodrama or burlesque, this production is often cited as the beginning of the period we call the Harlem renaissance.
In anticipation of opening, Robert Benchley (1889-1945) published an article The New York Tribune, entitled “Can This Be the Native American Drama?” He went on to describe how Jones “heard of the three plays which Mrs. Emile Hapgood is to present, written for negroes and to be acted by negroes, he offered to design the scenery and costumes and to attend personally to the production. This will indicate the plane on which this new movement of the theatre is to be handled.”
Following the April 5 opening, drama critic Heywood Broun (1888-1939) announced, “The performances were a triumph for the actors, for Mrs. Hapgood, the producer, and for Robert E. Jones, director and designer of sets and costumes.”
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) transcribed the outpouring of critical review in The Crisis, beginning with poet Percy MacKaye’s comment, “It is indeed an historic happening. Probably for the first time, in any comparable degree, both races are here brought together upon a plane utterly devoid of all racial antagonisms—a plane of art in which audiences and actors are happily peers, mutually cordial to each others’ gifts of appreciation and interpretation.”
Ridgely Torrence (1874-1950), Granny Maumee, The Rider of Dreams, Simon the Cyrenian; Plays for a Negro Theater (New York: Macmillan company, 1917). Rare Books (Ex) 3963.57.335
We also hold Jones’ set design for the 1947 production of A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953), one of many Jones designed for the Theater Guild of New York City.
Isaac Cruikshank Frontispiece
The Graphic Arts Collection was recently offered the gift of Isaac Cruikshank’s frontispiece for The Life of the Late Most Noble Francis Duke of Bedford, completed March 16,1802. We already have the book, with its frontispiece in place, However, we were thrilled to acquire the duplicate print.
Why? In the Krumbhaar Catalogue Raisonné from 1966, this particular print is described in entry 648: “IC. Oval colored portrait frontispiece, ‘The Late most Nable Francis Duke of Bedford,’ unsigned but inscribed ‘From a drawing by my Father I. Cruikshank’ in GC’s [George Cruikshank’s] handwriting.”
Krumbhaar goes on to say the print was “Bought by me at a Parke-Bernet auction, November 18, 1958, item 142. See also Chubbock, p. 4, no. 22”
The bound-in frontispiece on the left with the inscribed print laid next to it on the right. Thanks to Thomas V. Lange for his watchful eye to catch this treasure for Princeton’s collection.
Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811), Frontispiece etching for The Late most Noble Francis Duke of Bedford… (London: J. Fairburn, 1802). Inscribed by George Cruikshank. Graphic Arts Collection 2014- in process. Gift of Thomas V. Lange.
The Life of the late most noble Francis, Duke of Bedford : including the speech of the Hon. Charles James Fox in the House of Commons, March 16, 1802 …(London: John Fairburn, [1802]). Rare Books (Ex) 3580.161
Edward Bell Krumbhaar (1882-1966), Isaac Cruikshank; a catalogue raisonné, with a sketch of his life and work (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press [1966]). Rare Books: Reference Collection in Dulles Reading Rm. (ExB) NE642.C82 K7
Don Freeman at the Theater
Don Freeman (1908-1978), First Nighters’ Intermission, 1932. Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016
Graphic Arts isn’t the only department in RBSC to collection prints. The Theater Collection added the portfolio titled Don Freeman Lithographs 1931-1938, which includes five lithographs with theatrical themes.
Don Freeman (1908-1978) financed his art education by playing trumpet in jazz clubs and then, acted in at least one Broadway production, as the cornet-playing son in William Saroyan’s The Beautiful People (a part written specifically for Freeman). During the 1930s, he drew a number of lithographs featuring scenes around the theater, both in front and behind the curtain.
In the print at the top, First Nighters’ Intermission, we can recognize many prominent New Yorkers outside a Broadway theater, including Mayor Jimmy Walker, Otto Kahn, Heywood Broun, Robert Benchley, and Clifton Webb.
Don Freeman (1908-1978), Self-Portrait, 1939. Lithograph. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2007.01302
Don Freeman (1908-1978), Dress Rehearsal, Of Thee I Sing, 1931, Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016
At the rehearsal seen above for Of Thee I Sing, we can recognize George Gershwin conducting, George S. Kaufman and Marc Connolly, producer Sam H. Harris (with his feet up), and designer Jo Meilziner on the intercom.
Don Freeman (1908-1978), On the Fly Rail, 1934. Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016
Don Freeman (1908-1978), Casting for Characters, 1934. Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016
Don Freeman (1908-1978), Mums the Word, 1938? Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016
The High Mettled Racer
Thomas Rowlandson (1756 or 1757-1827), The High Mettled Racer ([London: S.W. Fores, 1789]). Four hand colored aquatints. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Oversize 2012-0010E
The comic opera, Liberty-Hall: or, a Test of Good Fellowship, written by Charles Dibdin (1745-1814), was first performed at the Theatre-Royal in London’s Drury-Lane on February 8, 1785. One of the highlights was a song titled “Highmettled Racer.” Four years later, Thomas Rowlandson drew four scenes incorporating that song’s lyrics and published them with Samuel Fores on July 20, 1789. The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have both the colored set and a single aquatinted plate.
The High Mettled Racer as a Race Horse. See the Course thronged with Gazers, the Sports are begun, The confusion, but hear, I bet you Sir, done, done. Ten thousand strange murmurs resound far and near, Lords, Hawkers and Jockies, assail the tired ear. While with neck like a Rainbow, erecting his crest, Pamper’d, prancing and pleas’d, his head touching his breast, Scarce snuftling the Air, so proud and elate, The high mettled Racer first starts for the Plate.
The High Mettled Racer as a Hunter. Now Reynard’s turn’d out and o’er hedge and ditch rush ‘Dogs, Horses and Huntsmen, all hard at his Brush, Through Marsh, hedge and brier, led by their sly prey, They by scent and by view, cheat a long tedious day, While alike born for sports of the field and the course, Always sure to come through a staunch and Fleet Horse, When fairly rundown, the Fox yields up his breath, The high mettled Racer is in at the death.
The High Mettled Racer as a Hack Horse. Grown aged, used up and turn’d out of the stud, Lame, spavin’d and windgalled, but yet with some blood, While knowing postillions his pedigree trace, Tell his Dam won this sweepstakes, his Sire that race, And what matches he won, to the Ostlers count o’er, As they loiter their time at some hedge ale house door, While the harness sore galls, and the spurs his sides goad. The high mettled Racer’s a hack on the road.
The High Mettled Racer as a Cart Horse. Till at last having labour’d, drudg’d early and late, Bow’d down by degrees, he bends on to his fate, Blind, old, lean and feeble, he tugs ’round a mill, Or draws sand, till the sand of his hour glass stands still. And now, cold and lifeless, exposed to the view, In the very same cart which he yesterday drew, While a pitying crowd his sad relicks surround, The high mettled Racer is sold to the hounds.
Thomas Rowlandson (1756 or 1757-1827), The High Mettled Racer, July 20, 1789. Aquatinted by T. Hassall. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895. GC112 Thomas Rowlandson Collection
Charles Dibdin (1745-1814), The High Mettled Racer ([London]: Sold by C. Sheppard, no. 19 Lambeth Hill, Doctors Commons; sold by J. Pitts, Great St., Andrew St., [ca. 1800]). 1 sheet, One of the songs from Charles Dibdin’s ’Liberty Hall’, first presented in February 1785 at Drury Lane. Rare Books (Ex) 2014- in process
Theodore Low De Vinne & Co.
In conjunction with the wonderful exhibition “The Dean of American Printers: Theodore Low De Vinne and the Art Preservative of All Arts,” currently on view at the Grolier Club in New York City, a tour was held of the landmark De Vinne Press building at Lafayette and East Fourth Streets. The show and tour mark the centenary of the death of De Vinne (1828-1914), one of America’s leading typographers and printers.
We were led by William J. Higgins, a Grolier member and a principal at Higgins Quasebarth & Partners, advisers in the preservation and rehabilitation of historic properties. Higgins described how the architectural firm of Babb, Cook & Willard completed the main De Vinne building in 1886.
Six years later, the same firm was asked to return and build an addition on the Fourth Street side to accommodate the new presses acquired to complete De Vinne’s contract for a 24-part Century Dictionary.
The De Vinne Company continued to occupy the building even after the death of its director, only leaving when the company dissolved in 1922.
Although the building has changed hands several times since then, it was happily given landmark status in 1966 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Irene Tichenor, curator of the Grolier exhibition, added important information on De Vinne’s life and work. Besides his important commercial business, De Vinne was one of nine men who founded the Grolier Club and was printer to the Club for the first two decades of its existence. He was also an author and we are fortunately to have most of his books at the Princeton University Library.
Among the many titles are:
The Printers’ Price List. A Manual for the Use of Clerks and Book-Keepers in Job Printing Offices (New York: F. Hart & co., 1871). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) 2008-0774N
The Invention of Printing (New-York: George Bruce’s Son & Co., 1878). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Z250 .D48 1878q
Historic Printing Types, a Lecture Read before the Grolier Club of New York, January 25, 1885, with additions and new illustrations by Theo. L. De Vinne (New York: The Grolier club, 1886). Rare Books (Ex) 0220.296.2
Title-Pages as Seen by a Printer, with Numerous Illustrations in Facsimile and Some Observations on the Early and Recent Printing of Books (New York: Grolier Club, 1901). Edition of 325. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) 2006-1869N
Grolier Club: http://www.grolierclub.org/Default.aspx?p=DynamicModule&pageid=289912&ssid=169182&vnf=1