Richard S. Kinsey, Alphabet, 1981. Chrysography on vellum. GC084 Calligraphy, Alphabets, and Penmanship Collection.

Richard Kinsey presented this alphabet lettered in burnished gold (chrysography) to the graphic arts collection in honor of an exhibition and catalogue on American Graphic Arts at Princeton University in 1981. The 26 letters are followed by a verse by philosopher David Hume (1711-1776), however not exactly from “Of Tragedy” as noted.
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Despite his resignation from the Advocates’ Library and the success of his History, Hume’s work continued to be surrounded by controversy. In 1755, he was ready to publish a volume that included The Natural History of Religion and A Dissertation on the Passions as well as the essays “Of Suicide” and “Of the Immortality of the Soul.”

When his publisher, Andrew Millar, was threatened with legal action through the machinations of the minor theologian, William Warburton, Hume suppressed the offensive essays, substituting “Of Tragedy” and “Of the Standard of Taste” to round out his Four Dissertations, which was finally published in 1757.”

Our quote comes from “Of the Standard of Taste,” in a general form. The complete section reads: “Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others.” (Hume 1757, 136)

David Hume (1711-1776), Four dissertations (London: Printed for A. Millar, 1757). Rare Books (Ex) 6100.335

“Two cases in the gallery are devoted to Fanny Elssler, the Austrian ballerina who brought the romantic ballet to the United States in 1840,” wrote Mary Ann Jensen, describing a Firestone Library exhibition Let Joy Be Unconfined: Three Centuries of Ballet. “Americans had seen dancers before, but never anything like Elssler’s performances. A contemporary caricature by F.O.C. Darley, the gift of Sinclair Hamilton, depicts Elssler dancing across America with its inhabitants at her feet. Alas, ‘Modesty’ is shown weeping in the lower corner!”

Mary Ann Jensen, former curator of the Seymour Theatre Collection in Firestone, died Tuesday, March 04, 2014. Jensen’s funeral and celebration of life will be at All Saints Episcopal Church in Princeton, New Jersey on Thursday, March 13th at 11:00 AM, with the Right Reverend William “Chip” Stokes as Officiant and Celebrant.

She leaves behind a wonderful collection of theater, dance, and performance that continues to inspire students and researchers–this drawing was called to the reading room today!

Felix Octavius Carr Darley (1821-1888), Fanny Elssler, 1840-1842. Ink wash. GC007 F.O.C. Darley Collection. Gift of Sinclair Hamilton, Class of 1906.

See also Mary Ann Jensen, “New and Notable,” Princeton University Library Chronicle 41, no. 3 (spring 1980).

“Although George Washington never attended any college,” writes Donald Egbert, “in many ways he had particularly close relations with the College of New Jersey, as Princeton University was known.” In 1783, trustees of the College commissioned a portrait of Washington by the Philadelphia painter Charles Wilson Peale, which was hung in Nassau Hall.

To celebrate the University’s bicentennial year, a large print was editioned after the Peale painting. The process began with the enormous canvas being carried outside to the lawn in front of Nassau Hall, so that it could be photographed in direct sunlight. Ira Martin, photographer of the Frick reference library, was brought down to Princeton to make the photographic negative. Then, 500 black and white collotype positives were printed by the Meriden Gravure Company.

To add the correct color, twenty-six stencils were designed by the twin sisters and pochoir specialists Kate and Martha Berrien, working in their Greenwich Village studio. Each individual stencil was used to hand paint one layer of watercolor over the collotype until Peale’s original was reproduced exactly. Copies of the final print were given to select donors and alumni throughout 1946 and today, only a few copies remain in the Graphic Arts Collection.

Egbert’s article on the making of this facsimile was published in the Princeton University Library Chronicle 8, no 2 (February 1947): http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/pulc/pulc_v_8_n_2.pdf