Author Archives: Julie Mellby

Spencer Ervin

In 1895, Spencer Ervin (1856-1897), on the board of the New York & New England Railroad Company, was given an honorary A.M. degree by Princeton University.

Two years later, Mr. Ervin died and a death mask was made for the family to remember him by. Recently, his great-grandson Newcombe C. Baker III, Class of 1974, and their family generously donated the death mask along with its original carrying case to the Graphic Arts Collection.

The mask will join the collection of life and death masks formed by Laurence Hutton (1843-1904), who was also given an honorary A.M. degree by Princeton University in 1897.

 


The makers of the death mask took special care to carve the mustache, eye brows, and hair into the cast of the face. They also took separate casts for the ears and carefully wrapped in the carrying case, we found extra plaster ears, in case the others were damaged.

Photolithography on a zinc plate

This 1940s silent movie shows basic lithography on stone, on zinc, photolithography on glass and then, on zinc plate. It is slow but worth the wait.

Miseries Installed

On Saturday, July 1, 2017, a small show will open at the Princeton University Art Museum titled, The Miseries of Human Life and Other Amusements: Drawings by Thomas Rowlandson.

Written in 1806 by James Beresford (1764–1840), The Miseries of Human Life was extraordinarily successful, becoming a minor classic in the satirical literature of the day. Through a humorous dialogue between two old curmudgeons, the book details the “petty outrages, minor humiliations, and tiny discomforts that make up everyday human existence.”

The public loved it, dozens of editions were published, and printmakers rushed to illustrate their own versions of life’s miseries.

Thomas Rowlandson (1756/57–1827) began drawing scenes based on Beresford’s book as soon as it was published and after two years, the luxury print dealer Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834) selected fifty of his hand colored etchings for a new edition of Miseries. Many of the now-iconic characters and situations that the artist drew for this project—some based closely on Beresford’s text and others of his own invention—reappeared in later works, with variations on the Miseries turning up until the artist’s death.

In the early twentieth century, Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895, donated two thousand Rowlandson prints and all of the artist’s illustrated books to the Princeton University Library. Of particular importance was a small box of Rowlandson’s unpublished, undated drawings, including many specifically related to his Miseries series.

Here, in its first public presentation, is a selection of Rowlandson’s drawings from Brown’s donation. Just as in Rowlandson’s book, those specific to Beresford’s text are shown alongside others that illustrate life’s miseries more generally, including some from the Princeton University Art Museum’s collection. The sections follow the chapters, or “groans,” of Beresford’s book.


Particular thanks go to Laura Giles for suggesting a show of the library’s Rowlandson drawings. Princeton University Art Museum: http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/

 

 

The exhibition runs through October 2017, with a talk entitled “That’s So Annoying! Thomas Rowlandson and The Miseries of Human Life,” on Sunday, September 17, 2017, at 2:00 p.m. in 101 McCormick Hall, Princeton University

 

100,000 copies sold in 1853

Several of the Sinclair Hamilton Collection copies of the collected stories by the author, journalist, columnist, and humorist Sara Payson Willis (1811-1872) are filled with clippings and other notes about the writer and the illustrators. Willis wrote for several small Boston magazines under the pen-name Fanny Fern, including a weekly column in the New York Ledger read by hundreds of thousands of fans across the country. Willis is considered one of, if not the first American woman columnist. She continued to publish a column every week until her death in 1872.

Her 1853 collection of articles, published under the title Fern Leaves from Fanny’s Port-Folio, was an immediate success, recorded as selling nearly 100,000 copies the first year. Six other collections followed, including Fresh Leaves (1857), Folly as It Flies (1859), Ginger-Snaps (1870), and Caper-Sauce (1872). https://fannyfern.org/bio

Hamilton’s note recording her sales at 70,000 has since be changed to nearly 100,000.

 

Design and wood engraving by Nathaniel Orr.

“When her first husband died of typhoid fever in 1846, Sara’s father and her in-laws did not want to support her and her two children. She tried her luck at being a seamstress, one of the only respectable positions available to women, but could not make ends meet. She also attempted to secure a teaching position, but was not successful. At her father’s insistence, Sara embarked on a marriage of convenience that ended in divorce. Because Sara left her abusive husband, the scandal further alienated her from her family and friends. In a desperate attempt to feed her children, Sara began writing articles for Boston newspapers in 1851. Shortly thereafter, her articles were read in newspapers nationwide and in England.” –Giuliana Lonigro, “Women’s History Month Profile: Sara Payson Willis (“Fanny Fern”)”

 

In an article published in New York Life on August 8, 1867, Fern wrote: “I look around and see innumerable women to whose barren, loveless life [writing] would be improvement and solace, and I say to them, write! Write if it will make your life brighter, or happier, or less monotonous. Write! It will be a safe outlet for thoughts and feelings…[L]ift yourselves out of the dead level of your lives…Fight it! Oppose it, for your own sakes, and your children’s! Do not be mentally annihilated by it.”

 

The frequent team of Frederick Coffin, designs, and Nathaniel Orr, wood engraving, were called on to illustrate this popular book. Orr was responsible for the binding.

Robert Bonner of The New York Ledger “originally offering Fern twenty-five, then fifty, then seventy-five dollars per column, only to be turned down on all three occasions, Bonner then offered her an unprecedented $100 for each column of a serialized story, an offer which Fern finally accepted, making her the highest-paid newspaper writer in the country.”


Fanny Fern (1811-1872). Fern leaves from Fanny’s port-folio : with original designs by Fred. M. Coffin [engraved by Nathaniel Orr] (Auburn: Derby and Miller, 1853). Illustrations by Frederick M. Coffin, engraved on wood by N. Orr and E. Bookhout. GAX Hamilton 1565,

Fanny Fern (1811-1872). Fern leaves from Fanny’s port-folio Second series; with original designs by Fred. M. Coffin (Auburn [N.Y.]: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1854, [c1853]). Added, engr. t.p., by N. Orr. Published in London under title: “Shadows and sunbeams,” being a second series of Fern leaves from Fanny’s portfolio.

Fanny Fern (1811-1872). Fern leaves from Fanny’s port-folio : second series / with original designs by Fred. M. Coffin (Auburn ; Buffalo : Miller, Orton & Mulligan ; London : Sampson Low, son & Co., 1854). 7 full page illustrations and half title cut by F. Coffin, engraved on wood by N. Orr. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 501

Mrs. Sara Payson (Wilis) Parton (1811-1872), Fern leaves from Fanny’s port-folio. (Auburn, Derby and Miller; Buffalo, Derby, Orton and Mulligan [etc.,etc.] 1853). Miriam Y. Holden Coll. (Holden). Firestone PS2523.P9F3 1853a

Fanny Fern (1811-1872), Shadows and sunbeams and other stories: being the second series of Fern leaves from Fanny’s port-folio (Chicago: Belford, Clarke & Co., 1884). RECAP 3885.05.385

Little Sparta

If you are in Europe in July, you should find your way to Pentland Hills near Edinburgh and the garden of visual poetry known as Little Sparta created by Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006). On July 13 and 14, 2017, there will be a symposium entitled “Ian Hamilton Finlay: Little Fields, Long Horizons,” exploring new critical and interdisciplinary perspectives on the Scottish poet, artist and avant-gardener. http://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/conferences/ian-hamilton-finlay-little-fields-long-horizons

The keynote address, “Between Spoils and Gifts,” will be delivered by Susan Stewart, Avalon Foundation University Professor of the Humanities, Princeton University. http://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/events/events-archive/between-spoils-and-gifts


Stewart writes, “This talk looks closely at Ian Hamilton Finlay’s place in the art history of his time by considering his most fundamental departure from prevailing avant-garde practice: that is, his immersion in history. Focusing upon his ‘Roman’ practices of epigraphy and spoliation and his larger transformation of the bounds of the gesamtkunstwerk, we can glimpse the many ways he pursued an art that could evade the novelty of the present. Hamilton Finlay took a long, difficult, and revisionary journey through the past in an effort to reach into the future.”

Born in Bermuda, Finlay and his wife Sue purchased the five-acre plot in 1966—originally named Stonypath—and immediately began redeveloping the physical space. They constructed ponds, rivers, paths, and unexpected visual moments, eventually renaming the area Little Sparta in the 1980s, in part “a reference to its relationship with Edinburgh, known as the Athens of the North.” Today, the land is part of a national trust: http://www.littlesparta.org.uk/home.htm

“Little Sparta is not just a garden but an entire art work,” says Derek Brown, a production designer and Gardenista reader, and our guide on this visit. Brown’s connection to Little Sparta began when he was a boy, living nearby as the creation of the garden got underway. Recently Brown returned for a visit and found Ian Hamilton Finlay’s garden to be “deeply personal and engaging, a total immersion into his world.” http://www.littlesparta.org.uk/home.htm

 

See also:
John Dixon Hunt, Nature over again: the garden art of Ian Hamilton Finlay (London: Reaktion, 2008). Marquand Library (SA) SB457.6 .H866 2008

Ian Hamilton Finlay archive: parts 1-7 (printed items), 1960-2015. Rare Books (Ex) oversize Item 7308232q

Susan Stewart, “Garden Agon,” Representations No. 62 (Spring, 1998), pp. 111-143. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2902941

Comic Art at Princeton University

Speaking recently with Henry Martin, Class of 1948, he reminisced about conceiving and producing the first online exhibition for the department of rare books and special collections presenting the multifaceted Princeton University Library Cartoon Collection: https://lib-dbserver.princeton.edu/visual_materials/gallery/cruikshank/index.html

The web site was designed by Adriana Popescu, Special Collections Assistant in the Visual Materials Division, as part of an independent study project in the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies at Rutgers University. John Bidwell, former graphic arts curator and current Astor Curator and Rare Books Department Head, Morgan Library and Museum, oversaw the project. Permission to reproduce these images was kindly granted by The New Yorker Magazine, Inc., Warner Bros., Newspaper Enterprise Association, Inc., King Features Syndicate, Rube Goldberg Incorporated, Princeton Tiger Magazine, Mr. William Hewison, Mr. Michael Witte and Mr. Henry Martin.

With thanks to all of these participants, the site continues to be enjoyed after more than fifteen years.

Henry Martin writes:

“Several Princeton collections have strong holdings in comic art, cartoons, and pictorial satire. The Graphic Arts Collection has several thousand caricatures in the form of prints or drawings, mainly in the Dickson Q. Brown ’95 Collection of Thomas Rowlandson and the Richard W. Meirs ’88 Collection of George Cruikshank.

Although not strictly cartoonists, book illustrators specializing in comic themes such as Felix O.C. Darley, Augustus Hoppin, and John McLenan are well represented in the Sinclair Hamilton Collection. The Library has published a two-volume catalogue of the Hamilton Collection under the title of Early American Book Illustrators and Wood Engravers, 1670-1870 (1958-1968).

As a point of interest to the alumni of Princeton University, the Graphic Arts Collection has original artwork by several Princeton graduates: Whitney Darrow, Jr. ’31, Henry Martin ’48, Michael C. Witte ’66, and Henry E. Payne IV ’84. The Theatre Collection has caricatures of dancers, actors, and other show-business personalities, including several drawings by Al Hirschfeld, the indefatigable chronicler of the New York stage. Graphic Arts and the William Seymour Theatre Collection each have a few animation cels.

The Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library contains several significant cartoon collections, mostly documenting American political affairs between 1890 and 1950. The Political Cartoon Collection (MC180) has nearly a thousand original drawings, including 75 by Homer C. Davenport (1867-1912), a Hearst cartoonist, one of the most savage caricaturists of his day. In the William H. Walker Collection (MC068) are approximately a thousand pen-and-ink drawings executed by Walker (1871-1938), a regular contributor to Life magazine and a pungent critic of the political scene during the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

The Carey Cartoon Service Collection (MC156) consists of large color boards displayed in shop windows, most of them commenting on foreign policy issues during World War I. As of December 2002, soon to be added is the Derso and Kelen Cartoons. The curator for Public Policy papers has particulars about this new collection.

Altogether, these Princeton collections cover several centuries and many categories ranging from early political and humorous drawings of Rowlandson, Cruikshank, Gillray and Nast to modern comic strip art, caricature, magazine gag cartoons, political cartoons, and cels from animated films. Princeton’s resources are as deep as they are broad. Hoping to do justice to its diverse holdings, I have conceived this exhibit as an overview, a sampling of the cartoons that the Library has collected and preserved for the perusal of students, scholars, and devotees of the comic arts.”

Thomas Rowlandson, The Departure, handcolored etching, 1784. A satire on the Whig politician Charles James Fox, who had to retire from the fray momentarily until he could claim the Parliamentary seat for Westminster. Proverbially, he was sent to Coventry. Here he is bidding farewell to his supporters, the Duchess of Devonshire and Lady Duncannon, while his ally Edmund Burke stands ready to perform the role of postilion and his patron, the Prince of Wales, looks down on this tender scene from a palace window. Cartoonists usually depict the spoken word with a conversation balloon, almost the trademark of present-day comic strips. In this example, Rowlandson has his characters speak in rhyme, with balloons indication where the words belong.

Pickwick Papers Iconography

The image of Samuel Pickwick, the protagonist of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, drawn and etched by Robert Seymour (1798-1836) had an immediate and lasting impact, reaching beyond the pages of Dickens’ novel. Seymour committed suicide shortly after the creation of this character and the iconography of the series—19 issues over 20 months between March 1836 and October 1837—went through several visual adaptations before it was completed. As new editions continued to appear, variant designs were used to present the words to the reading public, although none has yet to improve on Seymour’s original character.

No one understood the power of the visual image better than the advertising executive Samuel William Meek (1895-1981), Vice President at the J. Walter Thompson Company, who along with his wife Priscilla Mitchell Meek (1899-1999), collected Dickens. Mr. Meek helped build a worldwide advertising empire for the Thompson Company while manager of Thompson’s London office. He handled campaigns for the General Motors Corporation, Pan American World Airways, and Reader’s Digest among many others.

Meek assembled a collection of Pickwick iconography, including a unique binding proof, title pages, advertising designs, and subsequent promotional use of the Pickwick figures outside the world of literature. Thanks to the discerning eye of our generous donor Bruce Willsie, Class of 1986, two volumes of this valuable material have come to the Graphic Arts Collection. Here is a quick list (Pickwick Papers iconography ) and are a few samples:


The Independent Gold Hunter

New York lithographer and print seller Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888) published the hand colored lithograph The Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California with no date but we assume it was made at the time of gold rush mania between 1848 and 1850.

His gold hunter is shown confidently walking to California, carrying with him all the things he might need including pans, scales, flask, kettle, shovel, sausages, fish, and other equipment.

Currier may have used as inspiration Nicolas de Larmessin’s fantastical engraving Habit de chaudronnier from the late-seventeenth-century series Costumes grotesques et habits de Métiers. Larmessin created representations of nearly 100 different occupations dressed in iconographic costumes, most walking in outdoor settings.

 

Within a short period, Currier’s chief competitor, the Hartford firm of Kelloggs and Comstock published a variant lithograph, equipping the gold hunter with a more practical suitcase and adding a decorative vignette at the top. Both prints sold well but the Kellogg brothers–Jarvis, Daniel, Edmund, and Elijah–marketed their image to commercial companies, leading to further variants on cigar boxes and other products cashing in on gold rush mania.

 

The verse in each of these prints comes from Jeremiah 15:10, 16-21:
Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth!
a man of strife and contention to all the land!
I neither borrow nor lend,
yet all curse me.

George Schlegel, The Independent Gold Hunter On His Way To Klondike, ca. 1897. Embossed chromolithograph for the Gold Hunter Cigar company showing a prospector walking on railroad tracks at Horse Shoe Bend.

[Top] Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888), The Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California, [ca. 1848-1850]. Hand colored lithograph. Published by Currier, Nassau Street, NY. Purchased with funds from the Western Americana and the Graphic Arts Collections. GAX 2017- in process

[Center] After Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888), The Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California, [ca. 1848-1850]. Hand colored lithograph. Published by Kelloggs & Comstock, Hartford, CT. and Ensign & Thayer, Buffalo, NY. Posted by Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Kidnapped and the Ransomed


A great deal of research has been done on the book-length slave narratives published in the 1840s and 1850s. See in particular the chronology at http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/chronbio.html#1850.

Yet few sources note that many, if not most, of the volumes are illustrated with plates engraved by Nathaniel Orr (1822-1908) and his firm at 52 John Street. Even after Orr moved to New York City in 1843, he maintained contact with the upstate New York publishing firm of Derby and Miller (later Miller, Orton, and Mulligan), “the largest miscellaneous book publishers of any in the State out of the city of New York.” Orr was their preferred wood engraver, only going to others when Orr was too busy to take on additional work.

Despite the success of these books, each selling thousands of copies, the bulk of Orr’s correspondence during these years are letters begging the publishers for payment. The work was always completed and returned to each firm along with an invoice, which often went months before the bank deposit was made. Pledges to do better were often effusive, such as Thurber W. Brown’s letter in 1851 responded to Orr’s request for money. “Your note came to hand this evening [concerning] bills . . . When you dread bankruptcy, send me by telegraph and if I owe you anything I will pledge my clothes for your benefit and come to New York on foot to bring the money.” (George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida).

 

Solomon Northup (1808-1863?), Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation Near the Red River in Louisiana (London: S. Low, Son & Co.; Auburn: Derby & Miller, 1853). Rare Books: John Shaw Pierson Civil War Collection (W) W91.687

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), My Bondage and My Freedom … With an introduction by Dr. James M’Cune Smith (New York: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1855). Rare Books: John Shaw Pierson Civil War Collection (W) W96.308.5

Kate E. R. Pickard, The Kidnapped and the Ransomed. Being the Personal Recollections of Peter Still and His Wife “Vina,” After Forty Years of Slavery, With an introd. by Rev. Samuel J. May; and an appendix by William H. Furness, D.D. (Syracuse: W. T. Hamilton; New York [etc.] Miller, Orton and Mulligan, 1856). With 3 full page illustrations by Charles A. Barry, engraved on wood by N. Orr-Co. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 1489

Japanese Sketchbooks

After nearly seventy years, the printed and published Japanese books in the Graphic Arts Collection collected by former curators Elmer Adler and Gillett Griffin, have all be catalogued and processed.

They can be searched along with other materials in the online catalogue: http://catalog.princeton.edu

Our next step is to describe the collection of anonymous sketchbooks, copy books, and scrapbooks that have been donated over the years. These volumes vary enormously, from elaborate finished paintings to quick ink sketches. Here’s one example.