Author Archives: Julie Mellby

Index to Princeton’s Aubudon “Birds”


A Princeton University class is going to be using Princeton University Library’s 4 volume, double elephant copy of the Audubon/Havell Birds of America, (Oversize EX 8880.134.11e), watching as we turn the pages live through a hovercam (placed as high as possible). There was a question about which birds were in which volumes, someone saying that ours were bound slightly different than others. So an index was made to the plates and where they are bound in our set, confirming there are only slight differences with, for instance, Pittsburgh’s online set. Here is the index: PUL Audubon Birds. Volume and plate are obvious. The “No.” is the package that was shipped to subscribers with 5 plates to a package: one huge, one medium, and three small birds all printed on the same size paper.

 

 

While the volumes were open, very quick jpgs were taken of a few thumbnail details. These are not formal or professional but it’s hard to resist. Here are a few examples.

 

 

 

 

 


The Princeton copy “was presented … in 1927 by Alexander van Rensselaer (class of 1871), a charter trustee of the University. It had formerly belonged to Stephen van Rensselaer (Princeton, class of 1808) of Albany, New York, one of the original subscribers to the work. The latter’s name appears as no. 32 in Audubon’s list of subscribers.” — Howard C. Rice, An Aububon Anthology, page 16.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gaston or Augustus Fay?

In Early American book illustrators and wood engravers, 1670-1870 and his supplement, Sinclair Hamilton lists a 19th-century wood engraver named Gaston Fay and credits any illustration using the single name “Fay” to Gaston. Yet, New York directories, magazine advertising, and other sources reveal that Augustus Fay had a greater presence in the commercial publishing world of the mid-19th century.

The life dates for Augustus Fay are unknown. He is listed as age 26 in 1850 and 45 in 1870, so he was born in the early 1820s. Throughout his career he is known as both an engraver and a designer, a slighly high position than engraver alone.

Listings here are from Robert Macoy, How to See New York and Its Environs, 1776-1876 (1875) and The Trow City Directory … of New York City (1866 – ), along with an Ancestry census page.

 

 

In the late 1850s or early 1860s, Augustus Fay joined forces with Stephen J. Cox to form Fay & Cox located at 105 Nassau Street in lower Manhattan. Their logo [below] was found in the autobiography of the popular magician and ventriloquist Signor Blitz, published in 1872.

An online biography of True Williams notes that the artist “returned to New York was hired by a graphics firm owned by Augustus Fay and Stephen J. Cox in New York City. It was in fact the first syndicated illustration business in America. The firm produced illustrations and engravings for the subscription publishing companies located in Hartford, Connecticut.”– https://histclo.com/art/illus/ind/i-will.html

Below is a partial list of books with illustrations provided by the company of Fay & Cox, including several suggesting they were written and published by the company. Another two dozen or so, not listed here, were illustrated by Augustus Fay individually. This puts into question Sinclair Hamilton’s suggestion that any mention of the name Fay should be attributed to Gaston.

 

The New world in 1859: being the United States and Canada, illustrated and described in five parts … by Thomas Wightman; John William Orr; John Andrew; …; Fay & Cox… (London ; New York: H. Bailliere, 1859).

The J.L. Mott Iron Works. St. George Building, 90 Beekman Street, New York by Fay & Cox ([between 1860 and 1880])

The miner boy and his Monitor, or, The career and achievements of John Ericsson, the engineer by P C Headley; William Henry Appleton; Fay & Cox (New York: William H. Appleton, 1865, ©1864).

The hero boy, or, The life and deeds of Lieut-Gen. Grant by P C Headley; Fay & Cox (New York: William H. Appleton, 1864).

Life and naval career of Vice-admiral David Glascoe Farragut by P C Headley; William Henry Appleton; Fay & Cox (New York: William H. Appleton, 1865).

The patriot boy, or, The life and career of Major-General Ormsby M. Mitchel by P C Headley; Fay & Cox (New York: William H. Appleton, 1865. ©1864)

Old salamander: the life and naval career of Admiral David Glascoe [sic] Farragut by P C Headley; Fay & Cox (Boston: Lee and Shepard ; New York: Charles T. Dillingham, ©1865).

A youth’s history of the great Civil War in the United States from 1861 to 1865 by R G Horton; Fay & Cox.; Van Evrie, Horton & Co.; Smith & McDougal (New York: Van Evrie, Horton & Co., 1867, ©1866)

Elsie Dinsmore by Martha Finley; Moses Woodruff Dodd; Fay & Cox… (New York: M.W. Dodd, 605 Broadway, 1867).

Percy’s year of rhymes; Fay & Cox ([Cambridge, Mass.]: Riverside Press ; New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867, ©1866)

Paul and Virginia by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre; Augustus Hoppin; Fay & Cox (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867).

Pebbles and pearls for the young folks by Abby Sage Richardson; Edwin Forbes; H L Stephens; George G White; Henry Walker Herrick; Arthur Lumley; A C Warren;…; Fay & Cox (Hartford, Conn.: American Pub. Co. ; New York: Bliss and Co. 1868, ©1867).

Angel-dreams: a series of tales for children by Austin Carroll; Fay & Cox (New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1869).

Onward: a magazine for the young manhood of America by Charles L Schönberg; David L Schönberg; Arthur Lumley; Fay & Cox (New York: [Mayne Reid], [1869-70])

Impressions of Spain by Mary Elizabeth Herbert Herbert, Baroness; Fay & Cox (New York: Catholic Publication Society, 126 Nassau Street, 1869)

Beyond the Mississippi … by Albert D Richardson; Frank Beard; James Carter Beard; Joseph Becker; Albert Bierstadt …; William Warzbach; Carelton E Watkins; Alfred R Waud; Fay & Cox… (Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, ©1869).

Views of Native Americans by C Sohon; John Mix Stanley; N Fay; A W Warren; Bowen & Co.; Sarony, Major & Knapp.; Fay & Cox (approximately 1850-ca. 1870).

Roughing it by Mark Twain; True Williams; James H Richardson; Duffield Ashmead; …; Fay & Cox (Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, 1871).

Struggles and triumphs, or, Forty years’ recollections by P T Barnum; George Edward Perine; Fay & Cox (Buffalo: Warren, Johnson & Co., 1872, ©1871).

Life and adventures of Signor Blitz; being an account of the author’s professional life; his wonderful tricks and feats… by Antonio Blitz (Hartford, Conn., T. Belknap, 1872.

Wood’s illustrated hand-book to New York and environs ... by Fay & Cox (New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., 1873).

The adventures of the Bodley family by Horace Elisha Scudder; S B Barrett; Charles Whittingham; John J Harley; J Augustus Bogert; John Andrew; James L Langridge; Henry Walker Herrick; Felix Octavius Carr Darley; Thomas Nast; William J Pierce; Chiswick Press.; Fay & Cox (London: S.B. Barrett, 1876, ©1875).

Doings of the Bodley family in town and country by Horace Elisha Scudder; Henry Walker Herrick; Felix Octavius Carr Darley; Thomas Nast …; Annette Bishop; Fay & Cox… (Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Co., 1879).

. . . This otherness, this “Not-being-us”


In one small corner of the world, both the poem Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror by John Ashbery (1927-2017) and the Arion Press limited edition of Mirror, published in 1984 on the poem’s ten-year anniversary, are so well-known that some would find it shocking that Princeton University would not have already acquired them both. This has been rectified with the recent acquisition of the limited edition with its circular prints by Larry Rivers (1923-2002), Alex Katz (born 1927), Jane Freilicher (1924-2014), Jim Dine (born 1935), Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), R.B. Kitaj (1932-2007), Elaine de Kooning (1920-1989), and Richard Avedon (1923-2004).

The stainless steel pseudo-film canister binding with a cover convex mirror opens to reveal Ashbery’s lines radiating outward like the spokes of a wheel twirling as they are read. Each artist’s contribution is unique, printed as lithographs, woodcut, soft ground etching with aquatint tone, photogravure, and photolithographs on cream wove handmade Twinrocker Mill paper.

Princeton’s reading room will need to also acquire a 20th century record player to facilitate listening to the 33 1/2 rpm recording of Ashbery reading his poem but happily the foreword and essay by Helen Vendler (born 1933) is printed text, designed as liner notes. The record jacket reproduces the original reference for Ashbery’s poem, Francesco Parmigianino’s 1523-24 painting of the same name [below].

 

Kunsthistorisches Museum

Dozens of scholarly essays have been written about this poem and the corresponding publication, including one recently presented at the Gagosian Chelsea gallery: https://gagosian.com/quarterly/2019/01/22/books-john-ashbery-self-portrait-convex-mirror/. Best to simply let Ashbery say a few words:

As Parmigianino did it, the right hand
Bigger than the head, thrust at the viewer
And swerving easily away, as though to protect
What it advertises. A few leaded panes, old beams,
Fur, pleated muslin, a coral ring run together
In a movement supporting the face, which swims
Toward and away like the hand
Except that it is in repose. It is what is
Sequestered. Vasari says, “Francesco one day set himself
To take his own portrait, looking at himself from that purpose
In a convex mirror, such as is used by barbers . . .

…For one to intervene? This otherness, this
“Not-being-us” is all there is to look at
In the mirror, though no one can say
How it came to be this way. A ship
Flying unknown colors has entered the harbor.
You are allowing extraneous matters
To break up your day, cloud the focus
Of the crystal ball. Its scene drifts away
Like vapor scattered on the wind. The fertile
Thought-associations that until now came
So easily, appear no more, or rarely. Their
Colorings are less intense, washed out
By autumn rains and winds, spoiled, muddied,
Given back to you because they are worthless.

 

See also: John Ashbery (1927-2017), Self-portrait in a convex mirror: poems (New York: Viking Press, 1975). Rare Books PS3501.S475 S4

 

Gillett G. Griffin Memorial Lecture: Raina Lampkins-Fielder, Souls Grown Deep Foundation

Please join us for the annual Gillett G. Griffin Memorial Lecture with Raina Lampkins-Fielder, curator of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, as well as a program officer of the Foundation’s parent organization, the Souls Grown Deep Community Partnership, which supports the communities that gave rise to the 160 artists represented in its collection.

“The mission of Souls Grown Deep is twofold,” writes Lampkins-Fielder. “First, we have the foundation, established in 2010 to document, preserve, and promote the work of African-American artists from the southern states of the USA. Second, the Community Partnership Program, which focuses on supporting the communities that nurtured these artists, by fostering economic empowerment, racial and social justice, and educational advancement.”

This virtual event will be 12:00 noon on Friday, March 5, 2021 and is open to the public but you must register: Here

The Gillett G. Griffin Memorial Lecture Series was being established in honor of our former colleague Gillett Good Griffin (1942-2016), who served as graphic arts curator within Special Collections from 1952 to 1966. Although officially the collection’s second curator, he was the first to establish a place for the graphic arts collection inside Firestone Library, along with galleries and study rooms where students were regularly and warmly welcomed.

Gillett’s passion for collecting began almost 70 years ago while he was a student at Yale University School of Art. His personal collection of Japanese prints, for instance, was begun as an undergraduate and later, when Gillett generously donated them to Princeton University Library, formed the basis for the department’s collection.

When we received the sad news of Gillett’s passing in June 2016, we wanted to find a way to not only commemorate the man but also his passion for bringing objects in the collection directly to the public and the public to the collection. To that end, we decided to select one of the great treasures acquired by Gillett for an in-depth investigation presented in a public memorial lecture.

To request disability-related accommodations for this event, please contact pulcomm@princeton.edu at least 3 working days in advance.

You might also enjoy this recent conversation with Raina Lampkins-Fielder and the artists Loretta Pettway Bennett & Mary Margaret Pettway organized by the Alison Jacques Gallery:

Loretta Pettway Bennett & Mary Margaret Pettway in conversation with Raina Lampkins-Fielder from Alison Jacques Gallery on Vimeo.

Save the date: Transgender webinar

Kyle Lukoff and Luciano Lozano, Call Me Max (New York, NY: Reycraft Books, 2019). Cotsen Childrens Library.

It is a coincidence that our upcoming webinar at 2:00 EST on Friday, February 26, 2021, comes just as the Murray School District in Utah has suspended their diversity book program due to the inclusion of an LGBTQ+ friendly title [above]. We hope you can join us for a timely conversation entitled Acrobatics: Moving Through the Trans Archives, meant to be a scholarly look at resources here in the Princeton University Library and elsewhere. Register here: https://libcal.princeton.edu/calendar/events/transarchives

 

We are thrilled to be joined by RL Goldberg (they/them), English Department and Associate Director, Behrman Undergraduate Society of Fellows, in dialogue with queer book dealer, collector, and historian Gerard Koskovich (he/him); along with Sara Howard (she/her), Librarian for Gender and Sexuality Studies and Student Engagement, and Julie Mellby (she/her), Graphic Arts Curator.

Our title refers to the celebrated career of the 19th-century gender-fluid acrobat Mademoiselle Lulu (Sam Wasgott), with whom we begin our discussion. From there we will move through 20th and 21st century materials that define the trans archive, with an emphasis on race as well as gender.

From anonymous photo albums to publications both global in scope and origin, we will discuss our collections and the history of writers and publishers within the field of Trans Studies. What are the larger stories behind these materials that share with us lives as they were lived in the past and might be lived in the future?

As always, these monthly webinars are free and open to the public using Zoom but registration is required, here again is the link: https://libcal.princeton.edu/calendar/events/transarchives

Read more about what is happening in Utah:

https://lithub.com/this-utah-school-district-says-a-childrens-book-about-a-transgender-boy-is-inappropriate-and-we-have-questions/

https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/murray-school-district-suspends-diversity-book-program-over-complaints

Photographs top to bottom:

Unidentified photographer, Photograph of Lulu (El Nino Farini) as a child in costume, late 19th century. Guy Little Theatrical Photograph collection, V&A Museum.

E[dward] Gregson, Photograph of Lulu (El Nino Farini) as a man, late 19th century. Guy Little Theatrical Photograph collection, V&A Museum.

Claude Cahun (1894-1954), “I am in training, don’t kiss me,” Self-Portrait, ca. 1926.

 

You might be interested in listening to several Princeton oral histories here, such as Nancy Lamar’s recording: https://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/AC465?v1=transgender&f1=kw&rpp=10&start=0
or a Princeton Alumni Weekly article: https://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_new/PAW05-06/12-0419/features_nadeau.html

Japanese sketches donated



Six nineteenth-century pen and ink sketches, drawn on five sheets by an unidentified Japanese artist, were generously donated to the Graphic Arts Collection by Alfred Bush, former curator of the Princeton Collections of Western Americana.

While they are unsigned, a potential attribution has been suggested comparing the lines to those of Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865), also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III. Similar preparatory drawings (shita-e) can be found in the collection with the artist seal (Permanent Link https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/10643023).

Note the second drawings of the face pasted on top of the first and the elaborate tattoos on this running warrior.

This gift comes at the same time as the sad news that Yoshiaki Shimizu, the Marquand Professor of Art and Archaeology, Emeritus, and a renowned scholar of Japanese art history, curator and Princeton graduate alumnus, died on January 20, 2021, of lung cancer at home in Portland, Oregon. He was 84. A remembrance is written by Jamie Saxon, Office of Communications, at https://www.princeton.edu/news/2021/02/12/yoshiaki-shimizu-distinguished-scholar-who-transformed-study-japanese-art-and

Professor Shimizu was a close colleague of Gillett Griffin (1928-2016), former curator of Graphic Arts, and a number of Japanese prints came to our collection over the years thanks to their association.

Purvis Young, “People Whit Something To Do”

“Perhaps the most famous painter to ever come out of Florida,” writes Deirdra Funcheon, Washington Post 1/8/2020, “Young had depicted the struggles and joys of Miami’s poor black community and was branded an ‘outsider artist’.” When he died in 2010, he left 1,884 works of art.

Photograph by David A. Raccuglia

It is no longer correct to classify the African American artist Purvis Young (1943-2010) as an Outsider Artist. His work is owned and exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, along with dozens of other major collections, public and private, around the world. In 2018 the artist was posthumously inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.

Self-taught might be a better term, although Young credits the Florida public libraries and their collections of art books as his teachers. And so it is appropriate that one of his unique artists’ books be added to the Graphic Arts collection in Firestone Library. Like his paintings, the volume is made of found material–a repurposed book–crammed with multi-colored pages, collaged drawings, and personal symbolism. A handwritten title reads: People Whit Something To Do, with various pages dated 1981-1988.

 

A wonderful full-length documentary Purvis of Overtown was produced by the Souls Grown Deep Foundation in 2012 and can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/50659708. On March 5, at 12:00 noon EST, Raina Lampkins-Fielder, curator at Souls Grown Deep will deliver the 2021 Griffin Memorial Lecture at Princeton University (through zoom) and tell us more about the Atlanta-based nonprofit that documents, preserves, and showcases art by African-American artists of the American South. Register for the event here: https://libcal.princeton.edu/calendar/events/soulsgrowndeep

 

 


“I been drawing all my life, but I taught myself to paint in the early seventies. I seen people protesting. I seen the war going on. Then I found out how these guys paint their feelings up North, paint on walls. Wall of Respect. That’s when I start painting like that. I didn’t have nothing going for myself. That’s the onliest thing I could mostly do. I was just looking through art books, looking at guys painting their feelings. The first things I painted were heads with halos around them.”

“I started out about 1971 in Goodbread Alley. I wanted to express my own feeling. I wanted the peoples to see it. I put my paintings on a lot of fronts of abandoned buildings. They was fixing to tear them down and build an expressway. I knowed when I was making the art that one day it was going to go. Nothing’s going to last forever.”– Taken from interviews with Purvis Young by William Arnett and Larry Clemons in 1994 and 1995.

 

 

Claridad = Clarity


In a joint acquisition between Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Studies and the Graphic Arts Collection, Princeton University Library recently acquired the first 98 issues (out of 140) of Claridad, a periodical published by the Federación de Estudiantes de Chile from 1920 to 1932. A key publication of anarchist and other radical inclinations, Claridad includes contributions by labor leaders, social activists, artists, and writers (including many by Pablo Neruda) of the period. HTML text can be downloaded here,  https://claridad.uchile.cl/index.php/CLR/issue/archive, but no US library holds the graphic paper copies except Princeton.

The National Library of Chile posted a long description, quoted here in part and roughly translated into English:

Claridad magazine was the organ of the Chilean Student Federation and the medium of the so-called “generation of twenties”, founded by Alberto Rojas Jiménez (1900-1934), Raúl Silva Castro (1903-1970) and the Ecuadorian Rafael Yépez, in October 1920. Defined as a “doctrinal, combat and barricade” magazine, it was a wide space for the exchange of ideas from different ideological currents, although with more proximity to anarchist thought (Ossandón, Carlos and Santa Cruz, Eduardo. The outbreak of forms: Chile at the dawn of “mass culture.” [Online HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access, PN5047.P4 O87 2005]).


…At the time of Claridad‘s appearance, the Student Federation was influenced by ideological currents such as Americanism, internationalism, anti-militarism and pacifism, which were reflected in the magazine and remained as axes of the medium until 1932. The magazine emerged at a time when, in different parts of the world, intellectuals echoed the call of the French group Clarté to establish an “international network of thought”, with a pacifist and anti-militarist tendency.

The Claridad group took up this call, which led to the publication of the publication in the midst of a national climate of political tension. The students of the Federation were in the process of criticizing the government of Juan Luis Sanfuentes (1858-1930) for the political persecution to which they were subjected. Such persecution took place after a group of protesters stormed the association’s headquarters, arguing that the federated students were unpatriotic for not supporting the government’s decision to mobilize military troops to the north of the country, in the context of the prolonged border conflict between Chile and Peru.

…In Claridad a heterogeneous group of Chilean and foreign intellectuals and labor leaders converged, as well as writers and artists, among whom stood out such figures as Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), Luis Vargas Rosas, Tótila Albert (1892-1967), Manuel Rojas (1896 -1973) and Isaías Cabezón (1891-1963). In this sense, the magazine expressed interest in the renewal movements in the field of art and literature, which was one of its main axes during its first year of publication.

…In 1926, Claridad stopped being published due to the restriction suffered by anarchist publications during the dictatorship of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (1877-1960). In its reappearance, between August 1931 and January 1932, it continued to be influenced by anarchist and pacifist ideas, but with a new axis that crossed the five issues of this second period: criticism of the military government of Ibáñez. Despite the intentions of continuity that were manifested in issue 140, the magazine abruptly ceased publication, dedicating this issue to one of its main editors and who for many issues was in charge of the section “Today’s poster” that was published on the cover of the magazine, Juan Gandulfo Guerra (1895-1931), who died in December 1931.

Claridad: órgano oficial de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (Santiago: Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile, 1921-1932). Printed on multi-colored papers. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process

 

Hop-O’-My-Thumb Boxing Night

Drury Lane Christmas Pantomime, Hop O’ My Thumb, Boxing Night. [London, ca. 1864]. Ink and watercolor on paper. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process

Not all our students know that “hop-o’-my-thumb” (or hop on my thumb) is a reference to a very small person. The character first appeared as one of eight fairy tales by Charles Perrault (1628-1703) in Histoires ou countes du temps passé in 1697, translated to English by Robert Samber thirty years later. This is only one of many small characters in literature. There is Tom Thumb or Thombe, who dates back to 1621, along with Der kleine Däumling (Germany), Little One Inch/Issun-bōshi (Japan), Thumbikin (Norway), and many others.

Tom Thumbe, his life and death: wherein is declared many maruailous acts of manhood, full of wonder, and strange merriments: which little knight liued in King Arthurs time, and famous in the court of Great-Brittaine. London : Printed [by A. Mathewes?] for Iohn Wright, 1630.

In the 1850s George Cruikshank (1792-1878) published a series of fairy tales, including Hop-o’-My-Thumb, implanted with his personal abstinence pledge and commitment to the temperance movement. He altered the stories so that villains were alcoholics or gamblers. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was one of Cruikshank’s detractors, writing “Frauds on the fairies” and “Whole hogs,” in Household Words (October 1, 1853), to which Cruikshank responded with his own widely circulated letter that began:

George Cruikshank (1792-1878), A letter from Hop-o’-My-Thumb [i.e. G. Cruikshank] to Charles Dickens, esq.: upon “Frauds on the fairies,” “Whole hogs,” &c. (London : D. Bogue, [1854?]) Graphic Arts Collection Cruik 1854.

See also a draft: George Cruikshank (1792-1878), The Controversy between Charles Dickens and George Cruikshank concerning George Cruikshank’s Fairy Library; autograph letter, 1853. Manuscripts Collection C0256 (no. 36) Gift of Richard Waln Meirs, Class of 1888.

 

Theatre Royal Drury Lane staged its first pantomimes in the 18th century and by 1761 they became a regular feature. From 1852 to 1888, E. L. Blanchard was the author of 37 pantomimes performed at the Theatre Royal and the first to present Hop-o-My-Thumb within the Christmas pantomime series. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230291782_2

1861 – The House That Jack Built; or, Old Mother Hubbard and Her Wonderful Dog
1862 – Little Goody Two Shows; or, Harlequin and Cock Robin
1863 – Harlequin Sindbad the Sailor; or, The Great Roc of Diamond Valley
1864 – Hop o’ my Thumb and his Eleven Brothers!; or, Harlequin and the Ogre of the Seven-Leagued Boots
1865 – Little King Pippin; or, Harlequin Fortunatus and the Magic Purse and Wishing Purse
1866 – Unknown
1867 – Faw-Fee-Fo-Fum; or, Jack the Giant Killer
1868 – Grimalkin the Great; or, Harlequin Puss in Boots and the Miller’s Son
http://www.its-behind-you.com/drurylanepantos.html

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired an original ink-and-watercolor advertisement designed as a poster or a program cover for the 1864 production. Note in particular the figures that form the letters of the word Pantomime.

In their review, The Times of London praised the performers of the show for executing their craft “in the best manner that circumstances will allow” and for the “great importance” they attached to their pantomime. The Times continued with further accolades: “All the artists are the best….The painter is Mr. William Beverley, the acknowledged chief of faery illustration, the genius to whom the ‘transformation scene’ in the present sense of the word may be said to owe its existence.”

It is hard to make out the artist’s signature in the bottom right corner. Can you recognize the name?

Read more: Jeffrey Richards, The Golden Age of Pantomime (London & New York: I.B. Tauris, [2015]),

Stash House


Eric Avery and Susan Mackin Dolan, Stash House Folio, 2020. Linocuts on hand made paper in linen hinged folio cover. The interior house view is printed on paper made by Susan Mackin Dolan. The hinged folio cover to hold the interior prints is a molded paper linocut by Eric Avery. Copy 7 of 9. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process **Note, some images will load slowly but we wanted you to have good resolution

Stash House is a paper/print collaborative artist book project about human trafficking along the border in South Texas, created by Eric Avery and Susan Mackin Dolan with students at the Southwest School of Art in the spring of 2020. Avery and Dolan have been artist friends and collaborators for 35 years.

Their subject matter came from a 2018 article in the Laredo Morning Times, describing a raid by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) patrol on a “stash house” where 73 migrants were hiding, waiting to be moved further north. “Thinking about how 73 people could sleep in a small house,” wrote Avery, “triggered memories of my work with refugees in Somalia and Indonesia.” He was the medical director in a large refugee camp in Somalia in 1980 and a photograph he made of Vietnamese refugees in the cargo hold of Ship Sea Sweep became an inspiration for their 21st century project.

This is the abandoned house in San Ygnacio [below] that Avery used as a modeled his cover folio, made of cast paper and pieces of clothing (mostly socks) he found abandoned on the Rio Grande riverbank in Laredo. The silhouettes of fifty people sleeping on the floor of such a house were designed by Dolen and editiond in four sheets of double dipped kozo paper. Avery printed four linoleum blocks on the sheets so that when laid out, the assembled print will be a floor plan with walls, door openings, kitchen, bathroom and silhouettes of fifty people.

Here are the students in their class posing as sleeping migrants to work out the configuration of bodies [above] and [below] Avery’s photograph of Vietnamese refugees.

A master of her craft, Dolen described the unique paper making process used: “I started making paper for my prints 40 years ago, because I wanted it to be more integrated into the prints and couldn’t buy the type of paper I needed. I use Japanese kozo, gampi and local plant fibers, cooked and pounded to make the pulp. My sheet forming process is a modified Asian technique and uses contrasting fibers shaped by foam stencils to make images within the sheets of paper. This adds another layer of color and shape to the final printed image.”


In speaking about this project, Avery described “bearing witness” as the narrative function of art. “Living on the border I am a witness to what is happening to the migrants and human rights abuses. I didn’t want our work to contribute to the narrative that the border is out of control and that we need the Wall to control it. The migration of people across our southern border can be monitored by CBP and virtual technology. Building a wall to solve the problem is like building prison walls that we live inside.”

–Dialogue quoted here is from the artists’ conversation in Passage: An online magazine of visions and voices, 4 (October 2020) http://passagevision.com/issue4.html.

 

Read more:
http://www.susanmackindolan.com/

http://www.docart.com

https://www.ericaveryartist.com/human-rights-abuses.html

 

The 2018 raid on that stash house was, unfortunately, not a one-time occurrence but one of many. Here from January 28, 2021, is a raid on three houses involving 60 migrants. We are thrilled to have this important and timely project at Princeton University.