Author Archives: Julie Mellby

Analogy and harmony of colours

Princeton University Library owns the 1845, new augmented edition of George Field’s essay on harmony and color but not the original 1817 edition, so the two were compared to see what we were missing. The 1817 edition has 57 pages with 5 plates, the later is 263 pages with 11 plates – quite a difference.


George Field (1777?-1854), Chromatics, or, an essay on the analogy and harmony of colours (London: Printed for the Author by A.J. Valpy, 1817). viii, 57, [2] p., [5] leaves of plates). Full text online

George Field (1777?-1854), Chromatics, or, the analogy, harmony, and philosophy of colours, New ed., augm. (London: Bogue, 1845). xviii, 263 p., 11 leaves of plates. Rare Books 2008-0260

In Field’s preface to the 1845 edition he writes:

“This work, as printed twenty-eight years ago [1817], was part of a general treatise on colours, and an abstract of the first principles of chromatic science, constituting one division of a universal system of “Analogical Philosophy.” As it was well received by the artists, and the truth and practicability of its theory continue to be acknowledged, and as we hold the science to be that which, from its middle station, the simplicity, breadth, and perspicuity of its relations, the beauty of its representations, and its easy reference to nature, is best adapted to illustrate the universal analogy of science, we have been induced to republish the work under a wider development, extending the sphere of its application throughout art.”


In fact the revised edition is substantially rewritten (not always for the better) and the color plates much improved. For instance, in the first edition the author concludes: “the principal distinction of the two systems is, that the notes of sound are separated by intervals or spaces, while the notes of colour are the spaces themselves; for colour, as expansible quantity, bears the same relation to space that musical sound, as quantity successive, does to time: the Chromatist has therefore not only his melody and harmony, but he has also, if the variety of expanded quantities may be so expressed, his semibreves [whole notes] and minims [half notes], quavers [8th notes], and semiquavers [16th notes]. And this relation of colours answers to that which, in their music, the ancients called harmonica and rhytlimica theoretically; or practically to their Melopoeia and rhythmopoeia.

In the 1845 edition, Field expands on his theories, not ready to conclude at this point: “In such case there will arise this distinction of the two systems, that the notes of sound being separated by intervals or spaces, while the notes of colour (we beg the term) will be the spaces themselves; but in this diagram the distances on the scales from one sound to another, and those from colour to colour, are equally intervals. Thus from the particular hue and shade of Red to that of Orange on the scale, and from E to F, the corresponding sounds of these colours, are both intervals in which a series of intermediate hues and smaller intervals of sound have place. . . .”

The 1818 edition, Field writes “It is evident also that colours have a science as distinct from any association with figure or forms, as that of musical sounds is from figurative language or poetry. Hence the field in which the Chromatist may exercise his genius, is as extensive as that of the musician : to teach the science in all its bearings, is, however, beyond the purpose of an essay designed principally to illustrate the analogy of colours.”

1845 edition: “We may therefore terminate the present head with the remark, that, although colours have a science as distinct from any necessary connection with that of figures, or plastic, or pictorial forms in painting, as that of musical sounds is from figurative language, or the images of poetry, and are similarly associated; nevertheless, each of these sciences has its highest office under such figurative conjunction, as we shall further shew; whence the field in which the chromatist may exercise his genius is as diversified and extensive as that of the musician. To disclose the subtleties of the science is, however, beyond the purpose of an essay, designed principally to illustrate the analogy of colours.”

While having both is preferable, having the 1845 plates is a treat not fully appreciated with the digital surrogate. The 1817 can be read online until one is gifted. *note, the picture in our database is from the 21st century reprinting, although the record is for the 1845.

The Science of Imaginary Solutions

Alfred Jarry (1873–1907), Les minutes de sable mémorial (Paris: Mercure de France, 1894). The Morgan Library & Museum, gift of Robert J. and Linda Klieger Stillman, 2017. PML 197017.

It is disappointing that the New York Times has not yet published a review of the Morgan Library & Museum’s exhibition and catalogue Alfred Jarry: The Carnival of Being, which opened two days ago during bibliography week. The first American museum exhibition devoted to the French writer and artist Jarry (1873-1907) was made possible thanks to the 2017 gift to the Morgan of the books and manuscripts from the Robert J. and Linda Klieger Stillman Pataphysics Collection.

Thomas Chimes (1921–2009), Alfred Jarry (Departure from the Present), 1973, oil on panel. The Robert J. and Linda Klieger Stillman Pataphysics Collection. Courtesy of Locks Gallery.

Jarry defined pataphysics as “the science of imaginary solutions, which symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments.” The exhibition catalogue by Sheelagh Bevan, now in the Graphic Arts Collection, helps to further illuminate Jarry’s complex philosophy and art. She situates his brief career between Arthur Rimbaud’s “Une saison en enfer” and Pablo Picasso’s “Les demoiselles d’Avignon,” with his first major book published at the age of 21. What had you accomplished by 21?

Alfred Jarry (1873–1907), César-antechrist (Paris: Mercure de France, 1895).. Princeton University Library.

The small 1894 volume, Les minutes de sable, with exquisite woodcuts, is one of the most beautiful books ever published. Full stop. The Graphic Arts Collection copy is here: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2016/10/11/les-minutes-de-sable-memorial/. It was only topped by Jarry’s 1895 volume, Cesar antechrjst.

The Morgan has thoughtfully planned a full schedule of tours, performances, and a conference, all listed on the website:
https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/alfred-jarry.

If you can’t wait, see the 1965 performance of Jarry’s Ubu Roi on Ubuweb:
. Alfred Jarry (1873-1907), Ubu Roi (Dir. Jean-Christophe Averty, 1965).

27 tableaux vivants


The Graphic Arts Collection has two new book projects with covers designed by Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), along with her original painted designs. Our expert rare book conservator, Mick LeTourneaux, solved the problem of how to store each painting with the published book by constructing custom clamshell boxes with two compartments.

The first book is Delaunay’s 27 tableaux vivants published in Milan by Edizioni del Naviglio in 1969. Pochoir designs on leporello or accordion pages stretch out to form a small exhibition of 27 costume designs created over the 84 year old artist’s lifetime. Princeton’s book is no. 457 of 500 copies on velin Aussedat, from a total edition of 650.

Sonia attracted wealthy clients: a woollen embroidered coat was made in 1925 for the movie star Gloria Swanson, in geometric shades of rich spicy reds, browns and creams. In these fashion creations, straight lines predominate as diamonds and stripes and straight-edged lines turn at right angles. It’s as if the excitement of the whirling ballroom has been supplanted by the glamour of the road. But not for long: in the 1930s the curves and wheels and arcs were very much back.

For four more decades Sonia designed fabrics for the Amsterdam luxury store Metz and Co, and latterly for Liberty. She didn’t abandon the poets, it must be said. A “poem-curtain” of the time has verses by the surrealist Philippe Soupault embroidered in wool. She made “poem-dresses” – words that walked – and lectured at the Sorbonne on “the influence of painting on clothing design”.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/mar/27/sonia-delaunay-avant-garde-queen-art-fashion-vibrant-tate-modern


The book is accompanied by two trial designs for the cover along with the painted binding. Inside the covers, Delaunay’s work is illustrated with an introductory text from publisher Jacques Damase (1930-2014, who was also the former owner of this volume), extracts from Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), and a poem from Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961), with whom Delaunay had earlier worked on Prose du Transsibérien (1913).

 

The second book, also from the estate of Jacques Damase and with a painted cover design by Delaunay is André Salmon’s Propos d’atelier, published in France 1938–1967. It is also accompanied by a serigraph poster for a 1967 exhibition in Arras, in which the same design from Delaunay re-appears in inverted fashion.

The Moroccan Acrobats

A talented gymnast and acrobat, the Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar (1913-2004) often designed prints and posters inspired by his love of sports. He moved to New York City as a teenager, studying at the Art Students League (1930) and at the Pratt Institute (1939), while also practicing gymnastics at the local YMCA.

On his return to Puerto Rico in 1950, Homar co-founded the Centro de Arte Puertorriqueño (Center for Puerto Rican Art) and from 1951 to 1956 he worked as a graphic artist and director of the Graphics Section of Division de Educación a la Comunidad (DivEdCo). This period culminated with Homar winning a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1956.

On October 15, 1956, the New York Times reported “Guggenheim fund makes 28 grants, scholars and artists from the Philippines and Latin America get $113,000.” The article continues “The awards announced yesterday are being made to persons who ‘already have proven themselves to be of the highest ability,’ they are made ‘to scholars carrying on research in any field of knowledge and to artists in any branch of the arts’.” The only award given in “Creative arts” was to Lorenzo Homar. This led the following year to his organizing a Taller de Gráfica (Graphic Arts Workshop) at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, which he directed until 1973.

 

In 1958, Homar went to Mexico City with the delegation of Puerto Rican artists who took part in the I Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado [1st Inter-American Biennial of Painting and Prints]. In Mexico City they were feted by the Taller de Gráfica Popular [People’s Print Workshop] (TGP). This was where Homar met Leopoldo Méndez, Mariana Yampolsky, Arturo García Bustos, and Beltrán, among others. [read more:
https://icaadocs.mfah.org/icaadocs/THEARCHIVE/FullRecord/tabid/88/doc/861827/language/en-US/Default.aspx] It may also have been where he saw Moroccan acrobats.

 

His linocut, Acróbata Marroquí (Moroccan Acrobats), from that year is often seen as a whirling abstraction but in fact, it is a depiction of three professional acrobats in action. One biographical article mentions Homar’s participation in the 1930s in a group called the Columbia Trio, which presented displays of acrobatics and balance. Perhaps his training and personal experience helped in the design of this scene, which places the hands and legs in perfect position for these movements.

Lorenzo Homar (1913-2004), Acróbata Marroquí (Moroccan Acrobats), 1958. Linocut. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2007.04003.

Pindar (about 522-438 B.C.E.)

Angelo Campanella (ca. 1748–ca. 1815), after Luigi Agricola (1759-1821), after Raphael (1483-1520), Pindaro poeta greco, ca. 1793-1860. Engraving (framed). Detail from the Parnassus in the stanza della Segnatura, after Raphael [below]. Engraved text: “Uno dei più celebri per la gravità… l’Era volgare.” Gift from the Douglas Bauer Pindar Collection. Bequest of Douglas Bauer, Princeton Class of 1964, to the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund, Princeton University. On deposit at the Princeton University Library.

1. Apollo 2. Calliope 3. Polymnia 4. Clio 5. Erato 6. Terpsichore 7. Euterpe 8. Thalia 9. Urania 10. Melpomene 11. Unknown 12. Virgil 13. Homer 14. Dante 15. Scribe 16. Berni 17. Petrarch 18. Corinna 19. Alcæus 20. Sappho 21. Plautus 22. Terence 23. Ovid 24. Sannazzaro 25. Cornelius Gallus 26. Anacreon 27. Horace 28. Pindar [bottom right]

Here is a sneak preview from a collection focused on the Greek poet Pindar. Just a few pieces to enjoy while the ink is drying on the paperwork.

The Perseus Project posted an English translation of Olympian Ode 1 here: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0162:book=O.

Olympian 1, For Hieron of Syracuse Single Horse Race 476 B.C.E.
Water is best, and gold, like a blazing fire in the night, stands out supreme of all lordly wealth. But if, my heart, you wish to sing of contests, look no further for any star warmer than the sun, shining by day through the lonely sky, and let us not proclaim any contest greater than Olympia.

From there glorious song enfolds the wisdom of poets, so that they loudly sing the son of Cronus, when they arrive at the rich and blessed hearth of Hieron, who wields the scepter of law in Sicily of many flocks, reaping every excellence at its peak, and is glorified by the choicest music, which we men often play around his hospitable table. . .

Michael Burghers (ca. 1640-ca. 1723), Frontispiece showing Pindar from Pindarou Olympia, Nemea, Pythia, Isthmia (1697) edited by Richard West and Richard Welsted, 1697. Engraving (framed). Gift from the Douglas Bauer Pindar Collection. Bequest of Douglas Bauer, Princeton Class of 1964, to the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund, Princeton University. On deposit at the Princeton University Library.

Here is a brief biographic note from the Poetry Foundation:

Born to an aristocratic family near Thebes in or about 522 BCE, Pindar is considered by some scholars to be the greatest of the classical Greek poets. He is one of the few ancient poets represented by a substantial body of work, although only 45 of his odes of victory survive in their complete and original form, and other poems survive only in quotations from other authors or on fragmented scraps of papyrus discovered in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The victory odes—intended to be sung by choirs in celebration of athletes of the Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean games—were written on commissions from the victors’ family, friends, or benefactors. These poems place the athletes within the contexts of family history, festivals, and stories of the gods, to whom the pious Pindar attributed their victories.

In his duties as a poet, he traveled extensively around the Greek world; though he was subject to the complicated political tensions of the period, he did not avoid expressing his political and moral views. After a long and prosperous career, he died at Argos in 443 BCE at the age of 79. It is reported that when Alexander the Great sacked Thebes more than a hundred years after Pindar’s death, the poet’s house was the only one that was spared.

Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1613-1696), Veterum illustrium philosophorum, poetarum, rhetorum, et oratorum imagines: ex vetustis nummis, gemmis, hermis, marmoribus, alijsque antiquis monumentis desumptae / a Io. Petro Bellorio, Christinae Reginae Augustae bibliothecario & antiquario, expositionibus illustratae (Romae: Apud Io. Iacobum de Rubeis … , 1685). Plate 59 (part 2?), possibly engraved by Jacques Blondeau after Giacinto Calandrucci. Engraving (framed). Gift from the Douglas Bauer Pindar Collection. Bequest of Douglas Bauer, Princeton Class of 1964, to the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund, Princeton University. On deposit at the Princeton University Library.

 

Currently, the earliest of our Pindar holdings is a manuscript: Pindari Quaedam et Sopho[…] written in ancient Greek (to 1453) [Constantinople ?], ca. 1420-1425]. 135 folios : paper ; 201 x 142 (150 x 55-75) mm. bound to 207 x 151 mm. Special Collections – South East (MSS) Princeton MS. 218

 

Poster: Picasso. Gravures originales pour illustrer la VIII pythique de Pindare… Paris Juin-Juillet 1961. Poster (framed). Gift from the Douglas Bauer Pindar Collection. Bequest of Douglas Bauer, Princeton Class of 1964, to the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund, Princeton University. On deposit at the Princeton University Library.

…practical examples of mensuration: of singular use for work-men, artificers, and other ingenious persons delighting therein

Besides information on carpentry and logarithms, this book contains a frontispiece by the wonderful, under appreciated printmaker Thomas Cross, the elder (1632?–1682), who is credited with over 200 portraits.

The National Portrait Gallery, London, lists 165 prints, http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp10604/thomas-cross?role=art and Johnson’s A Catalogue of Engraved and etched English title-pages lists only 26. When someone recognizes his worth, a complete study will list more.

Samuel Foster (died 1652), The art of measuring: containing the description and explanation of the carpenters new rule. Furnished with a variety of scales, fitted for the more speedy mensuration of superficies and solids. Written by Sam. Foster, sometime Professor of Astronomy in Gresham Colledge. Also, certain geometrical problems, a table of logarithms to 10000, and some uses of the same exemplified in arithmetick and geometry ; but more particularly applied to the mensuration of superficies and solids, as board, glass, pavement, wainscot, plaistering, tyling, timber, stone, brick-work and gauging of cask. The second edition with additions by W. Leybourn. To which is added, A supplement, being the description of the line of numbers, with its use in divers practical examples of mensuration: of singular use for work-men, artificers, and other ingenious persons delighting therein By John Wiblin, carpenter. (London: Williamson, 1677). Rare Books 2007-3537N

Here are a few other Cross title pages and frontispieces:

https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2016/03/13/another-thomas-cross-identified/

https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2015/12/07/frontispieces-by-thomas-cross-the-elder-active-1632-1685/

https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2019/09/24/when-did-people-start-coloring-their-nails-and-making-other-body-transformations-answered-in-1650/

The Dictionary of National Biography notes rudely:

CROSS, THOMAS (fl. 1632-1682), engraver, was employed in engraving numerous portraits of authors and other celebrities as frontispieces to books published in the middle of the seventeenth century. His style shows no attempt at artistic refinement, but merely an endeavour to render faithfully the lineaments of the persons or objects portrayed; this he executed in a dry and stiff manner. His portraits are, however, a valuable contribution to the history of the period, and some of them are the only likenesses we possess—e.g. that of Philip Massinger, prefixed to an edition of his plays in 1655. Among the persons of note whose portraits were engraved by him were Thomas Bastwick, Richard Brownlowe, Jeremiah Burroughes, …, and many others, including a portrait of Richard III in Sir G. Buck’s ‘ Life and Reign’ of that monarch (1646).

Foster’s book ends with an advertisement!

Definition of artificer
1 a skilled or artistic worker or craftsman
2 one that makes or contrives

Collection of Decorated and Watermarked Papers Assembled by Ingeborg M. Hartmann


The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired the collection of decorated and watermarked papers assembled by Ingeborg M. Hartmann (later owned by Jelle Samshuijzen). A description prepared by Sidney Berger is sampled here.

For over 40 years the German bookbinder Ingeborg M. Hartmann saved the endsheets and, in some cases, cover papers of the books she worked on, along with unprinted leaves (almost certainly flyleaves) containing watermarks. Today, her collection is housed in three custom boxes as follows: Box 1 contains 104 samples of decorated papers, mounted on 23 stiff archival board substrates; Box 2 contains 148 samples of mostly marbled papers, mounted on 42 stiff archival board substrates; Box 3 contains 142 unprinted leaves, each with a watermark.

This post highlights the watermark collection, which also includes two bound volumes that show the actual watermarks using beta radiography and drawings of these marks by Hartmann. No provenance information on the watermarked papers are given and the dates only generally listed 16th century to 19th century. The collection is not inclusive or definitive of any one place or time, but instead a gathering of fascinating, often beautiful examples. As with the printed and marbled papers, Hartmann has gathered hundreds of items to study and enjoy.

Here is a digital copy of one volume: hartmanncollectionofwatermarks

read more:

Ingeborg M. Hartmann and Eva-Maria Hanebutt-Benz, Das Gesicht der Bücher : Ingeborg M. Hartmann, Buchbinderin : Museum für Kunsthandwerk Frankfurt am Main, Ausstellung vom 26. Februar 1987 bis 8. Juni 1987 (Frankfurt am Main (Germany): Dezernat Kultur und Freizeit. ; Museum für Kunsthandwerk Frankfurt am Main, 1987). Graphic Arts Collection » Z269.2 .H37 1987

Ingeborg M. Hartmann, Buchbindermeisterin: [Ausstellung] Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 28. August bis 10. Oktober 1985 ([Hamburg] : [Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe], 1985).

Here are a few more samples:

 

 

Who attended the trial of Queen Caroline?

George Hayter (1792-1871), The Great Historical Picture of the Queen’s Trial, 1823. Oil on canvas. National Portrait Gallery, London

A Descriptive catalogue of the Great Historical Picture, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Great Historical Picture, painted by George Hayter, member of The Academy of St. Luke, &c. &c. &c., representing the trial of Her Late Majesty Queen Caroline of England: with a faithful interior view of the House of Lords, and one hundred and eight-nine portraits ; amongst which are included those princes of the royal family, with most of the peers and distinguished personages who were in the House on that memorable occasion, and who did the artist the honor to sit : containing in the whole upwards of three hundred figures : now exhibiting at Mr. Cauty’s great rooms, No. 80½, Pall Mall. London: Printed by W. Hersee, White Lion Court, Cornhill. 1823. Graphic Arts Collection 2020- in process.

[Together with:] The Great Historical Picture of the Queen’s Trial by Mr. George Hayter… [London]: Hersee, Printer, 1, White Lion Court, Cornhill. [1823]. Broadside. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2020- in process.


On August 17, 1820, 260 prominent citizens of London gathered in the House of Lords to hear the introduction of the bill of pains and penalties aimed to “deprive Her Majesty Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of the Title, Prerogatives, Rights, Privileges and Pretensions of Queen Consort of this Realm, and to dissolve the Marriage between his Majesty and the said Queen.” — J. B. Priestley, The Prince of Pleasure and his Regency (1971). The Pains and Penalties Bill passed by a narrow margin.

London artist George Hayter received the prestigious commission to paint the scene, asking dozens to sit for him in his studio so their portraits would be accurate. Three years later, he capitalized on the excitement still surrounding the trial by staging an exhibition of his painting in Pall Mall with a catalogue [seen here] identifying each person attending the trial. This guaranteed the sale of his catalogue to at least the 189 people in the scene.

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired both the illustrated catalogue for Hayter’s exhibition and a handbill handed out to potential patrons passing in the street.

Affixed to the end of the catalogue is a note: “* The Asterisks are placed to the names of those gentlemen who, though present at the Trial, are so situated in the Picture, that the Artist did not find it necessary to trouble them to sit [pose for their portrait].”

The 8 stanza poem on the handbill is fittingly dramatic, equal to the excitement felt throughout London: “There sat the anxious Caroline / within the lofty Hall / Before the searching eyes of men / Who waited for her fall.”

 

Sergeĭ Sigeĭ


Designed and printed by the visual poet Sergeĭ Sigeĭ (1947-2014), this text was originally written in 1943-44 by the futurist poet Aleksei Kruchenykh (1886–1968). His poetry in turn is a tribute to Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852) the father of the absurd in nineteenth-century Russian literature.

In the introduction Sigeĭ explains:

“The late Kruchenykh did not write trans-sense poetry, instead, with a mysterious smile, he was re-writing classical literature. This work is easily understood in the context of contemporary debates about ‘postmodernism’; the great futurist turned out to be ahead of ‘the first Russian postmodernists’…”

This and other similar volumes were published by the Yeysk State Museum of History and Local Lore in Southern Russia, notable for holding the first international exhibition of concrete poetry in the Soviet Union, as well as first exhibit of mail art in 1989–1990.

 

 

Alekseĭ Kruchenykh (1886-1968), Arabeski iz Gogoli︠a︡; [predislovie, podgotovka teksta i shriftovai︠a︡ aranzhirovka Sergeĭ Sigeĭ] ([Eĭsk]: Otdel zhivopisi i grafiki Eĭskogo istoriko-kraevedcheskogo muzei︠a︡, 1992). Firestone PG3476.K76 A822 1992. [Originally written 1943-1944–p. 4].

The poet Aleksei Yeliseyevich Kruchyonykh belonged to the Futurism movement in Russia along with Vladimir Mayakovsky, David Burliuk and others. He wrote the libretto for the Futurist opera Victory Over the Sun (1913), with sets provided by Kazimir Malevich. He married Olga Rozanova, an avant-garde artist, in 1912; four years later, in 1916, he created his most famous book, Universal War. He is also known for his Declaration of the Word as Such (1913)

Macbeth lantern slides

A recent photo-reproduction request for the Macbeth slides within The Wheeler collection of lantern slides (formerly held by the Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum, 412 Low Library, Columbia University), led to the discovery that many had turned pink.

Regardless, there are some wonderful photographs and prints of Shakespeare productions in the 19th century. The collection includes 19 boxes of slides, together with 3 boxes of ring-bound 3×5 card sets, plus six other related items (stored in box 19).

Access is provided by a box list [see below] and a list in numeric order giving a brief description of each numbered slide. There is also the ring-bound card sets, grouped by presentation such as ‘Belgian Children’s Theatre’.

Contents of boxes http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/tc123.columbia.pdf

Listing by Wheeler number http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/tc123.wheeler.pdf

Many Wheeler slide sets are productions of William Shakespeare, Macbeth highlighted here. For details on the Brander Matthews Dramatic Museum, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_6661090/ see the records of the Museum (1910-1971) held by the Archives of Columbia University. We call it the ‘Wheeler Slide Collection,’ probably because these slides were made by the New York firm DeWitt C. Wheeler.

https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/3849555

 

From Columbia’s website: “Brander Matthews (1852-1929). Appointed to the Columbia College faculty in 1892, Matthews began collecting theater-related memorabilia in 1911, convinced that the only way to learn about drama was through first-hand acquaintance with artifacts, images, and texts of the theatrical past.

Matthews then donated his own collection of theatrical memorabilia to the University to support the burgeoning study of world-wide theater history. He commissioned stage models representing historical periods, collected the scripts and theatrical designs of his contemporaries, gathered more than 30,000 images of actors and entertainers, and purchased masks and puppets from dealers and performers all over the world.

Thanks to a generous endowment, additions to the collection were made for decades after Matthews died in 1929. The Dramatic Museum was housed in Low Library at Columbia until it was closed in 1971; since then the collection has been split between various archival repositories at Columbia University.”