Our copy of William Hogarth’s “Prison Scene,” plate seven from “A Rake’s Progress,” is going to New York City to join the exhibition, “Taming Traders: Origins of the New York Stock Exchange,” at the New-York Historical Society from March 31 to June 11, 2017. http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/taming-traders-origins-new-york-stock-exchange

Mounted on the 225th anniversary of the New York Stock Exchange, the exhibition charts the development of this crucial trading institution. Objects on display include early bond and stock certificates, correspondence, portraits of traders, and views of Wall Street and the Tontine Coffee House. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Michael Ryan, New-York Historical vice president and director of the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library.

Their website tells the story:

On May 17, 1792―under a buttonwood tree, the site of street trading at the time―24 stock brokers signed an agreement that regulated aspects of trading, thus creating the New York Stock Exchange. Before then, in the early days of the new republic when the United States was deeply in debt, it was Alexander Hamilton’s job as the first Secretary of the Treasury to persuade his colleagues in the first Congress that debt could be a beneficial commodity that could be sold and traded. But rampant speculation in war debt and bank stock turned to financial panic and provided the cautionary backdrop for the drafting of the Buttonwood Agreement in May 1792, which would change global commerce forever.

William Hogarth (1697–1764) engraved the eight plates of “A Rake’s Progress” in 1735 and we had the entire set on view back in 2011 in our own exhibition Sin and the City: William Hogarth’s London: http://rbsc.princeton.edu/hogarth/events

Only a little more than a week left to see the exhibition “Remember Me” at the Princeton University Art Museum. Don’t forget.

Hamlet’s Ghost:
I am thy father’s spirit,
Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confined to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part
And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine:
But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
If thou didst ever thy dear father love–

For more information, see: http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/2127

Merry Wives of Windsor

On Friday, November 11, a panel discussion will be held in conjunction with the exhibition, “Remember Me”: Shakespeare and His Legacy at the Princeton University Art Museum.

Speakers include Bradin Cormack, professor of English; Eric White, curator of rare books; and Michael Caddin, chair, Lewis Center for the Arts. Calvin Brown, associate curator of prints and drawings, will serve as moderator.

The exhibition, on view through December 31, 2016, is a collaboration between the Art Museum and Firestone Library’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.

Friday, November 11, 2016, at 2:00 p.m. in McCormick 101
A reception in the Museum will follow

In 1879, Chicago banker Samuel Mayo Nickerson commissioned a new house from the architectural firm of Burling and Whitehouse of Chicago. Today, the building is the home of the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, offering the public a fascinating view of one of the grandest residential buildings of 19th-century Chicago.

“Philanthropist Richard H. Driehaus founded the museum on April 1, 2003 with a vision to influence today’s built environment by preserving and promoting architecture and design of the past.

To realize his vision, Mr. Driehaus commissioned a five-year restoration effort to preserve the structure and its magnificent interiors.

Today the galleries feature surviving furnishings paired with elegant, historically-appropriate pieces from the Driehaus Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts, including important works by such celebrated designers as Herter Brothers and Louis Comfort Tiffany.”

On the second floor, complementing home’s stunning interiors is the exhibition “With a Wink and a Nod: Cartoonists of the Gilded Age.” Original pen and ink drawings for Puck magazine are shown along with the final print versions of each cartoon. Organized by the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach, Florida, with special thanks to Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf, the show is on view until January 8, 2017.

Several rooms have Lincrusta wall treatments, an embossed and heavily textured wall covering that imitates tooled leather or papier-mâché but with great beauty and stability.

First patented in 1877, the Nickerson house was one of the first to incorporate this new design material in the United States.

For more information about the wonderful interiors in the Driehaus, see http://www.driehausmuseum.org/visit/interior_highlights

See also David Bagnall, An American palace: Chicago’s Samuel M. Nickerson House (Chicago, Illinois: Richard H. Driehaus Museum: Distributed by University of Chicago Press, 2011). Marquand Library (SA) Oversize NA7511.4.C45 B34 2011q

The exhibition ‘Remember me’: Shakespeare and his Legacy, featuring many of the library’s books, paintings, photographs, and prints will open October 1, 2016 at the Princeton University Art Museum.

Included are several of Shakespeare’s books that predate the famous First Folio.