Category Archives: Medium

mediums

The Diary of George Templeton Strong

diary of george templeton strong2John O’Hara Cosgrave II (1908-1968), Original watercolor for the dust jacket of The Diary of George Templeton Strong edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas (New York: Macmillan, 1952). Graphic Arts Collection
diary of george templeton strong1The New York lawyer George Templeton Strong (1820-1875) began keeping a diary at the age of fifteen and continued until his death in 1875. The original, held by the New York Historical Society, was featured recently in Ken Burn’s PBS documentary on the American Civil War. A firm abolitionist, Strong’s diary offers a first-hand account of his efforts in support of the Union Army and the end of slavery in the United States.

diary of george templeton strong5In 1952, when Macmillan began preparing Strong’s diary for publication, the artist John O’Hara Cosgrave II (1908-1968) was commissioned to design the dust jacket. The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to hold the original watercolor, along with the final printed cover. Fortunate because the Princeton University Library, like many libraries, removes all the dust jackets from the books as soon as they are purchased.

Illustrations by the California-born watercolorist can be found in over 100 books, including Pardon My Harvard Accent (1941) by William G. Morse; Gnomobile (1936) by Upton Sinclair, Wind, Sand, and Stars (1939) by Antoine de Saint Exupéry; Come In and Other Poems (1943) by Robert Frost; Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (1955) by Jean Lee Latham; among many others.
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To read selections, see: The Diary of George Templeton Strong edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas (New York: Macmillan, 1952). Firestone Library (F) E415.9.S86 A3 1952

 

311 Salted Paper Portraits of the United States Congress

mcclees gallery14James E. McClees (1821-1887), McClees’ Gallery of Photographic Portraits of the Senators, Representatives & Delegates of the Thirty-Fifth Congress (Washington: McClees & Beck, 1859). 311 salt prints in black morocco binding with ornate gilt decoration. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process

“In presenting this volume to the public,” wrote photographer James McClees in his introduction, “the publisher begs leave to remark that it is the largest collection of perfectly authentic Photographic portraits ever published; containing three hundred and eleven likenesses one-fifth of the size of life, each being a reflex of the features of the subject, and in no instance a copy from a painting or an engraving, and finished in the best manner for Photograph negatives taken by the publisher himself or his able assistant, Mr. Julian Vannerson, an Artist of acknowledged ability and artistic taste.” A long sentence for a lengthy project.

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Graphic Arts Collection recently acquire this superb volume of three hundred and eleven salted paper portraits of the thirty-fifth Congress of the United States, that is, members dating from March 4, 1857 to March 4, 1859 during the first two years of James Buchanan’s presidency. Included are the Senators, Representatives, and Delegates, with their autographs reproduced under their portrait in facsimile, “procured from private letters and registers not written for publication.” This volume was meant to be the first of a series, although no subsequent volumes were every completed.

As a frontispiece, McClees created a photograph of the capitol taken from an original drawing by T.U. Walter, architect of the U.S. Capitol extension. Our volume also includes one additional salt print laid into the front cover of Charles Brooks Hoard (1805-1886), congressman from New York, along with a presentation inscription: “A testimonial of Friendship / Presented by / C.B. Hoard / March 1861.” This is a second portrait, in addition to the one bound into the volume.

McClees’ ambitious project had an extraordinary scope and the end result was beautifully realized. As he claims, it is the first and largest such collection of photographic portraits created in the United States. The images include the key figures in politics leading up to the Civil War, both Union and Confederate, nicely indexed at the front. Notable are the portraits of Andrew Johnson, Jefferson Davis, Sam Houston, Stephen Douglas, and Schuyler Colfax, although the list could go on and on.

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Princeton’s Western Americana Collection also holds the McClees series of portraits made of the Native American Indian delegation: http://pudl.princeton.edu/collection.php?c=pudl0017&f1=kw&v1=mcclees. McClees first opened a daguerreotype studio in Philadelphia in 1845 and in 1851-52 he made daguerreotypes of Indian delegations visiting his studio in Philadelphia. When he perfected paper photography, the McClees studio produced another series of the Indian delegation on paper.

In the summer of 1857, McClees opened a second gallery at 308 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. and hired two additional photographers, Julian Vannerson and Samuel Cohner, to undertake the congressional photography project. They did their best to photograph every congressman, although some failed to show up as scheduled. Eighteen leaves are published with only the signature on the page.

Only five copies of is rare volume are currently listed at institutions: the George Eastman House, the University of Illinois, Indiana Historical Society, Library of Congress, and the New Hampshire Historical Society.

 

Robert Edmond Jones Directs an All Black Cast

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Buried below this pastel design is the inscription, “To Ridgely from Bobby, 1917.” Bobby refers to Robert Edmond Jones (1887-1954), who was making a gift of his drawing to playwright Ridgely Torrence (1874-1950), The design is for their production of Simon the Cyrenian, one of three short plays that opened April 5, 1917 at New York’s Garden Theater under the heading Three Plays for a Negro Theater. Jones not only designed but directed the three productions, which each featured all Black casts. As one of the first straight plays to feature Black actors exclusively, without melodrama or burlesque, this production is often cited as the beginning of the period we call the Harlem renaissance.
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In anticipation of opening, Robert Benchley (1889-1945) published an article The New York Tribune, entitled “Can This Be the Native American Drama?” He went on to describe how Jones “heard of the three plays which Mrs. Emile Hapgood is to present, written for negroes and to be acted by negroes, he offered to design the scenery and costumes and to attend personally to the production. This will indicate the plane on which this new movement of the theatre is to be handled.”

Following the April 5 opening, drama critic Heywood Broun (1888-1939) announced, “The performances were a triumph for the actors, for Mrs. Hapgood, the producer, and for Robert E. Jones, director and designer of sets and costumes.”

W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) transcribed the outpouring of critical review in The Crisis, beginning with poet Percy MacKaye’s comment, “It is indeed an historic happening. Probably for the first time, in any comparable degree, both races are here brought together upon a plane utterly devoid of all racial antagonisms—a plane of art in which audiences and actors are happily peers, mutually cordial to each others’ gifts of appreciation and interpretation.”

 

Ridgely Torrence (1874-1950), Granny Maumee, The Rider of Dreams, Simon the Cyrenian; Plays for a Negro Theater (New York: Macmillan company, 1917). Rare Books (Ex) 3963.57.335

jones set designs1We also hold Jones’ set design for the 1947 production of A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953), one of many Jones designed for the Theater Guild of New York City.

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Don Freeman at the Theater

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Don Freeman (1908-1978), First Nighters’ Intermission, 1932. Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016

Graphic Arts isn’t the only department in RBSC to collection prints. The Theater Collection added the portfolio titled Don Freeman Lithographs 1931-1938, which includes five lithographs with theatrical themes.

Don Freeman (1908-1978) financed his art education by playing trumpet in jazz clubs and then, acted in at least one Broadway production, as the cornet-playing son in William Saroyan’s The Beautiful People (a part written specifically for Freeman). During the 1930s, he drew a number of lithographs featuring scenes around the theater, both in front and behind the curtain.

In the print at the top, First Nighters’ Intermission, we can recognize many prominent New Yorkers outside a Broadway theater, including Mayor Jimmy Walker, Otto Kahn, Heywood Broun, Robert Benchley, and Clifton Webb.

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Don Freeman (1908-1978), Self-Portrait, 1939. Lithograph. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2007.01302

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Don Freeman (1908-1978), Dress Rehearsal, Of Thee I Sing, 1931, Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016

At the rehearsal seen above for Of Thee I Sing, we can recognize George Gershwin conducting, George S. Kaufman and Marc Connolly, producer Sam H. Harris (with his feet up), and designer Jo Meilziner on the intercom.

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Don Freeman (1908-1978), On the Fly Rail, 1934. Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016

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Don Freeman (1908-1978), Casting for Characters, 1934. Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016

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Don Freeman (1908-1978), Mums the Word, 1938? Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016

 

The High Mettled Racer

rowlandson high mettled3Thomas Rowlandson (1756 or 1757-1827), The High Mettled Racer ([London: S.W. Fores, 1789]). Four hand colored aquatints. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Oversize 2012-0010E

The comic opera, Liberty-Hall: or, a Test of Good Fellowship, written by Charles Dibdin (1745-1814), was first performed at the Theatre-Royal in London’s Drury-Lane on February 8, 1785. One of the highlights was a song titled “Highmettled Racer.” Four years later, Thomas Rowlandson drew four scenes incorporating that song’s lyrics and published them with Samuel Fores on July 20, 1789. The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have both the colored set and a single aquatinted plate.

rowlandson high mettled8The High Mettled Racer as a Race Horse. See the Course thronged with Gazers, the Sports are begun, The confusion, but hear, I bet you Sir, done, done. Ten thousand strange murmurs resound far and near, Lords, Hawkers and Jockies, assail the tired ear. While with neck like a Rainbow, erecting his crest, Pamper’d, prancing and pleas’d, his head touching his breast, Scarce snuftling the Air, so proud and elate, The high mettled Racer first starts for the Plate.

rowlandson high mettled5The High Mettled Racer as a Hunter. Now Reynard’s turn’d out and o’er hedge and ditch rush ‘Dogs, Horses and Huntsmen, all hard at his Brush, Through Marsh, hedge and brier, led by their sly prey, They by scent and by view, cheat a long tedious day, While alike born for sports of the field and the course, Always sure to come through a staunch and Fleet Horse, When fairly rundown, the Fox yields up his breath, The high mettled Racer is in at the death.

rowlandson high mettled4The High Mettled Racer as a Hack Horse. Grown aged, used up and turn’d out of the stud, Lame, spavin’d and windgalled, but yet with some blood, While knowing postillions his pedigree trace, Tell his Dam won this sweepstakes, his Sire that race, And what matches he won, to the Ostlers count o’er, As they loiter their time at some hedge ale house door, While the harness sore galls, and the spurs his sides goad. The high mettled Racer’s a hack on the road.

rowlandson high mettled2The High Mettled Racer as a Cart Horse. Till at last having labour’d, drudg’d early and late, Bow’d down by degrees, he bends on to his fate, Blind, old, lean and feeble, he tugs ’round a mill, Or draws sand, till the sand of his hour glass stands still. And now, cold and lifeless, exposed to the view, In the very same cart which he yesterday drew, While a pitying crowd his sad relicks surround, The high mettled Racer is sold to the hounds.
rowlandson high mettledThomas Rowlandson (1756 or 1757-1827), The High Mettled Racer, July 20, 1789. Aquatinted by T. Hassall. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895. GC112 Thomas Rowlandson Collection

 

Charles Dibdin (1745-1814), The High Mettled Racer ([London]: Sold by C. Sheppard, no. 19 Lambeth Hill, Doctors Commons; sold by J. Pitts, Great St., Andrew St., [ca. 1800]). 1 sheet, One of the songs from Charles Dibdin’s ’Liberty Hall’, first presented in February 1785 at Drury Lane. Rare Books (Ex) 2014- in processrowlandson high mettled6

Beauty in Things

alphabet for graphic artsRichard 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.
alphabet for graphic arts2According 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

Mary Ann Jensen

darley fanny2“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!
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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).

Folies Bergère Poster

folies bergere posterLucien Baylac (1851-1913), Folies Bergère, Miss Mabel Love, 1895. Lithographic poster. Graphic Arts Collection GAX in process

The French draughtsman Lucien Baylac (1851-1913) has been referred to as the successor to designer Jules Chéret (1836-1932), along with many others. Chéret’s enormous lithographic posters were wildly successful in Parisian society and by 1881, he was able to transfer the responsibility of his shop to Chaix & Company. Conveniently located on the rue Bergère, Chaix became Baylac’s printer and together, they produced a number of posters for the Folies Bergère. In particular, Baylac designed two featuring the British actress Mabel Love (1874-1953) during her 1895 season performing in Paris.

One of Baylac’s rare 1895 posters was recently found in our vault and gently unrolled by our paper conservator. It will join eight other fin de siècle theater posters already identified in our collection.

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100 years of posters of the Folies Bergère and music halls of Paris [compiled by] Alain Weill (London: Hart-Davis MacGibbon, 1977). Rare Books: Theatre Collection (ThX) Oversize ML1727.8.P2 O58 1977bf

Paul Derval, The Folies Bergère; translated from the French by Lucienne Hill. With a pref. by Maurice Chevalier (New York: Dutton, 1955). Mendel Music Library (MUS) ML1727.8.P17 D4

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General Washington printed

general washington facsimile3 “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.

general washington facsimile1Egbert’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

 

 

Caught in the Act

caught in the act1 In 1852, Marcus and Rebecca Buffum Spring bought 268 acres of land on Raritan Bay in New Jersey, about one mile outside Perth Amboy. Thirty families joined the Springs to establish the Raritan Bay Union, a utopian community based on the principles of Charles Fourier. When the Union dissolved in 1860, the Springs built the Eagleswood Military Academy in its place.

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William Gertz noted that Spring, “recognized the need to include a cultural component to his self-sustaining colony and, to that end, he invited artists to join him there, providing them with studios in which to work.” (Art Across America, Two Centuries of Regional Painting Marquand Oversize ND212 .G47 1990q).

The Raritan Bay Union art program was run by James Steele Mackaye (1842-1894) who was only a teenager when he studied painting with William Morris Hunt. George Inness (1825-1894) was invited to join the faculty of the Eagleswood Military Academy in 1863, in yet another attempt to form a progressive community of artists and intellectuals. According to the New Jersey Historical Society, while “he never paid rent, Inness did present Spring with his famous painting Peace and Plenty as compensation.”

One of Inness’s Eagleswood students and then, member of the Eagleswood community was the American painter William McEwan (active 1859-1880). When the community finally closed, McEwan moved into New York City, exhibiting landscapes and sporting scenes at the National Academy of Art. One example is Princeton’s painting, Caught in the act or Stick to your last, 1869. Oil paint on canvas. Gift of Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch, Class of 1906. Graphic Arts Collection.

For more information, see Princeton Professor Rachael DeLue’s study George Inness and the Science of Landscape (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008) and Maud Honeyman Greene, “Raritan Bay Union, Eagleswood, New Jersey,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society Vol. 68, No. 1 (January 1950).