Category Archives: Medium

mediums

Composite of Circus People

The Graphic Arts Collection holds two composite photographs of circus people. One is organized and indexed. The second, well, the second isn’t.

Both are heavily varnished, adding to glare in these reproductions. Here is the first:

Here is the second, with a few details:

The owner of his own Midwest circus, Charles (Uncle Charley) Andress (1852-1933) was also a circus historian, publishing several articles and photo-essays, including Route Book of Barnum & Bailey [Circus], 1905.

In 1907, Show World magazine announced “Will Make Large Picture. Charles Andress, of the Barnum & Bailey Show, is making rapid progress in collecting photographs of performers and circus people for the largest photograph ever made. When completed it will contain over 1,200 people. This photograph is being made irrespective of any particular show. The center will be made up of the representative circus men of the past and present, in this and foreign countries; and the rest of the photograph will be of performers and musicians, staff officers, etc., of the various shows throughout the country.”

The Poet of the Future

This sheet of drawings by John McLenan (1827-1865) turns up in a scrapbook at the New York Public Library, with no explanation. Over the years, the central portrait has been assumed to be Walt Whitman (1819-1892).

McLenan’s final published prints were discovered recently in our set of the Harper’s New Monthly Magazine CXXI, no. 20 (June 1860), p.141-42. The central drawing is titled “The Poet of the Future.” Below is our death mask of Whitman so that you can decide for yourself whether or not the sketch is meant to be Whitman.

The Future President; Organ of Veneration; Gushing Poetess; The Great Artist [self-portrait of John McLenan].
Well-balanced Head; Benevolence; The Great Captain; The Poet of the Future; [Embryo] Financier.

“Gifted by nature this subject–with a head that’s swollen with Literary talent–is allow to go to grass…”

Death mask of Walt Whitman (1819-1892), 1892. Laurence Hutton Collection of Life and Death Masks.

American Freemason Magazine

From November 1855 to April 1857, Robert Morris published a semi-monthly newspaper called the American Freemason out of Louisville, Kentucky. When he ran into financial difficulties his printer, Joseph Fletcher Brennan, took over the publication, switching to a monthly format with an emphasis on literature and poetry.

Working from Kentucky, Brennan commissioned his Masonic Brother Nathaniel Orr in New York City to redesign the periodical with a strong header and large wood engraving at the front of each issue. Various small cuts went inside as the stories required. Orr’s next door neighbor A.S. Barnes & Co., Wholesale Booksellers and Publishers, at 51 John Street was asked to help distribute.

Unfortunately, Brennan also had trouble funding the magazine. Writing to Orr from Louisville, October 15, 1857, Brennan explained that he still couldn’t pay the artist for his wood engravings. John Chapman is also doing a few designs for the magazine without receiving payment. “I will have also to arrange with him to wait until I can send him a check to pay both of you. I will be able to do this in the course of a month at farthest. . . . [Asking if Orr will continue his work] I think this would be the best way and I will pay you for it… Do so, if you please, and I will be grateful to you.“

Two weeks later Brennan wrote again, promising to pay Orr in a few weeks.  Chapman’s name does not appear in the magazine, refusing to work without pay while Orr, a devoted Freemason, continued to supply the publication with images. In the end, Brennan was unable to secure financial backing and the magazine only last for two years (although the title is revived again later by others).

The American Freemason’s New Monthly Magazine ([New York: J.F. Brennan, 1859- ). Recap HS351 .A512

 

New York’s historic Masonic Hall is located in the heart of the Chelsea, home to the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York, along with the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Library and Museum. To get tour information or request a tour, e-mail TourGuides@nymasons.org. Free public tours of the Grand Lodge Building and Masonic Hall are conducted Monday through Saturday between the hours of 10:30 a.m. and 2:15 p.m.

Prince George, Duke of Albemarle

Robert Sheppard (active 1730-1740) after David Loggan (1635-1700?), The Most Illustrious and Noble Prince George, Duke of Albemarle, 1735. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2005.01636

The Graphic Arts Collection holds this three-quarter length portrait of George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, (1608–1670) dressed as an English soldier. Monck was the leading figure in effecting the Restoration of the Monarchy to King Charles II in 1660.

This is a plate from Mechell’s edition of Paul de Rapin-Thoyras, The History of England. 1735 ((Ex) Oversize 1426.749.11f). Sheppard did most of the portraits in History of England, as well as a portait of Edward Kidder (frontispiece of his Receipts, 1740), and three plates in a series of six Battles of Alexander, after Le Brun.

 

See also Thomas Gumble (died 1676), La vie du general Monk duc d’Albemarle, &c., le restaurateur de Sa Majesté britannique, Charles Second / traduit de l’anglois de Thomas Gumble …(Londres: Chez Robert Scot, 1672). Rare Books Off-Site Storage 1444.649.42.11

A Speech made to the Lord General Monck, at Clotheworkers hall in London the 13. of March, 1659 [60] … ([London, 1660]). Broadside, in two columns. Rare Books: South East (RB) RHT Oversize 17th-756

The Fountain of Love


Now hanging in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) painted The Fountain of Love around 1785 [top]. In the 20th century, the British artist Fred Millar reproduced this and other Rococo masterpieces as color engravings for easy home decoration. The Graphic Arts Collection holds this slightly faded copy of Millar’s Fountain of Love.

Below is a Photoshopped image that better represents Millar’s print. The soft romanticism of Fragonard has been simplified, emphasizing the female form and the drama of the scene.

Fred Millar (active 1900-1923), after a painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), Fountain of Love = Fontaine d’amour, 1907. Color engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.01460

 

 

Fritz the Elephant

Many people have heard the story of Jumbo the Elephant, who was killed by a freight train, or of Topsy, who was electrocuted at Coney Island, but how many know the history of Fritz the elephant? We recently discovered vintage photographs that tell this tragic story.

Fritz (ca. 1870-1902) was an Asian elephant measuring 2.90 meters and weighing about 7.5 tons. Given the large number of animals who died during the five year European tour of Barnum and Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth (1897-1902), Fritz was added to the company during the tour’s final year. In May 1902, while performing in Bordeaux, Fritz the elephant killed an employee of the circus who was greasing his feet and workers started keeping him in chains.

During a parade through the city of Tours, in front of the Place Nicolas Frumeaud, Fritz the elephant became agitated and then, uncontrollable. There are several versions of this story. Perhaps someone burned the elephant with a cigar or fed him something inedible. Perhaps it was a physical condition, due to the chains and unhealthy treatment. Circus workers surrounded him, wrapped him in chains, tied him up with ropes, and eventually strangled him. After several hours, Fritz died in the public street on June 11, 1902, as onlookers watched in horror.

Circus director J.A. Bailey (1847-1906), who was with the company, decided to leave the elephant in Tours. Fritz was stuffed and his body remains on view at the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Tours (Tours Museum of Fine Arts). Read the memoir of Fritz’s trainer: George Conklin (1845-1924), The Ways of the Circus: Being the Memories and Adventures of George Conklin, Tamer of Lions, Set Down by Harvey W. Root, with a foreword by Don C. Seitz (New York: Harper [1921]). Recap 4298.264

 

 

Photographer unidentified.

Fritz on exhibit

The Spanish Civil War

The Graphic Arts Collection holds several billboard-size propaganda posters from the Spanish Civil War, 1936 to 1939. Here is one honoring Madrid’s elite 5th Regiment and one from the Delegacion de Propaganda y Prensa del C.E.P. Valencia.

 

 

Juan Borrás Casanova (1909-1987), Los trabajadores españoles luchan por la libertad y la cultura de todos los pueblos. ¡Solidarizaros con ellos! = Spanish Workers Fight for the Freedom and Culture of All Peoples. Work with them! (Valencia: Delegación de Propaganda y Prensa del C.E.P. de Valencia, printed by Ortega, 1936). Graphic Arts Collection GAX in process

 

[below] 5o Regimiento. Los Cazadores de Lanques Fascistas: Coll, Carrasco, Cornejo, Grao, Molina. Honor y Gloria a Los Hijos del Pueblo (Madrid: printed by Graficas Reunidas, U.H.P., ca. 1937). Graphic Arts Collection GAX in process.

The Fifth Regiment (Spanish: Quinto Regimiento, full name Quinto Regimiento de Milicias Populares), was an elite corps loyal to the Spanish Republic at the onset of the Spanish Civil War. Made up of volunteers, the Fifth Regiment was active in the first critical phase of the war and became one of the most renowned units loyal to the Republic.—Eduardo Comín Colomer, El 5º Regimiento de Milicias Populares. Madrid 1973.

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Virtue, Liberty, and Independence

The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

 

The Merciful Man Regardeth the Life of His Beast

“In 1866, Colonel M. Richards Mucklé, a Philadelphia businessman, was disheartened by the violence he witnessed against animals. Horses pulling over-laden carts and streetcars were often beaten unmercifully or worked to death. . . . Mucklé decided to follow in the footsteps of Henry Bergh, the father of the humane movement in the United States, and take action.

. . . After more than a year of campaigning, the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was organized on June 21, 1867 and officially chartered on April 4, 1868. The Pennsylvania SPCA (PSPCA) was officially the first humane society in the state and only the second in the country after Henry Bergh’s American SPCA (note: The PSPCA is not associated with the ASPCA).” University of Pennsylvania Library, PSPCA archive.

Philadelphia lithographer Peter S. Duval (1804/05-1886) was commissioned to design the organization’s membership certificates. A large edition was printed in 1868 with spaces for names, dates, and signatures, so that the certificate could be used for many years without revision. P.S. Duval, Son, & Company ended in 1869, when Peter retired and his son Stephen partnered with Thomas Hunter.

This is the life membership certificate for Joseph Terry McCadden (1859-1938) signed in 1892, while McCadden was business manager for Barnum and Bailey’s Circus, working with his brother-in-law J. A. Bailey (1847-1906). The many animals under the care of the circus made it a target for the PSPCA and other animals preservation groups. This membership would have been good for public relations.

 

Joseph T. McCaddon’s membership certificate with the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Lithograph with one tone stone. Philadelphia: P.S. Duval, Son & Co., 1892. Graphic Arts Collection

Lithographed by P. S. Duval, Son & Co.

Where the West Begins

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a small photography album compiled by Elbert John “Dutch” Reuter (1896-1975), an Arizona printer, typographer, and publisher. Through approximately 230 photographs, the album documents Reuter’s trip from Peru, Indiana, to his new home in Prescott, Arizona. The pages are decorated with captions and poems presumable by Reuter himself, although he soon married Ruth Sylvia Reed in Gallup, New Mexico, and she might of helped to layout the book.

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At the age of 14, Dutch became an apprentice to a printer in his hometown of Peru, Indiana, and learned all aspects of the printing and publishing trade. Not long after his 21st birthday, he joined the army but a few days later the  armistice was signed that brought World War I to a close and his release followed soon after.

In 1923, Dutch and a friend applied for a printing job at the Jerome Verde Independent in Arizona but when they showed up for work–after driving cross country for many days–the boys were told the paper decided not to expand and didn’t need them.  Two weeks later, they were hired by the Journal-Miner in Prescott, where Reuter remained for the rest of his life.

Eventually, Dutch became owner and publisher of the Yavapai County Messenger and manager of the Prescott Printing Company. The album follows him through his first years in Arizona as he gets to know the people and the landscape. Several photographs document his joining the “Smoki People,” a group of Prescott businessmen who dressed up and performed their own versions of Hopi ceremonial dances and rituals (finally shut down in 1990).

See more of his biography here: https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/family-tree/person/tree/4934424/person/24200355633/story

Read more about the Smoki People here: https://www.dcourier.com/news/2010/jul/04/smoki-the-beginning-controversial-group-basically/

Dutch Reuter at the top right with his Linotype machine.

Dante and Virgil Attend an Exhibition

Antonio Manganaro (1842-1921), L’Esposizione Marittima Visitata da Dante e Virgilio. [The Maritime Exhibition visited by Dante and Virgil] Allegoria di A. Manganaro ([Naples: 1871]). 32 hand colored lithographs including the pictorial title-page. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017 in process. Acquired with special thanks to Patricia A. Gaspari-Bridges.

Since Dante’s Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia) first appeared in 1320, visual artists have been rethinking Dante’s trip into hell with Virgil as his guide. Eugène Delacroix chose the subject for his first major painting, The Barque of Dante, also known as Dante and Virgil in Hell, which introduced the artist at the Salon of 1822. A few years later, William Blake drew visions of the Divine Comedy in London while G.G. Macchiavelli did the same in Bologna. William-Adolphe Bouguereau painted Dante and Virgil in Hell in 1850; Edgar Degas finished Dante and Virgil at the Entrance to Hell in 1858; and Gustave Doré financed his own Inferno in 1861, finishing the trilogy in 1868.

In the wake of Doré’s popularity, the Italian caricaturist Antonio Manganaro (1842-1921) translated Dante’s epic to his own era, imagining what would happen if Dante and Virgil attended the opening of The International Maritime Exhibition held in Naples in 1871. Manganaro’s rare lithographic volume, recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection, includes plenty of ghosts, fish, and wine. Here are a few images.