Category Archives: prints and drawings

prints and drawings

Oxford

Martin Parr. Beating the Bounds. Ascension day.2014.

“The very first photo-documentary of Oxford was created by William Henry Fox Talbot,” reads the announcements. “A century and a half later, Martin Parr’s new project pays tribute to [that] great pioneer of photography.”

Commissioned by the Bodleian Library and Oxford University Press, Parr’s upcoming book is a collection of around 100 photographs documenting the life of the university between 2014 and 2016. The images capture day-to-day life of the school, highlighting the colorful and arcane rituals “that make Oxford so distinctive.”

Last Friday, we were given a preview of the book, entitled simply Oxford, due out on September 7, 2017. An exhibition to accompany the book’s release will be held from September 8 to October 22, 2017 in Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries on Broad Street, Oxford.

In paging through the maquette with Bodley’s Librarian Richard Ovenden, we were introduced to the many bizarre, eccentric, peculiar, and unique activities at Oxford University (including a cat that is really a dog). One of the most memorable was the ancient practice of ‘beating the bounds,’ ceremonially re-enacted every year. The photograph by Parr at the top of this post is one such beating, although not the print that eventually made the cut for the book.

 

Another view of this ritual from the Graphic Arts Collection is: George Cruikshank (1792-1878), “May – Beating the Bounds,” in The Comic almanack; an ephemeris in jest and earnest, containing merry tales, humorous poetry, quips, and oddities. Text by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863); Albert Smith (1816-1860); Gilbert Abbot À Beckett (1811-1856); Horace Mayhew (1816-1872); and Henry Mayhew (1812-1887) (London: Tilt and Bogue, 1837). Graphic Arts Collection Cruik 1835.81. Published in a run of approximately 20,000.


Beginning in 1835 and continuing for nine years, Cruikshank alone drew the plates for each monthly issue. Thackeray contributed small stories and promoted the series writing that it showed “a great deal of comic power, and Cruikshank’s designs were so admirable, that the ‘Almanack’ at once became a vast favourite with the public and has remained so ever since.”

See also: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/whatson/whats-on/upcoming-events/2017/sep/martin-parr-oxford

Giacomo Lauro

Last fall, Victor Plahte Tschudi, Director of the Oslo Centre for Critical Architectural Studies, published Baroque Antiquity: Archaeological Imagination in Early Modern Europe (Classics DG82 .T78 2017). This led to Anthony Grafton’s review “Invented Antiquities,” in the July issue of London Review of Books.

This led to a search for Giacomo Lauro, “a printmaker, whose albums of prints of Rome, the Antiquae Urbis splendor, command the lion’s share of Baroque Antiquity.” It is much more pleasant reading about old master prints while looking at them.

The earliest dated prints by this engraver, printer, and print publisher are from 1585 and carry the address of C. Duchetti. From 1590 he tried to establish himself as a publisher of his own work by acquiring old copper plates, restoring them, and publishing reprints. According to the British Museum, his Antiquae Urbis Splendor was published in parts from 1612. In the volumes issued in 1614 and 1615 Lauro refers to having worked on it for 28 years which would mean that he began it about 1586.

Grafton writes,

“At a cursory glance, Lauro’s slick, neatly engraved images give an impression of erudition and professionalism. . . But Tschudi’s close and tenacious examination reveals that Lauro was neither a professional antiquarian nor even a skilled draughtsman. His images were adapted from a vast range of existing sources: the drawings and prints of Pirro Ligorio and others, which the enterprising publisher Antoine Lafréry had gathered in albums in the 1570s. Lauro not only copied these, he used them to represent buildings for which no ruins or records survived.”

“…Lauro and [Athanasius] Kircher, in other words, were not making and commissioning these sometimes highly imaginative prints at random. They had a precise notion of the market at which they were aiming. Their work didn’t involve creating images anew, after long weeks camped out at the ancient sites, but reusing existing prints. . . They used the work of others as soon as the privileges that protected them ran out, while invoking privileges of their own to protect the value—and price—of their own work. They were not explorers of ancient sites but aficionados of modern prints.”

Giacomo Lauro (active 1583-ca. 1645), Splendore dell’antica e moderna Roma (Roma: Nella Stamparia d’Andrea Fei, 1641). Pt. 1: Antiquae urbis splendor hoc est præcipua eiusdem templa … Romæ, 1612; pt. 2: Antiquitatum urbis liber secundus … Romæ, 1613; pt. 3: … Antiquæ urbis splendoris complementv̄, … Romæ, 1615; pt. 4: Antiquæ urbis uestigia quæ nunc extant … Romæ, 1628. Marquand Library (SAX) Oversize N6920.L37q

See also: Giacomo Lauro (active 1583-ca. 1645), [Engraved views of Italian gardens, showing the Quirinal, Monte Celio, Vatican, Tivoli, Pincio and Barco di Barnaia (Rome?: 1616?]). Marquand Library (SAX) NA9500 .L37

Giovanni Battista de Rossi (active 1630-1660), Palazzi diversi nel’alma cita di Roma et alter ([Rome]: Ad instanza di Giombattista de Rossi, 1638). Prints by Giacomo Lauro. Marquand Library (SAX) in process

Let Us All Be Unhappy Together


 

“Let Us All Be Unhappy Together,” part 9, p.96 in The Universal Songster, or, Museum of Mirth: forming the most complete, extensive, and valuable collection of ancient and modern songs in the English language… embellished with a humorous characteristic frontispiece and twenty-nine wood-cuts [per vol.] designed by George and Robert Cruikshank, and engraved by J.R. Marshall (London: Printed for John Fairburn …, 1825-1826). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Cruik 1825.5

In 1790, Charles Dibdin (1745-1814) composed and performed a musical entertainment called The Wags, or, The Camp of Pleasure at the Lyceum Theatre in London. One of its hit tunes titled “Sound Argument” became better known for the chorus, “Let us all be unhappy together.”

This may well have been the primary inspiration to James Beresford, who later wrote The Miseries of Human Life, which in turn inspired the one act farce by Dibdin’s son Thomas, “The Miseries of Human Life; or, Let Us All Be Unhappy Together,” performed at the Covent Garden Theatre in 1807.

The Miseries of Human Life and Other Entertainments: Drawings by Thomas Rowlandson is on view at the Princeton University Art Museum: http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/object-package/miseries-human-life-and-other-amusements-drawings-thomas-rowlandson/112600

There were a number of caricatures, broadsides, and illustrated scores inspired by “Unhappy Together.” Here are a few more:




Above:

Let us all be unhappy together, 1794. Mezzotint on wove paper. Published by Laurie & Whittle. (c) British Museum.

Isaac Cruikshank, Let us all be unhappy together. London, April 30, 1791. Etching on laid paper. Illustration to ballad Let Us All Be Unhappy Together, written and composed by Dibdin for his entertainment called The Wags. (c) Lewis Walpole Library

Unidentified artist, Let us all be unhappy together, 1812-17. Hand colored etching. Published by William Davison of Alnwick. (c) British Museum

On Princeton computers only, listen to a performance from The Jane Austen Songbooks: http://princeton.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalogue/item.asp?cid=VOX-7537

LET US ALL BE UNHAPPY TOGETHER.

E bipeds, made up of frail clay,
Alas! are the children of sorrow;
And, though brisk and merry to-day,
We may all be unhappy to-morrow.
For sunshine’s succeeded by rain;
Then, fearful of life’s stormy weather,
Lest pleasure should only bring pain,
Let us all be unhappy together.

I grant the best blessing we know
Is a friend, for true friendship’s a treasure;
And yet, lest your friend prove a foe,
Oh! taste not the dangerous pleasure.
Thus friendship’s a flimsy affair, .
Thus riches and health are a bubble;
Thus there’s nothing delightful but care,
Nor anything pleasing but trouble.

If a mortal could point out that life
Which on earth could be nearest to heaven,
Let him, thanking his stars, choose a wife
To whom truth and honor are given.
But honor and truth are so rare,
And horns, when they’re cutting, so tingle,
That, with all my respect to the fair,
I’d advise him to sigh, and live single.

It appears from these premises plain,
That wisdom is nothing but folly;
That pleasure’s a term that means pain,
And that joy is your true melancholy;
That all those who laugh ought to cry,
That’t is fine frisk and fun to be grieving;
And that, since we must all of us die,
We should taste no enjoyment while living.

The Charleys in Grief

Macbeth to Lady Macbeth:
the time has been,
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools:
William Heath, The Charleys in Grief or the Funeral of the City Watch Boxe’s, ca.1829. Etching with hand coloring. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00923

Chapter 8 of Pierce Egan’s Life in London has a night scene on the east side of Temple Bar, in which Tom and Jerry catch a watchman sleeping and overturn his station or watchbox. George Cruikshank printed the original etching and one year later, William Heath was one of several artists who illustrated the sequel Real Life in London.

The night watchmen were first nicknamed Charleys during Charles II’s reign. See the history here: http://www.artinsociety.com/watchmen-goldfinders-and-the-plague-bearers-of-the-night.html. Charleys were ridiculed by caricaturists as elderly, often drunk, and incompetent.

Thanks to the Metropolitan Police Act in 1829, introduced by Sir Robert Peel, the old watchmen were replaced with a new metropolitan police force. Heath created another series of etchings for Thomas McLean to mark the last of the Charleys.

Attributed to William Heath, A Slap at the Charleys or a Tom & Jerry Lark, May 26, 1829. Etching with hand coloring. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00870. This is probably a pirated etching after Heath, given the incorrect signature in the bottom left.

 

Anonymous artist, The Last of the Charley’s !!!!, September 1829. Etching with hand coloring. British Museum.

William Heath, Peeling a Charley, September 29, 1829. Etching with hand coloring. British Museum

William Heath, The Last Day or the Fall of the Charleys, October 3, 1929. Etching with hand coloring. British Museum

Pierce Egan (1772-1849), Life in London; or, The day and night scenes of Jerry Hawthorne, esq., and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their rambles and sprees through the metropolis. …designed and etched by I. R. & G. Cruikshank (London: Printed for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1821). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Cruik 1821

Real Life in London, or, The Rambles and Adventures of Bob Tallyho, Esq.: and his cousin the Hon. Tom. Dashall, &c…. by an amateur, illustrated by William Heath , Richard Dighton , Henry Thomas Alken and Thomas Rowlandson (London: Printed for Jones & Co. … , 1821-1823). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Rowlandson 1821.2

W. T. (William Thomas) Moncrieff (1794-1857), Tom and Jerry: or, Life in London: an operatic extravaganza, in three acts (London: Thomas Richardson, [1828]). “Performed upwards of three hundred nights at the Adelphi Theatre, and recently revived at Covent Garden Theatre, Surrey, &co.” — T.p. Rare Books: Theatre Collection (ThX) 3593.686 v. 116

 

William Earl Dodge

“Sold for Old Copper,” New York Times, March 1, 1871

John James Audubon (1785-1851) had the copper printing plates for The Birds of America shipped to the United States in 1839. The plates survived a warehouse fire in 1845 and after his death, Lucy Audubon tried unsuccessfully to find a home for the collection. They were eventually sold in an 1870 “trade book” sale to Phelps, Dodge, & Co., where they were stored for an unknown time. In 1871 articles appeared in NY, Boston, and Chicago papers, voicing sadness that there was no one to save these important artifacts.

update**

It has been suggested that around 1873, William E. Dodge Jr. arranged various donations to museums around the country but in fact, earliest documented donation was a large group to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1876 and then another seven went to the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution in 1884-85. The Dodge family gave others to the Peabody Museum and four to Princeton University but we do not know when. The Smithsonian corresponded with William Dodge Jr. but credits his son, Cleveland Dodge. It is a difficult family to chronicle.

 

William Earle Dodge I (1805-1883) married Melissa Phelps (1809-1903), the daughter of Anson Green Phelps, a metal merchant. In 1833, Dodge and his father-in-law founded the mining firm Phelps, Dodge and Company. The company imported metals, mainly tin, from Great Britain and distributed them throughout the United States. Dodge also helped start the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and staunchly supported the Prohibition Movement, serving as President of the National Temperance Society from 1865 to 1883. A statue honoring his good work was commissioned by John Quincy Adams Ward (1830–1910), which stands today at the northeast corner of Bryant Park.

William Earl Dodge II (1832-1903) took over Phelps, Dodge, & Co. together with his cousin, Daniel Willis James, and transformed the company into one of the world’s largest and wealthiest mining corporations. Dodge II was a member of the Linnean Society, American Historical Association, New York Academy of Sciences, American Fine Arts Society, New York Geographical Society, New-York Historical Society, the New England Society of New York, the Century Association, and the National Academy of Design, among other clubs.

William Earl Dodge III (1858-1884) entered Princeton with the class of 1879, together with his younger brother Cleveland (1860-1926) and Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924). “Earl Dodge” was a born athlete and played every possible sport Princeton had to offer. His abilities are credited with influencing the success of the 1876 conference at which Yale, Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton formed a football association and a new era in college sports began. When W.E. Dodge III graduated, he went to work at his father’s company Phelps, Dodge & Co., while Cleveland went into the lumber industry under his uncle, Arthur Murray Dodge. With the unexpected death of his brother in 1885, Cleveland became president of Phelps, Dodge & Company.

 

Cleveland commissioned a bronze sculpture of his brother by the artist Daniel Chester French (1850-1931), unveiled in 1913. The seven foot, six-inch figure of a young man in a football uniform was modeled from a photograph of Dodge III. The object of many student pranks, it was taken off-view in 1931 and later, loaned to the Daniel Chester French Foundation. Today, it can be seen in the lobby of Jadwin Gymnasium.

William Dodge Jr. preserved the plates and made some donations to various institutions but records vary. Brothers William Dodge III and Cleveland are also mentioned in donor records.

See in particular: Waldemar Fries, “Where are Audubon’s Copper Plates,” Audubon Magazine, July-August 1966.

 

Princeton’s Murray-Dodge Hall consists of two buildings, joined by a cloister, each a memorial to a Princetonian who died young. Murray Hall was built in 1879 with a bequest left by Hamilton Murray 1872, who went down with the S.S. Ville de Havre when it sank in mid-ocean on November 22, 1873; he had written his will the night before he sailed. Dodge Hall was built in 1900 in memory of Earl Dodge (William Earl Dodge III, class of 1879), who died five years after graduation. The funds were given by his father William Earl Dodge II and his brother Cleveland. Dodge Hall continues to be a center for religious activities, housing the offices of the dean and assistant dean of the chapel, the denominational chaplains, and various student religious and social service organizations. Murray Hall has since the 1920s been the home of Theatre Intime.

 

Read the full story of the Audubon printing plates in Print Quarterly: http://www.printquarterly.com/8-contents/69-contents-2020.html

Saint Savvas

Kyrillos (Cyril), Translation from the Greek: Saint Savvas, the Sanctified [Depictions from his life with, in foreground, monastery of Saint Savvas in Jerusalem]. Engraved at Mount Athos by Kyrillos, with expenses defrayed by Paisios, 1847, November 14. Engraving printed on cloth. 51.5 x 82.5 cm. (image: ~50 x 70 cm.). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

We recently acquired another printed icon of the monastery of Saint Savvas near Jerusalem, this one depicting the building compound and its early church patron saint (439-532) with scenes from his life. The engraving was made at Mount Athos by the monk-engraver Kyrillos or Cyril, with expenses defrayed by another monk, Paisios. The plate is now preserved in the Saint Savvas monastery in the Holy Land, presumably indicating that this work was commissioned as a religious souvenir for that monastery.

The inscription below the frame reads: This icon of our Holy and Sanctified Father Savvas was engraved with the assistance of the most holy Athonite Kyrios Hatzihilarion and defrayed by Kyrios Paisios monk and bursar of the same monastery 1847 November 14 hand of Kyrillos Monk of Athos.


This is the description that comes along with the engraving:

The triangular fortress-like arrangement of buildings comprising the monastery of Saint Savvas in Palestine lying beside a torrent bed fills the entire width of the lower part of the engraving. A tall tower stands at the apex of the triangle; the katholikon and domed sepulchre of Saint Savvas occupy the inner courtyard. Fifteen male figures stand on the ramparts of the monastery walls, lower right. In front of the monastery are two kneeling Arabs, two pilgrims on horseback, and a couple of monks. A cameleer stands with three camels in the stream bed; above them are two monks strolling, another on horseback holding an umbrella, and a youth. In the distance is a tower.

The imposing full-length figure of Saint Savvas stands at the rear of the monastery; with his right hand he gives a blessing, and in his left holds an inscribed scroll: “Whosoever conquers the flesh has conquered nature. He who has conquered nature has set himself over nature.”

On either side of Savvas is the inscription “Saint Savvas” and in the upper right-hand corner a small bust of the Virgin carrying a scroll with an inscription (not translated). Either side of the saint are eight miniature scenes from his life; they are accompanied by the following captions:

Left: The Fiery Column, Which the Saint Saw One Night in Church Saint Savvas in the Lions’ Den Miracle Worked By Saint Savvas Concerning the Camel the Dormition of Saint Savvas

Right: He Administers the Eucharist to the Tired Fathers through His Prayers, The Saint Enables the Martyrs in the Fortress to Escape the Saint Addresses the Emperor the Murder of the Fathers

Below the miniatures, on the right: Monastery of Saint Savvas; and on the left: Saint Savvas’ Brook

This is one of 23 known engravings by Kyrillos, the most prolific of the engravers of Mount Athos, who was working on the Greek holy mountain between 1834 and 1862. An engraving tradition began on Mount Athos in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, and continued until a ten-year hiatus over the Greek War of Independence. In the period following, to which our print belongs, a “distinctive Athonite style” – noted to be entirely separated from western engraving traditions – was achieved, which “was to persist unaltered, without any radical changes, until the end of the century” (Papastratou).

See: Dore Papastratou, Paper icons: Greek orthodox religious engravings 1665-1899 (2 vols., Athens 1990) 524-5 (#558), see also 27-31. Marquand Library Oversize NE655.2 .P3713 1990q

Post, then Publish

Last February, Cuban American artist Edel Rodriguez drew the image of Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty (left) and then, posted it on his various websites and feeds. It was downloaded and reproduced by protesters worldwide. After it was already public, Der Spiegel‘s art editor saw it and asked Rodriguez if they could use it for their upcoming cover. The rest is history and the most talked about design of 2017.

These issues are going out to be bound, covers included.
Time ([New York, etc., Time Inc.]) Firestone Library (F) DeLong Room (RACK-PR)
Der Spiegel (Hamburg: R. Augstein, 1947- Oversize AP30 .S654q. DeLong Room (RACK-PR)

Note, the artist has just posted a number of new designs online, which may turn up soon on paper and ink publications.

Time won the American Society of Magazine Editors Cover of the Year award for its Oct. 24, 2016, cover with art by Edel Rodriguez.

The word magazine shares a root with the medieval French word for a warehouse, a treasury, or a place to store ammunition. It suggests a container for that which is useful, valuable, sometimes dangerous. This is where we all live now, and why magazines matter more than ever. Last summer when candidate Trump was in a battle with everyone from a gold star family to leaders within his own party, I asked Time Creative Director D.W. Pine to help us find the image to capture this moment which he produced with artist Edel Rodriguez, which we returned to again in the fall after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tapes. In the end, that which melted returned to form, and won the day, and it is the story of a lifetime. It is unfolding hour by hour, week by week, tweet by tweet; he has come after us, he has come after us all, he has come after the very principles of truth and accountability, and we intend to cover, and uncover, and capture all of this, to speak to everyone, to listen to everyone, because what we do is useful, and valuable, and sometimes dangerous. —Time Editor-in-Chief Nancy Gibbs delivered the following remarks at the American Magazine Media Conference in New York in February 2017.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/edel-rodriguez-n752381
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/edel-rodriguez-trump-illustration_us_590cbdede4b0104c734eb8d9
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/03/trump-beheads-the-statue-of-liberty-in-striking-magazine-cover-illustration/?utm_term=.5293fa704dba

 

Miseries Installed

On Saturday, July 1, 2017, a small show will open at the Princeton University Art Museum titled, The Miseries of Human Life and Other Amusements: Drawings by Thomas Rowlandson.

Written in 1806 by James Beresford (1764–1840), The Miseries of Human Life was extraordinarily successful, becoming a minor classic in the satirical literature of the day. Through a humorous dialogue between two old curmudgeons, the book details the “petty outrages, minor humiliations, and tiny discomforts that make up everyday human existence.”

The public loved it, dozens of editions were published, and printmakers rushed to illustrate their own versions of life’s miseries.

Thomas Rowlandson (1756/57–1827) began drawing scenes based on Beresford’s book as soon as it was published and after two years, the luxury print dealer Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834) selected fifty of his hand colored etchings for a new edition of Miseries. Many of the now-iconic characters and situations that the artist drew for this project—some based closely on Beresford’s text and others of his own invention—reappeared in later works, with variations on the Miseries turning up until the artist’s death.

In the early twentieth century, Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895, donated two thousand Rowlandson prints and all of the artist’s illustrated books to the Princeton University Library. Of particular importance was a small box of Rowlandson’s unpublished, undated drawings, including many specifically related to his Miseries series.

Here, in its first public presentation, is a selection of Rowlandson’s drawings from Brown’s donation. Just as in Rowlandson’s book, those specific to Beresford’s text are shown alongside others that illustrate life’s miseries more generally, including some from the Princeton University Art Museum’s collection. The sections follow the chapters, or “groans,” of Beresford’s book.


Particular thanks go to Laura Giles for suggesting a show of the library’s Rowlandson drawings. Princeton University Art Museum: http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/

 

 

The exhibition runs through October 2017, with a talk entitled “That’s So Annoying! Thomas Rowlandson and The Miseries of Human Life,” on Sunday, September 17, 2017, at 2:00 p.m. in 101 McCormick Hall, Princeton University

 

Comic Art at Princeton University

Speaking recently with Henry Martin, Class of 1948, he reminisced about conceiving and producing the first online exhibition for the department of rare books and special collections presenting the multifaceted Princeton University Library Cartoon Collection: https://lib-dbserver.princeton.edu/visual_materials/gallery/cruikshank/index.html

The web site was designed by Adriana Popescu, Special Collections Assistant in the Visual Materials Division, as part of an independent study project in the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies at Rutgers University. John Bidwell, former graphic arts curator and current Astor Curator and Rare Books Department Head, Morgan Library and Museum, oversaw the project. Permission to reproduce these images was kindly granted by The New Yorker Magazine, Inc., Warner Bros., Newspaper Enterprise Association, Inc., King Features Syndicate, Rube Goldberg Incorporated, Princeton Tiger Magazine, Mr. William Hewison, Mr. Michael Witte and Mr. Henry Martin.

With thanks to all of these participants, the site continues to be enjoyed after more than fifteen years.

Henry Martin writes:

“Several Princeton collections have strong holdings in comic art, cartoons, and pictorial satire. The Graphic Arts Collection has several thousand caricatures in the form of prints or drawings, mainly in the Dickson Q. Brown ’95 Collection of Thomas Rowlandson and the Richard W. Meirs ’88 Collection of George Cruikshank.

Although not strictly cartoonists, book illustrators specializing in comic themes such as Felix O.C. Darley, Augustus Hoppin, and John McLenan are well represented in the Sinclair Hamilton Collection. The Library has published a two-volume catalogue of the Hamilton Collection under the title of Early American Book Illustrators and Wood Engravers, 1670-1870 (1958-1968).

As a point of interest to the alumni of Princeton University, the Graphic Arts Collection has original artwork by several Princeton graduates: Whitney Darrow, Jr. ’31, Henry Martin ’48, Michael C. Witte ’66, and Henry E. Payne IV ’84. The Theatre Collection has caricatures of dancers, actors, and other show-business personalities, including several drawings by Al Hirschfeld, the indefatigable chronicler of the New York stage. Graphic Arts and the William Seymour Theatre Collection each have a few animation cels.

The Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library contains several significant cartoon collections, mostly documenting American political affairs between 1890 and 1950. The Political Cartoon Collection (MC180) has nearly a thousand original drawings, including 75 by Homer C. Davenport (1867-1912), a Hearst cartoonist, one of the most savage caricaturists of his day. In the William H. Walker Collection (MC068) are approximately a thousand pen-and-ink drawings executed by Walker (1871-1938), a regular contributor to Life magazine and a pungent critic of the political scene during the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

The Carey Cartoon Service Collection (MC156) consists of large color boards displayed in shop windows, most of them commenting on foreign policy issues during World War I. As of December 2002, soon to be added is the Derso and Kelen Cartoons. The curator for Public Policy papers has particulars about this new collection.

Altogether, these Princeton collections cover several centuries and many categories ranging from early political and humorous drawings of Rowlandson, Cruikshank, Gillray and Nast to modern comic strip art, caricature, magazine gag cartoons, political cartoons, and cels from animated films. Princeton’s resources are as deep as they are broad. Hoping to do justice to its diverse holdings, I have conceived this exhibit as an overview, a sampling of the cartoons that the Library has collected and preserved for the perusal of students, scholars, and devotees of the comic arts.”

Thomas Rowlandson, The Departure, handcolored etching, 1784. A satire on the Whig politician Charles James Fox, who had to retire from the fray momentarily until he could claim the Parliamentary seat for Westminster. Proverbially, he was sent to Coventry. Here he is bidding farewell to his supporters, the Duchess of Devonshire and Lady Duncannon, while his ally Edmund Burke stands ready to perform the role of postilion and his patron, the Prince of Wales, looks down on this tender scene from a palace window. Cartoonists usually depict the spoken word with a conversation balloon, almost the trademark of present-day comic strips. In this example, Rowlandson has his characters speak in rhyme, with balloons indication where the words belong.

Pickwick Papers Iconography

The image of Samuel Pickwick, the protagonist of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, drawn and etched by Robert Seymour (1798-1836) had an immediate and lasting impact, reaching beyond the pages of Dickens’ novel. Seymour committed suicide shortly after the creation of this character and the iconography of the series—19 issues over 20 months between March 1836 and October 1837—went through several visual adaptations before it was completed. As new editions continued to appear, variant designs were used to present the words to the reading public, although none has yet to improve on Seymour’s original character.

No one understood the power of the visual image better than the advertising executive Samuel William Meek (1895-1981), Vice President at the J. Walter Thompson Company, who along with his wife Priscilla Mitchell Meek (1899-1999), collected Dickens. Mr. Meek helped build a worldwide advertising empire for the Thompson Company while manager of Thompson’s London office. He handled campaigns for the General Motors Corporation, Pan American World Airways, and Reader’s Digest among many others.

Meek assembled a collection of Pickwick iconography, including a unique binding proof, title pages, advertising designs, and subsequent promotional use of the Pickwick figures outside the world of literature. Thanks to the discerning eye of our generous donor Bruce Willsie, Class of 1986, two volumes of this valuable material have come to the Graphic Arts Collection. Here is a quick list (Pickwick Papers iconography ) and are a few samples: