Princeton’s department of rare books and special collections holds a group of 11 carved wood plaques that tell stories about Vishnu, Rama, and the Ramayana. The first (above) shows the four armed Vishnu encountering a sage (not the Buddha) in the forest.

The next (above and below) shows Rama and his brother Lakshmana hunting in the forest, being lured away from Sita by the golden deer, the demon Maricha in disguise, so Ravana can steal her away.

A third plaque (below) depicts Hanuman finding the forlorn Sita in the forest, probably after she has been abducted by the evil Ravana, to reassure her that Rama is on his way to rescue her.
These are shown in no particular order and we have eight additional scenes. Museum Objects01. Our sincere thanks to Lisa Arcamono in helping to identify the stories.

Within the Laurence Hutton collection of life and death masks, the largest number of a single person are of Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized 17 December 1770–26 March 1827). There are two from the cast taken during his lifetime and two from the cast taken a few days after the composer’s death. A fifth was made in bronze from life.

In Hutton’s autobiography, Talks in a library with Laurence Hutton (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905), he writes,

“There are two masks of Beethoven over which I was much perplexed. One came from Berlin and was official; the other was discovered in Stockholm—in a back street and in a cellar—and it had no history behind it. They are both clearly from nature, they are both unquestionably Beethoven, and they are not entirely alike.

I discovered after a long search that one mask was made by [Franz] Klein from life in 1812 when Beethoven was in his forty-second year. This the experts consider the better of the two. Klein’s bust of Beethoven, taken from it, is a familiar object in the music-halls and music-shops and in the homes of music-lovers the world over.

The second mask was made from death in 1827 by [Josef] Dannhauer. The eyes, to protect the lashes, were covered with small squares of cloth. In comparing the two, one is struck by the absence of consciousness in the cast from death, and by the decidedly conscious look in the other, as if the original knew he was sitting for his picture and was trying very hard ‘to look pleasant.’”

Two plaster masks after the death mask by Josef Dannhauer in 1827.

Three masks after the life mask by Franz Klein in 1812.

Ernst Julius Hähnel (1811–1891), Beethoven monument in Bonn, 1845. The casting was done by Jakob Daniel Burgschmiet of Nuremberg.

On a recent visit to the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford (http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/) several devices on display were primarily for the use of artists rather than scientist. A Wollaston Prism Pattern Camera Lucida (seen above) was made in London during the 19th century and is one of 64 variations in the museum. They are a much easier alternative for drawing in nature than the portable camera obscura seen below.

Also on view is the photography equipment used or associated with Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), who was a lecturer in mathematics at Christ Church. Note the 1860 wet collodion outfit of photographic chemicals (below right) from Hockin & Company carries the initials C.L.D. The box camera and plate tank are of the period, although they might not be from his personal studio.

An easy to use database provides more Dodgson material with images: http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/collections/imu-search-page/record-details/?thumbnails=on&irn=6022&TitInventoryNo=61498

    Left: Unidentified death mask.   Right: John Watson Gordon, Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane (1773–1860). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. 1848. Oil on canvas. © The Royal Society of Edinburgh.

There is one mask in the Laurence Hutton Collection of Life and Death Masks unmarked and unidentified. Might this be the death mask of Sir Thomas Brisbane? Here are a few known portraits next to our mask. What do you think?

Sir Thomas Brisbane led a brigade in the Battle of Plattsburgh in 1814, a loss for the British (artist unknown, courtesy State Library of Queensland).

According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography:

Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane (1773-1860), governor, was born on 23 July 1773 at Brisbane House, near Largs, Ayrshire, son of a family of ancient Scottish lineage. He was educated by tutors and attended both the University of Edinburgh and the English Academy, Kensington. In 1789 he was commissioned an ensign in the 38th Regiment, which next year he joined in Ireland; there he struck up a long and profitable friendship with a fellow subaltern, Arthur Wellesley. From 1793 to 1798 he served in Flanders as a captain, from 1795 to 1799 in the West Indies as a major, and from 1800 to 1803 he commanded the 69th Regiment in Jamaica as a lieutenant-colonel, earning high praise from the governor, Sir George Nugent. From 1803 to 1805 he served in England, but when the 69th was ordered to India went on half-pay in Scotland because of his health.

Model for an “Umbrella Plane,” ca. 1910. Wood, wire, and varnished silk. Housed in a specially made fibre-board box.
Graphic Arts Collection. Museum objects.

Last July 2014, the Associated Press announced “Aviation enthusiasts from as many as 70 countries are gathering in Oshkosh this week for the annual Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture. The convention draws about a half million people to the week-long event at near Wittman Regional Airport. Thousands of planes have already landed at the airport.”The Experimental Aircraft Association’s Fly-In Convention, now known as EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, has been in existence nearly as long as the association itself. Each year more than 500,000 people gather in Wisconsin for a week of aviation events. 10,000 of them fly into Oshkosh in a wide variety of aircraft.

In 2016, several EAA members hope to build and fly Project Nemethis, not a replica but loosely based on the umbrella plane, or ‘Merry Widow’ or ‘cycloplane,’ now housed at Princeton. These passionate aviators have kindly shared a photo and a few facts.

“If Vought, Romme, McCormick and Lille had access to today’s technology and vast material selection…I feel they would have built something like Nemethis. The plane that is being built is known as project “Nemethis” a play on words. …Loosely based on Dr. Stanley J Nemeth’s 1930’s “umbrella” plane design of a round wing, which was loosely based on the McCormick/Romme.

“Project Nemethis . . . is however being constructed of aircraft grade aluminum rather than bamboo and strips of wood. It is eight sided rather than nine and two of the three control surfaces will be imbedded in the inverted V tail which is unique to Nemethis. The airfoil is very similar; and, in the air, it would take a trained observer to not mistake it for one of the McCormick/Romme umbrella planes.”

My sincere thanks to Lee Fisher, who notes, “If there is anybody that should have an interest in the project, I can talk about it for hours.” For more information on the organization, see: http://flyin.airventure.org/media/EAA_AirVenture_history.pdf

Millionaire Harold Fowler McCormick (1872-1941, Class of 1896), was an aeronautics enthusiast and supporter of the work of the New York inventor William S. Romme (born 1867). Romme designed eleven unique airplanes including a circular plane, which became known as the umbrella plane.

Together with John D. Rockefeller, Jr., McCormick funded the research and construction of the umbrella plane, developed under the supervision of a twenty-year-old engineer named Chance Vought (1890-1930). A model of this aircraft hung in his Aviation room on 675 Rush Street in Chicago for many years, until the estate with donated to Princeton by one of McCormick’s step-sons Alexander Stillman. This model is now at Princeton and we hope a new plane will fly in the next year or two.

        
“Two or three winters ago,” wrote Royal Cortissoz, art critic for The New York Times, “Mr. Gerome Brush left a new and delightful impression in one of the exhibitions with a bust of Joan of Arc. We have seen nothing of his work since, but now about a dozen examples of it have been brought together at the Knoedler gallery and it is possible to form a fuller judgment on his talent. The talent is there, beyond a doubt, and the first thing we observe about it is its original grain.” (November 24, 1918)

The son of painter George de Forest Brush (1855-1941) and sculptor/aviator Mittie (Mary) Taylor Whelpley Brush (1866-1949), Gerome grew up in the artists’ colony in Dublin, New Hampshire, next door to Samuel Clemens. He was named after his father’s painting master, Jean-Léon Gérome and apprenticed with his father as both a painter and sculptor.

When Gerome Brush and his wife, actress Louise Seymour, settled in Boston, he accepted several civic commissions, including murals for the Children’s Hospital and individual portraits of the entire Boston Symphony orchestra. These charcoal drawings were later published in a 1936 trade edition with biographies of each musician.

Gerome Brush (1888-1954), St. Joan, 1915. Bronze. Signed and dated in the base. Cast at A. Kunst Foundry, New York. Graphic Arts Collection Museum Objects

Due to renovation, life and death masks that have been on view in our Scribner room for many years are going back into our vaults. Thanks to John Delaney for the reference citations below. Seen above are (clockwise from the top standing):

Walt Whitman (1819-1892), original death mask by Samuel Murray, assisted by Eakins. See Moore, TALKS…, pp. 214-15, 223-4.

John Keats (1795-1821), life mask by Benjamin Robert Haydon, from the original in National Portrait Gallery, London. See Hutton, PORTRAITS…, pp. xv, 105-10; Moore, TALKS…, pp. 176, 177.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), death mask, from the original. See Hutton, PORTRAITS…, pp. 182-6; Moore, TALKS…, pp. 199-200; T. G. Willson, “The Death Masks of Dean Swift, Princeton University Library Chronicle, XVI, No. 3 (Spring 1955), 107-10; and Museum Objects Information File.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850), life mask, from the original by B. R. Haydon. See Hutton, PORTRAITS…, pp. 100-5; Moore, TALKS…, pp. 176-7.

Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), death mask [“Authenticity not verified”]. See “The Faces of Yorick,” by William Holtz, Queens Quarterly, LXXVI (1969), No. 3, an unpaginated offprint in Museum Objects Information File.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), death mask, from the original. See Hutton, Portraits…, pp. 96-100; Moore, Talks…, pp. 159-61.

                      
Keats (left) Whitman (right)