Attention Princeton Students: Submit Your Essay to Win the 2017-2018 Elmer Adler Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize

Deadline: Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Are you an avid collector of books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, or other materials found in libraries? If so, consider submitting an essay about your collection for a chance to win the Elmer Adler Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize!

Endowed from the estate of Elmer Adler, who for many years encouraged the collecting of books by Princeton undergraduates, this prize is awarded annually to undergraduate students who, in the opinion of a committee of judges, have shown the most thought and ingenuity in assembling a thematically coherent collection of books, manuscripts, or other material normally collected by libraries.

Please note that the rarity or monetary value of the student’s collection is not as important as the creativity and persistence shown in collecting and the fidelity of the collection to the goals described in a personal essay.

The personal essay is about a collection owned by the student that he or she actively collects or curates as opposed to an essay that focuses on whatever is found in one’s library. The essay should describe the thematic or artifactual nature of the collection and discuss with some specificity the unifying characteristics that have prompted the student to think of certain items as a collection. It should also convey a strong sense of the student’s motivations for collecting and what their particular collection means to them personally.

The history of the collection, including collecting goals, acquisition methods, and milestones are of particular interest, as is a critical look at how the goals may have evolved over time and an outlook on the future development of the collection. Essays are judged in equal measures on the strength of the collection and the strength of the writing.

 

Winners will receive their prizes at an annual dinner of the Friends of the Princeton University Library, which they are expected to attend. The first-prize essay has the honor of representing Princeton University in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest organized by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America. Please note that per the ABAA’s contest rules, the winning essay will be entered exactly as submitted to the Adler Prize contest, without possibility of revision. In addition, the first-prize winner will have the opportunity to have his or her essay featured in a Library-affiliated publication.

Prize amounts:
First prize: $2000
Second prize: $1500
Third prize: $1000

The deadline for submission is Tuesday, November 28, 2017. Essays should be submitted via e-mail, in a Microsoft Word attachment, to Julie Mellby, jmellby@princeton.edu. They should be between 9-10 pages long, 12pt, double-spaced, with a 1-inch margin, and include a separate cover sheet with your name, class year, residential address, email address, and phone number.

In addition to the essay, each entry should include a selected bibliography of no more than 3 pages detailing the items in the collection. Please note that essays submitted in file formats other than Microsoft Word, submitted without cover sheet, or submitted without a bibliography will not be forwarded to the judges.

For inquiries, please contact Julie Mellby, jmellby@princeton.edu.

Recent Adler Prize Winning Essays:

Matthew Kritz, ’18. “Books Unforgotten: Finding the Lost Volumes of My Tradition.”

Nandita Rao, ’17. “Of Relationships: Recording Ties through My LP Collection.”

Samantha Flitter, ’16. “The Sand and the Sea: An Age of Sail in Rural New Mexico.” also the recipient of the 2016 National Collegiate Book Collection Contest Essay Award.

Anna Leader ’18. “‘Like a Thunderstorm’; A Shelved Story of Love and Literature” Princeton University Library Chronicle 76:3 (spring)

Rory Fitzpatrick ‘16. “The Search for the Shape of the Universe, One Book at a Time.” PULC 75:3 (spring)

Natasha Japanwala ’14. “Conversation Among the Ruins: Collecting Books By and About Sylvia Plath.” PULC 74:2 (winter)

Mary Thierry ’12. “Mirror, Mirror: American Daguerrean Portraits.” PULC 73:3 (spring)

Solar Eclipse Returns

http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/3044
After a weekend of record attendance, the exhibition Transient Effects: The Solar Eclipses and Celestial Landscapes of Howard Russell Butler, closed at the Princeton University Art Museum and Butler’s triptych Solar Eclipse, Lompoc 1923, returned to Firestone Library where it has been on view in the 3rd floor study room.

As the curator notes, “On Aug 21, 2017 the first solar eclipse of this century [was] visible in the U.S. The solar eclipse has always been a source of mystery and fascination, serving at some times as a foreboding omen and at others as a key means of understanding the scientific concept of general relativity. In 1918, Howard Russell Butler (1856–1934)—a portrait and landscape artist and graduate of Princeton University’s first school of science—painted a new kind of portrait, of a very unusual sitter: the total solar eclipse. With remarkable accuracy, he captured those rare seconds when the moon disappears into darkness—crowned by the flames of the sun, whose brilliant colors had eluded photography.”

Undaunted by the rainstorm today in Princeton or the small size of our elevators, the art handlers managed to get the oil painting upstairs and back on the wall. Thanks to everyone for making this happen so quickly.

For more information, see the exhibition website: http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/transient-effects/painter-sun/eclipse-paintings-howard-russell-butler

Printed Words & Images in America before 1900

Over the long weekend a broad cross-section of historian attended “Good, Fast, Cheap: Printed Words & Images in America before 1900,” a joint conference sponsored by the American Printing History Association (APHA) and the Center for Historic American Visual Culture (CHAViC) at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS). https://printinghistory.org/2017-conference/

The program was organization by Sara T. Sauers, APHA VP for Programs, and Nan Wolverton, AAS Director, CHAViC, (with the help of many others). Besides two dozen papers, there were exhibits, receptions, and a performance. A private visit to the Museum of Printing History in Haverhill, Massachusetts, rounded out the weekend. http://apha.memberlodge.org/event-2622155

We learned about typos in the Declaration of Independence, female run and printed newspapers (not only as sheet feeders), the time and cost of adding an intaglio image to a letterpress book, pictorial envelopes, what happened when newspaper publishers ran out of white paper, what happens when you take the ornaments off title pages (including those of William Morris), and much much more.

My favorite printed envelope

APHA is a membership organization founded in 1974 that encourages the study of the history of printing and related arts and crafts, including calligraphy, typefounding, typography, papermaking, bookbinding, illustration, and publishing. The organization does this through a wide variety of programs and services: the annual conference and Lieberman Lecture series; the fellowship program; the scholarly journal Printing History; and annual individual and institutional awards that honor distinguished achievement in the field of printing history.

CHAViC was established at the AAS in 2005 and is dedicated to providing opportunities for educators to learn about American visual culture and resources, promoting the awareness of AAS collections, and stimulating research and intellectual inquiry into American visual materials. CHAViC accomplishes these goals by offering fellowships, exhibitions, workshops and seminars, conferences, resources, and improved access to AAS collections.

La Chromolithographie et la Photochromolithographie

One of the best chapters in this volume on lithographic printing describes and illustrates a commercial pantograph, which could be used to reduce or enlarge a picture as well as easily transferring the image to another surface. Written by Frederic Hesse, the technical director of the Lithographic Atelier of the National Printing Office in Vienna, the descriptions are specific without being overly complex.

Frédéric Hess, La chromolithographie et la photo-chromolithographie (Paris: A. Muller, [1897]). Translation of: Die Chromolithographie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der modernen auf photographischer Grundlage basirenden Verfahren. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

 

For a book on color printing, there is little actual color inside but many black and white diagram of machinery and process. For example, Hesse shows how to dis-assemble an image into separate color sections, each one drawn and then printed from a different stone with a different color ink.

Hesse went on to publish Die Schriftlithographie: eine theoretisch-praktische Anleitung zur Erlernung der Schrift: mit Vorlageblättern sämtlicher in der lithographischen Technik zur Anwendung kommenden Schriftcharaktere unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der modernen Kunstrichtung = Lithographic writing: a theoretical and practical guide to the study of the writing: with preliminary sheets of all characters used in the lithographic technique with special consideration of the modern art direction.

Pfeffel’s Fables

Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel (1736-1809), Fables et poésies choisies de Théophile-Conrad Pfeffel: traduites en vers français et précédées d’une notice biographique par M. Paul Lehr (Strasbourg: G. Silbermann et L. Derivaux, 1840). Graphic Arts RECAP-97004798

Originally written in German and published as Fabeln und poetische Erzählungen, nine editions of the text were published between 1840 and 1861. Paul Lehr (1787-1865) did the French translation in 1840 for the publishers Sibermann and Derivaus, who paid special attention to the design and printing of this edition. Michael Twyman notes that some of the earliest datable examples of the five-colour method are to be found in this volume.

Georges Zipélius (1808-1890) drew the illustrations and Frédéric-Emile Simon (1805-1886) was responsible for the chromolithographic printing on the title page and on the four chapter or book titles, with text printed by Gustave Silbermann (1801-1876).


David Whitesell, at the University of Virginia wrote a nice piece on planographic printing found in their collection, commenting

“Printers have long sought to demonstrate and advertise their prowess through specimen work, and lithographers have been no exception. Perhaps the finest early chromolithographic printing was that executed by the Strasbourg firm of Frédéric Émile Simon. During the 1830s Simon teamed with the innovative calligrapher Jean Midolle to issue three extraordinary specimen books . . . [including] Album du Moyen Âge (1836). That many of its plates are heightened with dusted gold, silver, and bronze powders, and even some discreet hand coloring, does not detract from their beauty and technical mastery.”

The Young Crocodile and the Lizard

One day a young crocodile, on the banks of the Niger, discovered a lizard; He was going to devour him. “Grace!” said the reptile, “For your cousin.”
“How talkative! You my cousin? Explain the matter to me. – You see in me, my dear parent, A crocodile still child.”
“Indeed, yes, the more I consider you, the more I perceive that we resemble each other; But to dispel my doubts, let us go and find my mother; Quickly, my dear cousin, let us plunge!”
The frightened lizard: “What! you want me to dive? I never supported the water. – Oh! for the blow, all handsome!
“You think I’m imposing it by a rude lie: I’m not your dupe, and I’m going, neighbor, to swallow you!”
At these words, opening his huge mouth, he crunched without pity the alleged cousin.

One cannot always be deceived by appearance.

Sunbonnet Sue and I Want My Man

Thanks to a generous donation from David S. Brooke, director emeritus of the Clark Art Institute, the Graphic Arts Collection has acquired a new group of magic lantern slides. Among them are an almost complete set of “Sunbonnet Sue,” presumably images to accompany the song of that title, music by Gus Edwards (1879-1945) and lyrics by Will D. Cobb (1876-1930), published in 1908 by Gus Edwards Music Publishing Company.

In addition, there is a set of beautifully colored slides from the firm of Scott and Van Altena (SVA) of New York City, with the title “I Want My Man.” Scott and Van Altena are discussed at length in a recent article entitled “Outstanding Colorists of American Magic Lantern Slides,” by Terry Borton (American Magic-Lantern Theater. P.O. Box 44 East Haddam CT) in a recent Magic Lantern Gazette. He notes:

“One other company needs to be mentioned for out-standing color, both of detail, and of overall flamboyant impact. Scott and Van Altena (SVA) was the leading producer of the “illustrated song” slides that became popular about 1900, so popular that a minimum order became 20 sets and an order of 200 sets was not uncommon. The sets were usually of 12 to 14 images, selling for $5.00 (about $132.00 today).

The slides combine life models, elaborate photographic montages, and vibrant color—all depicting the lyrics of popular songs sung in movie theaters, and all perfectly matching the spirit of a new century. “Novelty” montages were created by combining negatives in a process that SVA guarded closely. The coloring was done in two rooms of the company’s New York studio, using aniline paints applied by camel-hair brushes.

John D. Scott and Edward Van Altena, the principals of the company, had somewhat different roles. Van Altena, whose mother had been an artist, became a photographer, and was the company’s master in that field. Scott was the master colorist—though Van Altena was responsible for coloring half the sets. Scott, who was deaf, had gone to the Lexington School for the Deaf, where he was taught by Dwight Elmendorf, whose comments about coloring were presented earlier, and who will reappear as an out-standing colorist later in this article.”

https://library.sdsu.edu/pdf/scua/ML_Gazette/MLGvol26no01.pdf

 

 

You can listen to a recording of the song online or play it through YouTube, links to both below.

http://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Crecorded_cd%7C555633

 

Schiller’s Gedichte

When Lucien Goldschmidt and Weston Naef got to Schiller’s Gedichte, while working on The Truthful Lens, they did not mince words but described it as “the most sumptuous early German book illustrated with photographs.” —The Truthful Lens: a Survey of the Photographically Illustrated Book, 1844-1914 , no. 145 (1980). GARF Oversize TR925 .G73

 

To mark the centenary of Friedrich Schiller’s birth, a Jubiläum (anniversary) edition of his poems was published between 1859 and 1862, decorated with 44 albumen silver prints by Joseph Albert (1825-1886), after drawings by Böcklen, Kirchner, C. Pilothy, F. Pilothy, Ramberg, Schwind, and others. Throughout the text are woodcuts by an unidentified artist after designs by the Nazarene artist Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872).

The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired this extraordinary book, beautifully bound in beveled-edge wooden boards covered with dark green embossed morocco and brass-corner bosses.

 

Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), Schiller’s Gedichte, mit Photographieen nach Zeichnungen von Böcklen … [et al.]; und Holzschnitten nach Zeichnungen von Julius Schnorr (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1859-1862). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

 

 

Ode To Joy
Friedrich Schiller, translated by William F. Wertz (first section)

Joy, thou beauteous godly lightning,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire drunken we are ent’ring
Heavenly, thy holy home!
Thy enchantments bind together,
What did custom stern divide,
Every man becomes a brother,
Where thy gentle wings abide.

Chorus.
Be embrac’d, ye millions yonder!
Take this kiss throughout the world!
Brothers—o’er the stars unfurl’d
Must reside a loving Father.

Who the noble prize achieveth,
Good friend of a friend to be;
Who a lovely wife attaineth,
Join us in his jubilee!
Yes—he too who but one being
On this earth can call his own!
He who ne’er was able, weeping
Stealeth from this league alone!

Chorus.
He who in the great ring dwelleth,
Homage pays to sympathy!
To the stars above leads she,
Where on high the Unknown reigneth.

Joy is drunk by every being
From kind nature’s flowing breasts,
Every evil, every good thing
For her rosy footprint quests.
Gave she us both vines and kisses,
In the face of death a friend,
To the worm were given blisses
And the Cherubs God attend.

Chorus.
Fall before him, all ye millions?
Know’st thou the Creator, world?
Seek above the stars unfurl’d,
Yonder dwells He in the heavens.

 

Le Magasin charivarique

Le Magasin charivarique. Musée comique, magasin de charges et de caricatures [The Charivaric Store. Museum of Comics, a store of cartoons and caricatures] (Paris, 1834). Full page prints by Honoré Daumier, Benjamin, Grandville, and others. From the collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow; purchased from Goodspeed’s Book Shop; previously owned by William M. Ivins, Jr., former curator of the Department of Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process.

A ministerial newspaper editor

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a complete set of Le Magasin charivarique, comprised of two parts in three volumes. The first volume includes nine lithographs by Honoré Daumier (D. 219, 220, 223, 224, 225, 229, 231, 234 and 237). The second volume (issued in two parts, plates 1-19 and 20-37) containing 14 ‘chalk-plate’ prints (Bouvy 23-36).

“The only large cuts that Daumier made, aside from two or three odd ones like Le Carnaval and Le Compliment, that came out in the Charivari, are the series of ‘chalk plate’ caricatures that the Charivari published in the early 1830s, many of which subsequently appeared, printed carefully on one side only of good paper, in the Magasin Charivarique . . . In certain ways, these two series exhibit him at the height of his prowess. For sheer brutal dominant power of presentation there are few things to be found in the history of the relief print finer than a number of the early chalk plates” –William Ivins, “Daumier,” in The Colophon, part V, 1931.

 

Inside front cover.

When the vessel is full, it overflows. Monseigneurs, take care.

 

A caricature of the French magistrate Nicolas Martin du Nord (1790-1847) as a bear climbing a tree labeled conspiracy “to earn his living.”

 

 

Every Building on the Thames Strip

John Heaviside Clark, Panorama of the Thames from London to Richmond (London: Samuel Leigh, ca. 1824). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process


In 1966, American artist Ed Ruscha pieced together photographs showing both sides of the Los Angeles Sunset Strip from Beverly Hills and Laurel Canyon. The mile and a half stretch of road became a 24-foot-long leporello or concertina folded book, which he called Every Building on the Sunset Strip.

Nearly 150 years earlier in 1824, Scottish printmaker John Heaviside Clark (ca. 1770-1836) created 45 aquatinted etchings of the Thames River, showing the buildings and landscape on both sides from London to Richmond. The 15-mile stretch became a bound volume called Panorama of the Thames from London to Richmond. If it were unbound, the prints would extend 59 feet (18 meters).

 

Edward Ruscha, Every Building on the Sunset Strip ([Los Angeles]: E. Ruscha, 1966). 1 folded sheet ([53] p.). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2006-2722N

 


 

John Heaviside Clark was sometimes known as Waterloo Clark, after the drawings he made of the battlefield. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and published A Practical Essay on the Art of Colouring and Painting Landscapes (1807); A Practical Illustration of Gilpin’s Day (1824); The Amateur’s Assistant, or, A series of instructions in sketching from nature (1826); Elements of Drawing and Painting in Water Colours; (1841)(GAX) 2003-0273N; and Friedrich Wilhelm Delkeskamp (1794-1872), Panorama of the Rhine and the adjacent country from Cologne to Mayence (ca. 1830)(Ex) Oversize 2008-0020Q.


 

Being a pleasant and profitable companion for children

It was a good day. In preparing to digitize the smallest volumes in the Sinclair Hamilton collection of American books illustrated with woodcuts and wood engravings, we made a search for the few missing copies. Many were found including this 1774 edition of The History of the Holy Jesus, printed and sold by John Boyle in Marlborough Street, Boston. Note the frontispiece portrait of “a lover of their precious souls.”

 


Many of the illustrations in this 1774 edition are thought to have been cut by Isaiah Thomas (1749-1831) after the metal relief plates engraved by James Turner (1722-1759), first published in 1745. The Sinclair Hamilton Collection has six editions of The History of the Holy Jesus, 1749: Hamilton 28s; 1749: Hamilton 1311(1)s; 1767: Hamilton 68(2)s; 1774: Hamilton 68(1)s; 1779: Hamilton 88s; and 1958 (1746): Hamilton 1311(2)s.

For more, see Dale Roylance’s “Of Sin and Salvation,” in Princeton University Library Chronicle Winter 1998 http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/pulc/pulc_v_59_n_2.pdf

One of the cuts completely changed by Thomas is this image of three stars, which replaced a picture of three wise men. Two might be seen as falling stars, or shooting stars. Below are a few more of his cuts.

 


The History of the Holy Jesus: containing a brief and plain account of his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven: and his coming again at the great and last Day of Judgment: being a pleasant and profitable companion for children: composed on purpose for their use / by a lover of their precious souls. The twenty-fifth edition. Boston: Printed and sold by John Boyle … , 1774. Woodcuts attributed to Isaiah Thomas. Cf. Hamilton. Inscribed “Moley Heving, her book” and “Moley Heving, her book, bought the year 1779, March the 22, price four shillings.”–in ink, on frontispiece recto. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 68(1)s