Beginning this week, Frederick Wiseman’s newest documentary Ex Libris: The New York Public Library will be screened in New York City. If you can’t get to the city in person, NYPL will host the filmmaker at 7:05 p.m. on Thursday, September 14, 2017, along with Errol Morris, as part of their “LIVE From The NYPL” series.
You can find it at https://livestream.com/nypl/events/7643977. They promise conversation along with segments of the film and the series is usually archived, so it can also be watched at a later date.
Advertised as “behind the scenes of one of the world’s greatest institutions of learning, capturing the vast programmatic scope of NYC’s library system. The NYPL is blessed with uniformly passionate staff and deeply devoted, appreciative bibliophiles and beneficiaries across its 92 branches. The film reveals a venerable place of welcome, cultural exchange, and intellectual creativity.”
We might see Anthony W. Marx, President of The New York Public Library. Marx has a B.A. from Yale; an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University; and a Ph.D., also from Princeton.
Here is an earlier video history.
To see an elephant folio of the early [Floor plans of the New York Public Library], try: RECAP HG2613.N494 W5554 1929e
Frank Weitenkampf (1866-1962), Chiaroscuro prints (New York, 1916). “List of chiaroscuro prints in the Library’s Print Room”: p. 6-7. Graphic Arts: Reference Collection (GARF) NE1048 .W4
It was a relief to hear today that our friends in Chiapas, Mexico, are shaken but safe. We heard “the worst of the damage was in the lowlands, not in the mountains. Fortunately the famous facades of the colonial churches in San Cristobal de Las Casas survived intact as did the major Maya sites.”
Best wishes to these artists and their families.
Carlota Duarte, Mirror to our world = Un espejo de nuestro mundo (San Cristóbal de las Casa, Chiapas, México: Chiapas Photography Project, 2007).
Limited edition portfolios published to commemorate the achievements of the Maya photographers in the Chiapas Highlands. Artists include: Genaro Sántiz Gómez; Petul Hernández Guzmán; Domingo Pérez Sánchez; Lucía Sántiz Girón; Xunka’ López Díaz; Domingo Sántiz Gómez; Maruch Sántiz Gómez; Emiliano Guzmán Meza; and Juana López López.
In clamshell box, with hand-woven cotton textile slipcase designed after a pirik mochebal of the 1970’s/80’s. Copy no. 5 of 100. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2008-0459Q
Directions To Servants In General; And In Particular To The Butler, Cook, Footman, Coachman, Groom, House-Steward, And Land-Steward, Porter, Dairy-Maid, Chamber-Maid, Nurse, Lanundress, House-Keeper, Tutoress, Or Governess by the Reverend Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D.
“I have a Thing in the Press, begun above twenty-eight Years ago, and almost finish’d: It will make a Four Shilling Volume; and is such a PERFECTION OF FOLLY, that you shall never hear of it, till it is printed, and then you shall be left to guess. Nay, I have ANOTHER OF THE SAME AGE, which will-require a long Time to perfect, and is worse than the former; in which I will serve you the same Way.” Letters to and from Dr. Swift … http://jonathanswiftarchive.org.uk/browse/year/text_4_18_4.html
Jonathan Swift worked on a parody of courtesy or conduct books for nearly three decades and it was probably still unfinished when finally published. “Lock up a cat or a dog in some room or closet,” he recommends “so as to make such a noise all over the house as may frighten away the thieves, if any should attempt to break or steal in.” The book is hilarious.
This led to Jane Collier’s An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting in 1753, which is basically an advice book on how to nag. The book came and went quickly but in 1806, William Miller chose to issue a new edition, with a frontispiece by James Gillray.
So popular was the volume that Thomas Tegg published an even newer edition in 1808, this time with a frontispiece and four other prints by George Woodward, engraved by Thomas Rowlandson.
‘Directions to the Cook’ from Directions to Servants by Jonathan Swift – Read by Sir Alec Guinness
Detail from George Woodward’s frontispiece (etched by Thomas Rowlandson)
Below, “Train up a Child in the way he should go / and when he is old he will not depart from it. -Solomon.” Left: hanging two cats from their feet. Lower left: Tying a bottle to a cat’s tail. Right: Feeding very hot cheese to a cat.–George Woodward
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Directions to servants (Dublin: Printed by G. Faulkner, 1745). Rare Books (Ex) 3950.331
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Directions to servants: in general, and in particular, to the butler, cook, footman, coachman, groom, house-steward and land-steward, porter, dairy-maid, chamber-maid, nurse, laundress, house-keeper, tutoress, or governess (London: Printed for R. Dodsley …, 1745). Rare Books: South East (RB) RHT 18th-581
Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting; with proper rules for the exercise of that pleasant art, humbly addressed in the first part, to the master, husband… (London: Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand, 1753). Rare Books (Ex) 2015-0337N
Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting: with proper rules for the exercise of that pleasant art : humbly addressed, in the first part, to the master, husband, … The second edition, corrected. (London: Printed for A. Millar … , 1757). Rare Books (Ex) BJ1843 .C64 1757
Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting; with proper rules for the exercise of that amusing study. Humbly addressed, Part I. To the Master, Husband… Fourth edition (London: printed for Andrew Millar, in the Strand, 1753; reprinted for William Miller, Albemarle Street, 1806). Frontispiece by James Gillray.
Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting. New ed., corr., rev. and illustrated with five prints / from designs by G.M. Woodward (London: Printed for Tegg … by Hazard and Carthew …, 1808). Engraved by Thomas Rowlandson. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Rowlandson 1808
Jane Collier (1715?-1755), An essay on the art of ingeniously tormenting. A new ed., corr., rev., and illustrated with five prints, from designs by G.M. Woodward (London: Printed for T. Tegg and R. Scholey, 1809). Engraved by Thomas Rowlandson. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Rowlandson 1808.11
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Jonathan Swift’s directions to servants. With drawings by Joseph Low (New York, Pantheon Books [1964]). Cotsen Children’s Library (CTSN) Eng 20 39678
The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a number of fine press editions of Greek poetry, thanks to matching funds provided by the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund. Thank you to Dimitri H. Gondicas, Executive Director, Program in Hellenic Studies. Lecturer in Classics and Hellenic Studies. Stanley J. Seeger ’52 Director, Center for Hellenic Studies; and to David T. Jenkins, Librarian for Classics, Hellenic Studies and Linguistics.
Here are two:
Giannēs Ritsos (1909-1990), Persephone; English translation by Nikos Stangos; with two woodcuts by Joe Tilson = Persephonē / Giannēs Ritsos ; me dyo xylographies toy Tzo Tilson (Verona: Edizioni Ampersand, 1990). Printed on a 1854 Stanhope handpress by Alessandro Zanella (1955-2012). Graphic Arts in process
Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933), The Splendour of a Morning: Early Poems of C.P. Cavafy = Hē ena prōi tēs pheggero : proima poiēmata tou K.P. Kavaphē; translated from the Greek by David Smulders; Greek text edited by Anthony Hirst; with five wood engravings by Peter Lazarov (Mission, British Columbia: Barbarian Press, MMXVI [2016]). “Greek text reprinted … from The Collected Poems with parallel Greek text … edited by Anthony Hirst (Oxford University Press, 2007)”–Title page verso. Graphic Arts in process
There is limited information on the printmaker Peter Lazarov and so, I’m including this terrific article from the magazine of the Fine Press Book Association: Willem Keizer, “Peter Lazarov and his Pepel Press,” in Parenthesis no.12 (November 2006). Preservation Z119 .P373
Princeton University Library received the gift of the double elephant folio Birds of America [(Ex) Oversize 8880.134.1860e] from Alexander van Rensselaer, Class of 1871 (1855-1933), during the academic year 1928-29. We believe he inherited the copy from his uncle, Stephen van Rensselaer IV, Class of 1808 (1789-1868). The wealthy van Rensselaer family is the only one I have found who bought two copies of Audubon’s massive publication. The second was purchased by Stephen’s cousin Dr. Jeremias “Jeremiah” Van Rensselaer (1793-1871), who graduated from Yale.
Most American subscribers to Audubon’s Birds of America were convinced to join during his second trip back to the United States in 1831, when Audubon spent considerable time in New York during 1833. Both Jeremias and Stephen IV were born at the sprawling 1,200-square-mile van Rensselaer estate near Albany, New York, but lived during the 1830s in New York City.
Stephen’s father and Alexander’s grandfather, Stephen Van Rensselaer III (1764-1839), was among the richest men in America and when he died, Stephen IV left New York City to live in the “West Manor” of the Rensselaer estate. Jeremiah’s medical practice remained in New York City, where he was also corresponding secretary of the X.Y. Lyceum of Natural History, with a great love for the natural sciences. He retired in 1852, traveled, and died in New York City in 1871. The whereabouts of his copy of Audubon’s Birds of America is not known.
Stephen III was an active businessman who owned several New York properties and in 1816, built a modest two-story house on Mulberry Street (originally no. 153 moved to no. 149) where the family could live while in town. The Federalist structure, which survived flood, fire, and a bomb, has a façade of Flemish bond brick and a Dutch-style gambrel roof, punctured by two tall dormers.
In the 1890s, Helen Louisa Stokes (1846-1930), wife of Anson Phelps Stokes (1838–1913) purchased the house and converted it to The Free Italian Library and Reading-Rooms, which opened in 1894.
“The free Italian library and reading rooms established chiefly by Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes, in a house formerly used by [an] Italian, as a cheese factory at 149 Mulberry street, was open for inspection yesterday from 2 to 10 P. M. The guests were welcomed by the Rev. Antonio Arrighi. pastor of the Italian church at 123 Worth Street. The library has more than 200 volume, which will be added to by books now being bound, it contains books of history, poetry, science, travel, natural history, and novels. –New York Times, July 23, 1894
See our colleague’s research: Alexandra Deluise, “Mission work, Conversion and the Italian Immigrant in Turn-of-the-Century New York City: the Story of the Anson Phelps Stokes Italian Free Library” (2015). CUNY Academic Works. http://academicworks.cuny.edu/lacuny_events/3
Interesting that her father’s family company, Phelps, Dodge & Company was the organization that helps to preserve the Audubon printing plates when Mrs. Lucy Audubon was forced to sell her family estate.
Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942), Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes, 1898 (?). Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art
Book collectors remember the Parisian author Marquis Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803) not so much for his writing but for the colorful printing of his books. These typographic curiosities were printed separately in one colored ink and then, bound together with separate sections in separate colors. There are many editions and variations, including pirated editions. Some say they are new editions but are exactly the same. Princeton has five variations.
In 1760, they are brought together in the Book of Four Colors, to the Four Elements, of the Printing of the Four Seasons. If you count black, the title page actually has five colors. There are sections in orange-yellow, greenish-blue, brown, and scarlet red, although the orange is very close to the brown and yellow. Of the several copies I’ve seen, the colors look different, perhaps some inks holding up better than others.
One collector writes: “Moreover, the text is also very agreeable, and Caraccioli also laughs at himself and fashions from the beginning, when he stresses that probably the color of his works alone will suffice for their success, at a time when one is enamored of everything and nothing, under the pretense often the most futile. He also writes that he offers his readers books that resemble them, colored “… I offer you (…) the most beautiful vermilion, such that it shines on your faces beautifully and furiously illuminated.” http://bibliophilie.blogspot.com/2007/11/des-livres-lhonneur-les-livre-la-mode.html
“Of letterpress or typographic printing in colours, not very much seems to have been done during the eighteenth century; work in red and black, other than on title-pages, was almost entirely confined to the service books of the Roman Church, and a large proportion of even these were printed in black only, though such establishments as the Plantin Press still produced creditable examples on the old lines.
In the middle of the century, several editions were got out at Paris of a work entitled Le Livre a la Mode, a satirical description of the manners of the time. It was a 12mo volume, of which two editions were published in 1759, one printed wholly in red, the other in yellow. In 1760 there was another red edition, and then the work, which was in four sections, was re-issued with the title of Le Livre de Quatre Couleurs, the sections being respectively printed with green, yellow, red and brown ink. On the title-page lettering in all these colours appears, in addition to a vignette printed in black.” R.M. Burch and William Gamble, Colour Printing and Colour Printers (1910).
Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), Le livre à la mode. Nouvelle édition, marquetée, polie & vernissé. En Europe [Paris]: Chez les libraires, [1759]. Rare Books Off-Site Storage 3238.95.359
Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), Le livre à la mode. Nouvelle édition / marquetée, polie & vernissée. En Europe [i.e. Paris]: Chez les libraires [1759]. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) PQ1959.C3 L58 1759
Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), Le livre à la mode. A Verte Feuille, de l’imprimerie du Printems au Perroquet. L’année nouvelle. [Paris, 1759]. Rare Books Off-Site Storage 3238.95.359.11
Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), Le livre de quatre couleurs. Aux Quatre-Elements: De l’Imprimerie des Quatre-Saisons, 4444 ; [i.e. Paris]: [publisher not identified], [1760]. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) in process
Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), Le livre de quatre couleurs. Aux Quatre-Éléments [i.e. Paris], De l’imprimerie des quatre-saisons, 4444 [i.e. 1760]. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) PQ1959.C3 L58 1759
Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1719-1803), Le livre à la mode; suivi du, Livre des quatre couleurs, textes présentés et annotés par Anne Richardot. Saint-Etienne: Publications de l’université de Saint-Etienne, 2005. Firestone Library (F) PQ1959.C3 L68 2005
Save the date for an afternoon talk on Sunday, September 17, 2:00 p.m. in 101 McCormick Hall: “That’s So Annoying! Thomas Rowlandson and The Miseries of Human Life”
Graphic Arts Curator Julie Mellby will discuss Princeton University Library’s collection of satirical drawings by Thomas Rowlandson given by Dickson Queen Brown, Class of 1895, and their relationship with James Beresford’s 1806 comic bestseller The Miseries of Human Life. A reception in the Museum will follow.
Merton College Fellow James Beresford addressed his book “To the miserable,” and began:
“Children of misfortune, wheresoever found, and whatsoever enduring, –ye who maintain a kind of sovereignty in suffering, believing that all the throbs of torture, all the pungency of sorrow, all the bitterness of desperation, are your own…! Take courage and renounce your sad monopoly.
Dispassionately ponder all your worst of woes, in turn with these; then hasten to distil from the comparison an opiate for your fiercest pangs; and learn to recognize the lenity of your Destinies.”
In 1915, Samuel Goldman (1882–1969) constructed and then carved reliefs into the exterior of his stucco home at 143 School Street, in the North Stelton neighborhood of Piscataway Township, New Jersey. The symbols reflect his Marxist beliefs and membership in the Francisco Ferrer Association, founded in 1901 by Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.
The Ferrer Colony was a libertarian community where, among many programs, they established the progressive Modern School, an alternative to public schooling and traditional living arrangements. At its largest, the Stelton Colony included 90 houses, although most residents only occupied their homes on the weekend.
Thanks to the generous donations of Donald Farren, Class of 1958, the Graphic Arts Collection holds a nearly complete run of The Modern School: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Libertarian Ideas in Education, edited by Carl Zigrosser and printed by Joseph Ishill.
The magazine includes linocuts (primarily) by many contemporary printmakers, such as William Zorach, Man Ray, and Rockwell Kent, who designed its logo and chapter initials. Man Ray was also one of the first adult students to attend night classes at the Modern School, while it was still in New York City.
On Friday afternoon, October 27, 2017, the Friends of the Modern School hold their 45th annual meeting at Alexander Library, Rutgers University, also the home of the Modern School archives.
Going on vacation. Can you identify the unknown actors and actresses while I’m gone? Thank you. Julia Marlowe Taber as Lydia Languish
top left: Chauncey Ollott as Sir L. Trigger–Powers as Bob Acres. bottom left: Mr. J. Jefferson as Bob Acres. bottom right: Captain [ Jack] Absolute, The Rivals.
top left: unknown. bottom left: Helen Hayes, What Every Woman Knows. top right: John Baldwin Buckstone as Bob Acres 1802-1879. bottom right: unknown.
PDF: Sara Stevenson
Last spring, we invited Sara Stevenson to Princeton University to deliver the inaugural Gillett G. Griffin Memorial Lecture, a series of talks established in honor of our former Graphic Arts Curator. Each talk will highlight one important acquisition made under Gillett’s curatorship.
On a bright Sunday afternoon, Sara entertained and enlightened a full auditorium with her talk entitled “The London Circle: Early Explorations of Photography: The Willats album in the Firestone Library.” Our sincere thanks to Sara and to the entire staff who made this event possible.
We promised to make this talk available online for the many international researchers and fans who could not be in Princeton to hear it in person. Given many delays in rephotographing and posting the Willats album for our new online site and the writing of a web page for the posting of our Griffin lecture series, we decided not to wait any longer.
Here without fancy decoration or the illustrations still in process is a PDF of Sara Stevenson’s text. At a later date, we will do a more elaborate posting. Please circulate to photography researchers, collectors, and enthusiasts.
