One year ago, Princeton students, faculty, and staff stayed home and classes went virtual. Today, we are back on campus although most classes remain virtual. Besides being a grey day not much has changed except parking lots are full again.
2020 above, 2021 below.
2020 above, 2021 below
2020 above, 2021 below
2020 above, 2021 below
2020 above, 2021 below
2020 above, 2021 below
As a young boy, Henry Thomas de la Beche (née Henry Beach, 1796-1855) inherited a sugar plantation from his father. Located in Clarendon, Jamaica, Halse Hall was managed primarily by enslaved Jamaicans and provided de la Beche, living in England and later Wales, with a substantial income. It wasn’t until December 1823 that he first traveled to Jamaica, spending one year on the island to conduct a survey and learn about the Jamaican men and women who ran his plantation. Back home in 1825, he published Notes on the Present Condition of Negroes in Jamaica. The introductory notes begin:
“Jamaica Negroes Cutting Canes in their Working Dresses,” lithographic frontispiece in Henry T. De La Beche, Notes on the Present Condition of the Negroes in Jamaica (London: Printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand Source, 1825). Original in the John Carter Brown Library
De la Beche wrote “that I am no friend to slavery in any shape, or under any modification,” but never fully denounced the practice at his own estate.
“At the time of De la Beche’s visit Halse Hall owned 207 mainly ‘creole’ slaves, mostly born on the plantation. They are woken at five o’clock by the bell of the ‘head driver’, and start work at daybreak. Breakfast is at nine, and dinner at half past twelve, though the negroes skip the meal and spend their time tending their ‘provision grounds’. Work resumes and continues without a break until half an hour after sunset, after which the slaves can ‘spend the evening as they think proper’. De la Beche is proud that his drivers don’t carry whips, as they do on other plantations, and punishments are carried out by their overseers. The head driver at Halse Hill, we’re assured, ‘is an intelligent, human and steady man’. Failure to complete digging the allotted number of cane-holes leads to withdrawal of rum and sugar rations. ‘Weakly adults’ and children perform lighter duties. At crop time – four months of the year, and apparently a ‘merry time’ for the slaves – the workforce is split into two shifts, and work continues day and night.”– https://gwallter.com/history/henry-de-la-beche-defends-slavery.html
It was around this time that de la Beche had a medallion produced by engraver Tomasso Saulini (1793-1864), which could be given to his workers in recognition of “Good Conduct.” One side carried his own profile and the other the words “Reward for Good Conduct. Halse Hall, Jamaica.” Long after slavery had been abolished in Jamaica (1833) de la Beche had a second, larger medal produced by the engraver William Wyon (1795-1851), again with his profile on one side and a Jamaican landscape on the other along with “Reward for Good Conduct. Halse Hall, Jamaica.”
Tomasso Saulini (1793-1864), Award for Good Conduct medal, ca. 1824. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process
William Wyon (1795-1851), Award for Good Conduct medal, 1841. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process.
For a more complete record of Halse Hall see: Gwallter, a blog and more from Swansea by Andrew Green / blogfan a mwy o Abertawe gan Andrew Green.
June 22, 1949, Ezzard Charles (1921-1975) defeated Joe Walcott to win the National Boxing Association championship. The following year on September 28, he won a grueling 15-round decision over his childhood hero Joe Louis and was proclaimed the world heavyweight champion.
Born in Georgia and raised in Cincinnati, Charles was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, 15 years after his death from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Today, the Graphic Arts Collection celebrates this champion athlete by adding his promotional lapel pin to our collection, along the the pins for seven other boxers: Charles L. ”Sonny” Liston (1932-1970), Henry Armstrong (1912-1988), Archie Moore (née Archibald Lee Wright, 1913-1998), Jersey Joe Walcott (née Arnold Raymond Cream, 1914-1994), Sugar Ray Robinson (née Walker Smith Jr., 1921-1989), Bob Montgomery (1919-1998), and Randolph Adolphus “Randy” Turpin (1928-1966).
https://www.ephemerasociety.org/2021-conference/ This also serves as a reminder that the 2021 National Ephemera Society Conference begins March 18, 2021 and a virtual fair will follow. Don’t forget to register.
In London, public executions were banned in 1868 but they remained legal in the United States through 1936 and so, when the three Thayer brothers were convicted of murdering their border, John Love, in 1825 hundreds gathered to watch the Buffalo, NY, hanging. Two handbills were printed and sold to commemorate the event, one with a crude image of three hanging figures and the other with silhouettes of three coffins. The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired the latter in its second edition, with the word “Life” added to the title The Life, Trial, Condemnation, and Dying Address of the Three Thayers…”
Nelson, Israel, and Isaac Thayer were described as lazy and uneducated, owing money to everyone. When Love came to town, he rented a room at the Thayer family home and foolishly agreed to lend them money. The brothers realized they were not going to be able to repay this debt and fearing that Love would take over their farm, they murdered him and hid the body. Eventually the crime was discovered, the three brothers tried and convicted.
The site of this hanging is marked with a commemorative plaque [below].
When a journalist complained in 1932 about the events in 1825, it was not to advocate for an end to public executions but to complain about the printing of these handbills, which he described as Tabloid Journalism:
Ithaca Journal-News 14 Apr 1932: 5.
The life, trial, condemnation, and dying address of the three Thayers, who were executed for the murder of John Love, at Buffalo, N.Y., June 17, 1825 (Buffalo: Printed for the publisher, [1825]). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process
Odysseas Elytēs (1911-1996), Θάνατος και ανάστασις του Κωνσταντίνου Παλαιολόγου [= Thanatos kai anastasis tou Kōnstantinou Palaiologou = The Death and Resurrection of Constantine Palaiologus] (Chavannes-sur-Reyssouze, 1971). Blind embossed engravings by Costa Coulentianos (1918-1995). Acquired with matching funds provided by the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process
“On May 29, 1453, the Ottoman army, led by Mehmed the Conqueror, seized Constantinople, putting a violent end to one of the longest-lasting empires in history. Along with it, the seizing of the great city also ended the life of the last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine Palaiologos.
The legends that sprang up around the Fall of Constantinople are a large part of Christian Orthodox and Hellenic tradition. Even after the liberation from the Ottomans — even today, to be honest — there are Greeks who continue to believe that one day Consntantinople will become Greek once again.”— Greek Reporter July 6, 2020
Nobel Prize winner Odysseas Elytēs (1911-1996) drew on the mythology of Constantine Palaiologus for his epic poem Death and Resurrection of Constantine Paolaiologus, which in turn was the inspiration for the Greek sculptor Costa Coulentianos’ blind embossed artists’ book. Written in modern Greek, printed by Duo d’Art in Switzerland, and published in France, this is truely an international publication.
Herbert Sandberg (1908-1991), Μανιφέστο του Κομμουνιστικού Κόμματος / Χαρακτικά [= Manifesto of the Communist Party = Bilder zum Kommunistischen Manifest] (Κωδικός προϊόντος, unknown). Acquired with matching funds provided by the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process.
The Graphic Arts Collection acquired this rare modern Greek edition of the German artist Herbert Sandberg’s satirical manifesto, containing the full text of Karl Marx’s Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (1848), with graphics by Sandberg. A complete chronology and biography for the artist can be found here: http://www.herbert-sandberg.de/bio.htm
The artist’s website explains his intentions with this manifesto:
Für viele ein veraltetes Buch mit 7 Siegeln, für einige die gelungene Kapitalismuskritik schlechthin: Das “Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei”. Sandberg, der bereits kapitalistische Lebensverhältnisse selbst miterlebt hatte, wollte mit seinen Decelithschnitten die Gedanken von Marx und Engels aus seiner ganz eigenen Sicht neu anschaulich machen.
Viele der Themen sind heute aktueller denn je. Themen wie “Bourgeoisie und Produktionsmittel”, “Rüstung und Öl” und “Die Proletarier haben nichts zu verlieren als ihre Ketten” haben sicher so manchen Wirtschaftsboss und Politiker in Weißglut gebracht.
Aber keine Angst: die Verblödung der Menschheit geht so rasch vonstatten, dass in einigen Jahren sicher keiner mehr das Buch kennt… Oder ?
Fred Siegenthaler, Strange Papers: A Collection of the World’s Rarest Handmade Papers (Muttenz: Fred Siegenthaler, Paper Art, 1987). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process
There are a number of good descriptions online for Strange Papers. Here’s one: https://books-on-books.com/2021/01/10/books-on-books-collection-fred-siegenthaler/ Here is the description of our copy:
“In the early 1980s Fred Siegenthaler, a papermaker himself, wrote to international papermakers he knew from his travels requesting samples of their work made from rare and unusual materials. From these he chose 101 papers from 51 papermakers and purchased 200 sheets of each to produce this limited edition box set of samples with accompanying book. Papers in this collection come from makers in The Netherlands, Mexico, USA, Denmark, Brazil, Philippines, Germany, Israel, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, Scotland, Belgium, Egypt, England, and Czechoslovakia, and are made from materials including asparagus, canna lily, carrots, cedar bark, corn husks, kangaroo grass, hemp, laver, leather, pampas grass, papyrus, petmoss, potato stalks, red hot poker, suksuka, stinging nettle, and other exotic ingredients. The work is limited to 200 copies, the first 20 of which comprise the special edition with an additional 19 samples. This copy is one of the regular edition and is numbered 104 of 200 and signed by the author.”
Fred Siegenthaler is the founder of The International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists (IAPMA), the world’s leading organization for paper artists. It was founded in 1986 in Düren, Germany, when paper as an art medium was far less well-known than it is today. While paper history and production are one facet of the Association’s activities, the central focus is the role of paper as art form and contemporary artistic medium.
The next IAPMA congress takes place from October 7-10, 2021, in Tokyo Japan: https://iapma.info/Congresses
Siegenthaler is also the author of several dozen volumes, articles, and conference papers including Bücher für Kunsterziehung; Agamemnon 3; Tsai-Lun: vesuche in der Kunst Papiermachens; Diverse Papier; Siebdruck-Papiere =Papier de l’impression au cadre; and Künstlerbriefe.
In 1893, Puggy Rothschild and his friend Twickel* boarded a yacht dubbed the Aurora for a voyage to Livorno, Corsica, Algiers, Barcelona, and other ports. The following year they sailed in the Thalia to Dalmatia, Corfu, Greece, and Turkey. An amateur photographer, Rothschild collected his negatives from each trip and had the best ones printed into heliogravures by Josef Löwy and the others reproduced as collotypes. Together with his notes and descriptions, these were privately printed for 160 close friends in enormous elephant folios, lavishly designed and bound. Thanks to our friends with the Program in Hellenic Studies, Rothschild’s two volume set is now available in the Graphic Arts Collection.
* Nathaniel Meyer Anselm von Rothschild (1836-1905) and August Joseph Freiherr von Twickel (1832-1906)
Nathaniel Rothschild was not a driven businessman like his father, Viennese banker Anselm Salomon Freiherr von Rothschild. Sailing the Mediterranean was more his style along with gardening, collected art, and enjoyed his privileged life. More about him and his family can be found in the Rothschild’s archive site, https://forum.rothschildarchive.org/welcome. “Nathaniel’s interests were much wider than banking. His botanical gardens, the Hohe Warte, were available for enjoyment by the public, and he also built for his own use a town house on the Theresianumgasse in Vienna. …He founded a general hospital, institutes for the blind and deaf, an orphanage and a neurological clinic.” Nathaniel also endowed the Viennese Camera Club and later trips were made on the Veglia, a yacht equipped with a darkroom.
Here are a few of the plates:
Nathaniel Meyer Anselm von Rothschild (1836-1905), Skizzen aus dem Süden [=Sketches from the South] (Wien: [Printed by] Friedrich Jasper, 1894: vol. 1-1895 vol. 2). Elephant folio. 74 full-page heliogravures and 100 in text colloypes. Edition: 160. Acquired with matching funds provided by the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process.
Shalini Karn, Faces of Corona, 2020. Acrylic on paper. Graphic Arts Collection 2020- in process
Please join us at 10:00 am Eastern (daylight savings) time on Friday March 26, 2021, for the next in our series of webinars highlighting the graphic arts collection. Organized to coincide with the one year anniversary of India’s shutdown due to COVID-19, the March program is entitled: Mithila Art in 2020: Life, Labor, and COVID-19 in South Asia.
A panel discussion including Amanda Lanzillo, Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows; Lina Vincent, art historian and curator based in Goa, India; and Peter Zirnis, curator and collector of Mithila art, will be hosted by Julie Mellby, Graphic Arts Curator, and Ellen Ambrosone, South Asian Studies Librarian.
Throughout 2020, artists in India have been engaging with pandemic-related themes that reflect the vast inequity with which the pandemic has manifested in the lives of South Asians. While some have managed to maintain safety and stability, many more have experienced food insecurity, displacement, disease, and loss of income.
The Mithila art in Princeton’s collection expresses moments of both serenity and sorrow in the midst of the recent crisis. Panelists will discuss and reflect on the particular expressions of COVID-19 in this art, as well the impact of the pandemic on artisan labor and art markets.
This webinar is free and open to the public, but please register here: https://libcal.princeton.edu/event/7351250
Date: Friday, March 26, 2021
Time: 10:00am – 11:00 am
This webinar is part of the Special Collections Highlights Series. View recordings of previous webinars here.
Previous webinars include:
May 2020: New Theories on the Oldest American Woodcut: The Portrait of Richard Mather by John Foster
June 2020: Thomas Eakins and the Making of Walt Whitman’s Death Mask
July 2020: Afrofuturism: The Graphics of Octavia E. Butler
Aug 2020: Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage
Sept 2020: The Books and Prints of Anaïs Nin and her Gemor Press
Dec 2020: Before Zoom, Pre-Cinema, Optical Devices Tour
Feb 2021: Acrobatics: Moving Through the Trans Archives
March 2021: Mithila Art in 2020: Life, Labor, and COVID-19 in South Asia
April 2021: April is for the Birds: Audubon and Field Guides
By the 1950s, Surrealism had run its course in New York and Berlin. In Paris, short-lived magazines such as Medium; Le Surréalisme, Même; and Bief continued to promote the work of Breton, Péret, Lam, Masson, Tanguy, Leonore Carrington and others.
Two small fine-press poetry volumes were published in 1958 under the Paris imprint Méconnaissance (Misunderstanding), presumably hoping to continue but finding these luxury publications too costly. The first was Ce château pressenti with poetry by Ghérasim Luca (1913-1994) and a frontispiece print by Victor Brauner (1903-1966). The second was La Rose et la Cétoine; La Nacre et le Noir, with poetry by Claude Tarnaud (1922-1991) and a frontispiece etching by Wifredo Lam (1902–1982).
The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have added this publication, uncut, and with a hand colored etching by Lam.
Claude Tarnaud and Wifredo Lam, La Rose et la Cétoine. La Nacre et le Noir (Paris, Méconnaissance, 1958). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process
