Pathé Baby Collection

In the summer of 2008, Professor Rubén Gallo discovered a treasure trove of 800 French silent movies along with the Pathé Baby home movie projector to play them. This morning, nearly seven years later, we finalized the digitization, cataloguing and mounting of these films on the internet for the world to see.

All the title frames have been transcribed and translated, so that the films are key word searchable in English and French. Give it a try:
http://rbsc.princeton.edu/pathebaby/node/2244

Many people worked on this project. We must begin by thanking Lynn Shostack and the David A. Gardner ’69 Magic Project for their encouragement and generous support. Thanks to grants in both 2009 and 2010, we were able to partner with the Colorlab Preservation Laboratory of Rockville, Maryland, which is one of the few companies in the United States capable of undertaking the arduous process of hand-cleaning, replasticizing, and transferring the 9.5 mm film stock to a digital medium.

Each one minute film was treated individually, and a pause was inserted at a total of 11,067 title frames to give enough time for them to be read. Then, the combined digital files had to be broken up again into each physical reel, to preserve the films in their original length. Finally, the files were converted to a universally readable format that could be played by all browsers.

Over the last few years, Vicki Principi and Ben Johnston have been the primary forces bringing this project to completion, overseeing the transcription, translating, and cataloguing of each reel. A website was designed so that all this data can be searchable by viewers around the world. In addition, a number of Princeton University students worked on this project, including Ghita Guessous, Oren Lurie, Christopher McElwain, Iriane Narcisse, Christian Perry, and Mengyi Xu.

Please join me in congratulating them on their great work. Now, enjoy the movies.
http://rbsc.princeton.edu/pathebaby/node/2244

Daguerre’s Diorama

Seventeen years before Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1759-1851) perfected the capture of images on a silver-coated copper plate (daguerreotypes), he created the Diorama with the help of the architectural painter Charles Marie Bouton (1781-1853). The barn-size building was elaborately constructed to present a life-size painting moving past spectators with constantly changing light effects that gave the illusion of changing times of days, or weather or seasons or other magically moving pictures.

Daguerre’s Diorama opened in Paris during the summer of 1822 and was an immediate success. Within a year, a second auditorium opened in London. Each 30 minute show presented two paintings, usually one outdoor scene and one religion interior.

Vue du Château d’Eau prise du Boulevard St. Martin. Metz: Nicolas Gengel et Adrien Dembour, 1840. Hand colored wood engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA2015- in process

This vue d’optique or optical view of the Diorama comes from the Metz studio of Adrien Dembour (1799-1887) and his successor Nicolas Gengel, where over 100 workers were employed.

Like the studios nearby in Nancy and Epinal, the Metz shop produced colorful, popular prints of historic sites and urban landmarks. This print is meant to be view with a zograscope.

We are calling this a wood engraving, but Dembour devised a relief etching process around 1834, which he called ecktypography. The relief copper plate was inked and printed the same as a woodblock. It is possible this is a metal relief print.

http://www.midley.co.uk/HomePage.htm
More articles and images about Daguerre have been collected by R. Derek Wood.

Yeats

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a first edition of a 1935 selection of William Butler Yeats’ poetry, privately printed by the Cuala Press, 133 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, for Eleanor Lady Yarrow. Its pages are, as yet, uncut and it is still bound in its original light blue paper wrappers.

Not only is our book one of only 30 copies printed by the poet’s sister, Elizabeth Corbet Yeats (1868-1940) but it is Miss Yeats’ own copy, with her bookplate inside the cover [pictured to the left].

The hand colored frontispiece [seen below] was designed by Dublin artist Victor Brown, a frequent Cuala Press contributor, then heightened with gold. Miss Yeats added hand drawn initials and ornaments throughout the volume.

The collection includes nine W.B. Yeats’ poems: “The Lover Tells of the Rose in his Heart,” “Into the Twilight,” “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven,” “The Fiddler of Dooney,” “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” “When You are Old,” “A Faery Song,” “The Song of Wandering Aengus,” and “The Pity of Love.”

This book is considered one of the rarest and most desirable of all the Cuala Press books (only one copy is known to have appeared at auction in the past thirty years) and we are thrilled to add it to Princeton University Library’s already extensive Irish collection.

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Poems (Dublin: Cuala Press, 1935). One of 30 copies. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process.

For more on Elizabeth Yeats and the Cuala Press, see the exhibition website:
http://libweb2.princeton.edu/rbsc2/ga/unseenhands/printers/yeats.html

The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin built there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine been rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

Fifteen Engravings Accompanied by a Heroic Crown of Sonnets

Encheiresin Naturae: Fifteen Engravings by Barry Moser Accompanied by a Heroic Crown of Sonnets by Paul Muldoon (Santa Rosa, Ca.: Nawakum Press, 2015). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired Encheiresin Naturae, a collaboration between Barry Moser, Smith College Professor-in-Residence in Art & Printer to the College, and Paul Muldoon, Howard G.B. Clark ’21 University Professor in the Humanities; Director, Princeton Atelier; Professor of Creative Writing; and Chair, Fund for Irish Studies.

“Fifteen abstract relief engravings were invented and engraved by Moser in his studio in Hatfield, Massachusetts in 2014. They were inspired by the phrase encheiresin naturae taken from reading Goethe’s Faust, referencing an alchemist’s experiments in “manipulating nature.” Muldoon was asked to respond to the images poetically and he chose an advanced form of a crown of sonnets, known as a sonnet redoublé, or heroic crown of sonnets for his tour-de-force response.”–prospectus

Encheirisen Naturae was printed by Art Larson at Horton Tank Graphics directly from the blocks on a Vandercook Universal IV. The paper is mouldmade Zerkall and Twinrocker handmade. Jemma Lewis of Wiltshire, UK, designed and produced the marbled papers. The binding is by Craig Jensen of BookLab II in San Marcos, Texas.

Walter Biggs

Walter Biggs (1886-1968), Untitled [School teacher stands near seated male student, both look through window at children playing outside], no date. Gouache on board. GA 2006.02663

This untitled gouache by the American illustrator Walter Biggs was probably drawn as an illustration for Century magazine in the early 1900s during the years that he shared a studio with George Bellows but we have not yet been able to match it to a particular story. It’s not surprising since Biggs work for over fifty years as a successful commercial illustrator. This small section from Donald Gunter’s biography gives some idea of the amount of work the artist produced.

“Biggs began achieving commercial success in 1905, when his illustrations appeared on the covers of Young’s Magazine in January and Field and Stream in July. After completing his formal art studies he rented a small studio and worked on a variety of projects. His early assignments included illustrations for a story in the McClure’s Magazine of October 1908, a color frontispiece for Myrtle Reed’s novel Old Rose and Silver (1909), and drawings for Belle Bushnell’s John Arrowsmith—Planter (1910). In May 1912 he illustrated a story in Harper’s Monthly Magazine, launching a twelve-year relationship as a contributor to that magazine. In 1913 Biggs’s illustrations appeared in the January issue of the Delineator, in Kate Langley Bosher’s novel The House of Happiness, and in The Land of the Spirit, a collection of short stories by Thomas Nelson Page. He illustrated a series of stories by Armistead Churchill Gordon that appeared in Scribner’s from 1914 to 1916 and were also published as Ommirandy: Plantation Life at Kingsmill (1917). In 1918 he illustrated a story by Alice Hegan Rice for the Century. Many of those illustrations were set in the American South, and Biggs won praise during his career for his sympathetic portrayals of African American life.” From “Walter J. Biggs (1886–1968)” by Donald W. Gunter and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography

Sir Walter Scott by Mackenzie or Raeburn

Attributed to Samuel Mackenzie

A small portrait of Sir Walter Scott was acquired by Princeton to complement the Parrish collection of Scott’s Edinburgh editions. The painting has been attributed to the Scottish artist Samuel Mackenzie (1785-1847) and dated 1825. Mackenzie was greatly influenced by the artist Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) and in the early 19th century worked in Raeburn’s studio. Their styles are similar and it is sometime difficult to separate work done by Mackenzie. In particular, the portrait of Scott closely resembles Raeburn’s 1822 portrait of the writer. It is possible that Mackenzie produced a copy of Raeburn’s popular canvas [below], which hangs today in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Attributed to Henry Raeburn

The Clipper Quartette

The Clipper Quartette Songster: containing the first and only edition of these most elegant singers’ original songs now being sung by them throughout the United States … together with a number of the latest hits … (Pittsburgh, Pa.: American Publishing Company, 1883). Lyrics without music. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process

In the fall of 1880, the Detroit Free Press announced, “The four gentlemen who disguise themselves under the title of the Clipper Quartette deserved what they received, round after round of applause and four encores to which they responded. Their Laughing chorus and going to the picnic were especially fine.” The Clipper Quartette was formed by [John] McIntire, Frank T. Ward, Campbell, and Hayward. They were billed as “the only organized vocal Quartette on the stage doing their line of business.”

Later, the Quartette worked for Thatcher, Primrose & West’s Minstrels, now including “sweet-voiced John P. Curran, Frank T. Ward, Al Hart and W. H. White.” By the 1890s, Curran and Ward were the listed as the 2 Clippers, performing as a duo.

Please join us for the opening of Versailles on Paper

Please join us for the opening of our new exhibit:
Versailles on Paper: A Graphic Panorama of the Palace and Gardens of Louis XIV
in the Main Gallery of Firestone Library, Princeton University
Saturday, 14 February 2015

The opening lecture will be presented by Dr. Ian Thompson, author of The Sun King’s Garden and Reader in Landscape Architecture at Newcastle University. The festivities begin at 3:00 p.m. in 101 McCormick Hall, followed by a reception in the gallery. Our thanks to the Department of French & Italian and the Friends of the Princeton University Library for sponsoring this event.

The public is invited, no reservations necessary.

For more information, see the exhibition website: http://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles

Image: Antoine Hérisset, ca. 1685–1769, after E. Vensculpe. Vue de la face septentrionale du château de Versailles [View of the northern face of the palace of Versailles]. In: Jean-Baptiste de Monicart, 1656–1722. Versailles immortalisé par les merveilles parlantes … de Versailles, de Trianon, de la Ménagerie & de Marly [Versailles immortalized by the speaking marvels … of Versailles, Trianon, the Menagerie, and Marly]. Paris: E. Ganeau [etc.], 1720. Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology.

Sing to Me

Jan Owen, Sing to Me. Text from the Odyssey by Homer, translated into English by Robert Fagles. [Bangor, Me.: Jan Owen], 1997. 1 volume ([1] folded leaf); 63.5 cm. Gift of Lynne Fagles. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process

In 1997, Maine artist Jan Owen created a calligraphic artists’ book from a single sheet of folded paper. The text she chose was from Homer’s Odyssey, translated by Robert Fagles (1933-2008), former Arthur Marks ’19 Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus at Princeton University and renowned translator of Greek classics. By 2003, Ms. Owen had created several others to form a set of three calligraphic foldouts using the words of Homer.

Thanks to the generous gift of Lynne Fagles, the Graphic Arts Collection now holds the first of these unique creations. The book is designed to double as a hanging sculptural, with lettering in gouache on decorated paste papers, painted additions, and gold leaf. Cloth covered portfolio case houses the folded leaf, which is topped with a gold and yellow woven Tyvek circle to complete the design.

The artist writes, “Our age of computer technology is as exciting as when Gutenberg developed the printing press. While digitized information soars through space, I write with pens and brushes. Independent of technology, the power and beauty of words are constant; the depth of thought and leap of metaphor are vital. The complex rhythm of our bodies; our breath and our gestures found in handwritten letters still captivates me.

Hand lettering is the craft of gestural, abstract line becoming letter. The letters combine to make words and a visual conversation begins between writer and reader. I select words that have rhythm and meaning, then letter them into artist books and panels. I want to call attention to words through design and form in an object of beauty.”

Congratulations to the students of VIS 415

Congratulations to the students in VIS 415, Advanced Graphic Design under the 2013-15 Princeton Arts Fellow Danielle Aubert, who held a launch party at the Princeton Public Library tonight.

Each student wrote, designed, and produced a complete book. In addition, a class book entitled Princeton Places, combined elements from each of the individual projects.

Each book uses both words and images to examine a different site in the area. The students made their own selection and researched the history, geography, and sociology of their chosen site, such as the Princeton Airport, Palmer Square, the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpath, the YMCA and YWCA, Princeton Running Company, and others.

Aubert’s fall semester studio course was structured around three studio assignments that connected graphic design to other bodies of knowledge, aesthetic experience, and scholarship.

VIS 415 always takes a local concept or event as the impetus for investigations. Last semester they took New Jersey, as a place and an idea, as a starting point. It was a nice complement to the Firestone Library exhibition of historic New Jersey maps.

We are happy to have acquired a copy of Princeton Places for the Princeton University Library and the Graphic Arts Collection. Hopefully, this will be the first of many books the students produce (even if they don’t sew every one individually).

This spring, the students in VIS 321 will explore Words As Objects with Joseph S. Scanlan and Susan Wheeler. “This course will explore ways that language can take on material properties and how objects can have syntax and be “read”. Through studio assignments, readings, and discussions, students will investigate the idea of language as a tangible material that can be sliced, bent, inserted, reproduced, embedded, and scattered, as in the work of such modern artists as Guillaume Apollinaire, Susan Howe, Marcel Broodthaers, or Jenny Holzer.”

We wish them equal success and enjoyment.

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