Three Men in a Car(?)

A photograph of the gallerist Anatole Jakovsky and two friends astride a car-like contraption in Paris, ca. 1950.
(The shop, named for Jacques Damiot, might provide a clue about the odd vehicle:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Damiot)

Ever After

Gerald and Sara Murphy, on the beach in Antibes. In honor of the 122nd anniversary of the birth of  the stylish expatriate American painter and taste-maker, Gerald Murphy, March 25, 1888. Gerald and Sara Murphy Papers, Uncat MSS 1010.

VogueVogueVogue

Tea with André Leon Talley, Editor-at-Large, Vogue magazine at Beinecke Library, 121 Wall Street, New Haven Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 4:00 p.m.Co-Sponsored by Ezra Stiles College.

André Leon Talley is Editor-at-Large for Vogue magazine. He is the author of A.L.T: A Memoir (2003) and A.L.T. 365+ (2005), a book of photographs, and he also writes the “Life with André” column for Vogue and “Talley Ho! More Life with André,” a blog on Style.com. Mr. Talley received a Master’s degree in French Studies from Brown and holds an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he serves as a member of the Board of Trustees. Free and open to the public.

This event is in conjunction with the current Beinecke Library exhibition: Elements of Style: Fashion and Form at the Beinecke.January 19 through March 27, 2010

This exploration of fashion and literary culture pays playful homage to Strunk and White’s now classic grammar primer, The Elements of Style, first published in its current guise fifty years ago. The “little book,” as it has come to be called, has offered prosaic advice on all things prose to generations of college students. Yet its emphasis on “style,” on the ease, clarity, and distinctive flair of good writing, reveals, at the same time, how the component parts of composition similarly mirror the characteristic stamp of a signature look, be it Fitzgerald’s fictional Gatsby or the Jazz Age icon Josephine Baker. The exhibition considers, then, the idea of style as it relates to sartorial expression and prose/poetic form—the role of clothing and design in literature and everyday life, and the artful way in which words appear upon the page. We discover that clothing, and the meaning of dress, remains a compelling literary subject, just as fashion itself is highly dependent on written language, on the power of description and, in turn, of persuasion. With a focus on the concept of the modern, “Elements of Style” highlights literary artifacts such as Gertrude Stein’s embroidered waistcoats and Muriel Draper’s hats, while it also draws attention to the evocative relationship between text and texture, fabric and paper, as well as the book artist’s continued fascination with sewing and the decorative arts.

Marianne’s Dressing

A recipe/letter from Marianne Moore to George Platt Lynes, ca. 1940s.

Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute

Scrapbook compiled by Hilary Todd, a student at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (197 photographic prints, many identified with ink inscriptions, circa 1919-1923) JWJ MSS 51.

Baby Party!

Happy children posing in historical vignettes from themed birthday parties, ca. 1910-1915,
likely in New Jersey. From a “baby book” recording events in the life of
one Helen Mary Stratz, born March 6, 1906, near Egg Harbor, New Jersey.

You Are More Beautiful Than You Think.

 At least that’s what Jean Dubuffet wanted us to know with his exhibition in 1947.

This poster enters the Beinecke collection along with another wonderful
print marking the publication of Dubuffet’s illustrated version of Jean Paulhan’s Métromanie.

American Letters

A letter from Mark Twain to Walt Whitman on his 70th birthday, May 31, 1889 (YCAL MSS 202).

This letter is featured on a new occasional series of podcasts from the Yale Collection of American Literature; “American Letters” podcasts present individual letters from archival collections read by Beinecke staff members. American Letters: Episode 1, Mark Twain.  Episode two features a letter from Rachel Carson, American scientist, naturalist, and author of Silent Spring: American Letters: Episode 2, Rachel Carson.

American Letters podcasts and other broadcasts from the Beinecke Library can be found on iTunesU or the Beinecke website (http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/brblevents/blogspodcasts.html).

Nuclear Victim

“No more victims” die-in & vigil [instruction card]
Cambridge, Massachusetts
1978 May 27
Living Theatre Records