Invitation pour deux personnes

. . . which would mean both Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas.

An invitation sent to the couple by Pablo Picasso in 1924.

Visit the Beinecke Library digital library to view what he sketched on the verso.

Naughty tricks

Lothar Meggendorfer. Bubenstreiche: ein Verwandlungsbilderbuch. Eßlingen & München: Schreiber, 1899.

One of Meggendorfer’s ingenious moving books, showing the pranks of children.

Fröbelgabe (or kindergarten pixelation)

A beautiful example of a kindergarten exercise – specifically the 14th of Friedrich Fröbel’s “gifts”
intended to allow young children free range of play and expression.
This 26-panel paper weaving book shows a variety of patterns,
including one page with the makers initials and the date of creation.

This example is apparently American, from 1892, made by “M. Kistler”

20 trillion ways to see the world

A landscape puzzle from around 1830, the 16 cards can be arranged in a myriad of ways
(20,922,789,888,000 to be exact), forming a seemingly endless view.

Below are just three.

Polyorama, ou 20,922,789,888,000 vues pittoresques. Paris: Gide fils, ca. 1830

Numbers, Letters

“Collection of numbers, designs and letters …” by Marsden Hartley

Marsden Hartley, Photographed by Carl Van Vechten

 

Photographs by Carl Van Vechten are used with permission of the Van Vechten Trust; permission of the Trust is required to publish Van Vechten photographs in any format. To learn more, contact the Curator, Yale Collection of American Literature. More about Permissions and Copyright.