My Little Pony
[Baker, J.]. My Pony : A Poem. Philadelphia: Published and sold by Wm. Charles, 1818.
Papagallo, Struzzo, and Bubola
Images of birds from a compilation of engraved plates:
Eillars, Giovanni. Varii Et Diversi Uccelli Cavati Dal Naturale Et Intaglate [“sic”] in Rame … Dno Francisco, Dni Marii Piccolominei Filio, Joan. Eillars D. D. S.l: s.n, n.d..
which may be variant or copied plates from a more widely-known work:
Olina, Giovanni Pietro. Vccelliera, ouero, Discorso della natura, e proprieta di diversi vccelli : e in particolare di que’ che cantano, con il modo di prendergli, conoscergli, alleuar gli, e mantenergli. E con le figure cauate dal vero, e diligentemente intagliate in rame dal Tempesta, e dal Villamena / opera di Gio. Pietro Olina.
In Roma : Presso M. Angelo de Rossi, 1684.
Centroid envy
A scrapbook of original designs and proof prints for early Victorian bindings done by R. A. Harrison, ca. 1840s.
Along with sketches for roundels and decorative borders, product labels, and a caricature, are a number of proof sheets for bindings, that retain, remarkably, their intense colors, making available to bibliographers for this period of book production, some of the most faithful hues (which can be described using the Centroid Color Chart).
A Woman’s Paradise
UNION FRANÇAISE DES INDUSTRIES EXPORTATRICES. l’Elegance Francaise. Paris Ateliers d’Impressions et de Cartonnages d’Art, [1940].
A deluxe book showcasing all of the beautiful products a woman can find in Paris. Intended for distribution at the World’s Fair in New York in 1940, this item never made in across the ocean, due to the occupation of Paris in June, 1940. Contributing authors include Marcel Prévost on Robes; Ferdinand Divoire on Chapeaux; Abel Bonnard on Bijoux; and Maurice Rostand on Parfums.
Visualizing History
Pages from Elizabeth Peabody’s Universal History: Arranged to Illustrate Bem’s Charts of Chronology. New York: Pub. for the author by Sheldon and Co, 1859.
A system for charting historical events on a grid (representing historical periods, arranged chronologically); squares, divided into 9 parts each, to represent distinct categories of historical events; and colors, to show different “Nations”.
A curious abstract visual system for reducing history to shapes and color on a standard, single field of two-dimensional representation.
The end product, while perhaps not becoming a real mnenomic device for learning history (or a compelling Visual Display of Quantitative Information), produced some intriguing designs.
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The Lantern – part 1
Pages from issues of handmade juvenile publications, The Lantern, created by 8-year-old Frederic Gerrish of Portland, Maine, 1853-1859.
Tune in again later for the tale of John Carty . . .
Naughty tricks
Lothar Meggendorfer. Bubenstreiche: ein Verwandlungsbilderbuch. Eßlingen & München: Schreiber, 1899.
One of Meggendorfer’s ingenious moving books, showing the pranks of children.
Geographic Sing-Along
Sample pages from an 1848 book for children intended to teach physical and political geography by way of rhymes set to popular tunes – jingoism notwithstanding.
Lyon, Sarah M. 1848. The musical geography: a new natural arrangement of the names of all the physical features of the globe. Troy [N.Y.]: Young & Hart.
Tender Buttons
The new issue of ESOPUS Magazine features an article by Beinecke Library Catalog Librarian Ellen Ellickson about a collection of buttons kept by Marjorie Wynne, who served as Rare Book Librarian at Yale for over 40 years. Ellen writes movingly about memories of Marjorie and the reasons why the packages of buttons are so well-organized. Accompanying the essay are beautifully composed photographs of a selection of buttons. Two shots below have been provided by Tod Lippy, publisher of ESOPUS, described on its website as “. . . a twice-yearly arts magazine featuring fresh, unmediated perspectives on contemporary culture from a wide range of creative professionals. ”
A memorial reception celebrating the life and work of Miss Wynne will be held at the Beinecke Library on Friday, October 30th, from 5:30 – 7:00. A copy of ESOPUS with the article by Ellen Ellickson will be on display.
Subscribers to the Book of Job
The original notebook kept by William Blake recording patrons for his
major work of prints finished in 1826.
Click here for the complete set of images.
Mess kit
An artist’s book/kit/agit-prop piece against the Vietnam War.
Mess kit by William Ogue Mustill (San Francisco : Nova Broadcast) 1971.
Martha Becker Finney
New works by writer/artist/designer/architect/sculptor Martha Becker Finney.
The Beinecke Library holds an extensive collection of her hand-made limited editions and prints.
Venus as a Boy
A deluxe artist’s edition. with illustrations by Leonor Fini, of the 1884 novel by the decadent writer, Rachilde.
The images from this edition (Editions d’Art Agori, 1972) express just a hint of the complicated, soap opera-level plot that starts with a young woman, cross-dressing as a man, who takes a male lover who cross-dresses as a woman. Throw in drugs, prostitution and a bit of necrophila and you have a snapshot of what constituted the wildest urges of the decadent movement.
Dueling Apple Pies
Two versions of the well-known ABC tale, The History of An Apple Pie, both from the early 19th century, but which came first?
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Qui est Henri Roorda?
Well, according to our research, Henri Roorda van Eysinga (1870-1925, who often wrote under the pseudonym Balthazar) was a Swiss educator, humorist, anarchist, and pacifist who wrote everything from math textbooks to plays to essays. Hardly known in the US, he is feted in an exhibition at the Musee Historique de Lausanne.
Beinecke Library has added a small group of books and a typescript of a play “The League against Stupidity”
Wonder Movies
A curious production from the early 1920s intended to mimic motion in a book for young readers. Each “movie” is viewed by turning back successive panels on a scored page to reveal new scenes. While a bit awkward to manipulate, the idea works well enough to entertain and delight.
Wonder movies by Victor M Earle; Illustrated by Benjamin Seielstad
(Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, Page, 1923).
Playing Card sample book (Germany)
A saleman’s sample book for a line of playing cards produced in Northern Germany, circa the early 1950s.
Math problems
A schoolteacher’s manuscript exercise book containing a variety of simple and complex
mathematical problems, 1806, Pennsylvania.
including such all-time favorite as the two travelers
starting off from two points of origin traveling as such a speed . . .
under the category: “Promiscuous Questions”
[promiscuous meaning “random” in this era.]
Some ciphers lead to architecturally beautiful answers
A second manuscript volume accompanying the exercise book
is an account book recording the tuition payment for students.
And . . . on the inside front cover of the exercise book is a bird doodle.
Education for all
Titles in a series of educational books for children published in the early 1940s by the Writers’ Program of the Work Projects Administration in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities 
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