The pocket dictionary . . . of Sabotage!
A curious addition to the Beinecke Library’s collection:
This miniature booklet displays a cover title declaring it to be a “thumb dictionary” of French and German terms. The inside cover betrays its true role, since that is distributed by the “Parti Socialiste Clandestin”. Instead of translated words and phrases, this book is full of instructions for members of the French Resistance on how to sabotage German machinery, manufacturing plants, trains, and automobiles.
Dictionnaire Poucet: Français-Allemand (Paris: Garnier Fréres, cicra 1943)
History Repeating
A comic image from a special edition of a French magazine from 1902,
focusing on the folly of the stock market.
The Real Adventures of Tintin
A volume collecting all 108 parts of an serial published in France, 1933-1935 featuring a hero named Tintin . . .
who has many adventures, including firing a gun while hanging by a rope:
rescuing fellow aerialists:
diving into Niagara Falls:
and being caught up in an opium den!
before he is reunited with his loving sister:
But wait!
There’s more thrilling adventure in the sequel,
which puts our hero in Outer Space . . .
where he battles a Cyclops:
and holds a strange larva in his hand:
But that’s not all!!!
In both issues, the lucky reader gets prizes!
In the first part, a model plane to assemble:
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In the second part, a model space ship with a cutaway view:
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and a thematic game:
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Shades of Chris Ware!
Ombres chinoises
A group of French finger shadow puppets from World War I depicting combatants from many sides, along with requisite tools of engagement: gun, sword, bottles of booze.
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In action:
Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities 
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