The Smithsonian American Art/National Portrait Gallery Library houses two issues, November 29, 1862 and December 3, 1864, of Harper’s Weekly containing illustrations depicting troops celebrating Thanksgiving at the front. The illustrations were done for the newspaper by Winslow Homer (1836-1910), who is regarded as one of America’s finest artists.
Category: Collection Highlights
Have you got everything you need for tomorrow? The cranberries, the sweet potatoes, the pumpkin pie and the … guest of honor?
It’s Thanksgiving week and we are well into the season of Fall, so we decided to feature some trade literature with a Fall theme.
On October 22, 2010, the Libraries participated in the Smithsonian Archives Fair to celebrate American Archives Month. Special Collections Cataloger, Diane Shaw, delivered a presentation about the archival materials of The Russell E. Train Africana Collection.
Robot is a wonderful example of a multi-action pop-up/movable book where each illustrated, brightly colored page includes flaps, pull-tabs, and other mechanisms.
Because of their size, miniature books present special challenges for shelving, preservation, and exhibition, but this fact only adds to their appeal as curiosities and collectibles.
At the Smithsonian Libraries, we are surrounded by American trade literature, so It isn’t unusual to see some catalogs for patent medicines with what we would now consider outrageous claims for a product’s miracle qualities.