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Category: Special Collections

1930s DIY

Sears shipped the components for 49,500 “kit-houses” in 15 years, providing middle-class Americans with good residential design at affordable prices. Buyers selected their dream house from the scores of models presented in Sears’ “Honor Bilt” catalogs. For historians, details of house design, such as the breakfast nook, and slogans, such as “Where women spend 2/3 of every day should be modern and bright,” are important records of American domestic life.

Classic Aldrovandi Books Loaned to National Gallery of Art Exhibition

Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605) is widely acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of modern natural history, and his books are classics in the field. Two volumes that include illustrations based on the Italian artist Arcimboldo’s superb drawings of animals have been borrowed by the National Gallery of Art for its exhibition Arcimboldo 1526-1593: Nature and fantasy.