Garden scene with dancers (to be used as the set for a miniature theater) is a peep show (or tunnel book), designed by engraver and print-seller Martin Engelbrecht of Augsburg, more »
Tag: Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Library
This past week at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference, Gale, part of Cengage Learning, launched two new products based on Smithsonian collections. The products, Trade Literature & the Merchandizing of Industry and World’s Fairs and Expositions: Visions of Tomorrow, featured many items from the Smithsonian Libraries.
A set of four pop up books from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 were recently treated in the book conservation lab. The books are part of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library World’s Fair materials. The World’s Columbian Exposition took place in Chicago in 1893 and these four books reveal four different views of the exposition. The four books were in good condition for pop-up books. The chromolithographic prints are still vibrant and the paper supports, while brittle, are still in good condition.
March 17th is widely celebrated as St. Patrick’s Day but it also happens to be the birthday of notable childrens’ book illustrator Kate Greenaway. Born in London in 1846, she studied art at various schools, such as the Heatherley School of Fine Art, and began her career in watercolors and cards. She was a contemporary or Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott and good friend to Victorian art critic John Ruskin.
This post was written by Mae Colburn, a graduate student in the History of Decorative Arts and Design program at Parsons the New School for Design. Her focus is textiles. This post first appeared on the Cooper -Hewitt, National Design Museum’s Object of the Day blog.
Novelties in Laces for Furniture and Decoration is a set of one hundred and fifty color lithographic prints depicting over one hundred and ninety unique tassel and trim designs. The designs incorporate gimp, braid, galloon, bows, flies, and bobbles. Color reveals details of ply, twist, pile, and luster, and highlights and lowlights provide a sense of dimension. The prints are housed in a custom storage box bearing the date 1880. Also in the box is the leather-bound presentation folder, pictured above on the left. The folder describes the object’s place of origin, Vienna, and maker, Philip Schwarz, “Manufacturer of Laces.” Also on the presentation folder is Schwarz’s business address, “ZiegerGasse 11,” in what was then an important business district near the major shopping street, Mariahilfer Strasse.
New York at Christmas time evokes many memories but as a child it meant a visit to FAO Schwarz, the oldest toy store in the United States. When a 1911 catalog from the famed toy store landed in the Book Conservation Lab it was like an early Christmas present!
Novices, experts, students, and scholars agree that the extraordinary collections of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Library are the premier resource in the United States for books, trade catalogs, serials, pictures, and archival material covering design and decorative art from the Renaissance to the present. The National Design Library features more than 6,500 treasures including 16th century lace patterns guides, rare 18th century brass and furniture trade catalogs, historic home decorating periodicals, and over 700 pop-up books.