The Newberry

On May 17, 1792, the New York Stock Exchange was formed....

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:01:35 -0400

On May 17, 1792, the New York Stock Exchange was formed. Pictured here are two stock certificates, which can be found in the Newberry collections. The first is for three shares of the Pullman Palace Car Company. The certificate sports illustrations of St. Pancras Station in London and the Pullman Car Works in Detroit. The second certificate, also for Pullman, is equal to one hundred shares. It has an engraving of George M. Pullman.

Calligraphic wonders at the Newberry

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:00:00 -0400

Calligraphic wonders at the Newberry:

Think calligraphy is simply that swirling script on nice wedding invitations?

Think, again — then check out the Newberry Library’s newest exhibit, “Exploration 2013.”

Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux (or Scenes from...

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:02:10 -0400

Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux (or Scenes from the Private and Public Life of Animals) is a collection of satirical articles and stories, bound and published in 1842. The collection was edited by Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who invited famed authors (Honoré de Balzac, Charles Nodier, and George Sand, among others) to participate.

Anthropomorphic vignettes, illustrated by J. J. Grandville, accompany each story. Grandville (who also illustrated this fascinating book) was a celebrated nineteenth-century caricaturist.

Happy Children’s Book Week! This past fall, the Newberry made...

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:39:00 -0400

Happy Children’s Book Week!

This past fall, the Newberry made a sizable acquisition: boxes upon boxes of children’s books. The majority belonged to Evelyn Lampe, who occupies a special place in Newberry history. In late 1984, she answered an ad in a local newspaper, volunteering to work at the first Annual Book Fair. For over a decade, she guided the Book Fair through an ever-increasing number of donations, volunteers, and customers, earning the half-humorous title of Book Fair Curator (and then, Curator Emerita).

With hundreds of books, duplicates, and a cache of ephemera, including the occasional stuffed animal, her personal collection is categorically grand. It covers a literary gamut, housing sections on history, cooking, art, bibliography, and, most emphatically, children’s literature. The works are tied by an undeniable thread—their eclectic, and sometimes eccentric, beauty.

Lampe had a particular affection for the works of German Expressionists, who captured our inner reality with non-realistic, geometrically absurd images. She amassed an arresting number of illustrated books and paraphernalia, inspired by the techniques and emotionality of these expressionists.

Many of the donated materials, though marketed to and read by children, are decidedly macabre—the novels of Maurice Sendak, for instance. Sendak, who died last spring, is remembered for wrenching the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery. His heroes and heroines are not well scrubbed or behaved, and their adventures stray from the G-rated.

The collection’s greatest strength is its congress of Edward Gorey materials. Like Dr. Seuss, Gorey delighted generations of children (and their parents) with riotous, often rebellious, tales, coupled with topsy-turvy illustrations. Inspired by the works of Ionesco, Buster Keaton, Goya, and Matisse, he, like Sendak, placed children’s literature on its head. His preferred technique was injecting sardonic material into Victorian templates. In The Gashlycrumb Tinies (1963), he transforms an abecedarium into epitaphs about hapless toddlers: “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs…. B is for Basil assaulted by bears.”

Gorey authored 100-plus books (some under anagrammatic or translated pseudonyms, e.g., Ogdred Weary, E.G. Deadworry, and Eduard Blutig—German for “Edward Bloody”) and illustrated works for nearly 50 authors, including Samuel Beckett, H. G. Wells, and T. S. Eliot. But the literary community would never fully embrace him. First editions of his individual titles had small press runs, and were quickly swooped up or squirreled away by aficionados. The bookselling community was, and is, uncertain of how to treat these treasures; in any given bookstore, new or used, Gorey’s works can be found in the art, humor, and children’s sections. This confusion began as a marketing dilemma. Publishers were wary of Gorey’s reception among parents. Take The Loathsome Couple, which features Harold Snedleigh and Mona Gritch, would-be lovers who murder children…. Not your typical bedtime story.

Still, there is much to admire in Gorey’s work—its beauty, its influence on modern subcultures, and, perhaps most importantly, its emotional realism. Gorey had a keen understanding of what frightens children—a dimly lit hall or black abyss, the occasional dragon or unnerving waif, and, of course, a menacing adult. Hidden in the depths of these children’s tales are portraits of the human psyche.

We’re proud that these novels now call the Newberry home.

In the early spring of 1788, John Adams returned from Europe,...

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:16:28 -0400

In the early spring of 1788, John Adams returned from Europe, where he’d spent a decade conducting diplomatic business. He arrived in Massachusetts at a seminal moment; he was stateside, acclimating to his Braintree home, when the U.S. Constitution was formally ratified.

On June 19, when ratification was all but certain, Adams addressed a letter to the Massachusetts Legislature. In his epistle, transcribed below, he thanks lawmakers, who extended a warm welcome to their long-absent statesman. And in a premonitory passage, Adams extols the liberties that the “Nation now enjoys.”

To the Honorable the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

The kind and condescending Congratulations of so illustrious a Body as the Legislature of Massachusetts, on my arrival with my Family, in this my native country does me great honor and demands my most grateful Acknowledgement.

If the Dangers and Fatigues which have fallen to my share in the Course of a memorable Revolution, have contributed in any degree, to the acquisition or security, of those inestimable Blessings of Independence, of Commerce and Trinity (?), of civil and religious Liberty which this highly favored (?) Nation now enjoys the reflexion (sic) on them will be a source of some salvation (?) to me, to my latest Period: and the Candour and Indulgence with which they have been received by my Fellow Citizens, will ever be remembered with Gratitude.

David McCullough, whose biography of John Adams won a Pulitzer Prize, is this year’s recipient of The Newberry Library Award. John Adams, first published in 2001, is now in its 82nd printing, and remains one of the most praised and widely read American biographies.

A city is more than a massing of citizens, a layout of buildings...

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:01:15 -0400

A city is more than a massing of citizens, a layout of buildings and streets, or an arrangement of institutions. It is also an infrastructure of ideas, an embodiment of the beliefs, values, and aspirations of the people who created it. In City Water, City Life, historian Carl Smith explores this infrastructure of ideas through an examination of the development of the first successful waterworks systems in Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago between the 1790s and the 1860s.

On Wednesday, May 15, Smith will discuss City Water, City Life at a meet-the-author event.

Pictured: from the Mitchell Dawson papers—an intimate photograph of a water pump on the Dawson family farm. The Newberry owns the correspondence, literary works, research materials, and personal papers of Chicago lawyer, poet and author Mitchell Dawson.

On this day in 1918, Chicagoans were jumpin’ and...

Sat, 11 May 2013 10:01:25 -0400

On this day in 1918, Chicagoans were jumpin’ and jivin’. The Dill Pickle Club hosted an Anti-War Dance to protest the then-waning World War.

Founded by former labor activist Jack Jones, the Dill Pickle Club was a Bohemian social club. Jones hoped to form an unconventional hub for the uninhibited and free-thinking, including socialists, atheists, anarchists, liberated women, soap-box orators, artists, and literary figures. Chartered in 1917, the Dil-Pickle (as it was first known) was frequented by Ben Reitman, Carl Sandburg, Edgar Lee Masters, Maxwell Bodenheim, Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, and Sherwood Anderson. The club’s fortunes declined as the Depression set in, and was defunct by 1932.

Thomas More’s Utopia (or in full: A Truly Golden Little...

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:01:28 -0400

Thomas More’s Utopia (or in full: A Truly Golden Little Book, No Less Beneficial Than Entertaining, of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia) is a landmark work—both as fiction and political philosophy. It was first published in 1516, composed in Latin. An English edition arrived in 1551.

A first-edition Utopia can be found in the Newberry stacks. Pictured here are its frontispiece and opening page. The former sports a woodcut map of the fictional island.

Haven’t had your utopic fill? Check out Stuart Patterson’s adult education seminar, Brave New Worlds? More, Montaigne, Shakespeare, and Swift on the Age of Exploration. Note: the registration deadline for summer classes is May 29.

The Statenvertaling (or “States Translation”) was...

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:40:00 -0400

The Statenvertaling (or “States Translation”) was the first official Dutch-language Bible, translated directly from Greek, Aramaic, and Latin sources. Earlier Dutch Bibles were translations of translations. Thus, in 1626, the government of the Protestant Dutch Republic commissioned a new, unique translation. It was first published in 1637.

Above is a brightly colored map of Jerusalem, which appears in the Newberry’s 1686 edition of the Statenvertaling. Solomon’s Temple is easily visible at top.

In the 1920s, Chicago emerged as “the literary capital of the...

Tue, 07 May 2013 11:56:00 -0400

In the 1920s, Chicago emerged as “the literary capital of the United States”— so said H. L. Mencken, cultural arbiter and critic. American literature became a jumble of Chicago mainstays: railroads, skyscrapers, and overflowing stockyards. The writings of renowned authors (Theodore Dreiser, Carl Sandburg, Willa Cather, and Sherwood Anderson) were born of Midwestern attitudes and upbringings.

This Wednesday, May 8, join two of Chicago’s famed authors, Sara Paretsky and Rick Kogan, for a “Conversation at the Newberry.” They will discuss Chicago’s evolving depiction in literature.

Pictured: images from Chicago … As Seen from the Skies. It’s crowded, Busy Streets … Views of Chicago, Covering Every Subject that Forms a Factor in the Make-Up of that City. Published by S.B. Frank in 1894.

The Eiffel Tower served as the entrance arch to the Exposition...

Mon, 06 May 2013 12:17:54 -0400

The Eiffel Tower served as the entrance arch to the Exposition Universelle, an 1889 world’s fair. The exposition opened on the sixth of May, though the tower was not yet complete (it required an additional nine days). It was an immediate success with the public. By the exposition’s end, the tower attracted two million visitors. One hundred and twenty-four years later, the Eiffel Tower is a cultural icon.

Pictured: Paris Exposition Grand March, a collection of sheet music from 1905. It can be found in the Newberry’s Driscoll Collection. Beneath the central image is a caption that reads, “The Eiffel Tower. 985 feet high… highest in existence.” This is partially inaccurate: the tower (including its antenna) originally stood at 1023 feet. It now stands at 1063 feet. It was, at the time of the sheet music’s composition, the world’s tallest man-made structure. After forty-one years, New York’s Chrysler Building would surpass it.

Happy International Workers’ Day! Albert R. Parsons, an...

Wed, 01 May 2013 14:25:00 -0400

Happy International Workers’ Day!

Albert R. Parsons, an Alabama-born newspaperman, was one of four Haymarket martyrs—labor and anarchist leaders, who, as we explained in our earlier post, were unfairly hanged for involvement in the Haymarket Square riot and bombing. Anarchismus, pictured above, is the German translation of Parsons’s memoir and ideological manifesto, Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Scientific Basis, as Defined by Some of Its Apostles. Parsons penned his manifesto while awaiting execution; it’s been said that he scribbled its final lines en route to the gallows. On the bottom right, there is a cheeky illustration of a scaffold, towering above three lines of text: “unter dem zeichen des neuen kreuzzugs,” or “under the sign of the new crusade.” “Crusade” refers to the harsh policing of the radical left.

Parsons’s manuscript would be posthumously published by his wife Lucy, a powerful orator and a leader in her own right. (In the 1920s, the Chicago Police Department would say she was “more dangerous than a thousand rioters”). Only 300 English-language copies were circulated; police actively confiscated the others. This German-language edition managed to escape police attention. It traveled freely—and quickly—among Chicago’s German-speaking population, which had strong ties to the anarchist, socialist, and labor movements.

benvanloon: Newberry Library. Designed by Henry Ives Cobb and...

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:33:40 -0400

benvanloon:

Newberry Library. Designed by Henry Ives Cobb and built in 1887.

Happy May Day! This bilingual broadside, written by labor...

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:16:22 -0400

Happy May Day!

This bilingual broadside, written by labor activist Adolph Fischer, calls on “workingmen” to attend a rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. In the demonstration’s aftermath, eight anarchists (including Fischer) were unfairly accused of slaying police officers. An openly biased judge would sentence seven of these defendants—now regarded as the Haymarket martyrs—to death. In 1887, four were executed after one committed suicide.

Two years later, the first congress of the Second International, an organization of socialist and labor parties, proposed an annual holiday to commemorate the Chicago protests and consequent executions. The holiday was dubbed International Workers’ Day, or May Day.

In 1893, Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned the remaining defendants, citing trial irregularities. He was concurrently praised and censured for this decision, which cost him a re-election bid. Today, the Newberry’s Bughouse Square Debates, an annual free-speech forum, begin with the presentation of the John Peter Altgeld Freedom of Speech Award, which is given to an individual or group that has staunchly defended civil liberties.

Fischer’s broadside and unwarranted fate are a potent reminder: Chicago occupies a central position in the movement for workers’ fair treatment. Its nineteenth-century denizens marched for and resolutely demanded their rights—and in turn, the rights of the international laborer.

To conclude National Poetry Month, here are some images from an...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:57:00 -0400

To conclude National Poetry Month, here are some images from an 1881 edition of Alfred Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott. In the first (page 32), the eponymous lady is seated at her loom. In the second (page 42), Sir Lancelot rides on horseback.

Today (April 25) in 1644, the Chongzhen Emperor—the...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:57:44 -0400

Today (April 25) in 1644, the Chongzhen Emperor—the sixteenth and final emperor of the Ming Dynasty—was overthrown. Three centuries earlier, the Ming was in its early throes; the Hongwu Emperor, or Zhu Yuanzhang, established the dynasty in 1368. Above are images of Chinese paper money, printed during the Hongwu Emperor’s reign (c. 1375). Printed in black and stamped with red, it has a floriated border and a dragon on each side. The inscription reads, “precious money for general use during the great Ming dynasty.”

Crown of Noble and Virtuous Women, page 21, Book 3. Cesare...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:11:00 -0400

Crown of Noble and Virtuous Women, page 21, Book 3.

Cesare Vecellio, a Venetian engraver, first published this pattern-making book in 1591. (The Newberry owns a slightly later edition, printed in 1616). It contains an improbable number of sewing and lace designs, which depict the jewels of royal crowns. Pages were frequently ripped out and re-appropriated as decorative accents on clothing.

Crown of Noble and Virtuous Women was continually printed into the nineteenth century.

Happy 449th birthday, Willy Shakes! Pictured: The Tragedie of...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:28:00 -0400

Happy 449th birthday, Willy Shakes!

Pictured: The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke, printed in 1930. Issued by Cranach Press, this edition of Hamlet sports contributions from four famed British artists: Edward Johnston, Eric Gill, Edward Gordon Craig, and Roger Powell.

Today is Talk Like Shakespeare Day!

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:26:00 -0400

Today is Talk Like Shakespeare Day!:

http://www.talklikeshakespeare.org/

Hear ye, hear ye! ‘Tis Shakespeare’s 449th birthday and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel has officially proclaimed April 23, 2013 as Talk Like Shakespeare Day—a day on which everyone is encouraged to express themselves through the incorporation of Shakespearean language and dialect. Get some tips about Shakespeare’s style, listen to the hip-hop birthday anthem, and discover the many ways the Bard is alive and well at 449 years old, right here!

Happy (supposed) 449th birthday, William...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:06:00 -0400

Happy (supposed) 449^th birthday, William Shakespeare!

Shakespeare (or the man we believe to be the famed playwright) was baptized on April 26, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday remains unknown, but is traditionally celebrated on April 23. This date, which is attributed to an 18th-century scholar’s mistake, has proved appealing to biographers (presumably because Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616).

We’ve already posted an image of our first folio and this tragic typo. So, in honor of Ol’ Will’s big day, we thought we’d try something different. The above image, entitled “Life and Death Contrasted, or an Essay on Woman,” appears in a collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English caricatures. It is an illustration of a half-woman/half-skeleton, clutching an arrow in her left hand and a fan in her right. At her feet are a set of playing cards, a book entitled Romance and Novels, and a skull. On her left (or the viewer’s right) is a rather large grave stone, engraved with a Shakespearean quotation. It is Act 5, Scene 1 of Hamlet, in which the Danish Prince addresses Yorick’s skull: “Now get you to my lady’s chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this complexion she must come at last.”

(Or, no matter how much makeup a woman puts on, she’ll still be reduced to a skull.)