Happy Inauguration Day!
I’ll probably be watching the big event from my laptop. Or, I may get really crazy and go down to the dorm lounge/bar. Exciting!
If, like me, you can’t make it to the Mall, you can check out this photo-filled post on the Lincoln Inaugural Bible at the blog of the Library of Congress. The LOC also has an online exhibit of inaugural materials, including Thomas Jefferson’s manuscript of his first inaugural address and a draft of the poem Robert Frost composed for the Kennedy inauguration.
Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888)
James M. Ives (1824-1895)
Washington’s reception by the Ladies, on Passing the Bridge at Trenton, N.J. , April, 1789: on his way to New York to be inaugurated first President of the United States. New York: N. Currier, ca.1845
Lithograph
Prints & Photograph Divisions (3A)
LC-USZC4-703 [cph 3b52213]
More Miscellany from the Library of Congress
As promised, more images from the Library of Congress Other Digitized Materials collection that caught my fancy. As yesterday, click the image to go to the material at the LOC website.
History of Insects. New-York: Printed and sold by Samuel Wood, at the Juvenile Book-Store, no. 357, Pearl-Street, 1813.
[Ivory hornbook] [realia]. [England: s.n., 18--].
[Wood hornbook] [realia]. [United States?: s.n., 18--]
— Hornbooks were tools used to teach children the alphabet, and sometimes a few words and religious verses, before paper was cheap and widely available. The first example above is ivory with a beautiful carved alphabet, and it looks to have been broken and repaired at some point. The second hornbook is made of wood, with a printed sheet underneath a thin layer of translucent horn to protect the page, which explains the origin of the term “hornbook.” This one appears to be multi-functional, with what looks like an abacus at the top.
The World Turned Upside Down, or, No News, and Strange News. York: Printed and sold by J. Kendrew, Colliergate, [1820?].
Solemn Warning to Dancers, A. New York: Published by N. Bangs and J. Emory for the Tract Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, between 1824 and 1832.
— I have a thing for religious pamphlets. I’ve actually been known to go out of my way to get copies from street preachers. The illustration in the above is great – note the snake off to the side.
Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, New York : [Walt Whitman], 1855 ([Brooklyn, New York : Rome Brothers])
— I need to get this as a font.
Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797. A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on moral and political subjects. Philadelphia: Printed by William Gibbons …, 1792.
The LOC has a big collection of magic posters. Below are some of my favorites.
Rare Children’s Books at the Library of Congress
I love that the Library of Congress Rare Books and Special Collections Digital Materials website has an “other” collection. I ran across it yesterday while looking for something else, stumbling first on the Children’s Literature. I’ve posted a few of my favorites here, and clicking on an image will take you directly to the book at the LOC website, each digitized in full. Later this weekend I’ll post more images from other parts of the rare books collection.
The Rocket Book / By Peter Newell. New York: Harper & Brothers, c1912.
— What a great book! I’d never heard of it before, but it has whimsical illustrations and a modern, slightly subversive sensibility. The author and illustrator, Peter Newell, wrote a number of children’s books and also published a wonderfully bizarre comic strip called The Naps of Polly Sleepyhead in 1906 and 1907 (which you can view in large size via the preceding link to Barnacle Press.) Newell’s The Slant Book is also available at the LOC website
A Child’s Garden of Verses / By Robert Louis Stevenson; Illustrated by Charles Robinson. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1895.
— A favorite of mine from childhood.
The Grasshopper Stories / by Elizabeth Davis Leavitt; With Illustrations By Maude Dewey Doan. [S.l. : s.n.], c1912 (Jacksonville, Ill.: Henderson & DePew, printers).
— The inside of this one isn’t as interesting as the cover.
The Square Book of Animals / By William Nicholson; Rhymes By Arthur Waugh. New York: R. H. Russell, 1900, c1899.
— What could I possibly add to this? I’m not even going to say anything. Except that it should be submitted to Cute Overload.
London Town / Designed and Illustrated By Thos. Crane & Ellen Houghton. London; New York: Marcus Ward & Co., [1883]
Stories From Hans Andersen / With Illustrations By Edmund Dulac. London: Hodder & Stoughton, [c1911].
The Raven / By Edgar Allan Poe; Illustrated By Gustave Doré; With comment By Edmund C. Stedman. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1884.
— I’m a huge fan of the Dore Raven. Seeing this took me back to all the hours I spent copying the engravings into my sketchbook as a kid.
A Wonder Book For Girls & Boys/ By Nathaniel Hawthorne; with 60 designs By Walter Crane. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1893, c1892.
— Just gorgeous.
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