Cotsen’s Covert Collections: The First Illustrated Book Printed in Turkey
The other day I was perusing the catalog, looking at records in some of Cotsen’s smaller language collections. When I searched for our holdings in the Turkish language, I found something really...
View ArticleLady Diana Beauclerk Draws a Travelling Zoo
Before the establishment of zoological gardens in the early nineteenth century, people living outside of London with its Tower Menagerie were unlikely to have the opportunity of seeing large exotic...
View ArticleWho Can Turn the World Upside Down?
School boys in classrooms A fish angling on a river bank Hard working sheep and bears A girl or a nutcracker in the nursery A hare, a turkey, and a tortoise in the kitchen Committing sedition instead...
View ArticleThe Spirit of 1776: An American Copy Book Older than This Country (Slightly)
Since we are inaugurating a long weekend celebrating Independence Day today (huzzah for a holiday on Monday!), I thought it might be appropriate to share an equally important contemporaneous manuscript...
View ArticleThe Noble Life of Moretto: An 18th-century Venetian Dog
On this dog day of summer, we thought we’d relieve the heat with a little canine levity in the Cotsen Children’s Library. It’s not a children’s book, but it could be considered a forerunner of...
View ArticleBooks that Build Bodies: Gymnastics and Physical Culture in the 19th Century
Collecting illustrated books on sports has never been a priority at Cotsen, but the research collection contains a wealth of material about the history of physical culture since the late 18th century....
View ArticleCotsen’s Covert Collections: An 18th-century Illuminated Manuscript from...
For this edition of “Cotsen’s Covert Collections” I’d like to post about another item I know very little about: an 18th-century manuscript from Rajasthan, India. But the manuscript is such an unusual...
View Article“Wild Lives:” An Afternoon of Talks on October 16th, Guyot Hall Auditorium,...
Cotsen Children’s Library, the Graphic Arts Collection, and the Friends of the Princeton University Library will be co-hosting: Wild Lives: Catesby, Audubon, Lear, and Ford October 16th, 2016 from...
View ArticleCurator’s Choice: A Moving Panorama of London Cries
A few weeks ago when reading The Easter Gift published by John Newbery, I ran across the term “shews in boxes.” Context made it clear that they were nice toys that might be given as a reward to boys...
View ArticleFrancis Barlow “A Famous Paynter of Fowle Beastes & Birds”
Animals, birds, and nature… Who doesn’t like them and find them fascinating? Pretty much all children, as well as illustrators, painters, naturalists. “Wild Lives,” the recent conference at Princeton,...
View ArticleGingerbread Alphabets and Books: “Useful Knowledge by the Pound”
After a really aggravating day, there probably isn’t a teacher alive who hasn’t wished that the human mind absorbed knowledge like a sponge soaks up water. Crafty teachers devise strategies that just...
View ArticleThe History of Birthday Cake Decoration
The perfect birthday cake in children’s books may appear in the last chapter of Beverly Cleary’s Beezus and Ramona (1955). Beezus, who has just turned ten, is sitting in the living room reading one of...
View ArticlePitching Pennies: Master Michel Angelo’s Juvenile Sports and Pastimes
If you enjoyed “Cure for the Summer Time Blues” and “Stitching a Soviet Monkey,” here is a third post featuring a children’s book with instructions for making playthings. Master Michel Angelo’s...
View ArticleThe Truth Within: A Harlequinade About Inner Virtue
The juxtaposed irony of a work with the above title being contained in a slip case covered with beautiful marbled paper isn’t lost on us. But that doesn’t make the actual content of the case any less...
View ArticleA Field Guide to Fairies
Identifying the fairy in this famous illustration isn’t hard. This next example isn’t difficult either… Don’t be too quick to say there aren’t any fairies in this lovely drawing by William Blake…....
View ArticleEncounters with Illustration Processes, or “What Did You Do on Your Summer...
Remember being asked the, “What did you do on your summer vacation?” question at the beginning of each new school year? And usually being hard-pressed to come up with a “good” answer? Here’s a...
View ArticleRosamund’s Dilemma: A Purple Jar or A Pair of Shoes?
Maria Edgeworth’s most famous (or infamous) short story is “The Purple Jar,” the first in the series of the Rosamund stories, which began appearing in The Parent’s Assistant (1796). Why has this...
View ArticleCurator’s Choice: Two Picture Bibles for Children from the 1760s
Everyone has heard of John Newbery, the first publisher of the modern children’s book and namesake of the American Library Association’s annual award for the most distinguished contribution to American...
View ArticleA Mystery Manuscript: Robert Brightwell junior’s Scientifick Amusement (1752)
About twenty years ago Cotsen purchased this little manuscript bound in blue sugar paper boards from John Lawson, an English antiquarian bookseller and great collector in the field of the history of...
View ArticleA New Picture Book Bio of John Newbery, the Man Behind the Medal
Balderdash! John Newbery and the Boisterous Birth of Children’s Books (2017) is an explanation of where children’s books came from for preschoolers. This is the first collaboration of author...
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