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uwmspeccoll · 3 hours
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Publishers' Binding Thursday
I found this book while browsing the stacks in search of a good publishers' binding. This one does not disappoint! This is Italian Hours by American-British author Henry James, published in 1909 by Houghton Mifflin Co. Italian Hours is a book of travel essays about Italy, a country that James loved, that are considered very charming but not unrealistic. This edition features illustrations of Italian scenes by American etcher, lithographer, and illustrator Joseph Pennell.
The cover features a mosaic-esque design stamped in gold with a blue florals and flourishes and leafy green patterns. The book cloth is a brickish red-orange color and the spine features a motif similar to that of the front cover. There's nothing special about the endsheets, which is always a disappointment to me. I just wish more people paid attention to the endsheets! But otherwise it's a very nice binding.
View more Publishers' Binding Thursday posts here.
-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager
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uwmspeccoll · 1 day
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Wood Engraving Wednesday
SARAH VAN NIEKERK
English artist Sarah Van Niekerk (1934 - 2018) was an award-winning Illustrator and wood engraver, a member of the Society of Wood Engravers (SWE), and the Society's chair, 1995-1998. This print, Rams, was printed from the original block in 2020 Vision: Nineteen Wood Engravers, One Collector, and the Artists Who Inspired Them, printed in 2020 by Patrick Randle’s Nomad Letterpress at the Whittington Press in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in an edition of 340 copies for the 100th anniversary of the Society of Wood Engravers. Unfortunately, Van Niekerk died during the planning of the book and her daughter Jess wrote the text for mother's entry and helped select the block to be printed.
Sarah Van Niekerk attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts (1951-1954) where she studied with wood engraver and sculptor Gertrude Hermes who greatly influenced her work. She continued her education at the Slade School (1955-1956) and much later taught wood engraving at the Royal Academy of Art (1976-1986) and the City and Guilds Art School (1979-1998), and for many years was a tutor at West Dean College. Besides being a member of SWE, she was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and a Royal West of England Academician.
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View another post with work by Sarah Van Niekerk.
View a post with work by Van Niekerk's mentor Gertrude Hermes.
View other posts from 2020 Vision.
View more posts with women wood engravers.
View more posts with wood engravings!
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uwmspeccoll · 2 days
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Typography Tuesday
WHITTINGHAM INITIALS
The Whittinghams, Charles the Elder (1767-1840), who founded the Chiswick Press, and his nephew and successor Charles the Younger (1795–1876), were among the finest English printer/publishers of the 19th century, noted especially for the quality of typographic design and evenness of printing. Their firm was also the chief printer for bookseller/publisher William Pickering, whose own devotion to quality was exemplified in his use of Aldus Manutius's anchor & dolphin printer's mark, combined with the motto Aldi Discipulus Anglus (Aldus's English Disciple).
Many of the distinctive, wood-engraved initials the Whittinghams used were designed by Charles II himself along with his artist daughters Charlotte and Elizabeth, almost all of which were engraved by English book illustrator and wood engraver Mary Byfield (1795-1871). The Whittingham initials shown here are from the 1896 Grolier Club publication, The Charles Whittinghams Printers by Arthur Warren (1860-1924), which itself is printed by one of the finest 19th-century American printers, Theodore Low De Vinne (1828-1914), who printed the book on handmade paper in an edition of 185 copies. Our copy is another gift from our friend Jerry Buff, a Grolier Club member.
View our other Typography Tuesday posts.
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uwmspeccoll · 3 days
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Milestone Monday
March 25th is Tolkien Reading Day, a day to honor the literary prowess of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) author of acclaimed high fantasy novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien has shared that the seeds of inspiration for his novels came from his childhood fascination and experimentation with constructed language and a 1911 Summer holiday hiking through Switzerland. Roughly fourteen years after his Swiss adventure, Tolkien would write The Hobbit and the first two volumes of Lord of the Rings while teaching in Oxford.  
Stepping slightly away from Tolkien’s novels, today we’re digging into our broadside collection and sharing Bilbo’s Last Song (At Grey Havens), a poem about leaving Middle-Earth. It first appeared, as seen here, as a poster published in 1974 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd., the original English publisher of his famous novels, with illustrations by Pauline Baynes (1922-2008), who illustrated many of Tolkien's publications. Chronologically, the poem takes place at the end of the last volume of Lord of the Rings, however it was never included in the series. 
Read other Milestone Monday posts here! 
– Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 
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uwmspeccoll · 3 days
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Marbled Monday
This week for Marbled Monday we return to the work of William Blake as published by the Trianon Press and the William Blake Trust. The poem is Visions of the Daughters of Albion, which was first published by William Blake in 1793 with his own illustrations. This Trianon Press edition was published in 1959 and is a facsimile of the original, meaning it was reproduced as closely as possible, including Arches pure rag paper made to match that which was used by Blake. The paper also features a watermark of Blake's monogram in the lower corner of every sheet.
The edition is quarter-bound in orange leather and orange, brown, and tan marbled paper. The paper is a really interesting pattern, similar to Cockerell's Octopus or Whirl pattern. It is difficult to tell who did the marbling because it isn't stated in the colophon, but it is possibly by French marbler Michel Duval, who the Trianon Press used frequently for their marbled papers. It could also be by Cockerell, but seems less likely judging by the number of mentions of Duval in the finding aid for the Trianon Press Archives at UC Santa Cruz.
View more Marbled Monday posts.
View more posts about the Trianon Press.
-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager
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uwmspeccoll · 4 days
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Shakespeare Weekend
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The Plays of Shakespeare was published by Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., likely in the late 1860s or early 1870s and consists of three volumes each arranging the plays into comedies, histories, and tragedies with many illustrations as Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare. Englishman John Cassell (1817-1865) was a tea and coffee merchant who pivoted into publishing in 1848 with the weekly newspaper The Standard of Freedom and expanded to the Illustrated Family Paper in 1853. When Cassell was unexpectedly called to pay back an advancement to his paper supplier, he turned to printing firm partners George Petter (1823-1888) and Thomas Galpin (1828-1910) for financial support. The three men went into a full partnership in 1859 and found great success in publishing illustrated editions of classic literature, including the popular Illustrated Family Bible. 
It is from their illustration craze that The Plays of Shakespeare was born. Edited and annotated by Charles (1787-1877) and Mary Cowden Clark (1809-1898) and illustrated with wood engravings from drawings by H.C. Selous (1803-1890), the three-volume collection is brimming with detailed illustrations of the plays geared toward families and young readers. Volume Two contains Shakespeare’s historical plays. 
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View more Shakespeare Weekend posts. 
-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 
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uwmspeccoll · 6 days
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It’s Fine Press Friday! 
Today we’re leaning into the drama with a 1910 edition of Poems from notorious bohemian and (unofficial) Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) member Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). This vellum covered, gilt stamped, 369-page tome was printed on Unbleached Arnold paper by the Villafield Press in Glasgow and published in limited run of 350 copies in London by Blackie & Son under the art direction of Talwin Morris. It features a praiseful yet cutting introduction from fellow poet, critic, and suffragist Alice Meynell (1847-1922) along with a wealth of illustrations (70 plates) by Florence Harrison (1877–1955) , an Australian illustrator of poetry and children’s books who worked extensively with Blackie & Son. Harrison’s style was inspired by the Romantic Era and the nature-worshipping, hedonistic values of the Art Nouveau and Pre-Raphaelite movements of the time. Fittingly, she also illustrated the works of fellow PRB poets William Morris (1834-1896) and Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892).   
While many of the poems included are overtly devotional and express themes of purity, motifs of romantic love, limerence, melancholy, and death permeate the mood of the text as a whole. The Rossetti family, particularly Christina’s brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) (poet, illustrator, painter, translator, and co-founder of the PRB) and Elizabeth Siddal (1829-1862) (artist, iconic art model, poet, and Dante’s longtime partner, muse, and eventual wife), are known for their exploits, excesses, creative legacy and influence on the culture of the era. Christina published her first poem at only 16, and Siddal posed for Millais's Ophelia at 19. The radical, passionate nature of the philosophies and lifestyle they embodied was as much a product of the intensity and privilege of their youth as of the Renaissance ideals and Victorian mores they rebelled against.   
For a deeper dive on the Rossettis and their generation, check out this recent exhibition at the Tate Modern.  
View another Christina Rossetti post
View another Dante Gabriel Rossetti post
View another Pre-Raphaelite post
View more Art Nouveau posts
--Ana, Special Collections Graduate Intern
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uwmspeccoll · 7 days
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And Again -- Another Wood-engraved Feathursday
LESLIE EVANS
The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is known to spear many things in our local ponds and waterways -- fish, crustaceans, amphibians, reptiles, insects, and even some small mammals -- but rarely cards with numbers on them. This wood engraving is by Watertown, Massachusetts artist, printmaker, and letterpress printer Leslie Evans (b. 1953), and it was one of the prints selected for inclusion in the Fourth Triennial Exhibition 2020-2022 of the American wood engravers society, the Wood Engravers’ Network (WEN), and the image is from the catalog for that traveling show.
Evans is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, where she was introduced to letterpress printing on the Vandercook proofing press. After stints working for artists and design studios, she founded her own press, Sea Dog Press, and came to wood engraving through annual workshops sponsored by WEN. So why the heron with the number 59? Because this engraving serves as the cover illustration for Block & Burin No. 59, Spring 2018, the official publication for members of the Wood Engravers' Network.
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View more posts with women wood engravers.
View other posts with engravings from the WEN Fourth Triennial Exhibition.
View more engravings by members of the Wood Engraver’s Network.
View more posts with wood engravings!
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uwmspeccoll · 8 days
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Wood Engraving Wednesday
ANNE DESMET
English printmaker Anne Desmet (b. 1964) is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) and the Society of Wood Engravers (SWE), and is only the third wood engraver elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in its entire history. This engraving, Brooklyn Bridge: New Day (2015) pays homage to one of her major influences, British artist Edward Wadsworth (1889-1949) and is printed from the original block in 2020 Vision: Nineteen Wood Engravers, One Collector, and the Artists Who Inspired Them, printed in 2020 by Patrick Randle’s Nomad Letterpress at the Whittington Press in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in an edition of 340 copies for the 100th anniversary of the Society of Wood Engravers. Of her wood engravings, Desmet writes:
Many of my engravings are in evolving series to suggest time, change, metamorphosis and evolution. My Brooklyn Bridge (2015) series of seven prints charts nights and days of snowy weather I experienced in New York in 2014. The bridge's complex engineering structure and viewing angle with a vanishing-point perspective reflect my appreciation of Wadsworth's emphatic compositions. . . . I offer . . . Brooklyn Bridge: New Day . . . in homage to Wadsworth. Wordsworth described 'gradually being able to evolve something of printmaking . . . which in my opinion is very suitable for an expression of form and structure' . . . . I too find print techniques admirably well-suited to express 'form and structure' and, in particular, to architectural themes . . . which have preoccupied me these last three decades.
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View other posts from 2020 Vision.
View more posts with women wood engravers.
View more posts with wood engravings!
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uwmspeccoll · 9 days
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Typography Tuesday
KEYSTONE INTIALS AND CUTS
The Keystone Type Foundry was established in Philadelphia in 1888 and operated independently until 1917 when it became one of the many foundries absorbed by American Type Founders. These cast and electrotyped initials and cuts are from the foundry's Catalogue and Specimen Book Keystone Products Consisting of Type, Material Furniture Complete Line of Miscellaneous Supplies for Printers and Publishers published in Philadelphia in 1910. All the initials and cuts shown here were designed by Keystone's own staff except for the Meridale and Lotus Initials which were licensed to Keystone.
This catalogue was copy No. 5351 and according to its bookplate was the property of Keystone and was only lent out, not sold or given, to a printer/publisher, and was expected to be returned "intact and in good condition, reasonable wear expected." Someone clearly did not follow those instructions, as several specimens have been cut from the catalogue's pages as can be seen in the Caslon Bold Page Ornaments.
View other specimens from this Keystone Catalogue.
View our other Typography Tuesday posts.
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uwmspeccoll · 10 days
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Marbled Monday
This week's Marbled Monday is all about The Art of the Book! The Art of the Book: A Review of Some Recent European and American Work in Typography, Page Decoration & Binding was created by Charles Holme and published in New York and London by "The Studio" Ltd. in 1914. It includes examples of many different contemporary trends and styles and elements of book design, some of which are shown here.
It also includes a lovely binding with some interesting marbled paper. It is half bound in leather with marbled paper over boards. I say the marbling is interesting because it doesn't really follow an established pattern. It's most nearly a Turkish or stone pattern, but includes some irregular swirling that was done with a stylus. The colors are a great contrasting mix of light and dark blue, orange, and brownish maroon. The light blue is actually just the color of the paper itself, which we can tell because of the wear to the cover where it has worn through the marbling.
View more Marbled Monday posts.
-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager
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uwmspeccoll · 10 days
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Milestone Monday
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March 18th is the birthday of acclaimed American novelist, poet, and short-story writer John Updike (1932-2009). Updike was inspired to become a writer by his mother’s attempts to get published during his childhood and recalled fondly the memory of her writing desk with all its admirable equipment. By his early twenties, Updike had published a poem in the New Yorker as well as a collection of poetry with Harper & Brothers. His early successes went on to spur a prolific and varied career that included being one of only four writers to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once in 1982 and 1991. 
To mark what would have been Updike’s 92nd birthday, we’re sharing his signed limited-edition chapbook Five Poems. Published in 1980 by Bits Press out of Cleveland, Ohio, Five Poems is letterpress printed in an edition of 185 copies with a hand-sewn binding and a clever rebus cover drawn by Updike.  
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Read other Milestone Monday posts here! 
See other rebus examples within our collection here! 
– Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 
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uwmspeccoll · 11 days
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Shakespeare Weekend
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Working our way through the Shakespeare Collection, our next stop is The Plays of Shakespeare edited and annotated by Charles (1787-1877) and Mary Cowden Clarke (1809-1898) and illustrated by H.C. Selous (1803-1890). The collection was published by Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., likely in the mid to late 1860s and consists of three volumes each arranging the plays into comedies, histories, and tragedies.  
Scholarly English authors Charles and Mary Cowden Clark refer to the collection as the “People’s Edition” stating their intention for the work to be read within the household and among family circles. Keeping young readers in mind, the plays are annotated for a novice Shakespearean audience and Titus Andronicus is omitted from the collection due to its “grossness”. Additionally, the collection is heavily illustrated by Selous with wood engravings, providing valuable imagery for those unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s plays.  
Volume One contains all of Shakespeare’s comedies and opens with a full-page frontispiece of the author.  
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View more Shakespeare Weekend posts. 
-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 
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uwmspeccoll · 12 days
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Ambiguous by Nature
I wanted to share a beautiful rendition of Leda and the Swan by the renowned Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939). It comes from Wisconsin artist Mark Brueggeman, who taught in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for 27 years. He is a versatile, talented artist known for his work in stain-glass, painting, drawing, and printmaking. This work has now extended his work to include the roles of both publisher and illustrator. According to a quote from hiddenstudiosarttour.com, Brueggeman states he has “always enjoyed the look of text incorporated into drawings and paintings.”
Brueggeman's artwork is a rare gem, a testament to his meticulous craftsmanship. Printed in an edition of 15 copies at Brueggeman's Atelier Vermeil Studio in 2015, the work is a blend of letterpress and intaglio prints on Root River Mill paper handmade by the artist and several of his colleagues, and published as a portfolio of broadsides.
The poem, rooted in a Greek myth about a sexual encounter between the immortal god Zeus and the beautiful Spartan queen Leda, presents a unique perspective. In Yeats’ version, he offers a provocative and ambiguous account of a sexual act. Brueggeman's visual interpretation of the poem adds another layer of intrigue, leaning into the vague nature of the poem itself.
The artwork and poetry blend seamlessly, taking on a sensual yet brutal quality. They intentionally leave much to the reader's imagination, allowing for various interpretations and assumptions. However, one thing is certain in the poem and the artist’s rendering: following the rash and impulsive act, Leda is left on her own, carrying the knowledge of the future consequences that their union has created.
-Melissa, Special Collections Classics Intern
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uwmspeccoll · 13 days
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It’s Fine Press Friday! 
This week, in honor of Ramadan, we’re taking a peek at a 1958 Limited Editions Club (LEC) publication of The Koran: Selected Suras from our collection. This modern, handsomely bound and illustrated collection of texts from the Qu‘ran was translated into English by Australian American scholar of Asian studies Arthur Jeffery (1892-1959), and features decorations in grayed blue and red ink from Italian American printmaker, illustrator, and author Valenti Angelo (1897-1982). The title page and the page opposite the opening sura were also hand-illuminated in gold by Angelo. The text, which features Bembo type and Civilité headings, is printed in black ink on custom made tan Arak paper from Curtis Paper Company, a paper mill in Newark, Delaware known for its manufacture of high-quality rag papers using 19th-century Fourdrinier machinery. The work was printed by Abraham Colish (1882–1963, otherwise known as A. Colish) and bound in cloth covered boards which were hand stamped with decorations in blue, red, and gold. It was released in an edition of 1500 copies, all of which were signed by the illustrator.  
رمضان مبارك (Ramadan Mubarak) 
Find more materials related to the Quran (including original manuscripts and alternate translations in Latin, French, and German) in UWM’s Special Collections 
View more Fine Press Friday posts 
View another Ramadan post 
View more Bembo and Civilité posts 
View more Valenti Angelo posts 
View more A. Colish posts 
View more Limited Editions Club posts 
-- Ana, Special Collections Graduate Intern
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uwmspeccoll · 14 days
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How do I search for books? What is the website
Hello! You can search our catalog from our homepage at https://uwm.edu/libraries/special/. If you want to continue searching once you're in the library catalog, click the dropdown next to the search box that says "everything" and change it to "WI Historical Society and UWM Distinctive Collections." You will then be able to limit the location to just Special Collections using the options on the left.
If you're looking for more images of books, however, you can search our Tumblr site using the search box at the top left of the page. Most of the books in our collections aren't digitized and only some have been partially scanned or photographed and posted here.
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uwmspeccoll · 14 days
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Yet Another Wood-engraved Feathursday
CINDY KOOPMAN
This 10 x 8 in (20.4 x 20.32 cm) wood engraving entitled Grasshopper (because, after all, there are some grasshoppers in it) by Minnesota artist Cindy Koopman is very reminiscent of our daily experience here in Special Collections. Every day, sometimes three or four times a day, the green roof outside our windows gets visited by a gang of 3-7 crows that investigate the undergrowth, jump and flutter about, toss random objects into the air, and on occasion actually take a slide down the solar panels on the roof just for fun! They are endlessly fascinating, and every day when they arrive all work stops in Special Collections and the entire staff line up along the windows to watch crows be crows for five minutes or so. It's just a part of our workday, but also one of its highlights.
Cindy Koopman is a Minnesota artist with an MFA in printmaking, and is a faculty member at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, MN. This print was selected for inclusion in the Fourth Triennial Exhibition 2020-2022 of the American wood engravers society, the Wood Engravers’ Network (WEN), and the image is from the catalog for that traveling show.
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View more Feathursday posts.
View more posts with women wood engravers.
View other posts with engravings from the WEN Fourth Triennial Exhibition.
View more engravings by members of the Wood Engraver’s Network.
View more posts with wood engravings!
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