Tag Archives: collections

Tiny Treasures

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The Doll’s Library : Book [1-6] (1802). The Treasures of the Cotsen Children’s Library, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University

Last week, I blogged about “Miniature Worlds: An Artistic Collaboration of Tiny Libraries,” our beautiful exhibition of twelve original miniature libraries created by local artists. Today, I’ll be sharing the event and special collections we hosted in tandem with the exhibit, including some amazing kid-created book art.

As visitors entered, they first encountered the exhibit case with the miniature worlds libraries, which they were free to examine and enjoy. There were definitely lots of finger, chin, and nose prints on the glass after the event!

Image courtesy of Hope Van Cleaf

Inside the gallery, the theme continued with “teeny tiny reads” (i.e. several sets of ZURI Mini Brands Books with magnifying glasses) and a drawing to win one of four miniature goodie baskets – a tiny early reader library, a personal library stamp kit, a miniature bookshelf that doubles as an office supply holder, and a blank version of the diorama box we gave our local artists, so kids could have a go at creating their own miniature world (that last one was definitely the most popular)!

At the back of our gallery was mini book decorating, where kids received a 2.5″ x 4″ journal and then used various supplies (washi tape, gold stickers, glitter markers, stencils, star stickers, and more) to decorate the book. We also had bookmarks handy for decorating as well.

The creativity was definitely flowing as kids designed their books! One ingenious young man made his books even smaller by cutting the journal in half to make two smaller books. Brilliant!

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Scattered throughout the book decorating activity were exhibit signs featuring some of the amazing tiny historical treasures we have in Cotsen’s special collections. A big shout out to Katie for delving into the vaults and sharing!

The Doll’s Library : Book [1-6] (1802). The Treasures of the Cotsen Children’s Library, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University

Publisher John Marshall printed these miniature titles, typically around 50 mm (less than 2 inches) tall, in brightly colored cover boards. The various collections of books were often housed in doll-house-like bookcases, which became incredibly popular and spawned dozens of lackluster replicas.

Left: Bathing and Sleeping [洗澡和睡觉 Xi zao he shui jiao] (1961). Right: The Swallow and the Bumblebee [燕子和黄蜂 Yan zi he huang feng (1960). The Treasures of the Cotsen Children’s Library, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University

These tiny accordion style books were published for Chinese children during the 1950s and 60s. Measuring less than 3.5 inches tall, the book’s small size was a less expensive way to print multiple copies of the books in full color. The accordion fold was a clever way for a child’s hands to learn to separate the pages rather than a normal single page book. This unique printing approach also demonstrated an adult’s expectation that a child would be able to easily read the story entirely on their own.

Le bijou des enfans: pour l’année 1817. The Treasures of the Cotsen Children’s Library, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University

Cotsen’s copy of Le bijou des enfans (The Children’s Jewel) is accompanied by a real magnifying glass. Both are carefully housed together in a protective box designed to look like a leather bound book. Le bijou des enfans is just 28 mm (less than an inch) tall. Children may be able to hold and read this tiny book, but it is challenging for adult size fingers and hands!

 

 

 

Letters to Jack Ripley from Beatrix Potter (1909). The Treasures of the Cotsen Children’s Library, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University

Beatrix Potter often wrote letters, some illustrated, to children she knew. Many of the charming drawings and stories she told in the picture letters were the inspiration for her beloved children’s books, including The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher. She also penned miniature letters to children using the voice of her animal characters. In 2020, Cotsen acquired this collection of little letters Potter wrote to Master Jack Ripley.

Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, Volume II (1744).
The Treasures of the Cotsen Children’s Library, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University

Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, Vol. II is the oldest collection of English nursery rhymes known to exist. It is a miniature book that measures just three inches tall, and it was the sequel to the now-lost first volume printed earlier that same year. There are just two known copies of Volume II: Cotsen has one in its special collection and the other is at the British Library in London, England. The super rare tiny book has 40 nursery rhymes printed on pages that alternate between red and black ink. Some of the nursery rhymes are still popular today, such as “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and “Hickory Dickory Dock”.

The Bronte Castle Alphabet (1981). The Treasures of the Cotsen Children’s Library, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University

At just 3 cm (1.18 inches) tall, this tiny book is small enough it can be stashed inside of a leather-hinged walnut shell! The Bronte Press, who published this and many other miniature books, has been in business since 1977.

Forms & Functions: The Splendors of Global Bookmaking

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Book enthusiasts near and far are cordially invited to a fantastic new exhibit!

“Forms and Function: The Splendors of Global Book Making,” is currently in the Ellen and Leonard Milberg Gallery in Firestone Library on Princeton University campus. Curated by Martin Heijdra, Director of PUL’s East Asian Library, the exhibit showcases the diversity and beauty of global book making, focusing on three major traditions of the book form: codex, East Asian, and pothī.

Awash in rich jewel tones and featuring a range of striking visuals, the exhibition features treasures from some of Princeton’s lesser-known collections, as well as items from its renowned collections of Western, Islamic, East Asian, and Mesoamerican manuscripts and printed books. There are also works by modern artists completed in the style of these global traditions. For gallery hours and directions to campus, please click here. The exhibit runs through December 7, 2025.

Can’t make the trip? No worries! There is a video tour here, a digital version of the exhibit here, and a downloadable guide here.

In celebration of the exhibit’s amazing holdings, we selected some of our more unusual book-crafting projects for further fun. Simply click the titles over the images to visit the project pages!

BOOK BOUQUET

MINI TREE LIBRARY

big tree library, little tree library

CLASSIC HOWLER

a real howler

FUN FLIP BOOK 

one two books 3

WINGED CODEX

flying books

PIRANESI PICNIC

A VERY LITERARY CANARY

tweet-reading-is-sweet

THE PERFECT PLACEHOLDER

Miniature paper book with personal information about a person named Katie written in it.MINI PET PORTRAYALS

Visiting Percy Jackson…in Texas

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Today, I am delighted to introduce guest blogger Dr. Miranda Sachs! Miranda studied History at Princeton University, and graduated in 2011. She worked extensively at our library, both in special collections and with me in community outreach. Miranda earned her PhD at Yale, and is now an assistant professor of European History at Texas State University.

That’s where she met Percy Jackson.

Or more accurately, that’s where she visited the Rick Riordan archive in Texas State’s Wittliff Collections. The collections “collect, preserve and present the cultural heritage of Texas, the Southwest & Mexico through works of the region’s storytellers—writers, photographers, musicians, filmmakers and other artists,” and Riordan’s papers and ephemera are part of the Southwestern Writers Collections (along Sandra Cisneros, Sam Shepard, Naomi Shihab Nye, Cormac McCarthy, and J. Frank Dobie to name a few).

Miranda found some incredibly cool stuff, and I will now turn the post over to her very capable hands. Take it away, Miranda!

Many, many years ago I was an undergraduate at Princeton and I had the privilege of working for Dr. Dana. It was the best job ever. I did things like glue lizards onto visors for a Holes watch party or tell jokes using a shark puppet. Dr. Dana introduced me to Percy Jackson and I loved the books. I even got to dress as a Greek lady for Princyclopedia, an event that Dr. Dana used to organize.

Miranda, on right, being fabulous. Department of Special Collections, Cotsen Children’s Library, Princeton University Library.

Since my time at Princeton, I’ve become a professor of French history. Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that Texas State, the university where I teach, has the personal collection of Rick Riordan, the author of the Percy Jackson books. I reached out to my old friend Dr. Dana and she sent me on a quest to check out what Rick Riordan sent to the Witliff Collections.

Because of the new Lightning Thief mini-series, the library has some of the highlights from Riordan’s collection on display. As soon as I walked in the door, I saw a shirt for Camp Half-Blood. The display case had a replica of Riptide used for the film and some neat photos of Riordan speaking to kids. It also had hand-written copies of stories Riordan wrote as a kid! The room where I got to look at the documents had art on display from the covers of some of the books.

The archivist let me look at some of Rick Riordan’s childhood stories. It turns out that Riordan was writing fantasy and mythology even back then. One story was about a god named Jzais living in a world called Tharcas. He wrote some of these stories by hand and others with a typewriter (yup, he was a kid before the computer.)

All the stories were on the original pieces of paper on which he’d written or typed. It was fun to look at stories he wrote in junior high school (back in 1978) and see comments from his teachers. One story called “The Ring of Fire” received 100/100!

Rick Riordan was a teacher before he was a writer. One of the boxes in the collection includes a photo album with pictures from the final class of students he taught in 2004. Six years later, he went back to visit the school and those kids were seniors. Many of them wrote letters sharing how much he had meant to them as a teacher. They still remembered the story of Gilgamesh because he had told it to them with funny voices. Multiple kids recalled that they had carried out a mock trial using Hammurabi’s Code in his class. It seems that Riordan was a creative teacher who got kids excited about the ancient world even before he published the Percy Jackson books.

My favorite thing to look at was fan letters from kids. Some of the kids were harsh critics. A 7th grader named Caitlyn complained that the books droned on, and it took too long to get to the exciting parts. A boy named Sean was confused why Percy was dry when he came out of the water given that his father was the sea god. Others asked great questions. They wanted to know his favorite character and his favorite band. A girl named Lauren asked “ARE YOU A HALF BLOOD?” Another girl was curious if he would consider casting Arnold Schwarzenegger as Zeus in the film adaptation. (Sorry.)

Mostly, the kids wanted to express how much they loved the books. By the time Sea of Monsters came out, Riordan was getting multiple letters each day. It was super cool to see evidence of how much those books meant to kids. It was also cool to think that Riordan chose to save the kids’ letters. He decided they needed to be preserved in the archive alongside his fancy prizes and the early drafts of his books.

Before I left, I asked to hold Riptide. It was surprisingly heavy. I guess I’m not a demigod…

Photo by Katie Salzmann

We would like to thank Texas State University for so generously sharing their collections, and to Miranda for being awesome (as always!). Miranda is also an author! She published a book all about kids in nineteenth-century Paris called An Age to Work: Working-Class Childhood in Third Republic Paris.

Collections images courtesy of Miranda Sachs