Tag Archives: history

Special Stickers | Special Collections

Posted on by

Today, I’m sharing a brilliant initiative in Special Collections at Princeton University Library. It’s beautiful, mysterious, interesting, unusual, intriguing, delightful, random, fantastical, unique, surprising, and it fits on laptop cover! I’m speaking, of course, of “Decalcomania,” the brain child of library staff Adrienne Rusinko, Library Collections Specialist, and Emma Sarconi, Reference and Outreach Specialist.

Collaborating with Princeton University Library’s Makerspace, the department releases original stickers every month based on items in its special collections, cuing a stampede of campus fans. The stickers vary from centuries-old illuminations to modern styles.

For today’s post, I’m not only sharing some personal sticker favorites, I’m chatting with one of the co-creators to learn how this amazing project came to be…

Hi Adrienne, tell us a little about yourself!

Hello! My name is Adrienne Rusinko, and I’ve been at Princeton University Library’s Special Collections for about 6 years. I’m a part of the Public Services team, and my responsibilities include working with researchers to find and access the materials in our collection. We work with folks both in person and through remote reference services, which introduces me to tons of exciting items in our holdings I would otherwise not have stumbled upon.

How did this awesome sticker initiative get started?

My colleague Emma Sarconi, our Reference and Outreach Specialist, reached out to me after seeing the idea at a Makerspace conference. She knew I had some experience with Photoshop, and suggested we find a few cool designs to turn into stickers and put out for free in the lobby as an outreach project, making the space a bit more fun and inviting. This sounded like a great idea, and we immediately got to work. The reaction was incredibly positive from both staff and researchers, and I ended up continuing it into a monthly sticker release.

Please walk us through your research and selection process…

The selection process is the hardest part of stickers, for sure. I spend my downtime at the desk searching through a plethora of digitized material in our online catalog, finding aids, and Digital PUL (DPUL) site, looking at the thumbnails of every page of every item. If I come across something I think is cool, I add it to an ever-growing spreadsheet of potential stickers (the current count is 331 designs, 101 of which have become actual stickers.)

Each month, I pick three designs to turn into stickers. It’s usually a random assortment, but every once in a while I can pull together a theme. I have some wonderful (and patient) colleagues whom I go to to vibe-check a potential design. I almost passed over the “Here is a picture of a Narwhal.” sticker but was otherwise convinced, and it ended up being one of the most popular designs we’ve put out.

What’s the reaction to the stickers been like? I imagine some sets produce a bit of a mad rush!

The stickers come out every second Friday of the month, and I’ll say, I think the staff here are more excited than anyone! That being said, it’s always a fun reaction to see a group of students walk out of a class and realize we have stickers they can take. The entire point of the stickers is to make Special Collections a little more welcoming, and I think that’s been pretty successful!

What’s your personal favorite sticker, and why?

This is an incredibly tough question. I think I’m pretty partial to what I call “Baby Dragon”, who comes from the margins of a 13th-century French bible (Princeton MS. 82, fol. 42r). I spotted him before I started making stickers, and he immediately reminded me of my dog whenever he would beg for food. When Emma first brought the idea of stickers to me, I knew he would be my first pick.

Image References From Top to Bottom, Left to Right:
Peacock: Book of Hours, ca.1500 (Garrett MS. 59)
Reading Improves: The looking-glass for the mind (Cotsen Eng 18 / Newbery 7161)
Dog with Horn: Bible, ca. 1260 (Garrett MS. 27)
Bright Flowers: Primavera: New Designs and Colors (Graphic Arts 2004-0031E)
Ostrich DJ: Радио-Жираф [Radio Giraffe] (Cotsen 58164 Pams)
Moon Terrace: The Blessed Damozel (C0199 no. 923)
Curious Cat: Des chats (Cotsen, 21217 Folios)
Umbrella Fish: Putanitsa [A Muddle] (Cotsen, 91282 Pams)
Kirin: 神風倭国功 / 十返舎一九著 ; 歌川貞房画, (PL797 .J56 1829, East Asian Library) Snowy Scene: Snow at Kameyama, Station 47 (GA 2009.00719, Graphic Arts)
Block People: Russkiĭ plakat (Cotsen 153779 NR CyrillicQ)
Hand & Heart: Journal to Pikes Peak (C0199 no. 141, Manuscripts)
Three-headed creature: German report, 1791 (Ex 2012-0315N)
Narwhal: Stories About Whale Catching (GA Hamilton 298s)
Football Tiger: 1956 (Athletic Programs Collection (AC042), University Archives)
Bear with Heart: A Piano in the Children’s Room (Cotsen 103359 NR CyrillicQ)
Little Owl: American Ornithology (Graphic Arts, 2007.00515)
Adrienne’s Baby Dragon: French bible, 13th century (Princeton MS. 82)

Literary Pinball

Posted on by

Recently, Katie traveled to Asbury Park, New Jersey and found herself at the Silver Ball Retro Arcade & Museum, right on the boardwalk. I’ve been to Silver Ball too, and I can tell you – the place is an amazing bit of fun, especially for all of us who remember actual arcades in the 80s and enjoy old school nachos.

From Silver Ball Museum, photography by Joseph Murphy

In between rolling skee-balls and attempting Donkey Kong, Katie spotted a Hobbit pinball machine. Later, that got us wondering. Exactly how many pinball machines HAVE derived from literature? As it turns out, quite a few!

If there’s a Hobbit pinball game, there has to be a Lord of the Rings game as well. In fact, there are many book-to-screen pinball machines. Harry Potter, Dracula, Jurassic Park, Frankenstein, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Jaws, Starship Troopers, Game of Thrones, an abundance of 007, and even graphic novel The Walking Dead. The Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory pinball game features graphics from the 1971 film (you were the greatest Gene Wilder), an Oompa-Loompa figurine, and an interactive Wonkavator!

From Lermods

Digging a little deeper, Katie and I turned up some more unexpected literary-themed machines. Like The Three Musketeers from 1949…

And this super saucy Peter Pan from 1955…

From Finside

Though technically not a book, this 1987 Dungeons & Dragons pinball game included graphics gleaned directly from the cover of the 1983 Player’s Manual. Which is awesome.

From Reddit

The Close Encounters of the Third Kind pinball game was based on the 1977 film. But there was a Close Encounters book! It was a novelization of the film published in tandem with the theatrical release. We believe this makes it eligible for the pinball literacy list. Plus, spaceships are cool.

While this next machine might not represent a specific book or literary character, it gets 100+ bonus points for being an amalgamation of several novels. May we present Verne’s World pinball from 1996 (with a depiction of the author, quill in hand!):

We found only one picture book turned pinball (unless you count this or this):

But the grand finale, voted hands-down winner of “Least Expected Literary Pinball” is this 2023 Godfather 50-year anniversary collectors edition, complete with a sculpted bust of Don Vito Corleone in his signature tux:

From Reddit

Which pinball game would YOU like to play?

Brick and Brickability

Posted on by

Happy birthday Jane Austen! We’re celebrating this literary titan with a brick-tastic review of LEGO’s “Tribute to Jane Austen’s Books” set, constructed and reviewed by our legendary intern, Melanie Zhang. Take it away, Melanie!

The queen of witty quips herself, Jane Austen, has finally been given the recognition she deserves! The timing was perfect—Katie, Dr. Dana, and I had just been bemoaning the lack of female literary icons amongst our LEGO sets, when we happened upon LEGO’s Tribute to Jane Austen’s Books.

The set is composed of 361 pieces. While apparently meant only for builders 18 and above, I think this is definitely doable for kids as well, with maybe a little bit of help for the trickier parts. The most difficult portion for me personally was the stickers. Fortunately, I only encountered four. Three of them also show scenes from film adaptations of Jane’s books, so I can’t complain.

Jane’s little room came together pretty quickly. It took me around an hour to complete on fast-mode. However, this is definitely a set where you want to take your time and admire all the little bits and pieces as they come together. Once again, LEGO was incredibly creative with how pieces are used. You’ll never guess what are secretly masquerading as piano pedals!

One issue I encountered was that some pieces do not match the color of their instruction booklet counterparts. In particular, some pieces that are depicted as quite reddish in the instructions are more of a brown color in person. The different blue books on Jane’s shelf also gave me a bit of trouble. Fortunately, that was an easy fix, and I was able to carry on building.

The finished product is beautiful to look at, and makes for a pretty good mini-dollhouse as well. In her default position, Jane is facing away from her bookshelf, but she can very easily be standing before it and browsing for her next read.

Another quick readjustment, and she’s contemplating some time looking out the window or playing the piano. The possibilities are endless! Turn the set around, and now Jane is cozied up inside an open book. Back inside on a cold day, Jane could be warming her hands in front of the fire instead. As a side note, the fireplace does wobble a little.

This is a set that I’m sure Lizzie Bennett herself would be proud of. For the burgeoning Jane Austen fan in your life, whether they are fifteen (and being kept away from Bath) or twenty-seven (and feeling like a parental burden), this set will be sure to please.