Trams & Trains & Things That Go

Posted on February 6, 2024 by Dana Sheridan

From Shôwanôto (Shôwa Notebook: Boy in flight); c.1920-1930. Cotsen Children’s Library, Princeton University Library.

It’s time for the annual #ColorOurCollections, hosted by the New York Academy of Medicine! Each year libraries, archives, and cultural institutions around the world share free coloring sheets based on their collections. Our previous submission included birds, alphabets, and super cute animals. This year, our intern Daniel Dias (a.k.a. Dandalf) curated a selection of trams, trains, and things that go!

From Eh Ich zur Schule geh,lern Ich das ABC:ein Bilderbuch for kleine Schulkinder und solche, die es werden wollen von Maria und Kaete Steinkamp. By Maria and Kaete Steinkamp. Duisburg : J.A. Steinkamp, c. 1915. Cotsen Children’s Library, Princeton University Library.

You can find our fantastic coloring pages here. But if you’re ready to hit the highway, may we suggest a few transportation projects? The journey begins with this blue truck…

the ultimate road trip But this being New Jersey, be prepared to pay some tolls:

hit the road If you’d like something a little more exotic, this Pickle Car might be just want you need:

mr. frumble pickle car But you can also fly (and pick up a few pies along the way):

have pie will travel The more adventurous can try this DIY zip line tram car…

fly the friendly skies 2

…go old school with a covered wagon:

wagon and goods Or hop aboard and ride a chuffing steam train!

train time If your adventures kick up some dirt, no worries! Just stop by our story time car wash!

workin at the car wash yeah

Animals in Kodomo no Kuni

Posted on February 7, 2023 by Dana Sheridan

It’s time for the annual #ColorOurCollections, hosted by the New York Academy of Medicine! Each year libraries, archives, and cultural institutions around the world share free coloring sheets based on their collections.We’ve shared birds and alphabets, but this year we just wanted…CUTE ANIMALS. So we delved into our vaults for Kodomo no kuni (The Land of Children), a Japanese children’s magazine that was in circulation from 1922-1944. It did not disappoint!

You can find our awesome coloring pages here, and you can read more about the magazine in this excellent post on Cotsen’s curatorial blog. If you’re still hankering for cute animals, try some of our blog projects, starting with this bouncy bunny cup!

Or fancy up a hamster…

furry and fabulous Perhaps you’d like to expand to entire household with this tiny dog house

itty bitty home

Or craft a very learned canary…

tweet-reading-is-sweet Even alligators can be cute (and this one is a chomping puppet!):

finished alligator puppet Or make up your own animal entirely!

be you

C is for Cotsen

Posted on February 8, 2022 by Dana Sheridan

From African A.B.C. by Norah Senior. Pan-African Books. ; West African Publishing Co., 1959. Cotsen Children’s Library, Princeton University Library.

It’s time for the annual #ColorOurCollections, hosted by the New York Academy of Medicine! Each year libraries, archives, and cultural institutions around the world share free coloring sheets based on their collections. You might recall the Coloring Feathers post we did in 2021…but this year, we went alphabetical with “C is for Cotsen,” celebrating some of the cool alphabet books we have in our special collections vaults!

Our coloring pages consist of seven images spanning 1805-1959, including this hilarious one from 1840, “C is for Collision.” It was so completely random for an alphabet book, Katie and I had a good laugh over it

R. Cruikshank’s Comic Alphabet by Robert Cruikshank. Darton and Clark (Holborn Hill), c1840. Cotsen Children’s Library, Princeton University Library.

You can see our complete coloring pages here. In addition to the coloring activity, we thought it would be fun to revisit some of our fun alphabet posts. Here there are, in no particular order, starting with some tabletop topiary letters:

so very verdant