Tag Archives: special collections

Tigers in the (Mobile) Makerspace

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We do plenty of children’s programs in our gallery space, but this fall we did a special event for a different demographic – Princeton University students! We’ve had a ton of amazing undergrads contribute their talents to Cotsen over the years, and we definitely wanted to send our love back. What better way to show it than historic tigers from the University archives?

The event was a collaboration with our colleagues at the Princeton University Library’s Makerspace, which is housed in the Lewis Library and features a multitude of ways for students, faculty, and staff to gets hands-on experience with artistic equipment and have creative collaborations.

Makerspace Specialist Ariel Ackerly made our gallery the first stop on her innovative “Mobile Makerspace” initiative, bringing a 3D scanner, custom stickers, button makers, and a Cricut machine to the Cotsen Library. She’s planning to visit other destinations on campus too!

There were two sets of images available for stickers and buttons. The first were Pokemon-esque folk tale creatures from a 2016 Cotsen event. Drawn by student Aliisa Lee, the cartoon creatures were paired with their historic tales. The most popular was Moon Rabbit from China. If you’d like to read more about the event, read the tales, and see more illustrations, you’ll find all that here.

moon-rabbit-artwork-by-aliisa-lee The second set of illustrations were from the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, which holds the University archives. Library Collections Specialist April C. Armstrong provided a number of amazing historic tiger images from the Princeton University collections, including the three you see below. April also wrote a fantastic blog post this week that features a brief history of Princeton’s tiger, as well as more interesting tiger images from the vault!

Tiger pasted on the inside cover of the scrapbook made by Charles H. Shick, Princeton Class of 1892. Mudd Manuscript Library. Scrapbook Collection (AC026), Box 161.

1911 postcard series by Christie Whiteman. Mudd Manuscript Library. Historical Postcard Collection (AC045.)

From The Quindecennial (i.e., 15th annual) Dinner of the College of New Jersey (Princeton) Class of 1878, 1893. Mudd Manuscript Library. Princeton University Class Records, Box 10.

The Mobile Makerspace event was a huge success, with students (and staff!) stopping by to try equipment, ask questions, and get a fabulous button or sticker to take home.

Many thanks to Ariel Ackerly for making this event happen! A big shout out to April C. Armstrong at Mudd Library for the historic Princeton University tigers, and to Brianna Garden for digitizing them. Additional thanks to Brandon Johnson, Office of Library Communications, for the event images!

Once Upon New Times

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Come see tales transformed at “Once Upon New Times: Reimagining Children’s Classics,” currently on display at the Cotsen Children’s Library! Curated as a companion to the larger exhibit in the Milberg Gallery of Firestone Library, each item offers a different perspective on a cherished classic. From highly imaginative physical transformations to diverse adaptations, we hope you enjoy these selections from the Cotsen collections, curated by Andrea Immel, Dana Sheridan, and Katie Zondlo. We have a few items to share below…

Katie and I were especially delighted that LEGO’s “Once Upon a Brick” Pop-Up Book made it in the exhibit! Originally posted on the blog here, this set not only renders “Jack and the Beanstalk” in 3D, the pop-up mechanism delights visitors both young and young-at-heart.

LEGO. Once Upon A Brick: Pop-Up Books. Ideas No. 21315 (The LEGO Group, 2018). Jason Allemann and Grant Davis (LEGO Ideas member submitters), Wesley Talbott and Crystal Marie Fontan (LEGO designers/graphics).

Visitors can also take a look at a kamishibai version of Alice in Wonderland, which includes a red-dressed Alice and a white rabbit in snappy pinstriped trousers. Those unfamiliar with the Japanese performance art of kamishibai can learn more here.

Takahashi Gozan, adaptor. Fushigi no kuni no Arisu-chan. Illustrated by Seiichi Yuno. (Tokyo: Nihon Kamishibai Gento Kabushiki Kaisha, Shōwa 27, 1952). Cotsen Children’s Library, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Also featured is the gorgeous book The Singing Bones by multiple award winning, and New York Times bestselling, author, illustrator, artist, and filmmaker, Shaun Tan. Masterfully rendered, the book distills classic fairy tales down to a single page (or sometimes a paragraph!) and represents it with a powerfully elemental sculpture. You can hear Tan discuss it, as well as his other books, here.

Shaun Tan, reteller/illustrator. The Singing Bones: Inspired by Grimms’ Fairy Tales. (New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2016). Cotsen Children’s Library, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

I’ll also share this humorous 1939 pamphlet from General Electric Company titled “Mrs. Cinderella.” Here the story of Cinderella is retold using General Electric products (while also thwarting goblins messing with getting dinner prepared for her happily ever after). You can read more about this particular item in Andrea Immel’s excellent post on Cotsen’s Curatorial blog.

Mrs. Cinderella. Illustrated by Corydon Bell. (New York: General Electric Co., 1939). Cotsen Children’s Library, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

“Once Upon New Times: Reimagining Children’s Classics” runs through March 2024. If you’re in the area, please come and visit! You will find directions and hours to Cotsen Children’s Library here, and we have some fun community programs and events coming up in connection with the exhibit (hint: think gingerbread architecture)!

In The Company of Good Books

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Keep company with literary luminaries this fall! The Department of Special Collections at Princeton University Library invites you to “In the Company of Good Books: Shakespeare to Morrison,” currently on display in the Milberg Gallery of Firestone Library through December 10th.

In honor of the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s First Folio of 1623, the exhibit showcases Princeton’s collection of English literature, and the readers and writers who celebrated English literature around the world. Curators Jennifer Garcon, Librarian for Modern and Contemporary Special Collections, Gabriel Swift, Librarian for American Collections, and Eric White, Scheide Librarian & Assistant University Librarian for Special Collections, Rare Books & Manuscripts, have selected some true treasures.

In addition to William Shakespeare and Toni Morrison, you will find Maya Angelou, Sylvia Beach, George Lamming, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Carlos Bolusan, Lorraine Hansberry, Chinua Achebe, Virginia Woolf, and others! Visitors can peruse working manuscripts, archives, original cover art, portraits, and charming inscriptions, including James Baldwin’s personal copy of Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, signed by the author.

Maya Angelou (1928–2014). I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House, 1969.

We at the Cotsen Children’s Library are always on the lookout for children’s literary connections, and we found a couple amazing ones in this exhibit! First is one of three tiny manuscripts by Charlotte Bronte. Written when she was a youth, these juvenalia concern the fictional African kingdom of Angria, and are penned on pages bound with blue Epsom salt wrappers. To give you an idea of size, and how minuscule Bronte’s handwriting is, the bound volume on the left is only about 3.5″ tall!

Also in the exhibit are the manuscript notes, sketchbooks, and original storage case of Maria Edgeworth, a prolific novelist for both adults and young readers.

An early edition of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is displayed, which reminded me of this very interesting fact. When she was only twelve or thirteen, Austen penned The Beautifull Cassandra: A Novel in Twelve Chapters, a tiny work of 465 words total. The Princeton University Press offers a delightful version, with an afterword by Princeton faculty Claudia L. Johnson and artwork by Leon Steinmetz.

Readers might not be aware that Morrison made significant contributions to children’s literature as well. Collaborating with Slade Morrison, mother and son authored nine books for children. These delightful tales were displayed in Cotsen’s previous exhibit, “They’ve Got Game: The Children’s Books of Toni & Slade Morrison.”

montage round 2 If you are interested in learning more about the exhibit, you will find a digital companion  here, and a fantastic Zoom panel with the book’s illustrators here. We also hosted a connected community gallery event this spring, which you can find here.

From now to December 10th, please plan to visit “In the Company of Good Books” in Princeton! It is truly monumental. Not able to visit in person? No problem! Virtual guests can find the exhibit here.

Colors & Words

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Our exhibit “They’ve Got Game: The Children’s Books of Toni & Slade Morrison,” wrapped this spring, and we’ve had such an amazing time making connections to these extraordinary books. We’ve chatted with the exhibit’s featured illustrator, Pascal Lemaître, made an unusual reunion with retired teacher June Volk, and hosted a Zoom panel with the five outstanding illustrators who brought Toni & Slade’s words to life: Joe Cepeda, Pascal Lemaître, Giselle Potter, Sean Qualls, and Shadra Strickland.

In May, we made one last exhibit connection, which also had the special distinction of being our first in-person community event since the pandemic! Titled Colors & Words, the program was based on Toni & Slade’s final book, Please, Louise, which is illustrated by Shadra Strickland.

book cover 3

Please, Louise written by Toni & Slade Morrison, illustrated by Shadra Strickland. Simon & Schuster, 2016.

In the story, Louise discovers solace, freedom, imagination, and joy inside her local library, and it just seemed the perfect fit. The book is filled with images of storms, clouds, sky, and rainbows, so we went all out!

Perhaps one of the most touching thing about the Morrison’s children’s books is that they are a collaboration between mother and son. So we also brought that element to the event with Farmside Crafts, an artistic duo of stepmother and stepdaughter. There’s an interview with them at the end of this post!

As visitors entered our gallery, they were greeted by “Build A Story,” which is the same concept as magnetic fridge poetry, re-imagined as building blocks. Our blocks were 7″ x 5″ x 2″ white cardboard shipping boxes ($15 for a pack of 25 boxes on Amazon). Katie put together this fabulous list of words, keeping Toni & Slade’s stories in mind.

Guests could also register to win one of five giveaway baskets, each matched to a Morrison children’s book. We had SO much fun putting these together at JaZams, our local independently-owned toy store!

A little further back in the gallery was the science area, which had three way cool experiments: microwave clouds, grow a rainbow, and a rainbow optical illusion from our special collections (seen on this post and you can print it here!) The table was staffed by one of our super star volunteers, grad student Shruti Sharma!

The science was a little messy, but oh so fabulous! Just look at the results of the grow a rainbow! All you need are paper towels, cups of water, and washable markers…

Perhaps one of our favorite part of the program was the quietest. Inside our library’s famous tree, Katie rigged up a tiny blue tooth speaker ($20 on Amazon) and streamed Toni Morrison’s Grammy-nominated reading of her Who’s Got Game series. Throughout the day, you could peek in and see kids & caregivers relaxing on pillows, listening to Toni and paging through their books.

Displayed throughout the library were bios of the five illustrators who created children’s books for Toni & Slade. Each had a QR code linked to our Zoom panel.  Fun fact: Sean’s book Little Cloud and Lady Wind has a surprise appearance in Please, Louise (you’ll have to listen to the panel to find out where!):

The event two hands-on craft projects. The first was a simple bookmark making station (basic foam shape stickers – very popular with the younger set).

The second was a custom umbrella decorating area. The umbrellas were a direct nod to Please, Louise, who carries an umbrella throughout the entire story. We purchased the plain white child-sized umbrellas from Oriental Trading Company. A pack of 24 costs $75 (basically $3 an umbrella), so this project IS a splurge, but the great thing is you can return anything you don’t use to the company for a refund. We used Crayola fabric markers, which are 100% waterproof (we tested!) and very vibrant.

Some kids worked 10 minutes on the project, some took longer. The record was a whopping 2 hours of concentrated artistry resulting in the most fabulous umbrella I have ever seen.

Finally, we had the honor of hosting Farmside Crafts at the event! They brought a plethora of macramé rainbows, did live craft demos, offered sweet coloring sheets, and donated five custom pieces to our giveaway baskets!

Farmside Crafts began as a rainbow project between stepmom Amber and stepdaughter Lucy. It quickly grew into a business, with the entire family contributing their efforts and skills. Later, I caught up with Farmside Crafts for an interview:

Tell us a little about yourself!

We are a stepmom/stepdaughter team creating macrame rainbows together. It started when we made one for Lucy’s room and thought it would be fun to create custom rainbows for family and friends. It’s become a family affair with everyone helping and supporting. It’s been a wonderful bonding experience within the blended family struggle.

What has it been like to turn your passion into a business venture?

Lucy: I love that my art can make people smile. So I get to make people happy while also making money to be able to fund my other passions like theater, college savings, and having my own money to buy fun things.

Amber: We’re just getting started, but so far we’ve made over 22 custom rainbows and more than 200 rainbows for artisan markets, including other shapes like hearts, stars, and candy canes. We participated in Bryon Barn’s Christmas & Spring artisan market as a Junior Artisan. We’ve enjoyed meeting other young artisans, connecting with people in the community we wouldn’t otherwise meet, and the opportunities that have come out of it such as connecting with Cotsen Library. It always feels good to see that the hard work is recognized and appreciated by others.

What’s your favorite thing about your art?

It’s really fun to create beautiful & unique rainbows. It’s fun to get pictures from customers of our rainbows in their homes and to go shopping and find cute extra details to make one-of-a kind rainbow creations (i.e. adding bunny ears to a rainbow that we repurposed from some clearance bunny glasses).

Amber: One of my favorite things has been creating the branding with Lucy. She choose the name, came up with the logo concept, and found a quote from Maya Angelo that we use as our tagline, “be a rainbow in someone’s clouds.” She takes pride in packing up the orders to ship, and is thrilled when someone buys our rainbows. Watching her get excited about all the little details along the entrepreneurial path is such a joy and has brought me back to that same excitement I felt when I launched my marketing business 10 yrs ago. How cool that she is learning this at such a young age – its our modern day lemonade stand.

What has been the most surprising thing about your journey?

Lucy: The most surprising thing about doing my rainbows was how many people in my life were ready to jump in and help me. My dad made displays, my sister helped man my booth and some of my youth church leaders helped make rainbows. It’s a community effort.

Lucy, what advice do you have for any other young artists or business persons?

My advice to young artists and business people would be to make sure you are having fun. If you are being too hard of yourself, you will not stick with it long enough to improve. If you hate doing it, you won’t last long.