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.