Adopt-a-Book: all

Displaying 1 - 177 of 177

	The 50 Most Influential Black Films Adoption Amount: $250 The 50 Most Influential Black Films is an introspective study of the black image in motion pictures from the late-19th century through the 20th century. Its chapters are organized by decades, starting with silent films and continuing through independent films of the 1990s. Each chapter begins with a synopsis of the social issues affecting black people during the period covered, and situates black film within the larger context of a people struggling to find their way in a culture that did not always accept the black image on screen. Included in this study are movie stills and posters... Read More
	African Americans on Stamps Adoption Amount: $250 At over two hundred pages long, this hardback book is basically an encyclopedia of African American heroes on postage stamps, both from the United States and around the world. Arranged alphabetically by last name, it provides short biographies, followed by black and white illustrations of each postage stamp. The stamps are numbered and references to the numbered stamps are in the biographies. For example, Michael Jordan, illustration #289, Tanzania postage stamp. In the center of the book, to the reader’s delight, are sixteen pages of color plates which vividly depict the United States Postal... Read More
	African Americans on Stamps Adoption Amount: $250 This thin, thirty-paged color booklet was published by the United States Postal Service in 2004. The Black Heritage stamp series began in 1978 and ever since, African American heroes and heroines have been honored on postage stamps. The Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC) votes on which candidate will be the next postage stamp. Harriet Tubman was the first Black Heritage postage stamp. This booklet is arranged alphabetically from A to Z beginning with the dancer Alvin Ailey and ending with Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Whitney Moore Young. Read More
	African-American Pioneers in Anthropology Adoption Amount: $250 This book highlights the lives, works, and accomplishments of African American scholars in recent history whose work is influential in the field of anthropology. The contributions of these scholars vary, ranging from the cultural impacts of Zora Neale Hurston’s field works and writings to Caroline Bond Day and her research in physical anthropology. Each chapter focuses on a specific person, discussing both their biography and their scholarly work. This book is important to the collection as documentation of the diversity within anthropology, as well as a thorough biographical resource on... Read More
	The Afronomical Way Adoption Amount: $250 This limited-edition set of 43 vibrant, color printed cards housed in a custom box is parts that together comprise artist Sanford Biggers’ explorations of identity, rituals, and iconography. Divided into three sections—afronomix, fetico, and fides—the images offer moments of both intimacy and surrealism. Biggers defines the first section, afronomix, as the “Kemitic, the study of the corelationship between peoples of the African Diaspora, the cosmos, and time.” The second section, fetico, comes from Portuguese and Latin, meaning both “charm, sorcery” and “... Read More
	After the Gold Rush Adoption Amount: $250 In 2001, British artist Jeremy Deller received a residency from the CCAC Wattis Institute in San Francisco. He applied his honorarium toward a used Jeep and five acres of land in the Mojave Desert for $2000, thereby staking his own claim upon the Golden State. His fellowship resulted in an unorthodox but compelling guidebook tracing California’s history from the 19th century mining boom to the post-dot-com recession, as found along its dusty highways and in its roadside museums. Through anecdotes, interviews, photographs, and audio recordings, Deller explores the people who make up the fabric... Read More
	Alberti Ritter Gymnasii Ilfeldensis Regii Con-Rectoris Commentatio II. De Zoolithodendroidis in Genere et in Specie de Schvvartzburgico-Sondershusanis Curiosissimis ac Formosissimis... Adoption Amount: $650 Albrecht Ritter (1684-1748) was in instructor at the royal Stiftscollegium at Ilefeld, Germany. Although relatively little is know about him, he was an early proponent of taking students into the field and learning from direct observation of and experience with the natural world. A member of the Leopoldinian Academy, he wrote several short works on fossils and "formed stones," as fossils were conceived of in the period. This book is on fossil dendrites and alabaster from the Schwartzburg/Sonderhausen region of Germany, and is cited in Emanuel Mendes de Costa's Natural history of fossils (... Read More
	Algorithmus Linealis Numeratione[m] Adoption Amount: $6,400 One of the earliest treatises on calculation by the aid of counters on an abacus. In the dedication, Heinrich Stromer von Auerbach (1482-1542) refers to Aristotle and Boethius. There is a brief introduction on the use of counters or projectiles, then the work covers addition, subtraction, duplication, mediation, multiplication, division, progression, and the rule of three. Read More
	All That Glitters Adoption Amount: $250 Learn more about the history of metallurgy! All That Glitters features a selection of 43 scholarly articles on topics ranging from metallurgy to mining, which originally appeared in the Bulletin of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Accompanying the articles on metallurgy are black and white photographs and illustrations. Read More
	Anweisung für Anfänger Pflanzen zum Nutzen und Vergnügen zu Sammlen AND Anweisung Pflanzen zum Nutzen und Vergnügen zu Sammeln Adoption Amount: $700 Held by only one and two libraries respectively in North America, these are the 1st and 2nd editions of a work on collecting plants and preparing a herbarium following the Linnaean system. Their purchase strengthens SIL's significant collection of historical works on natural history cabinets and directions for collecting and preserving specimens. Read More
	Aquatilium Animalium Historiae Adoption Amount: $9,500 Ippolito Salviani's book on aquatic animals is renowned as one of the three 16th century works that established ichthyology as a modern science; SIL holds the other two and this completes the trio. A professor of medicine at the University of Rome and physician to several Popes, Salviani collected fishes in the markets of Rome for anatomical examination to support his systematic studies, correcting and expanding the works of ancient authors (Aristotle, Pliny, et al.). Ninety-three species of fishes and cephalopods are depicted in the full-page illustrations, with 18 of them new to the science... Read More
	Aranei, or A Natural History of Spiders Adoption Amount: $4,000 Thomas Martyn's Aranei translated into English Carl Alexander Clerck's Svenska spindlar/Aranei Svecici (Stockholm, 1757), the founding text on modern scientific nomenclature for spiders, with illustrations originally published in Eleazar Albin's Natural History of Spiders (London, 1736). Eleazar Albin's meticulous drawings for his own spider book were bought by Thomas Martyn at the sale of the Dowager Duchess of Portland's collections. Read More
	Architectural Designs for Model Country Residences Adoption Amount: $4,000 A book published to sell his designs to prospective clients and illustrated with twenty lithographs in full color, Architectural Designs for Model Country Residences is one of the handsomest American books of architecture published in the 19th century. It includes designs for villas, cottages, and mansions in the Italian and Gothic styles, along with Greek Revival. John Riddell advocated the use of cast ironwork on porches (for columns) and other decoration, and often employed towers and belvederes in his Italian Villa and Italianate plans. Included in the volume was a list of his... Read More
	Arizona Adoption Amount: $325 An attractive, slipcased catalog for a collaborative exhibition of sculptor Isamu Noguchi, painter Genichiro Inokuma, and designer Issey Miyake at the Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art (MIMOCA), Japan, highlighting the mutual influence of the three friends and their hybrid Japanese and American cultures. After forming a close friendship in New York City in the 1950s, Noguchi took recent Japanese immigrant Inokuma to Poston, Arizona, the site of an internment camp for Japanese-Americans in World War II where Noguchi lived voluntarily in solidarity with his countrymen,... Read More
	Arizona Highways Adoption Amount: $500 “Civilization Follows the Improved Highway.” That was and still is the motto of the enduring and always alluring travel magazine Arizona Highways. It was first published in 1925 as an engineering newsletter by the Arizona Highway Department. By the 1930s, it had segued into a magazine documenting the road construction of the expanding highway system throughout Arizona. In the 1940s, the magazine excelled as one of the first color illustrated travel magazines at the forefront of color printing technology. Arizona Highways attracted not only travel loving readers,... Read More
	Arizona Highways Adoption Amount: $500 “Civilization Follows the Improved Highway.” That was and still is the motto of the enduring and always alluring travel magazine Arizona Highways. It was first published in 1925 as an engineering newsletter by the Arizona Highway Department. By the 1930s, it had segued into a magazine documenting the road construction of the expanding highway system throughout Arizona. In the 1940s, the magazine excelled as one of the first color illustrated travel magazines at the forefront of color printing technology. Arizona Highways attracted not only travel loving readers,... Read More
	Artificial Insemination Clouded Leopard Cubs (Slides) Adoption Amount: $450 These slides are from the files of Dr. JoGayle Howard (1951–2011), theriogenologist (veterinary reproductive specialist) at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park and Conservation Biology Institute. Dr. Howard dedicated her career to breeding endangered species in captivity by adapting techniques commonly used for treating human infertility. Much of her research focused on felines and she frequently collaborated with zoos and wildlife conservation organizations throughout the United States, Africa, and Asia. This collection deals specifically with her work on clouded leopards, which... Read More
	Aspen: The Magazine in a Box Adoption Amount: $500 This FAB detergent box in dayglo colors is actually the cover of Aspen: The Magazine in a Box, Volume 1 Issue 3, December 1966. It is one of six issues owned by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library and was designed by Andy Warhol and David Dalton. As with all the Aspen volumes, this issue has many components in the box, including a flip-book based on Warhol's film Kiss, and Jack Smith's film Buzzards Over Bagdad, a flexidisc by John Cale of the Velvet Underground, and a "ticket book" with excerpts of papers delivered at the Berkeley conference on LSD by Timothy... Read More
	The Auklet, November 1924 Adoption Amount: $400 The Auklet was the humor magazine of the American Ornithologists' Union, first published in the early 1920s. Not to be confused with the AOU’s official quarterly magazine The Auk, its booklet-length Auklet cousin features short stories, poetry, phony meeting minutes, cartoons, fake advertisements, and even short, medieval-style dramas (The Auk was retitled to The Auk: Ornithological Advancements in 2014, before undergoing another name change to Ornithology in 2021). The AOU itself merged with the Cooper Ornithological Society in 2016 to... Read More
	Awareness of Love Adoption Amount: $3,500 Born in Chile, but settling in the United States in the mid-1960s, Juan Downey (1940-1993) explored many different art media. Although he became primarily known for his video art, he also created in other media, including painting, installations, and printmaking. Early in his career he studied in Chile, Spain, and then Paris, France where he focused on printmaking and painting. His early work already shows his interest in energy and concerns with navigating his Latin American heritage with his adopted home and ideals. He is now recognized as one of the earliest adopters of video art, which... Read More
	Baron Inigo Born's New Process of Amalgamation of Gold and Silver Ores Adoption Amount: $950 A new process for refining gold and silver from various ores is described for the first time in English in this text. The amalgamation process was invented by Baron Ignaz Edler von Born (aka Inigo Born), and after a trial of the process was conducted in front of observers in Schemnitz, Slovakia, the book describing the process was published in 1786. It was then translated by Rudolf Erich Raspe, a ne’er-do-well who was originally from Germany. Appointed as Professor of Archaeology at the Collegium Carolinum in Cassel, Raspe sold objects from the Landgrave of Hesse medal collection for his own... Read More
	Behind Closed Doors Adoption Amount: $350 The Kamloops Indian Residential School operated from 1893-1977 as part of Canada’s residential school system, near the traditional homelands of the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc people. Similar to U.S. government operated Indian boarding schools, both structures forcefully separated school aged children from their homes to attend these institutions for acculturation purposes. But callous practices and abuses by staff and teachers left life-long and intergenerational scars upon the Native students, families and communities. Fourteen brave individuals share heartrending stories of life in the... Read More
	Beschreibung Einer Elektrisir-Maschine und Deren Gebrauch Adoption Amount: $1,450 Second, enlarged and corrected edition of this very scarce tract on the author's electricity machine handsomely illustrated on the folding plates. This machine was used in physics experiments and occasionally for medicinal purposes. Schmidt (1740-1811) is identified as the "court instrument maker" and wrote several additional works on electricity. Read More
	Beschreibung Eines Ellipsograph Adoption Amount: $800 A superb monograph on the theory, construction and use of a mechanical drawing device to describe ellipses. The author, Georg Friedrich Parrot (1767 1852) was a German scientist, the first rector of the Imperial University of Dorpat (University of Tartu), being elected by the University Council consisting of all chaired professors. In this capacity, Parrot skillfully fought for the academic freedom and the self-government of the university, protecting her from the political pressure of Baltic German barons who had been given the right to autonomously govern in the Baltic provinces. The... Read More
	Bible [in Mohawk] Adoption Amount: $4,500 Native American languages have been a central research interest at the Smithsonian since the late 1800s when anthropologist John Wesley Powell founded the Bureau of American Ethnology and (who is he?) James C. Pilling compiled his still-authoritative bibliographies on Native American linguistic families. This volume contains the texts of 17 separately published books of the New Testament in Mohawk: the Gospel of St. John; the Acts of the Apostles; 14 Epistles of Paul, John, James, and Jude; and finally the Revelation of John. H.A. Hill, the translator of some of them, was a Mohawk catechist (... Read More
	Biological Conservation Newsletter, Numbers 105–116 Adoption Amount: $300 The Biological Conservation Newsletter was established in 1981 to develop awareness among both scientists and the general public to the environmental changes caused by human activities. The monthly newsletter highlighted conservation research and activities being undertaken by Smithsonian scientists as well as relevant publications, professional meetings, educational opportunities, and news items. The newsletter was published by the Office of Biological Conservation until the unit was dissolved in 1984. The National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany, continued... Read More
	Birth of the Cool Adoption Amount: $500 Birth of the Cool may be the coolest book you will ever see. In this 2008 exhibition catalog of his first retrospective, Barkley L. Hendricks (1945-2017) distills black identity into powerful three-quarter and full-length portraits that teem with style and attitude. His sitters are unapologetic in their self-presentation and the result is a phenomenal elevation of African Americans who would have otherwise gone unnoticed in the decades immediately following the civil rights movement. The title of this catalog, edited by Trevor Schoonmaker, stems from the iconic 1957 Miles Davis album... Read More
	Black American Heritage Through United States Postage Stamps Adoption Amount: $250 This thin, 26 page booklet has both color portraits and black and white pencil sketches of prominent heroes of Black History. Written by three Black doctors, it was published in Washington, D.C. Part One is arranged in chronological order based on significant events in American history. For example, two Black heroes of the American Revolution (the first Blacks to fight at Bunker Hill), three Black heroes of the Civil Rights Movement, two Black heroes in education, one hero in literature, one scientist, and two heroes in the arts. Part Two covers significant subjects, such as the Thirteenth... Read More
	Black Gold Adoption Amount: $250 Kenneth J. Kutz is the former President of Texasgulf Mining Corporation. He is also the former President of the Collectors Club of New York. The Collectors Club of New York was founded in 1896, making it one of the oldest existing philatelic societies in the United States. This book is about the philatelic history of oil. Stamps and covers (envelopes) are interwoven with postcard illustrations in chronological order of when the events depicted occurred. The book begins with Noah making the ark with coats of pitch. The book ends with a journey through World War I and World War II, ending when ... Read More
	Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was Adoption Amount: $550 Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was was a 13-part Smithsonian Productions program that highlighted the history of African American radio through interviews with radio hosts, record executives, and cultural historians. Produced by Jacquie Gales Webb and hosted by Lou Rawls, it won two Gold Medals at the New York Festival's International Radio Competition in 1996. The Smithsonian Institution Archives holds audio recordings, scripts, and administrative records documenting the program. In 2021, the program was re-aired for its 25th anniversary by PRX in partnership with the Smithsonian... Read More
	Body Objects Adoption Amount: $250 Whether through direct influences or broader affinities, African, Pre-Columbian, and Indigenous American objects undoubtedly informed the practice of Western artists throughout the 20th century. This catalog, from the inaugural show at New York’s Pace Primitive Gallery, juxtaposes body objects from African, Pre-Columbian, and Indigenous American cultures with jewelry by Alexander Calder, Ernest Trova, Louise Nevelson, and Pablo Picasso. Seeing these objects side-by-side highlights aesthetic similarities and demonstrates that the “compulsion for self-embellishment by object ornamentation... Read More
	Bog-Trotting for Orchids Adoption Amount: $300 Grace Greylock Niles was a botanist, teacher, collector, photographer, free spirit, swamp-explorer, writer, and nature enthusiast. This fascinating and beautifully illustrated book opens the readers' eyes and mind to a world of natural beauty that few would dare to explore. A native of Vermont, the author spent decades exploring the flora and fauna of the northeast, but her special interest in orchids inspired her tireless “bog-trotting.” Surprisingly to many, about 150 species of orchid are endemic to North America, and over 40 of them flourish in valleys near where Ms. Niles did her... Read More
	A Box of Smile Adoption Amount: $500 This multiple was created by George Maciunas, ostensible leader of the avant-garde movement Fluxus, in conjunction with Yoko Ono’s 1971 retrospective This is Not Here at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY. Yoko Ono, artist, peace activist, and widow of John Lennon has used smiles as a recurring theme since the 1960s. "It is the simplest thing to make yourself healthy and make others feel good," she says about smiling. (Reuters.com) Issued in both black and white, the plastic box is gold stamped A BOX OF SMILE Y.O. ’71, and opens to reveal a mirror with the viewer’s reflection,... Read More
	British Mineralogy Adoption Amount: $11,500 James Sowerby's British Mineralogy is the first comprehensive illustrated work on mineralogy. Though more than 200 years old, in many ways it has never been superceded. It was issued in parts over 15 years and ultimately contained 550 plates meticulously drawn from actual specimens, engraved and brilliantly colored by Sowerby himself and members of his naturalist/artist family accompanied by descriptive text. It is by common consensus "the supreme work of British topographical mineralogy, [and] the most ambitious colourplate work on minerals ever published" (Conklin). When it first... Read More
	Brown Gold Adoption Amount: $300 Brown Gold traces the development of African American children’s literature from the 1870s to the 2000s. The book includes literary criticism and pedagogy, as well as literary history and cultural analysis. The author discusses the use and impact of racial terms such as Afro, Negro, African American, and others. The book also focuses on African American illustrations, and on how African Americans were portrayed and caricaturized in children’s picture books. The discussion addresses the impact of these portrayals on the experiences of African Americans in their daily lives. Read More
	Burkart's Sammlung der Wichtigsten Europäischen Nutzhölzer in Characterischen Schnitten Adoption Amount: $3,000 Burkart's Sammlung contains a brief text on European species of trees, including pines, firs, yews, oaks, willows, fruit woods, and others, but its glory is the 40 plates one per species consisting of actual wood samples in thin transverse, radial, and tangential cross-sections, held between layers of stiff-card boards with cut-outs so that one can see the wood grain when held up to the light. It is extremely scarce, with only 3 copies in U.S. libraries. Read More
	Catalog and Self-Guided Walking Tour Itinerary of Immovable Objects I Adoption Amount: $600 Immovable Objects I was the first of a series of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum exhibitions to showcase architecture and urban design beyond the walls of its home at the Carnegie Mansion on East 91st Street. Project director Dorothy Twining Globus and museum director Lisa Taylor produced the exhibition in the summer of 1975, shortly before the then-named Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design reopened to the public as the newest of the Smithsonian museums. The exhibition invited viewers on a self-guided walking tour from Battery Park to the Brooklyn Bridge; this booklet not only... Read More
	Catalogue of an Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by American Negro Artists Adoption Amount: $950 The American Negro Artists show (1929 and 1930) was part of a traveling exhibition of African American art sponsored by the Harmon Foundation and the Federal Council of Churches (FCC) staged in the Smithsonian’s National Museum building (known today as the Arts and Industries Building). Most of the artwork was created by men and women established enough in their careers to make their living as artists, including Archibald Motley, whose award-winning painting Octoroon Girl was prominently featured in the exhibition. Visitors would also see early work by Palmer Hayden, who... Read More
	Catalogue de la Collection Archéologique Provenant des Fouilles et Explorations Adoption Amount: $2,750 This rare catalogue of an exhibition in Paris in 1883 – held by only six libraries in the U.S. – provides descriptions and brief historical explanations of 102 antiquities from Mexico and the Yucatan that famed French archaeologist Désiré Charnay (1828-1915) acquired during an expedition of 1880-1882, including plans of newly discovered Toltec palaces, Aztec statues and funeral urns, and bas-reliefs found in Yucatan villages. It relates directly to studies on pre-historic Meso-American artifacts (including the so-called "crystal skulls") by anthropologists at the Smithsonian and is of... Read More
	Catalogue d'une tres-belle collection des objets de troise regnes de la nature... Adoption Amount: $5,500 This is the auction catalogue of one of the most impressive private collections of natural-history specimens ever formed. Pasquay (1719-77) was a physician in Frankfurt and privy councilor of Anhalt-Dessau; he formed the collection over many years, assembling more than 9000 specimens of minerals, shells, plants, woods, and animals, as well as 100 scientific instruments. Private collections like Pasquay's were crucial to taxonomic and systematic research in the centuries before university collections and national museums became the large and welcoming resources that they are today. Referred... Read More
	Catalogus Variorum Exoticorum Rarissimorum Maximam Partem Incognitorum et Nullibi... Adoption Amount: $3,160 This is an extremely rare catalogue of a private natural-history collection in the early 18th century, not held by any other library in North America. Abraham Vater (1684-1751) was a German physician and professor of medicine and anatomy at the University of Wittenberg. In that connection he also studied botany and pharmacology and published a catalog of plants in the University's botanical garden. Following immediately on that he published the catalog of his own private collection of natural-history specimens, primarily plants and seeds, but also plant products like resins and gums, as well... Read More
	Ceramica Industrial "El Aguila, S.A." Adoption Amount: $450 This catalog is from the Mexican “Eagle Industrial Ceramic Co.” With beautiful full-color chromolithographic illustrations of the tiles, it demonstrates the various uses of their designs for fountains, seating, open spaces, and other decorative design applications, as well as samples of individual tile patterns. Presented are classic Arabesque, Moorish, and Mediterranean majolica tile designs, brought to Mexico by the Spanish in the 16th century. The forward and introduction discuss the ancient tradition of tiles- describing them as “the combination of bricks and glass…the tiles of old... Read More
	Chinese Armorial Porcelain for the Dutch Market Adoption Amount: $250 This is a catalog of Chinese porcelain decorated with Dutch family coats of arms, the arms of Dutch provinces and cities, and monograms. These items were made-to-order for members of the Dutch patrician class. This catalog illustrates and analyzes 455 of the approximately 500 Dutch armorial porcelain services known to exist. It is meant to be used as a reference book, and it includes not only detailed descriptions of the services, but also information about the families who commissioned and acquired this armorial porcelain. It is an important historical work examining Chinese export ware for... Read More
	Codex Cortesianus Adoption Amount: $2,250 Léon de Rosny, a French ethnologist of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, wrote this volume describing a Native Central American object in the collection of a Spanish museum. In the 1860s, two fragments of ancient Mayan language surfaced in Spain. Léon de Rosny was one of the first scholars to suggest that both fragments⁠—the Cortesianus Codex described in this volume and the Troano Codex—were part of the same monumental artifact, later known as the Madrid Codex. The Codex Cortesianus, which de Rosny describes in this volume, is the smaller piece. This 1883 publication represents... Read More
	Contemplatio Philosophica Adoption Amount: $1,850 First edition of this posthumous work, printed for private circulation by Brook Taylor's grandson, Sir William Young (d. 1815), in 100 limited copies. It is prefaced by the life of the author. This original work is the major source of Taylor's biographical data as well as the only edition of his philosophical book. Taylor, English mathematician, is best known for the mathematical concept of the "Taylor series" and contributions to the theory of finite differences. Taylor was elected a fellow of the Royal Society early in 1712, and in the same year sat on the committee for adjudicating the... Read More
	De Infinitis Infinitorum, et Infinite Parvorum Ordinibus Disquisitio Geometrica Adoption Amount: $3,000 Bound with: Grandi, Guido. Prostasis ad exceptiones Cl. Varignonii libro de infinitis infinitorum ordinibus oppositas... Pisis : Ex typographia Francisci Bindi..., 1713. Grandi, Guido. Dialoghi del p.m. Grandi Camaldolese teologo, e matematico dell'Altezza Reale di Toscana... In Lucca : Ad istanza di Francesco Maria Gaddi librajo in Pisa, 1712. A fine copy of this important collection of mathematical treatises by Grandi (1671-1742), professor of mathematics of Pisa. Included is his first general study of the cubic curve known as the "versiera" or "witch of Agnesi", which had been treated... Read More
	De Natura et Veritate Methodi Fluxionum Adoption Amount: $700 A scarce copy of Daniel Melander's (1726-1810) dissertation on the rival claims and speculations that led to a concrete understanding of the nature and beauty of calculus. Melander was a student at Uppsala and later became lecturer in physics and professor of astronomy. In 1782 he moved to Stockholm, where he became one of the leading scientists in Sweden, with a major worldwide correspondence. Read More
	Der Conservator oder Prakitische Anleitung, Naturalien Aller Reiche zu Sammeln, zu Conserviren und fur Wissenschaftliche Zwecke Adoption Amount: $1,450 This is a manual for collecting, preserving, and organizing natural-history specimens: specifically, the arrangement of a mineral collection, organizing a botanical collection and creating an herbarium, and the conservation of zoological exhibits. These subjects form one of the Cullman Library's particular interests, in support of collection management staff as well as historical research at the National Museum of Natural History. The half-dozen or so German manuals in our collection fall mainly at either end of the 1800s, and this one forms a continuum through the 19th century. The book is... Read More
	The Desert Garden Adoption Amount: $300 This slim book about native plants found in the Phoenix regional area, circa 1933, was written at a time when the population of the city was just under 50,000 people. It’s a self published book with the author providing both text and simple pen and ink illustrations of the plants throughout the book, including the book’s cover. The term "the desert garden" refers to the natural landscape surrounding the Phoenix area, including Phoenix mountain park, Camelback mountain, Papago Park, and Squaw Peak, as opposed to a garden of desert loving plants. The title is a bit of a misnomer, with the... Read More
	Die Spinnen Amerikas Adoption Amount: $8,400 The Russian Count Eugene von Keyserling (1833-1889) spent his career in the natural sciences specializing in spiders. His publications focus primarily on the spiders of North and South America, and Die Spinnen Amerikas constitutes his magnum opus, describing hundreds of species new to science. It also contains 58 lithographed plates (43 colored) and is considered one of the finest iconographies of arachnids ever published. The book came out in six parts over 14 years; the last two parts were edited by George Marx, whose collection resides in the National Museum of Natural History and is the... Read More
	Die Textilien aus Palmyra Adoption Amount: $250 The ancient city of Palmyra was, for a number of centuries, an important trading center for materials transported across the Silk Road to and from many points in Asia and the Middle East. Much of our current understanding of silk in antiquity comes from the study of material from Palmyra. This book on Palmyra textiles picks up from earlier scholarship, seeking to identify the origin of these silks and to expand their cultural context. One chapter looks at the Chinese inscriptions on the silks. Another describes the techniques and possible dyes used in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near... Read More
	Die Versteinerungen des Steinkohlengebirges von Wettin und Lobejun im Sallkreise Adoption Amount: $2,400 This book by Germar (1786-1853), a professor of mineralogy at the University of Halle and the director of its mineralogical cabinet/museum, focuses on fossils discovered in Saxony, constituting some of the earliest fossil material described in Europe. It is of considerable importance to paleobiology, as the plant and animal taxa described in it are the basis of species, genus, and family names in modern paleoentomology and paleobotany. Read More
	Discours Sur la Structure des Fleurs, Leurs Differences et l'Usage de Leurs Parties.... Adoption Amount: $4,125 This short publication by a little-known botanist gave Linnaeus the diagnostic tools and the anatomical terminology for his sexual system of classifying plants. After studying botany under Tournefort at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, Vaillant (1669-1722) established a herbarium there and showed such talent and dedication that over time he rose through the ranks to become the director. This publication is his inaugural address for the opening of a new portion of the Jardin in 1717, in which he described his observations of the reproductive characteristics of plants "identifying the stamens... Read More
	Diseases and Enemies of Poultry Adoption Amount: $250 While he graduated with a degree in agriculture at Cornell, it was summer work on combating contagious diseases in cattle that led to Dr. Leonard Pearson’s (1868-1909) interest in veterinary medicine. Upon graduating from the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school, Dr. Pearson continued his work on protecting cattle and would eventually rise from Professor of Medicine to Dean of the Veterinary School to Pennsylvania’s State Veterinarian. Expanding his research into poultry, Dr. Pearson recognized how the introduction of new flocks to an existing group increased the risk of the spread... Read More
	Dr. Chase's Recipes, or, Information for Everybody Adoption Amount: $350 Alvin Wood Chase (1817-1885) was a travelling physician, salesman, author, and self-made man. He dispensed remedies all over America during the late nineteenth century, collecting recipes and domestic tips from the people he met along the way. His self-published books became celebrated U.S. bestsellers and were the household how-to "bibles" of their day. This amazing compendium of folk and patent medicine seems to cover every conceivable problem of man and beast. Though many of Chase's health "remedies" would be discredited by modern science, during his time, folk remedies were... Read More
	The Ecology of Atlantic Shorelines Adoption Amount: $250 Even as our understanding of ecological systems evolve, there are touchstone texts that lay the foundations of our understanding. Ecology of Atlantic Shorelines by Mark Bertness is such a touchstone for these unique coastal ecosystems. Covering coastal geology and the ecology of coastal species, populations, and ecosystems, students of coastal zone ecology will turn to this title again and again to glean a synoptic view of the many parts that intertwine to form these systems. Read More
	Eine Gläserne Flinte und Zugleich Nüzliche Bergwerksmaschiene Adoption Amount: $3,400 This fugitive promotional piece advertises the author's invention, a portable electric lighter, which he designed for mining and smelting but which had much broader uses. The lighter is considered in the literature of the history of science the first electric household appliance. A German pioneer of ballooning, Lütgendorf conducted a wide range of electrical experiments and improved on Volta's advances on the electrical lighter. The illustrations show details of the author's innovations, particularly to the water clock. Read More
	Emperor Kangxi and The Sun King Louis XIV Adoption Amount: $250 Emperor Kangxi and King Louis XIV of France, also known as Louis the Great, were both considered among the greatest rulers of their respective countries. They have been compared politically and militarily, but few comparisons in artistic achievements have been done. Both rulers came to the throne during childhood. They had excellent skills in riding and archery and both were fluent in a number of languages. As a Manchu emperor, Kangxi had a solid command of Mandarin Chinese and Mongolian whereas Louis XIV was versed in French, Italian, Spanish, and Latin. Through the French Jesuit missions to... Read More
	Epistola de Praecipuis Naturae et Artis Curiosis Speciminibus Musei Adoption Amount: $1,250 The natural history rare book collection includes a growing body of publications describing, cataloging, illustrating, and/or discussing early natural history cabinets and specimen collections. They are important to scientific researchers for identifying collections and individual specimens that are referenced in taxonomic works (and that may have served as the type on which a new species was named). In this short publication, Friedrich Christian Lesser (1692-1754) describes a number of specimens in his natural history cabinet. A German pastor with a strong interest in the natural sciences,... Read More
	Experimental Gallery Records from the Exhibit Casitas Adoption Amount: $250 From his arrival at the Smithsonian in 1984, Secretary Robert McCormick Adams felt the Institution needed to challenge visitors to wrestle with societal ills of the 1980s, including persistent inequality and prejudice. Secretary Adams felt that the "Smithsonian must strive for sensitivity to the conditions, needs and aspirations of the multiple and growing audiences it has an obligation to reach." To accomplish this, he developed the concept of an “experimental gallery” with shorter exhibit durations, a low-tech approach, and a maverick ethos. After 18 months of preparation, on February 1,... Read More
	Family Education and Government Adoption Amount: $1,200 North American Indian languages have been a strong research interest at the Smithsonian Institution virtually since its founding. SI Libraries holds about 20 published texts in Choctaw – primarily grammars, glossaries, and translations of the Bible. This work is particularly interesting in that it seems to be a translation of an early-19th century English pamphlet on domestic and social life, albeit within a strong religious context. Read More
	Ferrets, rabbits, and rodents Adoption Amount: $300 This book details various health problems specific to small exotic mammals, as well as treatment protocols and surgical techniques that help correct the issues. It also includes other small exotic animals: sugar gliders and hedgehogs. It is beautifully illustrated with color photographs, handy charts and diagrams, and cross-references. Organized by animal, and then by body system within each animal, this is a concise and thorough guide to the medical care of these animals. It includes preventive medicine, diagnosis, surgery, and therapy; general care plus ophthalmological, dental, and drug... Read More
	Field Notes—Baffin Island (Southwest Coast), May–August 1959 and Journal—Baffin Island, May–August 1959 Adoption Amount: $400 "I've read stories about such trips but to think that I would be in such a position to experience the hardships of some of the great explorers was beyond my wildest imagination,” wrote Neal Griffin Smith in his journal on May 21, 1959, after more than 20 hours of traveling through the Arctic terrain. Prior to his decades-long career at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, ornithologist Neal Griffith Smith conducted his graduate research on Arctic birds, spending the summers of 1959, 1960, and 1961 on White, Southampton, and Baffin Islands in the Northwest Territories (now known as... Read More
	The Fire of Life Adoption Amount: $900 Focused on bioenergetics, or how organisms transform energy, this book is frequently used and important to scientists at the National Zoological Park. It also happens to be out-of-print book, and has dramatically increased in value because it is a timeless and important resource in the field of animal nutrition. Read More
	Flora y fauna del Parque Nacional de Coiba (Panama) Adoption Amount: $300 This collaborative volume brings together the work of national and international researchers to present the first comprehensive biodiversity inventory of Coiba National Park. Situated off Panama’s Pacific coast, Coiba Island is a biological treasure, and this book serves as an important first step in documenting its rich terrestrial and marine ecosystems. While the data remains preliminary, the work offers a solid foundation by providing environmental descriptions and species lists, highlighting the park’s ecological significance. A valuable resource for conservationists, scientists,... Read More
	Four Years in a Government Exploring Expedition Adoption Amount: $2,750 Naval officer George Colvocoresses took part in the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-42, and published this account of it based on a journal which he kept. The text covers the entire itinerary of the voyage, describing the lands and peoples visited and a variety of scientific matters; the 19 illustrations include botanical and zoological subjects and scenes of the west coast of North America. Of particular interest is Colvocoresses' participation in the overland leg of the expedition in the Pacific Northwest and California. The U.S. Exploring Expedition's biological and ethnographical... Read More
	Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C. Adoption Amount: $300 This book covers the final 18 years of Frederick Douglass’ life when he lived in a mansion on top of Cedar Hill in Anacostia, a neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The author is a graduate of George Washington University, a prominent university in Washington, D.C. The book is filled with black and white pencil sketches, images, and photographs, many depicting the interior of Douglass’ home, as well as his family life. This biography includes stories about his children and grandchildren — one earned the rank of Sergeant Major as a Civil War combat soldier and another was a world famous concert... Read More
	Frederick Douglass: Freedom's Voice Adoption Amount: $250 This book was written by Dr. Gregory Lampe, a retired provost and vice chancellor for academic and student affairs, and emeritus communications professor at Michigan State University. Since Douglass was an orator, it seems fitting for a communications and speech professor to write about his oratory and rhetoric. Now, after reading this book, you have to go to freedomarchives.org to listen to a recording of Frederick Douglass's voice. His speeches are fiery, and spirit-filled, and he doesn’t just speak, but he preaches about abolition as if it were a sermon, moving today's modern listener to... Read More
	Freedom Just Around the Corner Adoption Amount: $250 This pocket sized exhibition booklet contains a chronicle of the African American experience told through the unique lens of stamps and mail. At around 100 pages long, it is full of beautiful color illustrations of stamp art. The National Postal Museum's exhibition opened to the public in the middle of Black History Month 2015, and ended in the middle of Black History Month 2016. Museum visitors learned about letters carried by slaves, mail to and from civil rights leaders, and original artwork from the USPS Black Heritage stamp series. This exhibition made history as the National Postal... Read More
	Geometriae pars Universalis Adoption Amount: $9,500 Three major works of Scottish mathematician and astronomer James Gregory (1638-1675) who discovered infinite series representations for a number of trigonometry functions, although he is mostly remembered for his description of the first practical reflecting telescope, now known as the Gregorian telescope. "Of British mathematicians of the seventeenth century Gregory was only excelled by Newton." (Gjertsen, Newton handbook, 245) Bound with: Gregory, James. Vera circuli et hyperbolae quadratura... Patavii: Typis heredum Pauli Frambotti ..., 1668. Gregory, James. Exercitationes geometricae.... Read More
	Gold Fever Adoption Amount: $250 Author of eight books in the National Postal Museum Library alone (including Gold Fever, California Gold, Black Gold, Klondike Gold, and Victoria Gold) Kenneth Kutz is a gold enthusiast. This 400-page book tells the history of gold prospecting around the world and the effect it had on early explorers, settlement, and colonization. Gold incites both romance and excitement, not just in California, but all over the world. This volume is illustrated in color with 609 postage stamps and covers (envelopes), and weaves in tales of postal history and its... Read More
	Gold Fever and the Art of Panning and Sluicing Adoption Amount: $250 Lois DeLorenzo gets down and dirty when explaining how to search for gold in the wilderness of North America. Her text and detailed drawings include information on how to assess whether an area is likely to contain gold deposits and how to build the tools necessary for panning and sluicing. DeLorenzo lists the materials needed and provides instructions for building various handmade prospecting tools, and demonstrates via her illustrations the best ways to use each tool. This unique bound paperback is from the Minerals Library at the National Museum of Natural History. Read More
	Goldrausch: Gegenwartskunst Aus, Mit Oder, Uber Gold Adoption Amount: $250 Gold Rush: Contemporary Art Made From, With or About Gold is an exhibition catalogue published to accompany the exhibit of the same title, which was featured at Kunsthalle Nürnburg (October 18, 2012 to January 13, 2013) and at Villa Merkel, Galerien der Stadt Esslingen am Neckar (February 17 to April 14, 2013), in Germany. The show explored the appearance of gold in the recent works of 18 international artists, including Joseph Beuys, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Daniel Knorr, Kris Martin, Jonathan Monk, and Claudia Wieser. Because gold typically elicits strong emotional responses, the use... Read More
	The Gospel According to Mark...in the Language of the Dakotas = Wotanin Waxte Markus Owa Kin Dee Adoption Amount: $8,500 This is one of the earliest and rarest works in the Dakota (Sioux) language. The text includes all sixteen chapters of the gospel of Saint Mark. It was created by having missionary Thomas Williamson read from the Book of Mark in French, which was then translated into Dakota by Joseph Renville, the son of a French-Canadian fur-trader father and a Dakota mother. Renville served as an interpreter for Zebulon Pike's 1805 expedition to find the headwaters of the Mississippi and for Stephen Long's expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1823, and "...nearly all the translations into the Dakota... Read More
	The Grammar of Ornament Adoption Amount: $2,750 This was the first encyclopedic pattern book that examined ornament from a variety of cultures and historic periods. Jones created the Grammar to educate designers and stressed the need for a study of historic styles in order to prepare for an ornamental language suitable to the new industrial age. The Grammar was extremely influential in design schools in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and is still in print today, maintaining its relevance as a source of inspiration for contemporary designers. It is also one of the nineteenth century's great monuments of chromolithographic... Read More
	The Great Inversion Adoption Amount: $250 This book examines American urban/suburban society, gentrification, and the implications of shifts for the future. It discusses commercial canyons and mass transit versus car-dominated cities versus postwar suburbs. It explains how America’s cities are changing, what makes them succeed or fail, and what this all means. A demographic inversion is taking place: cities are where the affluent millennials and retirees want to live, while suburbs are becoming home to poorer people and immigrants. The author holds a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism,... Read More
	Gullah Culture in America Adoption Amount: $250 The book’s purpose is to take us behind-the-scenes so we can see what it’s like to grow up and live life in the Gullah community. Sayings such as “dog got four feet but can’t walk but one road” are uniquely Gullah. This translates to “you can only do one thing at a time.” The book has black adn white photos of Gullah people fishing, riding on horseback, boating, and playing music. One of the co-authors is of South CarolinaGullah heritage: Dr. Emory Campbell, President of Gullah Heritage Consulting Services. The Gullah community is made up of descendants of freed slaves living in the coastal... Read More
	Handbuch fur Naturaliensammler oder Grundliche Anweisung die Naturkorper Aller Drei Reiche zu sammeln,... Adoption Amount: $920 Held by only one other library in North America, this book is a guide to collecting and preserving natural-history specimens. Thon (1792-1838) provides thorough and detailed instructions on the collecting, preparing, and stuffing of all manner of mammals, reptiles, birds, and insects, as well as plants, wood samples, and minerals. The plates depict the various tools used and the procedures for preparing the specimens. Adding to publications in these practical subjects written and/or acquired in the past by the Institution's scientists, the Smithsonian Libraries have been actively building... Read More
	Herrn Georgii Galgemairs Kurtzer Gründlicher Gebesserter unnd Vermehrter Underricht Adoption Amount: $3,850 Second, greatly expanded edition of a primer describing the construction & use of two instruments a proportional compass (Circkel) and lineal compass (Schregmäß) for the measurement of geometrical solids and lines, respectively. This 1615 edition is ninety-five pages longer than the initial pamphlet (1610), and substitutes an engraved plate for the second woodcut plate of the first edition. The construction of the instruments is described and the geometry and measurement of increasingly complex solids and linear configurations are explained. Read More
	Histoire Naturelle des Lepidoptères Exotiques Adoption Amount: $2,500 Pierre Hippolyte Lucas (1815?-1899) began his career in science at 13 as an apprentice preparator in the zoological laboratory of the Muséum Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. He became a respected expert on several orders of invertebrates and wrote up the specimens of several important French expeditions. Held by only 6 libraries in the U.S., the present work is on non-European butterflies, including species from Australia and other areas in the Pacific. The Smithsonian Libraries holds 14 of Lucas's works, including the second edition (Paris, 1845) of the present title and its... Read More
	Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux de Paradis et des Épimaques Adoption Amount: $5,000 Ever since the surviving ship of Magellan's fleet returned to Spain in 1522 with birds of paradise, all specimens known in Europe through the 18th century were prepared and preserved by native collectors with the bones and feet removed. As a result, Linnaeus' Systema Naturae (10th ed., 1758) gave the greater bird-of-paradise the name Paradisaea apoda (= without feet). René Primevère Lesson (1794-1849), surgeon/pharmacist/naturalist on the round-the-world scientific voyage of the Coquille from 1822 to 1825, was the first European to observe birds of paradise alive in the wild and... Read More
	Histoire Naturelle et Médicale des Casses : et Particulièrement de la Casse et des Sénés Employés en Médecine Adoption Amount: $650 This is a thesis presented for a medical degree at the University of Montpelier by Louis Théodore Frédéric Colladon, a student of the renowned botanist Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle. As was common in European universities at the time, it was de Candolle who wrote the detailed descriptions and classifications of plants in the genus Cassia, including numerous new species, based on his own herbarium and unpublished manuscripts. The student's role was that of explicating and defending the thesis. Read More
	Historical Color Guide Adoption Amount: $350 There is little to be found about Elizabeth Burris-Meyer’s life, but it is safe to assume that she was a proud aesthete. As the “Dean of the School for Fashion Careers,” Burris-Meyer published two books on color. Her Historical Color Guide draws inspiration from various historical works of art, creating color palettes for both artistic and business use. Utilizing a keen understanding of art history, she sought to evoke not just the aesthetics, but the culture of a time period. Paint swatches, hand glued into the book, are given delightfully descriptive names: “mummy” is an Egyptian... Read More
	The History of the Maroons Adoption Amount: $1,000 Robert Charles Dallas (1754-1824), a British writer, was born in Jamaica and returned there after an education in England and Scotland. In the West Indies, runaway slaves who formed communities independent from white society (often with American Indians) were called “Maroons.” Those in Jamaica – about whom Dallas provides a first-hand account of their culture and mode of life – were considered the greatest threat to British colonists due to hostilities in the 1730s and again in the 1790s. As a result, Britain established Freetown in Sierra Leone and transported a number of Jamaican Maroons... Read More
	How to Mix Drinks Adoption Amount: $3,000 Collecting and standardizing what had been until then a hodge-podge of oral traditions and regional customs, this was the first recipe book for mixed drinks published in the United States. Jeremiah Thomas (1830-1885) was a bartender who owned various saloons in New York City and worked in others in California (during the Gold Rush), St. Louis, Chicago, Charleston, and New Orleans. In this first edition of his book he established the recipes for popular cocktails of the day, including fizzes, flips, sours, punches, and many others; later editions provided the first written recipes for the... Read More
	I Have a Dream Adoption Amount: $250 Each page of this short, beautifully illustrated book is packed with information about Black Heritage Series postage stamps. From Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman to Jesse Owens, twenty-eight African American heroes are described in this book. Each chapter has a portrait of the subject (painted by Thomas Blackshear), followed by an extensive biography and an image of their postage stamp, including its date of issue. Read More
	Icones Piscium : Indicem Systematicum Adoption Amount: $550 Frederik Christian Kielsen (1774-1850), a Danish naturalist and teacher, published his Icones in six separate parts: fishes, mammals, insects, invertebrates, birds, and amphibians. Each has a brief text providing a Linnaean systematic classification followed by (as the title suggests) illustrations of the animals covered; the Icones piscium (fishes) has 48 plates that illustrate 130 species in 57 genera. With this volume we also purchased his Icones mammalium (111 plates, including 11 of whales and three of Homo sapiens) and Icones insectorum (106 plates... Read More
	Initia Doctrinae Physicae Adoption Amount: $1,675 Early edition (first 1549) of this influential physics text by the German humanist and reformer, Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560). Melanchthon's importance as a religious reformer has tended to overshadow his achievements as a writer of science and medicine. His natural history course, which he held at the University of Wittenberg, mentioned Copernicus, but he did not accept his theory. Read More
	International Histological Classification V Adoption Amount: $300 This fascicle has detailed, thorough descriptions and explanatory notes of the various nervous system tumors, cross-referenced to high-quality photomicrographs of each (some slides in color, some black-and-white). It is highly referenced to related publications. This is one of a valuable, and very well-used, series on tumor classification of the different organ systems. Read More
	International Histological Classification VI Adoption Amount: $300 This fascicle has detailed, thorough descriptions and explanatory notes of the various respiratory system tumors, cross-referenced to high-quality photomicrographs of each (some slides in color, some black-and-white). It is highly referenced to related publications. This is one of a valuable, and very well-used, series on tumor classification of the different organ systems. Read More
	Introduction à L'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale Adoption Amount: $2,850 "Probably the greatest classic on the principles of physiological investigation and the scientific method applied to the life sciences." (Garrison-Morton 1766.501) In this work, Claude Bernard (1813-1878) presented his own personal analysis of the scientific method in a manner which earned him outstanding commendation from the philosophers of science: he was an ardent but by no means uncritical devotee of experiment, while remaining keenly appreciative of the role of hypothesis. Among many other accomplishments, he was one of the first to suggest the use of blind experiments to ensure the... Read More
	Isagoges in Rem Herbariam Libri Duo Adoption Amount: $1,100 A professor of anatomy and surgery at the University of Leiden, Adriaan van de Spiegel (1578-1625) also studied botany, and his Isagoges in Rem Herbariam Libri Duo is an early work on plant classification. Linnaeus, who established the modern system of scientific nomenclature, held Spiegel's book in high regard and named a genus of flowering plants Spigelia in his honor. In addition, Spiegel's is the first book to give detailed instructions for forming a collection of dried plants and will be a particularly early addition to SIL's collection of works on collecting and preserving... Read More
	Kiki Smith's Dowry Book Adoption Amount: $250 Kiki Smith’s Dowry Book is an intimate, palm-sized collection of images, each representing an exhibition Smith had between 1982 and 1995, a time when she was particularly focused on issues of AIDS, gender, and race. The Hirshhorn Library’s copy is from a limited edition of 800 signed copies, issued in a plain, cardboard slipcase, and designed by Smith on a computer. The illustrated cloth boards reproduce Smith’s Dowry Cloth, 1990, made of women’s hair and sheep’s wool felted together. Smith explains, “The work came from thinking about dowries … people around the world making objects... Read More
	Klondike Gold Adoption Amount: $250 Canadian author, Kenneth J. Kutz is an expert and enthusiast in both philately and gold. Kutz is the former President of Texasgulf Mining Corporation. He is also the former President of the Collectors Club of New York, one of the oldest existing philatelic societies (founded in 1896) in the United States. This book is about the Canadian Klondike Gold Rush of 1896, which attracted 100,000 prospectors from around the world. Read More
	Kovový Nábytek Adoption Amount: $375 This 1930s Czech tubular steel trade catalog titled Kovový Nábytek (translated simply as Metal Furniture) is part of the Cooper Hewitt Library’s Special Collections of trade literature. The company featured in the catalog, Vichr Co., supplied hospital beds and related equipment during WWI for institutional use. During the interwar period, they manufactured hundreds of varieties of goods and furniture for both household and office use. The popularity of modern, simple furniture combined with the durability of metal inspired Czech designers and furniture companies to produce their... Read More
	Kovový Nábytek / / Vichr a Spol. Adoption Amount: $350 Photogravure catalog issued by Vichr, one of the major Czech producers of tubular steel furniture in the interwar period, with a photomontage illustration on the title page. The period between the two world wars saw a revolution in the use of new materials in design, as well as, the emergence of diverse avant-garde movements in the arts and architecture. Tubular steel came into use for household furnishings through designers such as Marcel Breuer from the Bauhaus and the bentwood style using tubular steel of the Thonet furniture firm. The fashionable modern appeal, functionality,... Read More
	Kurtze Betrachtung Derer Kräuterabdrücke im Steinreiche Adoption Amount: $1,500 Schulze, a German physician (1730-1775) with interests in mineralogy and paleontology, was a pioneer of paleobotany, the study of fossil plants. He is credited with recognizing the true nature of fossils, rejecting the supernatural explanations that had held sway for centuries. The Smithsonian Libraries already holds a related publication by Schulze concerning fossil woods; this one is on plants more generally, and the six copper plate engravings in the book are some of the earliest published images of plants preserved in rock sediments. The work is quite scarce, being held by only 8... Read More
	Lancôme Adoption Amount: $975 This is an exclusive early trade catalog of the great French perfumer produced by Draeger, the talented French designer and printer. A photographic illustration for each fragrance is included, along with a full description of each product, including details of the bottle and packaging. The volume includes the name of each perfume manufactured by Lancôme and a description of the scent with its chief ingredients. The company’s name was inspired by the ruins of a castle in the Loire River Valley, Le Château de Lancosme, while the company's symbol, a single rose, was inspired by the wild roses... Read More
	Land Where Time Stands Still Adoption Amount: $300 In 1941, Max Miller financed an expedition the length of the Baja Peninsula with two natural history scientists from the San Diego Natural History Museum, Frank Gander and Laurence Huey. Miller mentions briefly and ominously of the Japanese submarine presence in Magdalena Bay on the Baja Peninsula in the months prior to Pearl Harbor. This book came to the Smithsonian Libraries by way of Alexander Wetmore (1886-1978). As an expeditionary scientist and Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution throughout World War II, Wetmore took interest in the scientific travels of others,... Read More
	Les Peintres Indiens D'Amérique Adoption Amount: $1,200 These two portfolio volumes — each available separately for adoption — contain 77 individual plates by Native American artists. The author Oscar Brousse Jacobson (1882-1966) a Swedish-born American was a painter himself and a collector of Native American art. He served as the director of the University of Oklahoma's School of Art from 1915 to 1954. Most of the paintings reproduced in the portfolio are from Jacobson’s personal collection and each volume includes a description, in both French and English, of each plate incorporating his personal reminiscences of the artist, as well as... Read More
	Les Peintres Indiens D'Amérique Adoption Amount: $1,200 These two portfolio volumes — each available separately for adoption — contain 77 individual plates by Native American artists. The author Oscar Brousse Jacobson (1882-1966) a Swedish-born American was a painter himself and a collector of Native American art. He served as the director of the University of Oklahoma's School of Art from 1915 to 1954. Most of the paintings reproduced in the portfolio are from Jacobson’s personal collection and each volume includes a description, in both French and English, of each plate incorporating his personal reminiscences of the artist, as well as... Read More
	Les Robes de Paul Poiret Adoption Amount: $2,500 The popularity of the French fashion plate was revitalized in the early part of the 20th century by artists like Paul Iribe (1883-1935), working with fashion designers such as Paul Poiret. These illustrations were hand colored using the pochoir process, whereby stencils and metal plates are used allowing for colors to be built up according to the artist's vision. The fashion plate, in use for some time, was in essence an advertising toola piece of artwork used to create desire for the latest styles aimed at an audience of the fashionable and moneyed. The innovative and famous couturier, Paul... Read More
	Les Trochilidées, ou, les Colibris et les Oiseaux-Mouches Adoption Amount: $5,250 René Primevère Lesson, having served as surgeon/pharmacist/naturalist on the round-the-world scientific voyage of the Coquille (1822-1825), subsequently published several works in ornithology and mammalogy. Les Trochilidées is the third and last volume of his classic work on hummingbirds, and its purchase completes the Smithsonian Libraries' set. Beautifully illustrated, the plates are color-printed and finished by hand to accompany the species descriptions and a general natural history of hummingbirds. This copy survives in sheets as issued, folded but un-cut and un-bound. Read More
	Less Than Nothing Adoption Amount: $2,500 “Is somnia a chronic condition with you?” Early in his career American author E. B. White (1899-1985), now best known for Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web, wrote his first book anonymously for The New Yorker magazine just two years after its founding. Published as a giveaway to subscribers and advertisers of the magazine, the book was a series of short comic episodes of the invented characters, Sterling and Flora Finny, represented by photographs of mannequins from the Wanamaker department store. Sterling and Flora are often inept such as when Sterling loses an... Read More
	Lessons in Sabre, Singlestick, Sabre & Bayonet, and Sword Feats Adoption Amount: $400 John Musgrave Waite (c. 1820–1884) was a Victorian fencing master and non-commissioned officer in the British 2nd Life Guards, a regiment in which the tradition of the sabre was maintained. This book is still used by the Schola Gladiatoria, a group in London which provides organized instruction in the serious study and practice of historical European swordplay. The book's illustrations present the positions used in fencing and sword fighting, along with various tricks to display extraordinary skill. Plate 31 “Cutting a sheep carcass in half” and Plate 34 “Cutting an apple on a man’s hand"... Read More
	Lucas Samaras : Gold Adoption Amount: $250 The works of Lucas Samaras can be understood through one unifying principle: the artist’s “natural instinct for subversion.” Rather than springing from an urge to rebel, however, Samaras’ originality and nonconformity are centered in treating art as a mutable subject. Samaras spent two years crafting gold jewelry, modeling them first in chicken wire, then casting them in solid 22-karat gold. His use of chicken wire (with the holes filled in with thick paint prior to casting) contrasts the modest, “low” material of the wire with the “high” material of gold, with its historical significance and... Read More
	Magiae naturalis Adoption Amount: $1,250 Porta's Natural magic was originally published in four "books" (=chapters) and later expanded to 20 chapters. The text is devoted to various experiments, distillation, transmutation of metals, artificial gems, etc. The 17th chapter on optics is the most important: it went through 18 editions in different languages prior 1600. Read More
	Meissen-Glas. Katalog Nr. 60 Adoption Amount: $725 The Cooper Hewitt Library recently acquired two catalogs of 1930 Meissner Glasraffinerie glass shades for electrical light fixtures. Meissen-Glas. Katalog Nr. 60 has 31 pages of illustrations, mostly in color. In addition to hanging lamps and wall sconces, this catalog features table lamps. They come in a variety of designs—some imitating alabaster, some looking like Japanese lanterns. Lighting is an important part of the Library's collection and scope, and this example of 20th century European lighting design is a great addition to our growing collection of trade catalogs. You can... Read More
	Meissen-Glas. Nachtrag-Katalog Nr. 65 Adoption Amount: $725 The Cooper Hewitt Library recently acquired two catalogs of 1930 Meissner Glasraffinerie glass shades for electrical light fixtures. Meissen-Glas. Nachtrag-Katalog Nr. 65 has 8 pages of illustrations, mostly in color. They advertise hanging light fixtures and wall sconces and came in a variety of designs. Many show the influence of the Bauhaus and Art Deco styles that were fashionable during this era. Lighting is an important part of the Cooper Hewitt Library's collection and scope, and this example of 20th century European lighting design is a great addition. You can read more about... Read More
	Memoria Sopra la Scossa che Provano gli Animali Adoption Amount: $700 Three works by Stefano Marianini, follower of Volta's work on electro-motors, and professor of physics in Venice and then in Modena. Bound with: Marianini, Stefano. Memoria sopra la teoria chimica degli elettromotori voltiani. Venezia: Dalla tip. di Alvisopoli, 1830. Marianini, Stefano. Memorie di fisica sperimentale. Modena: R. Tip. camerale, 1838-1841. Marianini, Stefano. Metodo per ottenere i bassi-rilievi in rame: senza apposito elettromotore voltaico. Novara: Tip. Artaria e Comp., [1840]. Read More
	Le Micromegas Adoption Amount: $2,500 This very rare copy of the second edition from 1752 was once owned by rocket scientist Frederick Ordway III, spaceflight visionary and consultant on Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, this work of fiction by Voltaire is a work akin to Gulliver's Travels, but set in outer space. In this imaginative novel, human beings on Earth are equivalent to Lilliputians in Swift’s famous masterpiece. Read More
	The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain Adoption Amount: $800 James Sowerby (1757-1822), artist, naturalist, and mineralogist, did nothing by half-measure. From 167 plates on minerals of the world, to a 36 volume work on British plants, and even to a treatise on color, Sowerby’s work is indeed expansive. This book, one volume of seven on invertebrate paleontology, is no different. Sowerby’s detailed illustrations of his own fossil collection, accompanied by his engaging writing style, made his Mineral Conchology of Great Britain a classic in the field. In it, he names numerous new species and paleontologists still cite his work in their... Read More
	Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Adoption Amount: $250 This book is only 75 pages long, but is full of valuable information about Frederick Douglass (1818-1895). It is an unabridged republication of his 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. In it, Douglass describes, in unflinching honesty, the horrors of slavery. He tells of how he watched a slave mother kill her baby with a piece of wood and saw a slave get shot to death for trespassing. His heartbreaking and disturbing tales make his own escape even more extraordinary and his calls for abolition even more passionate. Read More
	Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Adoption Amount: $250 This autobiography/memoir covers the life of abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass. Its text is preceded by an introduction from Dr. John Blassingame: Yale graduate, Yale professor, and pioneer in the study of American slavery. After the text, there are about fifty pages of historical information, including book reviews written by people shortly after the autobiography was published. What makes this autobiography so significant is the fact that it was written only seven years after Douglass’ escape from slavery. This book added fuel to the abolitionist movement in the United States... Read More
	New Orleans Street Parade Adoption Amount: $1,000 The 1968 film New Orleans Street Parade depicts the eponymous city's Onward Brass Band parading through the French Quarter, arousing interest from onlookers and picking up participant second liners along the way. This film attempts to capture an authentic second line parade and particularizes a cultural phenomenon that has persisted for well over 100 years. The parade and film were organized by filmmaker Karen Loveland for use in an exhibition on jazz that ran from December 1, 1968 to January 15, 1969 at the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum. In the original installation, this... Read More
	Nome Gold Adoption Amount: $250 This book compiles 100 love letters written by Edwin B. Sherzer, a prospector in Nome, Alaska to his girlfriend, Clara M. Miller. The historical setting is the gold rush of 1899 in Nome. The book is edited by Canadian author Kenneth J. Kutz, an expert and enthusiast in both philately and gold. Kutz is former President of Texasgulf Mining Corporation. He is also the former President of the Collectors Club of New York, one of the oldest existing philatelic societies (founded in 1896) in the United States. Read More
	North American Indian Costumes (1564-1950) Adoption Amount: $1,500 This portfolio volume (Vol. 2 of the work) contains 25 illustrations by the noted Native American artist Oscar Howe (Mazuha Hokshina). A Yanktonai Dakota artist trained at the Studio of Santa Fe Indian School, Dakota Wesleyan University, and University of Oklahoma. Howe is perhaps best known for his 1940s New Deal era Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals. Oscar Brousse Jacobson, a collector of Native American art and director of the University of Oklahoma's School of Art, provides a brief introductory essay on indigenous dress, along with lengthy captions for each plate, incorporating... Read More
	Not All Okies Are White Adoption Amount: $300 The author of this book is currently a professor of English at the University of Arizona. Sixteen years ago, Geta J. LeSeur collected oral histories from Black cotton pickers in Arizona. These are a special population of migrant workers who formed their own community (not by choice, of course) the town of Randolph, Arizona from 1930 through 1960. Each chapter is named after the person speaking in the oral history interview. There are family photographs throughout the book. This work is an essential part of Arizona state history. Read More
	Noted Porcelains of Successive Dynasties Adoption Amount: $9,000 This color illustrated porcelain catalogue of Chinese culinary objects was compiled by the famous Ming art collector Xiang Yuanbian (1525-1590). He was the first Chinese scholar to compile a catalogue of porcelains with colored illustrations. The manuscript was not published during Xiang’s lifetime. It was eventually acquired by the British scholar S.W. Bushell (1844-1908) who took it to London where it was lost in a fire. Fortunately copies of it had previously been made in China. John C. Ferguson (1866-1945) studied one of them, translated it into English and annotated the text. This... Read More
	Nvgvmouinvn Genvnvgvmouat Igiu Anishinabeg Anvmiajig Adoption Amount: $995 Smithsonian Libraries has a premiere collection of published works on Native American languages. As Christian missionaries were often the first to make extended contact with native cultures and to devise a written alphabet for the native languages, many of the earliest works take the form of translations of the Bible and other religious texts. Peter Jones (1802-1856) was a mixed-blood chief of the Mississauga Ojibwas in Canada (in the Chippewa/Ojibwa linguistic family) and a Methodist missionary in Ontario. Bicultural and bilingual, he began publishing works on the Chippewa language in 1828... Read More
	Objets de Mon Affection Adoption Amount: $550 The “objects” of American artist Man Ray’s affection were small, limited-edition sculptures. Although influenced by French artist Marcel Duchamp, Ray eschewed the Duchampian term readymade, preferring a lyrical title based on a popular song, “The object of my affection is to change your complexion from white to rosy red…” (Rosalind Krauss in Man Ray: Objects of My Affection, 1985). This small 1968 tome, wrapped in metallic gold cardback, is the catalog for an exhibition of the same name at Galerie Europe in Paris. At the exhibition, Parisian gallery owner Marcel Zerbib released... Read More
	On the Use of the Improved Papier Mache Adoption Amount: $1,250 The Cooper Hewitt Library has a wonderful collection of 19th century ornament pattern books, patterns that continue to inspire artists and designers today. The Library also collects books about the use of materials and techniques. This particular book discusses the use of papier mâché as an alternative to other traditional materials. The text outlines the transition from wood, to plaster, and finally papier mâché for architectural ornament, and points out that it is also used in bookcases and cabinets, picture frames, for any ornament for furniture. A great improvement: Lightweight, fast and... Read More
	Opuscula Iuventutis Mathematica Curiosa... Adoption Amount: $4,000 The first part of this work describes a newly invented instrument of the era: a planisphere illustrated with a plate. A planisphere is a star chart analog computing instrument in the form of two adjustable disks that rotate on a common pivot. It can be adjusted to display the visible stars for any time and date. It is an instrument to assist in learning how to recognize stars and constellations. The astrolabe, an instrument that has its origins in the Hellenistic civilization, is a predecessor of the modern planisphere. Read More
	Ornamental Textile Fabrics of All Ages and Nations Adoption Amount: $450 Ornamental Textile Fabrics of All Ages and Nations: A Practical Collection of Specimens features specimens from Auguste Dupont-Auberville's collection of ornamental textile designs. The samples, reproduced as simple chromolithographs, serve as a showcase of European, Eastern, and Egyptian design elements used in textile production throughout history. Published in 1877 amid the Aesthetic Movement, on the heels of the burgeoning Arts and Crafts Movement, and at a time when great craftsmanship of the past was being revived as art for art’s sake; this sample book is intended to be a... Read More
	Other Ideas Adoption Amount: $350 This seemingly insignificant, slim volume is the catalog for a groundbreaking exhibition curated by Sam Wagstaff at the Detroit Institute of Arts. A renowned curator and collector, Wagstaff is best known as the benefactor of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and poet-musician Patti Smith. Other Ideas, one of the earliest group shows for some of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 1960s and 70s, such as Linda Benglis, Dan Flavin, and Nam June Paik, earned Wagstaff a reputation as "one of the most innovative curators in Detroit's history," according to Patricia Morrisroe, in her... Read More
	[Other Lunar Discoveries of Mr. Herschel] Adoption Amount: $12,000 These rare hand-tinted lithographs by Italian artist Leopoldo Galluzzo illustrate what became known as "The Great Moon Hoax of 1835." In what was intended as a satirical newspaper article, New York Sun newspaper writer Richard Adams Locke boldly claimed that famed British astronomer Sir John Herschel had discovered life on the moon. This incredible news story, which ran over several issues, detailed a fantastic and lush lunar landscape inhabited by bipedal beavers, single horned bison, and winged extraterrestrials with an advanced civilization. Locke's satirical story lampooned... Read More
	Pandas, Presentation to First Lady Pat Nixon, April 20, 1972, Pandas playing, June 1972, and Pandas’ first day in new pen, November 19, 1973 Adoption Amount: $1,250 In April 1972, Giant Pandas Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing arrived in Washington, DC as a gift from the Chinese government. What followed was sheer panda-monium. These films document some of the early days of the pandas at the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park. The films include footage of First Lady Patricia Nixon formally accepting the pandas from the Chinese delegation on April 20, 1972, followed by images of the pandas rolling, climbing, and playing in their outdoor enclosures in June 1972. In November 1973, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing were each introduced to a new, larger, outdoor space... Read More
	Papillons d'Europe Adoption Amount: $4,250 Ernst & Engramelle's work on the butterflies of Europe was originally issued by subscription in 29 fascicles over 13 years. The Cullman Library holds the complete work: eight volumes of text (bound as three) with 342 meticulously and beautifully hand-colored plates in three separate volumes (Paris: Delaguette etc., 1779-1792). Toward the end of the project it was announced that another volume would be produced, but events precluded it significantly—the death by guillotine in 1793 of the chief underwriter of the publication and the death or dispersal of many of the work's wealthy... Read More
	Paradisus Batavus, Continens Plus Centum Plantas Affabre Aere Incises & Descriptionibus Illustratas. Adoption Amount: $3,800 Hermann, a physician and botanist, traveled to Africa, India, and Ceylon in the service of the Dutch East India Company and later served as the director of the famous botanic garden at the University of Leiden. In this work he published detailed descriptions and illustrations of the garden's plants, organized in accordance with the classification system of the great pre-Linnaean systematist Joseph Tournefort, under whom Hermann had studied in Paris. Read More
	The Passenger Pigeon Adoption Amount: $500 “There would be days and days when the air was alive with them, hardly a break occurring in a flock for half a day at a time. Flocks stretched as far as a person could see, one tier above another. I think it would be safe to say that millions could have been seen at the same time.” (The Passenger Pigeon, Chapter XI: Recollections of "Old Timers" pg 123) So it is recounted in Mershon’s The Passenger Pigeon -- a compendium documenting both the natural history of the passenger pigeon and its eventual extinction. As many as 3 to 5 billion passenger pigeons once called the... Read More
	Pathology of Domestic Animals Adoption Amount: $300 This book is quintessential to veterinary pathology, containing exhaustive explanations of the pathologies that can affect every organ system in domestic animals. It uses a holistic approach, describing the general characteristics of each body system, the diagnostic process, and the latest techniques and methods. It is an invaluable and comprehensive reference book. Compiled by a team of experts, this is an excellent training tool for veterinary trainees in their residency or internship, and continues to be useful to practicing pathologists and clinicians, including those caring for the... Read More
	Pattern and Process in Desert Ecosystems Adoption Amount: $300 This book is a collection of chapters, each written by experts in their ecological discipline. It covers the role of both insects and vertebrate animals (those with a backbone) in desert ecosystems, how nutrients move through the system (‘nutrient cycling’ is a hot topic for those who study ecosystems), and how plants adapt to the soils and rainfall in deserts. An important text for anyone who studies these phenomenon in deserts and elsewhere. Read More
	Pearls Adoption Amount: $300 This 64-page booklet is part of the Fred Ward Gem Series. Richly and colorfully illustrated, it provides a fine overview of pearls, those beautiful “gifts from the sea.” For at least 2,000 years, pearls have been collected, worn, and treasured, and this gem of a book provides history and lore, geography, science, and practical advice. Fred Ward was an honored journalist and photographer, primarily for National Geographic. His published photos included John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Beatles, Fidel Castro, and Leonid Brezhnev. To get the pictures he wanted, he travelled everywhere... Read More
	Pearls: Their Origin, Treatment and Identification Adoption Amount: $300 With fine black-and-white illustrations (by Jean-Paul Ehrmann), rich color photographs, and lively text, Pearls provides a thorough examination of this beautiful jewel. It delves into the history and culture, biology and chemistry, geography and nature, industry and fashion of pearls. Included are fascinating stories – transforming a pearl into a piece of jewelry, unique methods of farming and collecting pearls, and lore of pearl owners from the past. The author, translating from French to English, imbues his writing with his extensive experience and his own love of the pearl’s “... Read More
	Phrenological Illustrations Adoption Amount: $790 Phrenological Illustrations is a 19th-century satirical work by British artist and caricaturist George Cruikshank that pokes fun at the science of phrenology, the pseudo-science in which one analyzed the shape and features of the human skull to explain behavior and personality. Read More
	Physiological and Ecological Adaptations to Feeding in Vertebrates Adoption Amount: $325 At the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park and Conservation Biology Institute, an understanding of the diversity and efficiency of vertebrate digestive physiology and morphology is critical to the successful feeding and nutrition of the animals in the care of the nutritionists. This book includes specialized chapters about birds, fish, reptiles, and mammals, focusing on topics such as gut motility, fasting, digestive efficiency, hibernation, and much more. Read More
	Picasso Adoption Amount: $4,500 Joseph H. Hirshhorn, founding donor of the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, was an avid collector and supporter of Picasso. The two became friends after being introduced by photographer Edward Steichen. The original dark purple cloth publisher's binding of this monograph is embossed with a gold gilt facsimile of Picasso’s signature. Picasso’s real signature is inside the Hirshhorn Library’s copy. On the front free endpaper, there is an inscription: “Pour Joe Hirshhorn, Picasso, le 25-7-69”, plus a small, original Picasso sketch of a bearded man with curly hair... Read More
	Picasso Adoption Amount: $4,500 Joseph H. Hirshhorn, founding donor of the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, was an avid collector and supporter of Picasso. The two became friends after being introduced by photographer Edward Steichen. The Hirshorn Library’s copy of Picasso, by art critic Jean Cassou, is inscribed in ink by Picasso on the half-title, “Pour Joe Hirshhorn, son ami Picasso, le 25-7-69,” and includes a full-page original Picasso sketch of a bearded man with curly hair and a wavy hat. An acquisition note is handwritten in pencil on the gutter of the verso of the title page... Read More
	Picasso; Forty Years of His Art Adoption Amount: $4,500 Joseph H. Hirshhorn, founding donor of the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, was an avid collector and supporter of Pablo Picasso. The two became friends after being introduced by photographer Edward Steichen. The Hirshhorn Library’s copy of the exhibition catalog Picasso: Forty Years of His Art has an inscription by Picasso: "Pour Joe [Hirshhorn], Picasso, 25-7-69," which is accompanied by an original Picasso doodle of a face. Hirshhorn’s personal bookplate can be found inside the front cover. An acquisition note is handwritten in pencil on the gutter... Read More
	A Pilgrimage to My Motherland Adoption Amount: $1,000 In the 1850s, life was hard for free black Americans, and many were considering emigration to Canada, the Caribbean, Central America, or Africa. Debate was fierce. In 1854, the National Emigration Convention, held in Cleveland, Ohio, began to consider the African option proposed by Harvard graduate Martin Robison Delaney. He formed the Niger Valley Exploring Party, intending to establish a settlement in Abeokuta, Nigeria, to grow cotton for the British market using free labor, eventually driving slave-owning American cotton growers out of business. Robert Campbell, a Jamaican-born... Read More
	Podrovnoe Opisanīe Parovoĭ Mashiny Adoption Amount: $2,450 An early Russian technical book describing an atmospheric steam engine for pumping water. The title indicates that it is based upon the one devised by the Englishman T. Savery. Thomas Savery (1650?-1715), the English military engineer, patented the first commercially successful atmospheric steam engine in 1698. This book was published by the Army Technical Academy. Following the Napoleonic Wars, the Russian Army continued to play a role in encouraging technical innovations (as well as in harboring political liberals). The officers who had spent some years in Western Europe were keen on... Read More
	Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral Adoption Amount: $25,000 This 1773 collection of poems was the only edition of Phillis Wheatley's work printed in her lifetime. Wheatley was first brought to the United States at age 7 or 8 to be sold into slavery. She was purchased by John Wheatley of Boston and taught to read and write. Having been tutored in the classics by Mrs. Wheatley, Wheatley began to write poetry herself and became well-known for it in Boston's domestic circles. A trip to England in 1773 brought her under the patronage of the Countess of Huntingdon who arranged for this 1773 English edition of her poetry to be published. The book became... Read More
	Polycystins Adoption Amount: $4,000 Priscilla Susan Bury (1799-1872), who published under her married name, is most famous for her work A Selection of Hexandrian Plants. Although she is well-known in the world of the botany of living plants, her work on polycystins is relatively obscure despite its importance. Concerned with fossil Radiolaria, it was one of the earliest photographically illustrated books ever published; rather than having her drawings reproduced in print, she instead had them photographed and included these images with the text. Published in parts by subscription, its subscribers included John Edward... Read More
	Porcelaines, Faiences & Cristaux Adoption Amount: $750 A rare trade catalogue from the Paris firm of Le Grand Dépot, a manufacturer of porcelains, faience ceramics, and glassware, contains images and sale information for a variety of tablewares in many popular patterns. The catalogue, complete with more than 100 pages of illustrated designs, is a good resource for contemporary decorative patterns for glass and plates catering to the Victorian tastes of the time. This catalog is a fine example of a high-end marketing tool that both retailers and manufacturers employed for local and international sales. Read More
	The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colours Adoption Amount: $250 Published in 1859, Michel Eugene Chevreul's (1786-1889) The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colours is considered a masterpiece in the science and exploration of color. A chemist who specialized in the study of animal fats and fatty acids, Chevreul is one of the 72 French engineers and scientists whose names are inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. Read More
	The Principles of Natural Philosophy Adoption Amount: $2,900 An enquiry and attack on the scientific principles of Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, and Descartes. Almost half of the book is devoted to light and colors, including the phenomenon of the rainbow, with a large chapter on sound. Green dismisses the Cartesian theory of light in favor of Newton's, which he refers to as "the Modern Philosophy." Read More
	Promotional Brochure for Bicentennial Park Adoption Amount: $450 Bicentennial Park, a combination Smithsonian museum and national park, was planned to coincide with the two hundredth anniversary of the United States. This brochure details plans for two parcels of land, one in Alexandria and the other in Prince George’s County, Maryland, connected by riverboat service, featuring recreated Revolutionary War encampments, a research institute, and other attractions, including the raised wreck of Civil War ship USS Tecumseh. The proposed park was originally known as the National Armed Forces Museum, championed by Presidents Truman and Eisenhower to... Read More
	Psyche : Figures of Non-Descript Lepidopterous Insects, or Rare Moths and Butterflies From Different Parts of the World Adoption Amount: $1,350 Best known as a botanist and conchologist, Thomas Martyn (1735-1825) also published works on entomology. His Psyche is a famous and famously rare work, once thought to exist in only 10 copies, and while that number has been expanded to about 18, they are all different in the number of plates and pages of text (if any) that they comprise. Only 7 copies are known in U.S. libraries, and some of those are incomplete. This one, too, is a partial copy: 5 parts, with their original printed wrappers and 9 hand-colored plates (pt.1 text and all of pt.2 in facsimile). Read More
	S.M.S., No. 2 Adoption Amount: $700 The S.M.S. portfolios were a collaboration between late Surrealist artists William Copley (friends with and gallerist to Dada artists Man Ray, Duchamp, Max Ernst, etc.) and Dmitri Petrov, which they published through their Letter Edged in Black Press. The project involved some of the most important artists of the twentieth century, and exemplified the community ethos of the 1960s. Both the Dada movement, and the Fluxus movement that followed it, did not agree with the authority of museums to determine the value of art, nor did they believe that one must be educated to view and... Read More
	S.M.S., No. 3 Adoption Amount: $750 The S.M.S. portfolios were a collaboration between late Surrealist artists William Copley (friends with and gallerist to Dada artists Man Ray, Duchamp, Max Ernst, etc.) and Dmitri Petrov, which they published through their Letter Edged in Black Press. The project involved some of the most important artists of the twentieth century, and exemplified the community ethos of the 1960s. Both the Dada movement, and the Fluxus movement that followed it, did not agree with the authority of museums to determine the value of art, nor did they believe that one must be educated to view and... Read More
	S.M.S., No. 5 Adoption Amount: $750 The S.M.S. portfolios were a collaboration between late Surrealist artists William Copley (friends with and gallerist to Dada artists Man Ray, Duchamp, Max Ernst, etc.) and Dmitri Petrov, which they published through their Letter Edged in Black Press. The project involved some of the most important artists of the twentieth century, and exemplified the community ethos of the 1960s. Both the Dada movement, and the Fluxus movement that followed it, did not agree with the authority of museums to determine the value of art, nor did they believe that one must be educated to view and... Read More
	Samarkande Adoption Amount: $3,125 Emile-Allain Séguy (1877-1951) was one of the foremost French designers at the beginning of the 20th century, creating examples of ornamentation to inspire artists and designers based on the natural world, including flowers, foliage, crystals, insects, and animals. Working in both the Art Deco and Art Nouveau styles, he published many design folios utilizing the pochoir technique, a printing process that employs a series of stencils to lay dense and vivid color. Samarkande is a portfolio of decoration and ornament reflecting Oriental influences. Read More
	Sancocho: Stories and Sketches of Panama Adoption Amount: $600 This is a charming miscellany of sketches about Panamanian life by local authors, including Guillermo Andreve, Mario Marin Mirones, Samuel Lewis, Santiago McKay, Salomon Ponce Aguilera, Jose Huerta, Octavio Mendez Pereira, and Nacho Valdes. The quintessential comfort meal, the titular Sancocho, is compared to North American local delicacies, such as Boston baked beans. The traditional costume, una Pollera, illustrated on the frontispiece, is described in Carnival in Santiago. This collection of short stories is a delightful glimpse into 1930s Panama. This copy is from the library... Read More
	Sea Routes to the Gold Fields Adoption Amount: $250 This book is a reprint of the original, so many of the black-and-white images are fuzzy. Nevertheless, it is a very exciting read. Many people assume that the prospectors who participated in the California Gold Rush traveled there overland from the eastern states. But it was actually a worldwide gold rush, with many prospectors traveling by sea. Even prospectors from Maine often traveled by sea. Because the Panama Canal had not yet been built, travelers to California had to sail around Cape Horn. This book is a historical adventure depicting the experience of traveling by sea to hunt for gold... Read More
	Secrets of Ancient Gold Adoption Amount: $250 Published in 1989 by Trio, Secrets of Ancient Gold is a translation of Christiane Eluère’s Secrets de l’or Antique. Rich in color and black-and-white photographs and illustrations, Secrets is an accessible introduction which delves into the history of art created in gold, the artists who worked with it, and the methods they used. A French historian specializing in Celtic metalwork, Eluère currently works for the Museum of National Antiquities in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Read More
	Seedlings of Barro Colorado Island Adoption Amount: $300 One of the first comprehensive guides to juvenile plants in the American tropics, this book stands out as a rarity in botanical literature. Plant guides for tropical ecosystems are already scarce, but those dedicated to seedlings are even more exceptional. This work fills that gap with remarkable detail, offering an extensively illustrated account of the early developmental stages of all plant species on Barro Colorado Island, from ground herbs to towering trees. A fascinating and valuable resource for botanists, ecologists, and plant enthusiasts alike, it sheds light on an often-... Read More
	Shrimps, Lobsters, and Crabs Adoption Amount: $320 Many of us may think of Old Bay and/or butter when we think of shrimp, lobster, and crabs, but for the scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), these creatures are viewed as part of food webs, as ecological invaders, or as proxies for understanding ecosystem dynamics. This 550-page volume is an ‘identification key’ – also called a ‘biological,’ ‘dichotomous,’ or ‘taxonomic’ key – to the shrimp, lobster, and crab species of the Atlantic coast. Keys are used by scientists to identify species at hand. Like many keys, this book includes detailed drawings of decisive... Read More
	Sonoran Desert Summer Adoption Amount: $300 John Alcock is a behavioral ecologist and professor at Arizona State University. He writes in a very approachable style (similar to more popular and famous biologists like Stephen Jay Gould and E.O. Wilson) that splendidly reveals his passion and appreciation of desert life as a naturalist to the general public. This 1990 title, “Sonoran Desert Summer,” is marvelously illustrated with pen and ink drawings by Marilyn Hoff Stewart. Read More
	Spiral Adoption Amount: $500 In the lead up to 1963’s March on Washington, several of the decade’s most prominent African American artists joined together in a collective called Spiral. Their efforts culminated in a two-day exhibition in June of 1965. This catalogue is the record of that exhibition; it features an illustrated checklist with works from Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, and more, as well as a complete list of the collective’s members. This small pamphlet is held in only two other libraries in the world, but stands as an important record of an ephemeral activity in the fight for Civil Rights in the 1960s. Read More
	The Story of Metals Adoption Amount: $250 Searching for a book on the history of metals? Then look no further than John Wadsworth William Sullivan’s The Story of Metals. Published in 1951 by the American Society of Metals as part of the Series for Self-Education, The Story of Metals offers an accessible glimpse into the evolution of the use of metals from mining to metallurgy and minting. Read More
	Svenska Lafvarnas Färghistoria Adoption Amount: $3,175 Johan Peter Westring (1753-1833), a Swedish physician and lichenologist, studied under Linnaeus at the University of Uppsala and continued his botanical interests while practicing as a medical doctor. This book of his explored lichens’ potential usefulness as dyes for textiles, and the hand-colored plates illustrate what colors can be produced from which species of lichens. There is only one other copy of the work in the Washington area. Westring’s research was based on his clarification of lichen taxonomy and species identification, so it is directly relevant to botanists studying lichens... Read More
	Svenska Spindlar Adoption Amount: $3,150 A member of the minor Swedish nobility, Clerck was a friend and correspondent of Linnaeus. He studied spiders, publishing his identifications and analyses in the present work along with observations on their behavior. In Swedish and Latin, it describes and illustrates 70 species and is a classic of arachnology; indeed, it is the founding text on spider nomenclature. It has the unique distinction of being accepted by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), despite having been published the year before the 10th edition of Linnaeus' Systema naturae (1758), which is... Read More
	Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum Adoption Amount: $1,750 Englishman John Ray (1627-1705) is considered by many to be the greatest naturalist of his day, and his works in the fields of botany and zoology are classics of pre-Linnean classification. The Synopsis methodica stirpium brittannicarum, in particular, was the standard botanical authority for many years; it is considered remarkably accurate in its coverage and descriptions of the British flora, and the classification follows a natural sequence, replacing earlier methods with the concept of grouping plants by direct observation of their similarities and differences. Ray's works are so central... Read More
	Teresita Fernández: Wayfinding Adoption Amount: $250 This stunning book is the first comprehensive publication on the internationally renowned Cuban American artist Teresita Fernández. The idea of wayfinding—moving from place to place or even getting lost—is critical to understanding this artist’s body of work, which revolves around themes of landscape, the night sky, and other environments. "We have a tendency to think of landscape as something outside ourselves, and that’s a notion that I want to invert," Fernández states. Rich full-page, full-color illustrations show Fernández’s unusual use of natural materials such as graphite, pyrite, gold... Read More
	To Be Continued Unnoticed Adoption Amount: $4,500 Man Ray (1890-1976) was one of most important American modernist artists associated with both Dada and Surrealism. This catalog accompanied one of Man Ray's most important exhibitions in the United States and includes a signed lithograph. This copy is especially unique in that it is the artist's proof with marking by the artist before the final printing. Read More
	Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana Adoption Amount: $2,250 This book is of interest primarily for including the journal of Charles Le Raye, a fur trader who was purportedly captured by the Sioux on the upper Missouri River. It included descriptions of the Native American peoples whom he encountered and the animals of the region. The journal is actually a fabrication, drawn from contemporary accounts of the Lewis & Clark and the Pike expeditions, but it is the source for the first descriptions and scientific names of seven species of American mammals, including the mule deer. Read More
	Unbound and Unbroken Adoption Amount: $250 This book is a treasure trove of color portraits and photographs depicting the life of Frederick Douglass. It is an inspiring work of art divided into ten chapters tracing the highlights of his life from slavery to full citizenship. Because it was published recently, the back of the book offers useful websites after the bibliography. Especially poignant is the image on the title page verso of a ball and chain being broken at the shackles, a very fitting image for this great man's life. Douglass not only escaped his chains, but went on to shatter them, along with the negative perceptions of... Read More
	Victoria Gold Adoption Amount: $250 Canadian author Kenneth Kutz is an expert and enthusiast in both philately and gold. Kutz is former President of Texasgulf Mining Corporation. He is also the former President of the Collectors Club of New York, one of the oldest existing philatelic societies (founded in 1896) in the United States. This book tells the story of the Australian gold rush of 1851 through the experiences of two prospectors who participated in it. Read More
	The "Victorian" Wall-Papers Adoption Amount: $2,500 This 1887 trade catalog from the wallpaper firm of Jeffrey & Co. (1836-1930) represents the work of a company with a long and interesting history, exhibiting at the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition in London. They started printing William Morris wallpapers in 1862 and produced wallcoverings designed by well-known artists and designers. In 1892, they advertised themselves as Manufacturers and Exporters of All Classes of Non-Arsenical Wallpapers, which was a cause for health and safety concern in wallpaper production in the 19th century. You can read more about this trade catalog in the... Read More
	La Vie des Mammifères et des Hommes Fossiles Adoption Amount: $300 The title translates as "The life of mammals and fossilized humans, deciphered using comparative anatomy of the chewing organs.” This book's author, Mr. Sanielevici, believed that analysis of the processes and organs involved in chewing and digesting would explain the evolution of humans and mammals. In his ideology, ethnicity, racial diversity, and even personality are derived from historic and regional dietary trends: you are what you eat. This book was signed by the author, Henry (Henric) Sanielevici (1875-1951). He was a Romanian journalist and critic, known for his eccentric,... Read More
	Wake Up Our Souls Adoption Amount: $250 This highly illustrated book is a masterpiece. Over 100 pages in length, it describes the evolution of African American artists over time. This book focuses on the late 1900s and spans through the first decade of the 21st century. This is a Smithsonian American Art Museum publication. A New York native, the author graduated from multiple Ivy League universities including Princeton University and Columbia University. Every chapter is illustrated with reprints of paintings by influential African American artists followed by an extensive bio of each artist. Read More
	Western Lowland Gorilla Images Adoption Amount: $300 Images from this collection document the National Zoological Park (NZP) zoo and its animals, veterinary care, staff, exhibits, facilities, events, and research. The majority of images were taken by staff such as Jessie Cohen, NZP's official staff photographer from 1979 through 2009. Materials include slides, negatives, contact sheets, prints, and transparencies. A small number of images are accompanied by textual information. This grouping of images shows the relationship between Mandara, an adult western lowland gorilla, and several of her six offspring, Kejana, Kigali, Ktembe, Kwame, Kojo... Read More
	Wind & the Willows: Iron & Gold in the Air, Dust & Smoke on the Ground Adoption Amount: $250 Lawrence Weiner is a conceptual artist who has used language as his primary medium since 1968, when he concluded that viewers could experience the same effect from reading a verbal description of his work as they could from viewing the work itself. Since that point, he has been best-known for his word sculptures—short poems and witticisms applied to walls in plain lettering, always translated into the language of the country in which they are shown. In 1995, the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp commissioned Weiner to create a work for its permanent collection. Wind & de Wilgen; Wind &... Read More
	Yayoi Kusama Adoption Amount: $250 This hardcover catalog features work from Yayoi Kusama’s critically acclaimed 2013 solo exhibition at David Zwirner, a celebrated contemporary art gallery in London. The exhibit marked the debut of the artist’s large-scale square-format acrylic on canvas paintings, which demonstrate her supreme talent as a colorist. This book features stunning, full color plates of this series of brightly colored paintings. This book also includes stills of Kusama’s video installation Song of a Manhattan Suicide Addict, time-lapse photographs of the Infinity Mirror Room The Souls of Millions of... Read More
	Yayoi Kusama: Pumpkins Adoption Amount: $250 "It seems that pumpkins do not inspire much respect. But I was enchanted by their charming and winsome form." Thus Yayoi Kusama explains her attraction to the humble pumpkin in the preface to the catalog of the 2014 exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Pumpkins at the Victoria Miro Gallery in London. Both the pumpkin form and the repeated, striated spray of dots inspired by the markings on Japanese kabocha pumpkins are recurring motifs in this iconic artist’s work across various media. This richly illustrated book highlights several series of Kusama’s pumpkins, including paintings as well... Read More
	Yayoi Kusama: White Infinity Nets Adoption Amount: $250 A catalog of the 2013 exhibition Yayoi Kusama: White Infinity Nets at the Victoria Miro Gallery in London, in which Kusama exclusively showed her recent white Infinity Net paintings. This book contains full color plates of the paintings; installation shots; details of Kusama’s thick, impasto semi-circles; photographs of the artist at work in her studio; and an essay by Rachel Taylor, curator at the Tate Modern museum in London. Read More
	Young Frederick Douglass Adoption Amount: $250 This quick read is directed at teenagers. It is full of powerful black and white sketches. This book shares the fascinating story of Frederick Douglass's young life as well as trials that today's teens can relate to: young Fred’s early life, the deaths of his loved ones, changing his last name to avoid being tracked, learning to stand up for himself and fight, and learning about the importance of education. This biographic work is a classic coming of age true story. Read More

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