family

“Paper – a new servant for the American home!” This cheery booklet was published by the Kalamazoo Vegetable Paper Company (KVP) in 1931 to promote their products. Aimed at the budget-conscious housewife, KVP provides tips and tricks to show how paper can help them improve their homemaking skills. Charmingly illustrated with green and orange line drawings, this slim volume is an excellent example of the importance of collecting ephemera. Paper provides insight to the growing popularity of home economics and the subsequent shift to marketing specifically to women.

So who authors an important scholarly work on early Chinese jades; maps the main prison camps in Germany and Austria during WWI; writes biographies about Anna Van Schurman, Agnes Strickland, Edgar Allan Poe, and Charles Dickens; writes first-hand accounts of talks of rebel leaders during Ireland’s revolutionary period; and is appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire? That would be the scholar par excellence of Renaissance art John Pope-Hennessy’s mother. 

Considered a publication of exceptional value, this thorough study of Costa Rican archaeology investigates graves and burial mounds, pottery vessels, and buildings. The author spent over a year working in the field, both on the Atlantic coast and the interior of the country. The volume is beautifully illustrated with 87 plates and over 400 text illustrations. Formerly a copy held by the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, the volume is inscribed to anthropologist “Professor F.W. Putnam, with compliments of the author.”

Heavily illustrated with black and white photographs, this book—translates to Modern Cottages and Country-Houses in Holland—documents the 20th century Dutch trend in new housing, villa architecture. After the 19th century migration to the cities for industrial jobs, the 20th century saw a reverse movement of people out of the cities and back to the countryside in Holland. The introduction (written in Dutch, French, German, and English) explains the need for small, efficient, and simple suburban and rural housing.

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.

The muted colors and illustrative style of the Arts & Crafts movement period are featured in this color trade catalog from 1912-13. The company focused on making large wallpaper friezes, and was one of the first companies to develop a washable color wallpaper printed with oils that could be cleaned with a damp cloth or sponge. It was called San-kro-mura, the “sanitary” wall covering. The company produced wallpaper with panoramic views of mountains, deserts, forests, lakes, and scenic narratives of folklore and history.

Birmingham, Englad was known as the first manufacturing town in the world and played a central role in the manufacturing and production of trade catalogs. Trade catalogs emerged as a new and effective way to market industrial design to the masses while competing with rival firms. This brass trade catalog used detailed engravings to sell a diverse group of mass-produced metal products.

This children's book is filled with colorful art on every page by artist Daniel Minter. The book consists of 12 short poems, each poem named after a month of the year. The author, Katharine Boling, grew up in the Gullah region of South Carolina, an area on the coast populated with descendants of freed slaves. At the end of the book is a glossary of Gullah terms. Some words in the poems include puntop (on top of), bittle (food), and bex (angry). Each poem describes what life is like during the seasons of the Gullah year, in Gullah country, in Gullah language.

This 1952 cookbook began in an Inupiaq village just 20 miles south of the Arctic Circle as part of an elementary school classroom discussion of locally available native foods for good health.  The teacher’s request for each student to “bring in a recipe or little story of how mother cooked the meat, fish, or other foods used”  resulted in this booklet. Recipes share instructions on preparing indigenous plants and wildlife, from stink weed to polar bear and whale.

This book discusses numerous traditions of African American families, including Kwanzaa, Christmas, naming ceremonies, and family reunions. The book also shares traditional recipes and tips for how the reader can document their own family events. By taking a deeper look into these unique and timeless celebrations, Cole and Pinderhughes allow their curious readers a peek into how important celebrations like these are in African American families, and the essential role they play in keeping families “dynamic, powerful, and close-knit.”