illustrat

This stunningly illustrated book is the work of distinguished German mineralogist Gustav Adolph Kenngott (1818-1897). Particularly interested in crystallography, Kenngott was the first to describe enstatite, a rare green mineral which can be cut as a gemstone. This volume is a distillation of his work intended for “the visual instruction of the young in school and with family.” In addition to its gorgeous multi-colored plates, it is significant in that it remains in its original pictorial binding, complete with advertisements for other natural history books!

The International Exposition of 1867 (Exposition universelle de 1867), was the second world's fair to be held in Paris and featured 703 exhibitors from the United States. This volume includes 17 highly detailed black and white photographs credited to M. Léon and J. Levy. These featured American technology-themed exhibits such as the McCormick reaper from Chicago, Weed Sewing Machine Co., W.D. Andrews & Bro. steam and gas engines, and Smiths NY Ales displaying many more than 99 bottles of beer on the wall!

This early and only edition consists of an illustrated three volume study of Roman vessels drawn and engraved by Italian artist and editor Carlo Antonin (born circa 1740). Volume one features vessels in the Pio-Clementine and Chiaramonti Museum at the Vatican; volume 2 shows items in the Capitoline Museum and the galleries of Rome; and volume 3 has images of other antique “Rome district” vases. This book includes more than 195 full-page images illustrating variant forms and decoration on Roman vases and vessels.

Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) created detailed and elaborate etchings illustrating the antiquities of Rome as well as a fictitious and atmospheric series entitled Carceri d'invenzione (Imaginary Prisons). The Smithsonian Libraries is fortunate to own several first-editions of Piranesi’s publications, including his book on fireplaces and mantels entitled Diversi Maniere d'Adornare i Cammini and “vedute” or views of Rome, an example of which is this 1761 folio.

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.

A rare illustrated German nursery rhyme children’s book, Paradisefibel features colored illustrations by Richard Seewald (1889-1976), a German visual artist. With highly stylized illustrations, this fairy tale includes humorous animals in human situations, such as singing frogs and playing monkeys. Written by husband and wife Joseph and Maria Koch, the rhythmic flow of the text works in conjunction with Koch’s development of the “finger-reading” method of sign language.

Alpine Flowers Tales (Alpenblumenmärchen) is a 1922 illustrated storybook that describes the woodland adventures of two acorn children who get swept away by the autumn winds. Author Ernst Kreidolf (1863-1956) was a Swiss painter largely known for his watercolor illustrations for children's books about flower fairies and small creatures in nature. The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library has a large collection of 19th century illustrated children's books in many languages.

This is one of over 1,600 titles at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library classified as a pop-up and movable book. Some of these titles have been in the collection since the founding of the Cooper Union Museum in 1897. However, the majority of the pop-up collection was acquired in the 1980s and continues to grow through donations from collectors and select purchases. Spanning over 500 years, these action-packed works of art were intended to calculate, educate, entertain, and amaze. This book is a particularly rare example on astronomy published in the USSR in 1982.

Charles-Antoine Jombert (1712–1784) was a French bookseller and publisher descended from a dynasty of booksellers. This book serves as a manual on techniques for figure drawing, featuring over 100 copper engravings representing different parts of the human anatomy. Some plates are based on original designs done by masters such as Titian and Raphael with various tips for mastering drawings such as anatomical proportions, academic scenes, and landscapes.

Christophe Huet (1700-1759), French artist of the Rococo period, illustrated this rare first edition depicting examples of “singerie.” Singerie, derived from the French word “monkey trick," a visual genre which features fashionably attired monkeys humorously imitating human behavior became a popular and amusing diversion for the upper classes in 18th century France. Singerie were depicted in paintings by such artists as Jean-Antoine Watteau as well as motifs in marquetry, textiles, and porcelain.

This first and only edition of the earliest book on decorative arts designer Dagobert Peche (1881-1923), written by art historian and Vienna University professor Max Eisler (1881-1937), includes 100 full plates of Peche’s designs for lamps, glass, textiles, ceramics, jewelry, silverware, wallpaper, and interiors. Peche became artistic director of the Wiener Werkstätte in 1915, a production community of visual artists founded by Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann in Vienna in 1903.

This beautifully illustrated pattern book, part of a five volume study of mid-19th century French architecture by artist and chromolithographer Victor Petit, includes fifty color lithographs of designs for gardens. The colorful, full-page illustrations provide designs for the placement of paths, flowerbeds, waterways, and garden structures for properties ranging from one sixth of an acre to more than seven and a half acres.

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library owns over 4,000 photographs by American photographer and journalist Thérèse Bonney, (1894-1978), who documented life in Paris from 1925-35.

Wendingen (Dutch:Inversions / Upheaval) was an art magazine published from 1918 to 1932. It was a monthly publication aimed at architects and interior designers, and included discussions on graphics, sculpture, ceramics, glass, and theatrical design. The magazine gained recognition not only through its content but also by its remarkable square format, striking typography, and beautiful covers. In 1924, vol.

This extremely rare 1940 trade catalog represents the output of 10 state owned ceramics factories in small towns and villages all over the Ukraine after industry was nationalized in 1918. Today, we are more familiar with the graphic arts of Communist Russia as vehicles for propaganda, such as posters. The decorative arts of utilitarian objects, like the tableware featured in this catalog, were also important vehicles for disseminating political concepts of the new social order and Soviet nationalism to the masses in everyday life.

Part of a three-volume collection of Native American biographies and strikingly vivid portraits, this publication contains some of the finest American lithography of the 19th century. Published from 1836 to 1844, Thomas McKenney, US Superintendent of Indian Trade, wanted to preserve "in the archives of the Government whatever of the aboriginal man can be rescued from the destruction which awaits his race." His enlightened view that American Indians ought to be "looked upon as human beings, having bodies and souls like ours" was unfortunately shared by few at that time.

English architect, George Perry (b. 1771) authored this groundbreaking scientific book on conchology, the study of shells. It is the only shell book illustrated with hand-colored aquatint plates by the engraver John Clarke. The illustrations were based on natural specimens mostly from private collections and the British Museum, including shells from across the globe, from Sri Lanka to New Zealand. Some names assigned to shells by Perry are still in use today.

This book is a compilation of prints of covers (or envelopes) and postcards from the California Gold Rush featuring detailed information about each illustration. It portrays the adventure involved in prospecting for gold. Mining expert Kenneth Kutz begins his story with the discovery of gold in California and explores the connection between the gold rush and philately. Then he discusses mining law. Finally, he presents the reader with 20 years of correspondence to and from people working in the gold fields, beginning with the initial discovery of gold in 1848.

Elementa Ornithologica by Jacob Christian Schäffer (1718-1790), a German philosophy and divinity teacher, botanist, mycologist, entomologist, ornithologist, and inventor, is a detailed, beautifully illustrated ornithological study in which birds are divided into two classes: Nudipedes (those with naked legs) and Plumipedes (with feathered legs). Schäffer, who created this classification system, also developed and named colors on charts that would imitate as closely as possible the natural hues found in plants and animals.

Although only about two percent of the population of India is Christian, it is common to find both Christian and non-Christian Indian artists who have used Christian themes in their art. The beginnings of Christianity in India are not well known but tradition has it that the apostle Thomas founded a number of churches in Kerala in 52 AD. Vasco da Gama (1469-1524), the Portuguese explorer, landed in Calicut in 1498 and by 1542 the Roman Catholic missionary Francis Xavier (1506-1552) had reached Goa. These contacts with the west brought examples of European art into the Indian subcontinent.

This children's book tells the story of how Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) fought his slave master and claimed his freedom from slavery. It is based on the true story of Douglass' escape from slavery and tells of how he earned the respect of the slave masters and his fellow slaves. The book features many beautiful color illustrations by Cedric Lucas, bringing to life Douglass' inspiring and enthralling story.

This elegantly illustrated book has eight direct color photographs and 64 half tone plates depicting roses and rose gardens. The author, Harry Higgott Thomas (1876-1956), started out with a career in banking but switched his focus and went to study at Kew Gardens and became one of the best known names in garden writing. The< color photographs are by Henry Essenhigh Corke who combined his botany knowledge with the family photography business to become a pioneering photographer of plants.

In this fascinating biography of the Smithsonian Castle, Castle Curator Rick Stamm delves into over 150 years of stories about the people who worked (and lived) in this iconic building. The book features many photos of the Castle, from its Victorian beginnings to modern day, and gives the reader deep insight into how the Smithsonian Institution was created and how it grew to become the venerable cultural institution that it is today.