Smithsonian Libraries

Check out this wonderful video, The making of a pop-up book.

Book artist Chuck Fischer and paper engineer Bruce Foster explain how the pop-up book Angels was created in a fascinating behind-the scenes peek.

The video is a great companion piece to the Libraries' exciting new exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn, which is on display in the Libraries exhibition gallery in the National Museum of American History through September 2011.

Enjoy!

The first week of August is National Clown week. The Libraries ran a post last year on this blog about harlequinades, which are featured in its current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

Bugs Bunny pop-up featured . . . Bugs Bunny first debuted in cartoons in 1940. He doesn't look a day over . . . well, I'm not quite sure, but he certainly is spry for sixty.

The fascinating art of paper engineering is the focus of a new exhibit that is on display in the Libraries’ gallery at the National Museum of American History. Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop, and Turnincludes 44 books that range in date from the mid-16th to the early 21st centuries, creating a fascinating retrospective of volumes, which were designed and constructed with parts that move.

Here are some of the creations that came out of last Sunday’s Family Activity at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. More can be viewed on the Libraries' Flickr page.

Have you seen it yet? 

News of the recent opening of the Libraries' new exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn is being featured across the web. 

Come down and check out the vast array of pop-up books, ranging from as far back as the 15th century to today. 

If you can't make it to D.C. just yet, this blog should whet your appetite . . .

—Elizabeth Periale

During the run of the exhibition, Paper Engineering, Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn, the Libraries will be cross-posting on this and the Smithsonian Librariesblogs . . .

Tunnel books or peep shows are a series of cut-paper panels placed one behind the other, creating the illusion of depth and perspective. Often, these are engineered like an accordion, with the two boards pulling apart and the illustrated panels lined up and viewed through a front peep-hole or viewer.

A recent purchase by the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Library is an 18th century tunnel book attributed to the engraver and print-seller Martin Engelbrecht (1684-1756) of Augsburg, Germany.

The Libraries has quite a series of titles from across its collections featuring the King of Rock 'n' Roll. There is also an interesting link on the National Postal Museum website with the backstory of the Elvis stamp issued in 1993.

Wishing Sesame Street a Happy 40th Anniversary from the Libraries!

David A. Carter , a pop-up book artist and paper engineer living in California, has created more than forty colorful, playful, and awe inspiring pop-up books since the 1980s that include a series that feature bugs—How Many Bugs in a Box?, Love Bugs, Feely Bugs, Halloween Bugs, and Jingle Bugs.

This double-page pop-up illustrating the Christmas nativity scene was created by Vojtěch Kubašta (1914-1992), a Czech artist and book illustrator. Born in Vienna and raised in Prague, Kubašta began his career as an artist and book illustrator in the early 1940s after studying architecture at the Polytech University in Prague.

The Libraries isn't exactly pushing the season, but our Cataloging department must review and process titles such holiday-themed now, in preparation for the upcoming season. This particular item, after it has entered our system, will then be sent to our preservation department, in preparation for our planned exhibition of pop-up and movable books, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.