ARTS & RESISTANCE
No. 58 (Fall/Winter 2023)
Recent Acquisitions
Teaching Geography
The Clements Library holds a number of student maps, drawn or traced by young scholars in the 19th century as part of their school curriculum. The remarkable detail and skill demonstrated by some of these students raise the question of how exactly the maps were made—by tracing? By memory and free-hand drawing? A partial answer may be found in the recently acquired Monteith’s Map-Drawing and Object Lessons, (New York, 1869), a scarce guide to cartography for teachers and school children written by James Monteith, a leading 19th-century American geography educator . Monteith provided exercises on the use of scale, instructions for coloring maps, and the order to be followed when adding features to a map. The symbology and ancillary detail in Monteith’s later map designs led to his nickname, “master of the margins.”
Monteith’s Map-Drawing and Object Lessons (New York, 1869).
James Monteith used ingenious depictions of animals and everyday objects as an aide-memoire for students working to outline or identify countries and states in their geography lessons.
Hair Album
The Clements Library collection includes a number of hair albums, but the newly purchased Maria Marsh Hair Album 1850–1853 stands out for several reasons. The album contains around 100 hair samples, an unusually large number, and there is work to be done in tracking some of the relationships represented in the album. Other albums tend to contain intricately worked hair samples, but these are quite simple, many with a blunt cut where one can almost feel the snip of the scissors close to one’s ear. Also intriguing are these beautiful metallic hearts that are used to affix the hair to the album pages, adding an extra element of affection and care. The most heartbreaking is the sample taken from the head of an unnamed infant who died at four months of age. The hair was too short to loop, and only one side shows evidence of scissors, since the infant’s feathery hair had not yet grown long enough for a first haircut.
Sager Family Register
Another item drawing us into a personal family history is the Sager Family Register, [ca. 1840?]. The traditional recordings of family births and deaths were enhanced by intricate drawings including some wonderful manicules. The high infant mortality during the 19th century is common knowledge, but looking at the entry for the death of an unnamed infant brings home the impact. The drawings have a folk art quality, and intrigue the researcher with questions. Why does a drawing of a quill pen appear on the page of the unnamed baby? To represent the power of writing or inscribing? The visual qualities are evocative, and the time and care spent on the entries give poignancy and weight to these records of family members entering and leaving the Sager family circle.
Adam Sager’s entry in the Sager Family Register
The Frank Reade series
Awaiting cataloging and shelving at the Clements is a single-volume compilation of periodicals from the Wide Wake Library, including 20 issues from the Frank Reade series and 15 issues from Beadle’s Half-Dime Library (featuring Broadway Billy and Deadwood Dick), originally issued between 1883 and 1890. The Frank Reade series was the first science fiction periodical in the world and has been referred to as the lost ancestor of steampunk. Featuring the adventures of several generations of the Reade family, the series channeled the optimism and excitement of the age, sparked by the seemingly unlimited possibilities of electricity, steam power, and other advances. Boy inventor Frank Reade produced robots, submarines, airships, automobiles, and any number of ingenious devices which played key roles in the stories. The series captures a moment in time before corporations took over the business of inventing, Thomas Edison was a hero, there was collective optimism about the beneficial uses of technology, the myth of the American West was taking shape, and the spread of these new inventions served to connect distant parts of the country.
Author Harold Enron wrote the first four issues of the Frank Reade series, including, The Steam Man of the Plains. As described by Enron, the steam man “was a structure of iron plates joined in sections with rivets, hinges or bars as the needs required…. The hollow legs and arms of the man made the reservoirs or boilers. In the broad chest was the furnace…. The tall hat worn by the man formed the smoke stack. The driving rods, in sections, extended down the man’s legs, and could be set in motion so skillfully that a tremendous stride was attained, and a speed far beyond belief.”
The Children’s Hour
Several photographic items related to children and their experiences, including interactions with 19th-century print culture, have come into the Clements Library recently.
The photograph on this real photo postcard was taken by a child of her dolls set up in front of a dollhouse. Alice Wright, the photographer, used a caption which might present an interesting topic for future study.
This carte de visite photograph depicts a child reading a copy of Puss ‘N Boots. It’s possible that the book was not simply a prop but perhaps how the child was convinced to pose for the photographer.
A beautiful tintype of an unidentified young woman who is a little older, possibly African American, holding a photo album.
The Children’s Hour
Three small pamphlets, the largest measuring 6 x 4½ inches, Additions to our children’s literature and tiny book collections include three recent finds. In a tiny pamphlet, Rufus Merrill (1803–1891), one of the biggest provincial publishers (Concord, NH) took a firm stand in the perennially thorny dog vs. cat debate. Book About Dogs and Cats (Concord, N.H.,1856) reports that cats are undesirable, “self-willed and forward to the last degree,” whereas when it comes to dogs, “No other animal is gifted with so much sagacity or is so faithful to his master.” This pamphlet additionally gives us the name of an owner, signed inside the back cover by Theodore Huff on October 1, 1860, so it may be possible to connect this item to an individual and his life circumstances at the time he acquired it.
One might expect to find a morality tale when opening the next item, Who Stole the Grapes, published by the Sunday School Union in New York between 1856 and 1858; but one may be surprised by the lesson learned. Rather than a wayward child deterred from a life of crime, the bad actor in the story was a spiteful teacher, who framed the boy for the theft. Falsely accused, the boy recognized the virtue in not seeking revenge against one’s persecutors.
The last item is an illustrated pamphlet titled Jerry, Jenny and Jim, published by the Chicago Corset Company between 1882 and 1889. An example of how things were circulated and re-circulated, the backsheet advertisement for a dry goods store in Fargo was likely added to the item after its arrival in the Dakota Territory. The story concerns Jim Jumbletum, his wife, and his mule. But the footnote text that runs throughout the story contains information on Ball’s H.P. corsets, including the endorsement of the corset’s elastic side section, which “emits no disagreeable odor, and will not heat the person or decay with age.” It’s an odd combination of an amusing illustrated story for kids with an extended, very specific ad for corsets. At the end Jim learns the importance of purchasing the right corset for his wife.