Broadside: A single sheet of paper printed on one side only. For centuries, broadsides were a popular ephemeral format for distributing news, announcements, advertisements, or commentary in the form of ballads. Between 1966 and 1975, Broadside Press in Detroit, Michigan published 81 books and dozens of poetry broadsides written and designed by Black writers and...
This lithograph, by artist Paul Jeffay (1898-1957) depicts the Left Bank of Paris, France, on what appears to be the Quai de la Tournelle. The main focus of the piece is on the bouquinistes, green boxes that line the Seine in the center of Paris, out of which booksellers sell used and antiquarian books. In...
The interior decoration depicted in this drawing is extremely fashionable for an eighteenth-century home. This design exhibits the quintessential light and airy Rococo features of arabesques, s- and c- scrolls, vegetal motifs and swags, all with the appearance of symmetry. The layout of the boiserie, or wall paneling, aids in the creation of symmetry within the...
The two greatest children’s books of all time. They transcend time and place and age. They are wise and funny. You will be grateful to read them every few years. When you hold a (real) book in your hands, the molecules in your body rejoice. They are flooded with peace and expectation. Nothing else gives that feeling....
The global design community suffered a great loss when Bill Moggridge passed away in September 2012 following a battle with cancer. Bill was a pioneer of interaction design, a co-founder of IDEO, and director of the Cooper-Hewitt museum. Here's the story of his personal library, which is now open to the public digitally and physically.
The Cooper Hewitt National Design Library, a branch of Smithsonian Institution Libraries, is the major resource in the United States for books, trade catalogs, serials, pictures, and archival material covering design and decorative art from the Renaissance to the present. Students, artists and designers, writers, researchers from auction houses, preservation and historical societies, conservators, collectors,...
Photo: Apple, Inc As the popularity of eBooks and eInk surges, I wonder about the impact on book publishing and ponder the pleasures of traditional paper books. Why would anyone want an electronic book? After all, a beautifully designed and produced paper book is so wonderful! It’s easy to carry around and very robust. The...
Pop-up book: The Pop-up Pinocchio Originally written as a fairy tale by Carlo Collodi in 1883, the story of Pinocchio comes alive in this colorful pop-up edition created by paper engineer and illustrator Harold Lentz. He illustrated and created several such pop-ups in the 1930s for Blue Ribbon Books and Pleasure Books. Written by Carlo...
Pop-up book: Puss in Boots The adventures of this resourceful and loyal master cat appear in various folktales throughout Europe. The best known is Le Chat Botté, written by Charles Perrault in 1697. Illustrator C. Carey Cloud and paper engineer Harold Lentz collaborated to create this dramatic pop-up edition. Originally written by Charles Perrault (16281703)...
Pop-up book: Cowboys in Pop-up Action Pictures This colorful childrens pop-up book, created primarily for boys, tells the story of the Old West through action-packed scenes of cowboys participating in a rodeo, breaking a wild horse, herding cattle, and riding on the trail. Created by E. Joseph Dreany Published by Publicity Products London, England, 1951...
Mechanical book: What a Surprise This book contains images that dissolve and transform into others to illustrate a series of fairy tales, including Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Ernest Nister, a German printer working in Nuremberg, developed several such movable books in the 1890s. Written by Constance M. Lowe Paper engineering by Ernest Nister Published...
Pop-up book: The Jolly Jump-Ups Journey through Space From the late 1930s through the 1950s, The Jump-Up family appeared in a series of popular books detailing its adventures, which ranged from exploring a new house and neighborhood to crossing America in a trailer. In this story, the family ventures into space, visiting other planets and...
Pop-up book: Popeye with the Hag of the Seven Seas American cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar developed Thimble Theater, a series featuring Olive Oyl, Caster Oyl, and (later) Popeye, for the New York Journal in 1919. This beautifully illustrated pop-up book is one of several published by Pleasure Books in the 1930s that were inspired by...
Mechanical book: Tony Sargs Treasure Book This colorful movable book contains adaptations of Rip Van Winkle, Treasure Island, and Alices Adventures in Wonderland by Tony Sarg, a German-American craftsman and illustrator best known for creating puppets for the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade in 1928 and the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair. Created by Tony Sarg (18821942)...
Pop-up book: Dick Tracy: The Capture of Boris Arson The popular comic-strip character Dick Tracy was created by Chester Gould for the Chicago Tribune in 1931. Harold Lentz, the paper engineer for this as well as for several other Blue Ribbon Books and Pleasure Books publications in the 1930s, was a master of beautifully crafted...
