Audubon at Vassar

Posted on behalf of Ron Patkus, Director of Archives and Special Collections

roseate spoonbill

One of the most talked-about exhibitions in New York this spring has been the New York Historical Society’s Audubon’s Aviary: Part I of The Complete FlockThe show is the first of a three-part series which presents the preparatory watercolors John James Audubon produced for his masterpiece The Birds of America (1827-1838)Altogether there are 433 of these watercolors, which represent a high point in American natural history and art.

Audubon collaborated first with the Scottish engraver William Lizars and then with the English engraver Robert Havell to create and sell by subscription the large hand-colored prints for The Birds of America.  Subscribers received five prints at a time over a period of years.  We do not know exactly how many sets were created, but today a little more than 100 survive in their entirety, mostly on the campuses of colleges and universities in the United States, including Vassar.   They are referred to as “double-elephant folios,” because of their great size.

Louisiana and Scarlet TanagersThe original owner of Vassar’s set was probably John William Clough of York, England (1773-1843).  We know that either he or his son (who was also named “John”), was an early subscriber to Audubon’s work.  On the back of some of the plates in the Vassar set appears the name “J. Clough,” which may have been written by the bookbinder as a note to himself about the owner.  It has been surmised that the Clough family sold its copy during the financial crisis of 1879; a note in pencil in the first volume indicates that with another of Audubon’s works, the set sold for $1,800.  In any case, Vassar received the set in 1897 as a gift from New Yorker Charles Senff, a well-known figure in the American sugar trade.  Senff was a major contributor to the fund which established the Audubon memorial in Trinity Cemetery, Washington Heights.

Additional evidence of the early state of Vassar’s set is provided by the first plate, which features the heading “Great American Cock” (later printings used only “Wild Turkey”).  Further, the paper of the first plates features an early watermark of the Whatman mill.  The plates are bound into four volumes; the first three each have 100 plates, and the fourth one has 135.  The binding is half morocco, with gilt decoration, and marbled endpapers.

The greatest scholar of the Audubon prints has been Waldemar H. Fries, who wrote an important reference work titled The Double-Elephant Folio: the Story of Audubon’s Birds of America.    Interestingly, Fries’ wife, Elizabeth, was a member of Vassar’s Class of 1921; she funded the purchase of the first display cases for Vassar’s Audubon folios.  The cases were presented in the fall of 1974, and on the occasion of the dedication, Mr. Fries gave a talk about the folios in the library.

Scarlet Ibis

Conservation work on Vassar’s set was performed in New York City in 1977 by Carolyn Horton and Associates.  A full listing of the repairs is tipped into the back of volume one.  The conservation work included treating the leather, putting down scuffs, cleaning all of the plates, and mending those that needed it.

In addition to The Birds of America, the Archives & Special Collections Library is fortunate to possess several other works relating to Audubon.  For instance, we have his 5-volume Ornithological Biography, also donated by Charles Senff, which was a text accompaniment to the original prints.  Moreover, we have a first edition of the octavo version of Birds of America, published in 1839.  The library also owns a first edition of another important, though more-neglected, work of Audubon, called The Quadrupeds of North America.   Other books for further reading are available in Archives & Special Collections, the Main Library, and the Art Library.

Tell Us About Your Research – Eve Dunbar

Posted on behalf of Kamara Mion, Library Research Department Intern

6460981873_40591f9dfd_z

Behind every great lecture and every written work are countless hours of researching and planning that often begin in the library.  In this column, we look at how a particular member of the Vassar faculty uses the library and its resources for their work.

Professor Eve Dunbar specializes African American literature and cultural expression, black feminism, and theories of black diaspora. She is the author of  Black Regions of the Imagination: African American Writers between the Nation and the World (2012), which explores the aesthetic and political ties that bind literary genre, American nationalism, and black cultural nationalism in the literary works of mid-20th century African American writers.

We asked Prof. Dunbar to tell us a bit more about her recent projects and how she uses the Vassar libraries…

Please, tell us about your current projects.

zoranealehurstonFranzBoasMost recently I’ve been working down in Special Collections, in rare books.  I was looking for Zora Neale Hurston, an African American woman writer from the early 20th century.  I was asked to contribute an essay to a volume on Franz Boas, who many consider to be the father of modern American anthropology. The volume is on Boas’ influence on the discipline and I was asked to write on the relationship between Hurston and Boas.  While a student at Barnard, Hurston took many classes and studied with Boas, who was a Columbia professor.

How did you use the Vassar Library? Were there any particular databases?

ruthbenedictI thought that I might investigate the type of relationship between Boas and Hurston through exploring the letters of Ruth Benedict. Besides being one of the most important of female anthropologists during her period, she was a Vassar graduate.  The Vassar Library has all of her papers, a lot of interesting letters.  I found that by looking at these letters that I could see all three relationships, Benedict’s to Boas, Boas to Hurston, and Hurston to Benedict.

What did this research lead to?

I’m writing two essays, one very academic, the second shorter and more for a general reading audience.

Did you use other databases or libraries, and how so?

skinnerI used MLA Bibliography, and the Music Library at Skinner Hall.  My research focuses on the African diaspora, and while Skinner’s books focus primarily on music, they have a lot of books that really touch more on cultural aspects, so I was able to use the Music Library for an essay that dealt with hip-hop fiction, street literature and feminism. I also used the Beinecke at Yale, and the Schomberg at NYC Public Library.*

How do you approach a topic that requires extensive research?

I go into the archives, find a primary document that opens up the time and place and start with one article. Then I mine the article and bibliography for a set of readings that everyone who’s writing on that topic is also reading.  It’s important because I need to know the shape of the discussion I’m writing against first, so that I can then make a well-informed argument.  Of course, you also want to find some new and innovative information.

yale*The Beinecke is Yale’s primary Special Collections library, and its collections are primarily comprised of unpublished manuscripts and rare books.  Schomburg Collection for Research in Black CultureThe Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a special collection that is part of the New York Public Library, and is located near the 125th Street MetroNorth train station.

Artist’s books of Shirley Jones and the Red Hen Press

Posted on behalf of Ron Patkus, Director of Archives and Special Collections
Red Hen collectionI recently completed a descriptive bibliography of the works of Welsh artist Shirley Jones and the Red Hen Press.   A descriptive bibliography is composed of detailed physical descriptions of books, and in order to compile such a work, it was necessary for me to examine copies of every issue that has been produced by the press.

Etched Out, 2002

Etched Out, 2002

Between 1975 and 2011, Jones produced 32 books, 27 of which are artist’s books.  Since 1983, when the Red Hen Press imprint was established, 20 books have appeared.  The artist’s books tend to be folio-sized, and are offered in limited editions, usually of 40 copies.  Today libraries around the world house copies of these books; the press is especially well represented in colleges and universities in the United States.  The Library of Congress owns what is thought to be the only complete collection.

Since 1985 and the publication of A Dark Side of the Sun, each book has been announced with a prospectus.  The prospectuses are usually small two-leaf folds, specially printed, which provide information about the book, such as the number of illustrations, the typography, paper, and so on.  When the book is printed, such details can be found in the colophon at the back of each book.

Chwedlau

Chwedlau, 2005

The books usually deal with one of three subjects: personal and family issues; contemporary life in Wales; or Old English and early Welsh literature.  Some books feature Jones’ own writings or translations, and others draw on the work of other writers.  Vassar’s collection concentrates on works dealing with Welsh literature; they include Llym Awel (1993), Y Morgrugyn Cloff (1999), Chwedlau (2005), and Taith Arall (2007)

Jones has become especially well-known for the prints that appear in her books; often they are first encountered on the title page.  The artist makes use of etching, aquatint, and mezzotint, all intaglio processes.  The last two can achieve great tonality in images. Nature is a common element in Jones’ illustrations, and she often uses the symbol of a mandala (a circle that has spiritual significance) as an identifying mark.  Sometimes her books also include blind etchings.

Shirley Jones not only creates the illustrations in her books, she also does the printing of text pages herself.  She has used a variety of fonts over the years (Times Roman, Baskerville, Perpetua, Gill Sans, Caslon, Bodoni), though Baskerville is the most common.  Often her typographic approach includes colored passages, large initials, and italics.   Paper is typically handmade or mould-made from a British paper mill, though papers made outside the U.K. have sometimes been used.

Nocturne for Wales

Nocturne for Wales, 1986

Red Hen Press books have usually been offered to collectors in either an edition binding or a deluxe binding.  Edition bindings typically presented cloth covers, with the book placed in a box.  The deluxe bindings added other features, such as quarter morocco covers, onlays, or different endpapers.  The bindings have sometimes been created by Shirley Jones, but more often she has relied on other bookbinders, such as John Sewell and Jen Lindsay.  On occasion, still other bookbinders (e.g. Mary French and Jan Ascoli) have created special design bindings, but these are unique copies that technically were not issued by the press.

It’s easy to see why the books of Shirley Jones and the Red Hen Press are considered fine examples of contemporary artist’s books.  In 2013, the 30th anniversary of the press, exhibitions will be held at several locations in the U.S. (including here in the Vassar College Library, as well as Swarthmore, Smith, and the University of Vermont) and abroad.  To order copies of the bibliography, which includes comments by the artist on each of the books, visit the Oak Knoll Press.