Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn

NEW: Cell Phone Audio Tours LIVE in Libraries' Gallery

The Libraries has been able to add a wonderful new feature to its exhibition gallery in the National Museum of American History. To try out the new tours for our current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn, dial the following phone numbers on your personal cell phone while strolling through the exhibition:

Dial 202-633-8000 #103 to hear an introduction to the exhibition

Dial 202-633-8000 #104 to hear commentary on Neue lebende Bilder: ein Ziehbilderbuch or New Living Pictures: A Pull-Picture Book

Dial 202-633-8000 #105 to hear commentary on The Falsehood of External Appearances, 1790

Dial 202-633-8000 #106 to hear commentary on Astronomicum Caesareum

Neue lebende Bilder: ein Ziehbilderbuch [New living pictures: A pull-picture-book]. Illustrations
and paper engineering by Lothar Meggendorfer. Verlag von Braun & Schneider, c.1880.

Come visit the museum and check out this great new feature!

—Susan Frampton

Related: Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn

Have You Seen it Yet?

The Libraries exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn is still on display in the National Museum of American History. Stop by and see some fabulous examples of pop-up and movable books, from the 1600s to today.

—Elizabeth Periale, photo by Liz O'Brien

 

Featuring: Moderne Technik

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

 How better to explain the workings of a locomotive, a steam engine, an automobile motor, or a pumping system than by using a series of flaps that, when opened gradually, reveal the inner workings of these complex machines? Moderne Technik provides a comprehensive view of the workings of the latest technological advances used in transportation and machines for industrial manufacturing of the early 20th century.

—Stephen Van Dyk

Moderne Technik. [Moderne technology]. Hans Blücher. Leipzig and Vienna: Bibliographisches Institut, 1912.

Featuring: The first Noël: a Christmas carousel

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

The first Noël, like many pop-up and movable books, was created to celebrate the holiday season. Jan Pieńkowski, Polish born illustrator and paper engineer working in England, designed this carousel book (book that unfolds to 360 degrees) containing five stage-like scenes depicting the nativity story. The white cut-paper figures are silhouetted and layered in snowflake-like patterns atop bright red backdrops.—Stephen Van Dyk

The first Noël: a Christmas carousel. Jan Pieńkowski; assistant illustrator, David Walser. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2004.

Related:

Have a Holly, Jolly...September!

Related articles

• New from Candlewick Press - Flanimals (momreviews.net)
• Grimm's Rumpelstiltskin brings the pop-up book experience to your iPad (thenextweb.com)
• Popville: popup book cleverly and delightfully illustrates the growth of a town (boingboing.net)

Featuring: Vojtěch Kubašta

In the 1950s-1960s, Vojtěch Kubašta, an Austrian-born paper engineer and illustrator working in
Czechoslovakia, created a series of pop-up adventure and fantasy stories combining bold folk art style imagery, distinctive colors, and innovative cut and folded paper styles. Some of his large-scale constructions of this period include Marco Polo (1962), The tournament (1950s), and Ricky the Rabbit (1961).

Ricky the Rabbit, 1961 (background), by Vojtěch Kubašta

The Libraries’ current exhibition highlighting innovative book design, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn, is on display in the Smithsonian Libraries Exhibition Gallery, National Museum of American History, first floor west, through September 5, 2011.

This exciting paper engineer is also included in the exhibition brochure (page 15), which is also available as a downloadable PDF.

Pop-up enthusiasts can also keep track of the show and the Libraries' extensive movable book collections on its Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn blog.

—Elizabeth Periale

Related:

Featuring: Ricky the Rabbit

Related articles

• Il Était Une Fois : A Beautiful Pop-Up Book (prathambooks.org)
• Interactive books are popping up for children (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• A History of Pop-up and Movable Books: 700 Years of Paper Engineering (prathambooks.org)