Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn

Featuring: The model menagerie

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

In the 1890s Nuremburg publisher Ernest Nister created several high-quality, illustrated, and innovative pop-up and movable books. He is best known for refining Dean & Son’s dissolving image slat books by creating pictures with horizontal and vertical slits and developing a device to transform pictures in circular forms. Nister also perfected a way to display multi-layered, three-dimensional scenes so that figures, like the deer and the cage here, seem to lift off and float atop the page surface. As a page is opened, a tab attached to the facing page, allows the layers of figures in the adjacent page to automatically pop-up. These Panorama Picture Books were popular and were widely marketed in England and America by Dutton.—Stephen Van Dyk

The model menagerie: with natural history stories. L.L. Weedon, Evelyn Fletcher, and others. London: E. Nister ; New York: E.P. Dutton, [ca.1895].

 

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Featuring: Animated Circus Book

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

 Julian Wehr, a Brooklyn born illustrator, animated more than 30 books. Like Lothar Meggendorfer, Wehr’s whimsical and colorful characters greatly appealed to children. He improved on Meggendorfer’s pull tab system, so that figures could move side to side as well as up and down on the page surface. In Animated Circus Book, the action-packed world of the circus comes alive as acrobats, clowns, animals, tight-roper walkers, and dare devils twirl, turn, twist and move.

—Stephen Van Dyk

Animated Circus Book. Text by Edward Ernest. Paper engineering by Julian Wehr. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1943.

 

Featuring: Mega-Beasts

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

Paper engineer and pop-up book designers Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart collaborated to create this colorful, action-packed book that includes 35 dramatic v-fold paper constructions with numerous flap and pull-tab mechanisms. On this page, featuring a Mega Sloth, a pull tab- flap turning devise called a waterfall is included in one of the small illustrations. In the waterfall construction, a series of cut-paper figures flip and cascade over each other when the tab is pulled. Mega-Beasts, the third and final pop-up of the Encyclopedia Prehistorica series, includes several scary Ice-Age giants— saber-tooth tigers, huge bears, wooly mammoths, the now extinct dodo bird, and soaring flying lizards.—Stephen Van Dyk

Mega-Beasts. Robert Sabuda & Matthew Reinhart. Cambridge, MA : Candlewick Press, 2007

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Featuring: The Dancing Skeletons Tunnel Book

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn. A perfect entry for Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

Joan Sommers, a Chicago based book designer, has created several tunnel books including Henri Rousseau Tunnel Book and A Sunday on La Grand Jatte Tunnel Book. Made popular as a novelty in the 18th century, tunnel books or peep-shows give the viewer a sense of perspective as several scenes are revealed as the book is fully unfolded. Sommers was inspired in this work by Mexican artist José Guadelupe Posada’s drawings illustrating the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead. In this 16-page tunnel book we see skeletons playfully dancing the fandango, playing music, making tortillas, and courting their lovers.—Stephen Van Dyk

The Dancing Skeletons Tunnel Book/Gran baile de Calaveras, un libro tύnel. Joan Sommers. Spanish translation by Valerie Shull. Chicago: Tunnel Vision Books, 2006.

The Libraries Announces a Series of Pop-Up and Movable Books Lectures

Ellen Rubin, foreground, at the Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop and Turn exhibition opening reception.

In conjunction with our ongoing exhibition in the National Museum of American History, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn, the Libraries is hosting a series of pop-up and movable books lectures. People of all ages are welcome to attend.

Our first speaker is Ellen Rubin, also known as the “Pop-Up Lady.” She will give a talk on Wednesday, November 10, at 12:00 p.m. in the National Museum of American History’s Carmichael Auditorium. Her lecture is titled, “A History of Pop-up and Movable Books: 700 Years of Paper Engineering.” Read her bio below, and stay tuned for more lecture announcements!

Ellen G. K. Rubin discovered pop-up and movable books when she began reading them to her sons over 25 years ago. Today, she has more than 6,500 books and thousands of uncataloged movable ephemera. While at Yale Medical School’s Physican Associate program in 1987, she attended the Sterling Library’s exhibition on the history of movable books. It was there that she learned about the scholarly dimensions of her passion.

Ellen now lectures and writes about her books, conducts workshops, and curates exhibitions. In 2000, she co-curated Brooklyn Pops Up! The History and Art of the Movable Book at the Brooklyn Public Library. In 2005, two exhibitions from her collection were mounted. The first was at the Bienes Museum in Ft. Lauderdale, FL of the work of Vojtěch Kubašta, the Czech artist and paper engineer. Its catalog, with a pop-up, won an ARLIS award. The second was the exhibition, Ideas in Motion: The History and Art of the Movable Book held at the Sojourner Truth Library at SUNY-New Paltz. In 2004, Pitspopany Press published Ellen’s The Hanukkah Puzzle Book: A Book in Eight Parts for Eight Days of Fun! Ms. Rubin has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show, CBS Sunday Morning, and Japanese Public TV presenting the history of pop-up books from her collection. She is a charter member of the Movable Book Society and writes for their newsletter and is a member of the Grolier Club. Ellen hosts her website, The Pop-Up Lady. to disseminate information on the subject.

—Liz O'Brien

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Featuring: Neue lebende Bilder: ein Ziehbilderbuch

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

 Lothar Meggendorfer, a Munich graphic designer, illustrated and engineered more than two hundred pop-up and movable books. Beginning in the 1870s, he created a series of intricate and amusing illustrated pull-tab books, having developed a complex system of multiple levers that when manipulated caused figures to move at the same time on the page surface. Neue lebende Bilder: ein Ziehbilderbuch, like many of his living pictures series of this time, consists of a series of familiar yet amusing figures that move when the pull tab is pulled. A girl draws water from a well, a painter a portrait on an easel, women wash clothes, a musician plays a cello, a butcher chops meat, and a dog is taught a new trick.

—Stephen Van Dyk

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.

 

Featuring: Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper

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

Dean & Son, a British publisher produced a large number of movable books from the 1840s through 1880s introducing innovative cut-paper and pull tab mechanisms. In the 1850s, Dean created their “New Scenic Books” series of which Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper is an example. As the story is being read, cut-paper illustrated forms connected by ribbon are unfolded giving the appearance that they are popping up from the page surface. This work contains several such pop-up stage set illustrations that dramatically enhance this well-known fairy tale.—Stephen Van Dyk

Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper. London: Dean & Son, c.1850.

 

Featuring: Inside the Personal Computer

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

Ron van der Meer, a Dutch paper engineer living England, studied graphic design before exploring the world of pop-up books. Van der Meer, having created more than 100 pop-ups, first worked with Wally Hunt at Intervisual Communications in California to create his first pop-ups in the early 1980s.

Inside the Personal Computer: An Illustrated Introduction in 3 Dimensions: A Pop-Up Guide, like many van der Meer’s works, is a fine example of a pop-up book that is informative and geared to adults. The intricate box-like forms of the personal computer unfold dramatically from the page surface with attention given to even the smaller details of the machine (including the floppy disk!).—Stephen Van Dyk

Inside the Personal Computer: An Illustrated Introduction in 3 Dimensions: A Pop-Up Guide. Text by Sharon Gallagher. Paper engineering and design by Ron van der Meer. New York: Abbeville Press, 1984.

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Paper Engineering Lecture Series

Top: Angels: a pop-up book [illustrations by] Chuck Fischer; text by Curtis Flowers; paper engineering by Bruce Foster.

Bottom: Yellow square: a pop-up book for children of all ages, by David A. Carter.

The Libraries will be hosting a series of lectures to accompany its current exhibition at the National Museum of American History, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

Save the date on your calendar for these sure-to-be-fascinating talks about pop-ups from some of the leading artists in the field:

Ellen Rubin, aka the “Pop-up Lady”—"A History of Pop-up and Movable Books: 700 Years of Paper Engineering," Wednesday November 10, 2010, Carmichael Auditorium, National Museum pf American History, 12th street and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 12 noon.

Chuck Fischer, Wednesday Dec 1, 2010, Carmichael Auditorium, National Museum pf American History, 12th street and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 12 noon. There will also be a book signing.

David Carter, Saturday April 16, 2011, Carmichael Auditorium, National Museum pf American History, 12th street and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 12 noon. There will also be a book signing.

Stay tuned for additional lectures and dates to be announced!

—Elizabeth Periale

Featuring: One Red Dot

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

California-based children’s author and illustrator David Carter has created numerous colorful pop-up and movable books, beginning in the late 1980’s with a series featuring insects. Carter masterfully encourages the reader to discover— whether learning to count or finding something hidden in the book while, at the same time, experiencing the joy of surprise as figures pop-up off the page surface. One Red Dot consists of a series of pop-ups in which a red dot is hidden. The bold graphics and intricate sculptural forms truly make this book a portable work of art.—Stephen Van Dyk

One Red Dot. One red dot: a pop-up book for children of all ages. David A. Carter. New York: Little Simon, 2005, c2004.

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New and Notable: Yellow Square

PopUps!

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