Smithsonian Libraries

Happy Halloween!

The Libraries has some spooky items in its collections...beware!

From the Commemorative Stamp Collection, The Mummy - Boris Karloff

Führer durch Carl Hagenbeck's Tierpark, 1929, Cover, "Panther."

A. (Arnout) Vosmaer, Natuurkundige beschryving eener uitmuntende verzameling [Physical description of an excellent collection or rare animals...], 1804, Geraamte van het Kameelpaart [Skeleton of Camelopard]

A Bat

The French Count Robert de Montesquiou-Fézensac (1855-1921), poet and aesthete, was an aristocratic descendent of D'Artagnan of Three Musketeers fame and the inspiration of Proust's character Baron de Charlus.

On July 3rd, 1885, at the invitation of Henry James, Montesquiou met the artist James McNeill Whistler at the Reform Club in London, and later asked Whistler to paint his portrait. Just as Whistler used the butterfly as his personal emblem, Montesquiou adopted the bat and kept one as a pet in a lacquer cage in his Paris apartment.

From 1891 to 1892 Whistler painted Montesquiou's portrait. Montesquiou in return wrote a poem in Whistler's honor titled Moth, first published in his 1892 book of poems, Les chauves-souris: clair-obscurs.

For the second, 1893 edition of Les chauves-souris, Montesquiou selected a Whistler drawing of a bat for lithographic reproduction in black. The artist's signature butterfly can be seen beneath the moon in this image. A copy of this second edition containing the image is held in the Freer-Sackler Library's Paul Marks Special Collection of materials related to Whistler.—Mike Smith

October is National Clock Month

Acorn clock, about 1849; by the Forestville Manufacturing Co., Bristol, Connecticut. Gift of Albert Adsit Clemons, through George H. Paltridge

A special Libraries' thank you to National Museum of American History staff members Carlene Stephens and Shari Stout for providing this clock.

October is National Clock Month, and to mark the occasion, the Libraries presents a selection of books and trade catalogs on American clocks and watches.

These items represent just a small portion of the materials in the National Museum of American History Library collections on this timely subject.—Chris Cottrill, ably assisted by Lu Rossignol

New & Notable Pop-ups & Movables

From Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn: 

Gloria in excelsis deo. Illustrated by Vojtěch Kubašta. Czechoslavakia: c. 1960.

This double-page pop-up illustrating the Christmas nativity scene was created by Vojtěch Kubašta (1914-1992), a Czech artist and book illustrator. Born in Vienna and raised in Prague, Kubašta began his career as an artist and book illustrator in the early 1940s after studying architecture at the Polytech University in Prague.

His distinctive bold and colorful figures, as seen in this work, became increasingly popular. After the Czech publishing industry was nationalized in 1948, Kubašta began creating advertising materials for Czech products abroad that included three-dimensional cards for items such as Pilsner beer, porcelain and sewing machines. Beginning in the 1950s, he developed elaborate paper construction crèches annually (this being an example) each Christmas season. At this time, Kubašta also designed pop-ups of traditional fairy tales and other children stories (Little Red Riding Hood—1956 being his first) working with the Czech publishing house Artia.

His beautifully designed and intricate pop-ups were later produced from the 1960s-1980s worldwide and became the inspiration for the revival of the pop-up book industry in America.—Elizabeth Broman

Gift of Stephen Van Dyk