Smithsonian Libraries

Super Happy Birthday Surprise!

From Fold, Pull, Pop and Turn...

Wishing Sesame Street a Happy 40th Anniversary from the Libraries!  

Sesame Street characters can be found in several of the pop-up and movable book collection at Cooper-Hewitt Museum Library. Here we have Grover’s Super Surprise Book: Featuring Jim Henson’s Muppets from 1978 illustrated by Tom Cooke and paper engineering by Ib Penick.—Jennifer Cohlman

Tomb of King Tut finally Opened! Craze for All Things Egyptian Begins!

In November of 1922, after eight long years, British archaeologist Howard Carter finally succeeded in finding the 3,000 year old tomb of King Tutankhamen. It took more than a year of careful excavation through multiple doorways, chambers, and staircases before they were able to approach the sarcophagus that held King Tut’s remains.

In the years before and after the initial discovery of the tomb, every step of the project was followed closely by the press; there was great interest among the scientific world and among the general public. There was an air of anticipation, a “wait and see” attitude and much speculation about the enormity of the find and what treasures, if any, would be discovered.

The discovery of King Tut’s Tomb was one of the greatest archaeological finds ever uncovered, and as the unbelievably precious and beautiful artifacts were brought out, a craze for anything Egyptian captured the public imagination.

There have been previous "Egyptian Revivals" over the centuries, starting in ancient Rome and continuing as European travelers brought back objects and memories of their journeys along the Nile.

Napoleon's campaigns into Egypt in 1798-1799 produced the most widespread creation of Egyptian Revival styles since ancient times. Napoleon brought with him an army of scholars and artists who documented everything they saw there. One of them, Baron Dominique Vivant Denon, wrote the illustrated Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte in 1802, and between the years 1809 and 1828 produced the 22 volume Description de l'Egypte. This treatise and the numerous detailed drawings it contained had a tremendous influence on scholars and artists and fired up the imagination of the public, providing inspiration for the nineteenth century Egyptian Revival movement. The discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen sparked a whole new (20th century) wave of Egyptian Revival design in many areas of popular culture—print advertising, product packaging, jewelry and clothing, and architecture.—Elizabeth Broman 

Additional images may be viewed on the Libraries' flickr site.

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• King Tut's tomb set for 5-year renovation project (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Mark Twain's birthday

On this day in 1835 the author, inventor, investor, steamboat captain, social rights advocate and adventurer Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri. Better known by his pen name Mark Twain he is still famous today for his wit, boldness and mustache. He has become an American icon and the inspiration for countless documentaries, impersonators, and works of fiction.

In his twenties Twain worked as a river boat captain along the Mississippi and in doing so made a good living. However, with the coming of the Civil War travel along the river slowed and Twain headed west with a brother. He traveled in a stage coach for weeks seeing the Rockies, Great Plains and surrounding area. Both his experience of the untamed west and the time spent on the river had an undeniable influence on his writings and his vision of and for America.

An unusually prolific author he published over 60 works between 1867 and his death in 1910. Some of the most famous include:

• Roughing It (1872)
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
• The Prince and the Pauper (1882)
• Life on the Mississippi (1883)
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889)

Twain was especially gifted in the blending of humor and social commentary into the same work creating something that was both entertaining and enlightening. He believed “against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.” Always outspoken he was a staunch supporter of the abolition, emancipation, and Women’s Suffrage. Moving within the liberal circles of 19th century American Twain came into contract with other activists and philanthropists of the time including Henry H. Rogers and Helen Keller.

Mark Twain was a gifted and free-thinking American who believed in justice and honesty. Often called “the father of American literature” his pioneering interest in the American identity has undoubtedly shaped how we see ourselves today. Through some of his most famous works, such as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (December 1884), Twain explored what are today considered quintessentially American concepts such as freedom, adventure and the great outdoors.

A longtime supporter of parapsychology research, there are those who believe Twain predicted his own death. In 1909 he wrote:

    I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.

On April 20, 1910 one day after Halley’s Comet brushed Earth Samuel Langhorne Clemens died in Redding, Connecticut of a heart attack.

Mark Twain Quotes:

“A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.”

 “A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.”

“All generalizations are false, including this one.”

 “If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

“It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

”Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”

—Miranda Metcalf, American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery Library Fall intern

Image source: McClure's Magazine, June 1896, from AA/PG Library Vertical File Collection

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• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Simple English) by Mark Twain (slideshare.net)

Leftovers

There's always leftovers the day after...—Elizabeth Periale

Top: Eleazar Albin, A natural history of English song-birds, and such of the foreign as are usually brought over and esteemed for their singing, Vol. 1-3, 1741.

Bottom: François-Nicolas Martinet, Ornithologie [Histoire des Oiseaux Peints dans Tous Leurs Aspects Apparents et Sensibles] [Ornithology], 1773-1792