The Harvard Theatre Collection has just acquired a splendid Feuillet dance notation treasure, in the rare first edition of El noble arte de danzar a la francesa, y española, printed by Pablo Minguet circa 1760….
Paper Planes
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. One very unique book by celebrated German-American artist Peter Max, Paper Airplane Book, showcases both his artistic talent as well as his playful attitude towards his work. Entirely consisting of templates for paper planes, each sporting bright colors…
The Poet as Naturalist: Thomas Gray’s copy of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae
Among the most precious books from the library of Charles Eliot Norton, Harvard’s first Professor of Art History, is the poet Thomas Gray’s copy of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae. Gray’s youthful interest in natural history was fostered by his uncle Robert Antrobus, an Assistant Master at Eton; in his later years he cherished his uncle’s copy…
Plant-lore for the masses
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Aconitum also known as wolfsbane is a particularly poisonous plant that grows mainly in the Northern hemisphere. Apparently it was historically used to kill wolves thus the reference to the plant as wolfsbane. The image above is…
A Vacation in Normandie
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection. With the advent of smartphones and wifi everywhere, travel guidebooks seem like a thing of the past. Back in the late 19th century though, they might have been the only way to find your way around. The guidebook…
Conjoined twins
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection. Johann Conrad Brunner was a Swiss anatomist that is best known for his work with the pancreas and duodenum. This fold out plate displays both anatomical and skeletal conjoined twin fetuses, which is part of Brunner’s medical dissertation Foetum…
Silhouettes: from Craft to Art
The central scene in this engraving (left) faithfully reproduces an engraved vignette that depicted a method of drawing a silhouette. The vignette was printed in the second volume of Johann Caspar Lavater’s treatise on physiognomy, Physiognomische Fragmente, zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntniss und Menschenliebe published in Leipzig between 1775 and 1778….
New on OASIS in August
Twelve finding aids for newly cataloged collections have been added to the OASIS database this month, including posters from the May 1968 Paris protests and penmanship specimens from 18th century Boston writing schools. Processed by Susan Wyssen: Claude Farrère Papers, 1896-1957 (MS Fr 590) Marseille Heroin Trafficking Collection, circa 1963-1975 (MS Fr 614)…