#19th century library

[stefannhs]

I love the 19th century libraries in Amsterdam. The Cuypers Library is another gem.

The Cuypers Library (Rijksmuseum)

The Cuypers Library in the Rijksmuseum is the largest and oldest art history library in the Netherlands.

Artis Library, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (19th century library)

[escapismsworld]

The Queen of the Night

1818

Simon Quaglio

[steampunktendencies]

The Royal Portuguese Reading Room, Brazil: A 19th Century Gem 🏛️📖

The Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is a library founded in 1837. It houses a vast collection of Portuguese literature, the largest outside of Portugal. The interior architecture is particularly impressive with its colorful shelves and busts of famous writers, creating a unique and magical atmosphere for visitors

[lionofchaeronea]

Photographic half-length portrait of a Native American (Dakota) man named Sun Flower, taken by a photographer for Heyn Photo in 1899. Now in the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

[womenshistory]

Group of young women reading in library of normal school, Washington, D.C., Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1899.

[useless-catalanfacts]

The Dipòsit de les Aigües Library, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Catalonia.

This library is set up in a 19th-century water reservoir located in the heart of Barcelona. After 100 years of different uses -old people's home, storage for the fire brigade, car park for the local police department, archive for the Court of Justice- it became property of the Pompeu Fabra University in 1992. Since then, it's the university's library.

Photos by Arq Foto, Burçin Yildirim on Flickr, and The ISA Journal.

[thebeautifulbook]

MANUSCRIPT CASE. European (Medieval style), 19th Century. Made of horn, bone, and silk.

Held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art

[arthistoryanimalia]

Fun find in the University of Delaware Library Special Collections:

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (English, 1828-1882)

“Dinner Time,” 1859

Drawing, pencil on paper; 12.7 x 11.4 cm

“A depiction of the Great Seal in the London Zoo. Inscribed with title, signed with monogram, and dated April 1859.”

Mark Samuels Lasner Collection

[chic-a-gigot]

The Delineator, no. 4, Vol. XLVIII. Autumn Number. October 1896. Published by the Butterick Publishing Co. London & New York. Colored Plate 20. Figure D43. Evening Toilette. Internet Archive, uploaded by Albert R. Mann Library

Figure D 43. — LADIES’ EVENING TOILETTE.

Figure D 43. — This consists of a Ladies’ basque-waist and skirt. The basque-waist pattern, which is No. 8637 and costs 1s. 3d. or 30 cents, is in thirteen sizes for ladies from twenty-eight to forty-six inches, bust measure, and may be seen again on page 442 of this magazine. The skirt pattern, which is No. 8672 and costs 1s. 3d. or 30 cents, is in nine sizes for ladies from twenty to thirty-six inches, waist measure, and is differently portrayed on page 447 of this publication.

The ideas expressed in this toilette are calculated to suit the most fastidious taste. Rich faille silk with high lustre and having small black figures on its sulphur ground is handsomely offset by the decoration of chiffon, embroidery and ribbon. A well-fitted lining closed at the center of the front insures a becoming adjustment to the waist, which has a low, round neck and a full front closed along the left shoulder and under-arm seam. The fulness in the back is drawn well to the center in the same manner as in the front by gathers at the neck and shoulder edges and by shirrings at the bottom. The short puff sleeves are made with full linings, gathered, like the puffs, at the top and bottom. A coquettish effect is given by a dainty bow of ribbon on each shoulder, and a softly wrinkled ribbon surrounds the waist. The low neck is decorated with a double ruche of white chiffon.

The five-gored skirt is smooth fitting at the front and sides and may be gathered or plaited at the back. At the sides it ripples but slightly and at the front it flares broadly. The foot trimming consists of a soft, double ruche of white chiffon. Hand-wrought embroidery in black runs upward from the bottom in vine pattern, each spray starting from under a ribbon bow at the ruche.

The toilette is noteworthy not alone for its admirable grace and style but for the practical features embodied in the basque-waist and its susceptibility to variations. A high or low neck and full-length or elbow sleeves may be arranged, and elaborate or simple effects may be attained, according to the use for which the toilette is intended. Faille façonné, moire antique façonné, velvet and the light silks and delicate chiffons and laces which are always more or less fancied, will be chosen for dressy wear, and for more practical occasions mixtures of color, canvas textiles and mixtures of wool and mohair and other novelties will be selected. Lace, colored embroidery, jet passementerie and bands of jet-embroidered mousseline de sole are available for handsome decorations.

[the-home]

[thepastisalreadywritten]

But recent suggestions about Chopin’s private life collided awkwardly with Poland’s staunchly conservative traditions – and caused some to question whether the story of Chopin that Poles are told from a young age is true.

According to a Swiss radio documentary released in 2020, the composer had relationships with men.

Those relationships were left out of history by successive historians and biographers; a potentially thorny charge in one of Europe’s worst countries for LGBTQ rights.

[escapismsworld]

Imogen

1888

Herbert Gustave Schmalz (English 🇬🇧, 1856–1935),

[littleflowerfaith]

Oh! how I love, on a fair summer’s eve,

When streams of light pour down the golden west,

And on the balmy zephyrs tranquil rest

The silver clouds, far – far away to leave..

John Keats

[lionofchaeronea]

The Earth as seen from the Moon, illustration from pg. 71 of The story of the sun, moon, and stars by Agnes Giberne (National Book Company, Cincinnati, OH, 1898). Now in the Library of Congress.

[two-entire-bits]

Y'ALL I JUST FUCKING SCORED <- found a used bookstore

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

Last month, the Milwaukee Public Library's Arts & Media Department held its first Art Book Club session. Intended as an informal art book appreciation club that meets once a month in the Art, Music, and Recreation room, each session explores a different theme by looking at the wide variety of art materials in the collection. The collection is historical, non-circulating, and vast. I attended and spent an hour and a half mesmerized by the array of luscious materials presented.

There was design, architecture, fashion, and much more. As a type nerd, I was especially drawn to the several late 19th- and early 20th-century type specimen books on the tables. Here, for example, are some pages of chromatic initials by various European and American companies from Schriften Atlas, compiled by Ludwig Petzendorfer and published in Stuttgart by Julius Hoffmann in 1898.

MPL held its second Art Book Club session on the theme of "Animals" last night, but I missed it because I was conducting an evening instruction session. Dang! But I'll be attending future sessions when I can and I'll keep y'all apprised.

View other type specimen books.

View more Typography Tuesday posts.

-- MAX, Head, Special Collections