#broadsides

[uwmspeccoll]

Milestone Monday

March 25th is Tolkien Reading Day, a day to honor the literary prowess of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) author of acclaimed high fantasy novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien has shared that the seeds of inspiration for his novels came from his childhood fascination and experimentation with constructed language and a 1911 Summer holiday hiking through Switzerland. Roughly fourteen years after his Swiss adventure, Tolkien would write The Hobbit and the first two volumes of Lord of the Rings while teaching in Oxford.  

Stepping slightly away from Tolkien’s novels, today we’re digging into our broadside collection and sharing Bilbo’s Last Song (At Grey Havens), a poem about leaving Middle-Earth. It first appeared, as seen here, as a poster published in 1974 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd., the original English publisher of his famous novels, with illustrations by Pauline Baynes (1922-2008), who illustrated many of Tolkien's publications. Chronologically, the poem takes place at the end of the last volume of Lord of the Rings, however it was never included in the series. 

Read other Milestone Monday posts here! 

– Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

[curiouscatalog]

Let's watch a scary movie!

Wardley Theater (Callao, Va.). Wardley Theater movie playbills, 1959-1960

[silverhand]

With all the recent nostalgia discourse, this seems like a good time to share this broadside. From the inimitable Douglas Adams:

It amazes me how universally applicable these principles are to most discourse.

So annoyed that that title font was stolen out of the trunk after I'd printed this. It was the only project I ever got to use it for.

[kheelcenter]

All About the ILGWU

The ILGWU records held at the Kheel Center are the most extensive (over 2,500 linear feet!) and heavily used collection we possess. We are the the official repository of the ILGWU since 1987, containing photos, pamphlets, oral presentations, letters, banners, speeches, videos, and songs.

Here is an example of a poster from our ILGWU Broadsides Collection, #5780/109. For more on the ILGWU, visit this site: http://ilgwu.ilr.cornell.edu/.

Image description: A blue poster portraying two employees looking at a sign that says "The Law: You have the right to join a union". The poster then reads "YOU HAVE YOUR RIGHTS, USE THEM. The law says that you have the right to join a union. You can use that right to win more money in your pay envelopes and benefits you'd like but don't have. The law backs up your right. But only you can use it"

Poster by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and AFL-CIO.

[rulon-miller]

Folio broadside approx. 17½" x 13¾", printed in red and blue with wood and metal type, and within an ornate typographic border printed in blue. Left-hand margin slightly ragged (but not touching the border); the whole slightly toned, but on the whole, very good.  

Phillips, List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress,  3692.

Full listing at rulon.com

[dotsunflowers]

[Image ID: Screenshot of a poem. The poem is titled "Molly Brodak" and is "by Molly Brodak". The text of the poem reads: "I am a good man. The amount of fear I am ok with is insane. I love many people who don't love me. I don't actually know if that is true. This is love. It is a mass of ice melting. I can't hold it and I have nowhere to put it down." /end ID.]

this one

[streetsofsalem]

Salem and the Eclipse of 1806

Apparently we have not seen a solar eclipse of such long “totality” since 1806, and in that year the “point of greatest duration” of daytime darkness was Salem, timed at 4 minutes and 48 seconds! When I read that, I had to drop everything and do a little research into this very notable eclipse in early America, starting with a pamphlet by Boston instrument maker Andrew Newell entitled Darkness at…

[calusnt]

haha twitter won't let me post my gifs, srry twitter people

I've been trying to stretch my little animation muscles after years of inactivity and here is the very first thing i decided to animate aside from Roy

[rainblescake]

im just gonna drop some shipwrecked/hi-09 animations i made here hope yall dont mind

[dotsunflowers]

[Image ID: Screenshot of a poem. The text reads, "I wanted a poem to come out of my sadness,

but no poem came. I wanted a revolution

to come out of my burnout, but no revolution

came. I wanted a bird to fly through my open

window, but my window was closed. I wanted

sun on an evening when it was already dark.

I wanted just a bit of grief rather than despair.

&, in my shame, I wanted my childhood back.

I wanted to walk backward out of the room

where I kept my secrets. I wanted to say I’m hurt

before my hurt became a character trait I told

no one but myself. When I wanted unknowing,

I was given certainty, & when I wanted the hard

& fixed line, I was given mystery. Sometimes,

I wanted to give it all back, but to who, I wondered,

& how? I wanted a life to come out of my life,

but instead I was left with my life. All that wanting,

I think now, & still I woke this morning to light

& the memory of the time a bird did fly through

the open window of my apartment, &, scared

& senseless, shat all over the couch before leaving.

All that wanting, right? Sometimes it happens

& sometimes it doesn’t & sometimes it happens

worse. Make do, little friend I call myself. Walk

backward out of the room you have made out

of your wanting into the room of where you are.

The poem is here. The revolution, too. & love,

still, even in the evening, when light still shines." /end ID.]

Devin Kelly, “All That Wanting, Right?”

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

PRINTING WITH WOOD TYPE!

Every semester, when we finally get to the invention of letterpress printing in Europe in my History of Books & Printing course, we all head over to a local print shop to set type and print a collaborative broadside. Last week we did just that and went over to Adam Beadel's Team Nerd Letterpress in the Walker's Point neighborhood of Milwaukee.

Usually, we compose in metal type, as that is what the students just learned about, but Adam recently received a huge influx of foundry type that wasn't set up yet, so we had to use wood type instead. Even though we wouldn't learn about the invention of production wood type for a few weeks, we were game because wood type is the best!

Each student was assigned to come up with a 3-5-word phrase based on the theme of "Transitions." They set their own phrase in wood type, I arranged the phrases into an exquisite corpse poem, we locked up the type on the bed of a poster press, and pulled a proof in blue ink (second to last image). Everyone was satisfied with the results, and with only a couple of adjustments, the students went on a tear, inking up the type in a rainbow of colors (last image), and pulling 15 more prints. Everyone went home exhausted and happy.

There are few things more thrilling than making your own letterpress prints. Thanks Adam!!!

View another letterpress post from a previous book history session.

View other posts on wood type.

View our other Typography Tuesday posts.

-- MAX, Head, Special Collections

[curiouscatalog]

From: Childress, Buddie. Aeroplane Ride! Roanoke, Va. : Flynn Ptg. Co., 1932?

Broadside 1932 .C45 BOX

[redfoxdude07]

[silverhand]

Right, how about a little bookbinding/printing for a change of pace? Finally had a chance to photograph my convention broadsides.

The Litany Against Fear from DUNE. First one of these I did (10 years ago? Zoinks!).

It's a little hard to see in a photo, but it's a two-pass piece. Several of the lines are a split fountain (different color ink on different parts of the rollers). As it happened, the purple and the Atradies green blended into a nice, deep spice blue, which are the lines on the second pass.

I also ran a few on specialty papers, including one on a reflective silver. That one is neigh impossible to photograph, but it's a very neat effect and the color differences are much easier to see.

11x14 to fit into a standard mat and frame.

I'm still very happy with this one.

[pepscrackhouse]

This was very effective and did in fact help me sleep, 10/10 would recommend to others👍✨

[underratedgrapeju1ce]

first and last