Inside the Milberg Gallery: Graphic Arts

Las Antillas Letradas

Antonio Martorell's Las Antillas Letradas, 2014. 27 multi-media prints. Copy 1/100. Purchased with funds provided by the Program in Latin American Studies and Graphic Arts Collection


 

This series highlights collections included in the inaugural exhibition, "Welcome Additions: Selected Acquisitions 2012-2018," now open through June 23 (daily, noon to 6 p.m.) in the Ellen and Leonard Milberg Gallery. To follow is a note from Julie Mellby, Graphic Arts Librarian: 

When Elmer Adler brought his personal collection of books and prints to 40 Mercer Street in 1940, what began as a limited experiment was swiftly proclaimed the nerve center of campus activity. Twelve years later the collection moved to Firestone Library and was permanently incorporated into Special Collections, where it continues to thrive and grow. 

Certificate of Authenticity, Future Library

, 2014. Reproduced with permission of the artist"]

The graphic arts intersect with many disciplines and the boundaries of Princeton University Library's Graphic Arts Collection are widespread, touching many periods and genres. Acquisitions are often made thanks to the support of friends and colleagues, both on and off campus, and the few treasures highlighted in Welcome Additions emphasize this. 

Thanks to the Program for Latin American Studies, we were the first to accquire Antonio Martorell's Las Antillas Letradas, which so beautifully adorns exhibition guide's cover. Experts in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies helped to select and catalogue a rare group of illustrated Soviet sheet music; while it was a collaboration with alumni, students, and staff in political science who led the acquisition of Franklin McMahon's painting, Signing of the Israeli/Egyptian Peace AccordThe White House, September 17, 1978. 

Special thanks go to the Friends of the Princeton University Library, who continue to support rare and wonderful acquisitions of graphic arts, most recently with the magnificent gouache-colored engravings by Giovanni Ottaviani after the Vatican frescoes designed by Raphael. Finally, it is together with the students of the future that we subscribed to The Future Library, receiving a certificate for 100 paper books to be printed in the year 2114. Long live the Graphic Arts Collection!

Note: The Welcome Additions exhibition is featured online at dpul.princeton.edu.

Media contact: Barbara Valenza, Director of Library Communications