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New & Notable

Lantern Slides and Their Magical Mechanical Patterns

Here’s an animated post about an old form of entertainment technology that continues to mesmerize people.  Learned societies are dedicated to the study of the long history of projecting images on walls (or sheets of fabric).  Collectors amass magic lanterns …

Artists of “Opportunity”

The artists of Opportunity, the monthly publication of the National Urban League edited by Charles S. Johnson, were always identified in the table of contents but almost never given further biographical details in magazine’s “Who’s Who” or other text.

The BiblioFiles Presents: Shaun Tan

Just posted! A webcast and podcast with multiple award winning, and New York Times bestselling, author, illustrator, artist, and filmmaker, Shaun Tan.

This Week in Princeton History for July 27-August 2

In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, the governor seals the college charter, trends in the overall diversity of the incoming class are mixed, and more.

A Portable Phenakistoscope Theater

  One of the problems with the original phenakistoscope, pictured above as it was invented around 1833, was that you needed to provide your own mirror. Looking through the slots in the circular print while it turned, a moving image appeared like magic in the reflection.

It Has Always Been About Voting

Robert J. Brand, It Has Always Been About Voting: A portfolio of photographs taken in Mississippi during the James Meredith March Against Fear (1966). Signed limited edition. Philadelphia: Hartfield Editions, 2012. Copy 9 of 40.

Charles Cullen

Born on December 19, 1887, in LeRoy, New York (southwest of Rochester), surprisingly little is known about the American artist Charles Cullen. Here are a few more details.

Books that Build Strong Bodies: The Beginning of Gymnastics and Physical Culture for Children

Today was supposed to have been the first day of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but the event has been postponed for a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  When I started writing this post during the 2016 Olympics, I had …

Music’s Family Tree

Alexandre Denéréaz (1875-1947), L’évolution de l’art musical, Depuis les origines jusqu’à l’époque moderne. Arbre généalogique [The Evolution of Music from Its Origins to Modern Times. A Family Tree] (Lausanne: Georges Bridel et Cie [1916]).

Johann Wilhelm Klein’s 1807 Printing Device for the Blind

Johann Wilhelm Klein (1765-1848) was a pioneer of education for blind people. According to online sources, “on 13 May 1804 Klein began to teach a young blind man, James Brown, at home, with government support. Thus arose the first blind institute in Germany.

Ducky Discovery

What if you discover a duck in your fridge? What if you discover ducks all over your HOUSE? With this easy printable project and hilarious picture book, you can do just that!

This Week in Princeton History for July 20-26

In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, the Ivy League’s first Black dean dies, the FBI arrests a graduate student and holds him without charges, and …

Louis XIV Performs Apollo

    Giacomo Torelli (1608-1678), Scene e machine preparate alle Nozze di Teti, balletto reale representato nella sala del piccolo Borbone (Paris, 1654).

Touring work by Alison Saar, Dianne Smith, Wangechi Mutu, and Nobuho Nagasawa

Back in 2008, Alison Saar was commissioned to create “Swing Low,” a two-tone bronze statue of Harriet Tubman (died 1913) in a traffic island at West 122nd Street, St. Nicholas Avenue, and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem.

The Case of Lewis H. Douglass

The National Typographical Union was founded in 1852 and renamed the International Typographical Union (ITU) in 1869, the same year the first female printers were accepted as members.

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