Over the course of the fall semester, I’ll be highlighting books from Falvey Library’s Distinctive Collections featuring the work of French illustrator Gustave Doré. This is in conjunction with the new exhibit Divine Inspiration: Revealing the Sacred in Biblical Texts and Imagery, now on display on the first floor of Falvey Library. Doré created over 200 biblical illustrations for an edition of the Bible published in 1866, and a case in the exhibit is dedicated to his work, as well as being included on the exhibit poster.

For this first entry in the series, we’re focusing on illustrations Doré created prior to his biblical illustrations with Doré Fairy Tales (formally titled “Popular Fairy Tales”), a 32-page volume that collects four stories, published in 1888. An author is not credited for the text, but Doré’s illustrations most likely derived from illustrations he created for Charles Perrault’s fairy tales, around 1862.

Illustration for ‘Little Red Riding-Hood’

An artistic prodigy and enormously prolific, Doré earned acclaim for his book and newspaper illustrations while striving for acceptance in the traditional French art establishment. The majority of his illustrations were produced through wood engraving, a process where an image is carved into a block of wood by carving away the negative space of the image. Ink can then be rolled onto the carved surface and subsequently printed, though often metals plates were created from the blocks by means of electrotyping or stereotyping, allowing the images to be used in industrial printing, and for wider dissemination of the illustrations [1].

Doré was able to utilize the engraving medium to add a staggering level of detail to his illustrations, with expressive costuming, characters and locales. The illustrations have a strong grounding in realistic environments, but still leave room for the strange and fantastic, as seen in the illustrations for The Seven-League Boots. But these qualities are also due to the engravers who collaborated with Doré, as they were the ones who carved the woodblocks based on Doré’s drawings, thus bringing his visions to life. Doré often drew directly onto the woodblocks prior to carving, so not much evidence remains of his preparatory drawings prior to an engravers’ tools [1].

Illustration for ‘The Seven-League Boots’

Illustration for ‘Blue-Beard’

Illustration for ‘The Seven-League Boots’

Engraver’s signature for ‘Blue-Beard’

In many cases, the engraver’s signature would be included on the illustrations along with Doré’s, as can be seen in the bottom left corner of a Blue-Beard illustration. However, for many of the illustrations in this particular edition, Doré’s signature is the only one that is prominent. This could be due to the way the illustrations were formatted for this particular edition, or how the printing plates were disseminated to the publisher.

One final aspect I’ll note is the paper used for this edition. The paper has a significant texture or “tooth” to it that is detectable when reading, and brings a unique character to the illustrations. But it also creates an uneven surface for the ink to rest upon, which may account for spots where it appears the ink has been rubbed away. This is a reminder that every variable in printing will impact a book and its contents, and will be a factor in its preservation.

Detail for illustration from ‘Blue-Beard’

Doré Fairy Tales may be viewed in Falvey Library’s Rare Book Room by appointment. Internet Archive includes a number of editions with Doré fairy tale illustrations, and you can learn more about the importance of engraving to Doré’s process by visiting The History of Art.

References
[1] Schaefer, Sarah C., ‘The Good News’, Gustave Doré and the Modern Biblical Imagination (New York, 2021; online edn, Oxford Academic, 18 Nov. 2021), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190075811.003.0003

Mike Sgier is a Distinctive Collections Coordinator at Falvey Library.

Divine Inspiration: Revealing the Sacred in Biblical Text and Imagery

The first floor of Falvey has a new exhibit installed that showcases historically significant Bibles from Falvey Library’s Distinctive Collections with a focus on the impact of the printing press on Sacred Texts.

From scroll to manuscript codex to the hand-press printed book, Bible production has been a driving force behind global textual revolutions. The selections featured in this exhibit demonstrate the multitude of ways in which producers of Sacred Texts incorporated new media technologies into existing Biblical traditions to create the Bible anew.

As this exhibit illustrates, the Bible is not dead, but continues to be a dynamic object with enduring spiritual impact for readers from its inception to today.

The exhibit reception, Envisioning Celestial Beings, will be held Thursday, October 19th 2023 from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM at the Falvey Library Speakers’ Corner. The physical exhibit will be up for the fall semester–stay tuned for information on the digital exhibit!

Posted for: John Banionis, Director of Resource Management & Description

Sheet Music, Billy-boy : the kidnapped child / words by Sam Bullock; Music by W. E. “Paddy” Krepper.

Falvey Library’s Distinctive Collections are full of digitized treasures available in our Digital Library, including many rare and obscure printings of historical American sheet music. Following the encouragement of our Director of Distinctive Collections and Digital Engagement, Michael Foight, and given my own involvement singing with several local choirs (including the Villanova Faculty-Staff Choir, currently on hiatus), I embarked to record a vocal rendition of Billy-Boy: the Kidnapped Child, with expert technical assistance from Distinctive Collections Librarian, Meg Piorko. Adding an audio recording to a PDF manuscript provides a much more accessible version of the music itself, and provides greater context to researchers without musical training. (To access the audio, click on the “Download” link at the bottom left of the page and select “Audio (mpeg)”.)

The sheet music’s stunning cover is presented as a strange hybrid of pictorial sheet music and a crime broadside or reward poster. Surrounding a half-tone image of Billy and his mother is a detailed physical description of the boy and the clothes he was last seen wearing when he was abducted in Sharon, Pennsylvania near the Ohio border: “This exact life-size photo of Billy Whitla just as he was dressed when he was taken from school.” This is followed by the offer of a “$1000.00 Reward” from the Scripps-McRae League, the first modern newspaper chain. Not only does a sensational kidnapping help sell newspapers, but it also is fodder for sheet music, a medium that was always in need of fresh, contemporary content. That its cover should resemble a broadside is very clever marketing. An affecting musical chorus also pulls on the heartstrings: “I want to go home to my mamma / Oh won’t you please take me away / I want my dear daddy to hear me / when I kneel down to pray.” The lyrics also mention the $10,000 asked for Billy’s return and Pat O’Reilly who “brought to justice those who caused sweet Billy Boy to cry.” James Boyle was later convicted of kidnapping Billy. Additional music printed here includes the song “I Love Thee My Irish Home.”

Be on the lookout for more recordings, including a Philadelphia-themed tune this Fall!

If you’ve ever wondered: ‘What exactly is a Dime Novel?’ You are not alone.

The latest, two-part Spare Change Library podcast episode unpacks some of the issues surrounding Dime Novel bibliography discussed in the 1982 Edward T. LeBlanc interviews between the former Dime Novel Round-Up editor and Dime Novel scholar Lydia Schurman, exclusively digitized by Falvey Library.

Over 40 years later, questions such as ‘How do we define the genre Dime Novel?’ are still pertinent today. Demian Katz, Falvey’s Director of Library Technology, joins me for this two-part podcast episode.

Photos of the LeBlanc collection at Northern Illinois University, provided by Matthew Short.

An Oral History of Dime Novels with Edward T. LeBlanc, Cassette 1

In addition to his role at Falvey Library, Demian is also an active collector and scholar of Dime Novel and Pulp Literature, specializing in choose-your-own-adventure type stories.

‘What’s in a Dime Novel?’: Revisiting the Edward T. LeBlanc interviews episode features audio clips from the first of the 24 60-minute cassette tapes from the LeBlanc interviews, to explore topics ranging from defining the genre of Dime Novel, the influence of women authors, English Penny Dreadfuls, and the future of pulp literature.

Photos of the LeBlanc collection at NIU, provided by Matthew Short.

Searchable transcriptions of the LeBlanc Cassettes featured in this podcast can be accessed through Villanova’s Digital Library.

Spare Change Library Podcast, a dime novel and popular literature podcast, features audio editions of stories and scholarly discussion–available through a shared RSS feed on dimenovels.org

The Spare Change Library – The Dime Novel Bibliography (dimenovels.org)

Another one of dime novel publisher Frank Tousey‘s Ten Cent Hand Books has been added to Project Gutenberg, using scans from our Digital Library and volunteer time from Distributed Proofreaders. This latest title is How to Become a Scientist, which covers experiments in pneumatics, mechanics, arithmetic, chemistry and acoustics, with a special section devoted to making fireworks.

Like many other books in this series, the text seems to have been borrowed from other sources without a lot of thought to context — particularly in cases where illustrations are referred to but not included. While the reader of the book would certainly learn how to achieve some interesting (and frequently quite dangerous) effects, the text doesn’t devote much space to theory, or any at all to the scientific method. If it created any young scientists, it did so by sparking curiosity rather than providing much instruction.

The book does acknowledge the hazardous nature of some of its proposed experiments, and justifies them in this way:

We know full well the intense delight taken by boys in risking their limbs or their lives, especially when such risk is accompanied with noise. Boys always have done so, and always will do so in spite of the very best of advice or precautions. As, therefore, it is impossible to keep them from making noises, and endangering themselves, we have, in this article, endeavored to show them how to make as much noise as possible, with as little danger as possible.

If you want to learn more about how science was presented to young readers at the dawn of the 20th century, you can read the full book online (or download it in popular eBook formats) through Project Gutenberg… but please don’t try these experiments at home!

The latest Project Gutenberg release produced by Distributed Proofreaders from images in our Digital Library is The Strength of Love; or, Love is Lord of All, by Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller.

First serialized in The New York Fireside Companion in 1896, the novel is another of its author’s melodramatic tales of love and jealousy. The story revolves around Daisie Bell, a poor school-teacher whose beauty attracts two suitors: the wealthy Royall Sherwood and the mysterious Dallas Bain. In typical Mrs. Miller fashion, the romance is accompanied by plot twists and dramatic incidents, including attempted murders and various life-threatening disasters.

If you’d like to learn more about the trials and tribulations of Daisie, Royall and Dallas, you can read the entire book online, or download it in popular eBook formats, through Project Gutenberg.

Once again, an item from our Digital Library has been converted into a Project Gutenberg eBook by the volunteers of the Distributed Proofreaders project. The latest title is another of the small chapbooks from the Multum in Parvo Library: How to Conduct a Small Mail Order Business, first published in March of 1896.

As the title suggests, this little book contains general advice on making money by selling goods through the mail. Given the limited scope of the text, most of its advice is very broad and high-level, and rather curiously, the book switches from mail order advice to random jokes and anecdotes near the end. Needless to say, this is unlikely to provide a whole lot of value for a 21st century business person, but it is an interesting relic of the past.

You can read the full text of the book (or download it in popular eBook formats) through Project Gutenberg.

Say goodbye to the empty walls in Old Falvey! Falvey Library’s Distinctive Collections and Digital Engagement has newly installed a selection of maps from the John F. Smith, III and Susan B. Smith Antique Map Collection in the study space of Old Falvey’s second floor between the Dugan Polk Family Reading Room and the CAVE. This transformation could not have been possible without the help of Villanova’s Office of Facilities Management, Falvey’s Finance & Administration staff, and especially Jennie Castillo, Curator of the University Art Collection & Gallery Director for all their help with every step of the installation.

2nd Floor, Old Falvey: Before!

The sixteen maps on view all show early views of the Americas printed before 1800. Perhaps even more so than providing direction, charting a course, or sharing “new discoveries” in an “Age of Exploration,” maps of the Americas by European cartographers from the 16th through the 18th centuries were about exhibiting political power and control. The acts of claiming and naming, and dividing the land is drawn up on these maps by Dutch, English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German mapmakers.

I selected and wrote accompanying interpretive labels for each of the maps. Thank you also to DCDE staff Meg Piorko, Beaudry Allen, and Michael Foight for their feedback and contributions to the labels; and to John F. Smith, III who provided the basis of the content through the online exhibit,
Projecting the World: An Audio Tour of the John F. Smith, III and Susan B. Smith Antique Map Collection.

See the full transformation and spend some time reading the maps and the labels next time you pass through the space!

Rebecca Oviedo is Distinctive Collections Librarian/Archivist at Falvey Memorial Library.

Another dime novel by prolific author Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller has been added to Project Gutenberg by the Distributed Proofreaders project, using scans from our Digital Library. The latest book is The Man She Hated; or, Won by Strategy, a melodrama first serialized in the New York Fireside Companion story paper under the title A Lovely Orphan; or, The Love Story of a Beautiful Sewing Girl.

The novel tells the tale of Fairfax Fielding, a young sewing girl whose mother desires that she should marry a rich man and restore the family’s fortunes. This pressure, assisted by the malicious actions of a jealous coworker, leads Fair into an unhappy marriage, allowing Mrs. Miller’s usual style of plot twists and catastrophes to ensue.

As always, the full text of the book can be read online or downloaded in popular eBook formats via Project Gutenberg.

For this installment of The Printed Image, I’m returning to a book format to highlight the illustrations of Sidney H. Meteyard for The Golden Legend, a narrative poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This particular edition was published by Hodder & Stoughton in New York, around 1910.

Taking place in medieval Italy, the poem recounts the struggles of Prince Henry of Hoheneck, who is stricken with a malady that can only be cured by the blood of a maiden who consents to die for his sake. Through the machinations and deceptions of Lucifer himself, Henry loses his princely seat and becomes an outcast, finding solace only with Elsie, the daughter of a former vassal. Elsie is so moved by his plight that she decides to sacrifice her life for his, so as to become closer to Christ. Eventually, Elise is kidnapped by Lucifer and rescued by Henry, who is miraculously healed during the rescue effort. The two lovers are happily married, and Henry is restored to his princely seat.

Title page for The Golden Legend, printed with gold ink.

Meteyard’s illustrations capture Longfellow’s story with precise, detailed paintings, filled with rich costuming and environments. Working in a late Pre-Raphaelite style, his illustrations bear similarities to the paintings of Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Upon first seeing them, I was also reminded of the works of illustrators Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth, who would work with similar medieval subjects and compositions in their own works. While Meteyard’s illustrations are rooted in realistic environments and subjects, he also finds ways to refer to the fantastic, romantic, and macabre elements of the story.

‘It was a dream, and would not stay;
A dream that in a single night
Faded…’ (page 108)

‘A poor old woman with a rosary,
Follows the sound, and seems to wish her feet
Were swifter…’ (page 116)

‘It seems to me
The body of St. Catherine, borne by angels!’
(page 119)

In the book itself, each illustration is protected by a thin sheet of transparent paper which includes a quote from the poem, acting in a way as a title for the illustration itself. Additionally, you may detect from these photos that the illustrations are are not entirely affixed to the pages, as they almost float above the page with just a bit of adhesive on the top portion.

Technically, these printed images would be referred to as tipped-in plates, where they are printed separately from the text of the book using a different printing process and then added later. This could be done for a variety of reasons; in this case, it allows the images to be printed through a lithographic process, thus reproducing as closely as possible Meteyard’s paintings, while the text of the book could be printed on letterpress. By using multiple printing methods, this creates a way to include color illustrations in a way that may not have been achievable through simply one printing method at the time.

‘I saw her standing on the deck
Beneath an awning cool and shady’ (page 146)

The Golden Legend may be viewed in Falvey Library’s Rare Book Room by appointment. A similar edition of this book is also available digitally through Open Library.

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Mike Sgier is a Distinctive Collections Coordinator at Falvey Library.