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Art

Art in the Folger collections
Conserving the Cosway Portrait of Shakespeare
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Conserving the Cosway Portrait of Shakespeare

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Dawn Rogala

A guest post by Dawn Rogala Editor’s note: Folger conservators are internationally known for their expertise in book and paper conservation. When it comes to conserving paintings, though, we turn to outside experts like Dawn Rogala of Page Conservation, Inc. Here,…

Picture cataloging: new rules for old
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Picture cataloging: new rules for old

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Erin Blake

Ta daaaa! I’m happy to introduce to you Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Graphics)—DCRM(G) for short—the latest publication in a suite of manuals that provides descriptive cataloging rules for primary source materials in special collections libraries. The official announcement will be made…

Proof prints, part two; or, Proofs and proofiness
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Proof prints, part two; or, Proofs and proofiness

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Erin Blake

Last month’s post from me (your friendly neighborhood art historian) looked at trial proofs and progressive proofs (see Proof prints, part one). As promised, here’s a look at a third kind of proof in printmaking: proofs that aren’t really “proofs” as…

Proof prints, part one
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Proof prints, part one

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Erin Blake

Last time I posted on The Collation (Two disciplines separated by a common language, 30 April 2013), I went off on a bit of a rant about vocabulary barriers between printed pictures and printed words. Guess what? There’s more! That…

Two disciplines separated by a common language
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Two disciplines separated by a common language

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Erin Blake

I should have seen it coming when the Art History professor and the English professor started talking with each other about “print culture” (names omitted to protect reputations). It soon became clear that one had been talking about the circulation…

Interleaving history: an illustrated Book of Common Prayer
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Interleaving history: an illustrated Book of Common Prayer

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Whitney Anne Trettien

A guest post by Whitney Anne Trettien In Henry Fielding’s novel Tom Jones, Partridge and his friends go to see a play. As they watch a man light the upper candles of the playhouse, the predictably inane Partridge cries out,…

The mysterious "Sem"
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The mysterious "Sem"

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Erin Blake

World, meet Sem. Sem, meet the World. Looks thrilled, doesn’t he? Well, you’d be a bit jaded, too, if you’d been hanging around the Folger for over 80 years, waiting for someone to finally notice you. Self portrait of the…

Peeking behind the locked door
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Peeking behind the locked door

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Kathleen Lynch

Another sede vacante has come and gone. With the wall-to-wall coverage of contemporary media, this one made witnesses of us all. Or at least, the coverage let us witness the events outside the conclave and to share our speculation about…

A Perfect Ten
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A Perfect Ten

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Erin Blake

American theater manager and playwright Augustin Daly (1838–1899) had a unique way of commemorating his productions. He collected illustrations, letters, and ephemera connected with the his staging, connected with historic productions of the play, and connected with the story of…

Myth-busting early modern book illustration, part two
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Myth-busting early modern book illustration, part two

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Erin Blake

The last round of book illustration myth-busting looked at how copper plates wear out (and how they don’t wear out). This time, I’d like to take a bucket of archival research and dump it on a related myth. How many…

Myth-busting early modern book illustration, part one
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Myth-busting early modern book illustration, part one

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Erin Blake

There’s a common core of misconceptions that many readers of this blog will be accustomed to dispelling thanks to their interest in Shakespeare and Early Modern Europe. “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” doesn’t mean “Where’d you go, Romeo?!” Historic…

A Geek-Peek at Folger "ART File" and "ART Box" Classification
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A Geek-Peek at Folger "ART File" and "ART Box" Classification

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Erin Blake

One of the most fascinating books I read while working on my dissertation had nothing to do with the topic as such: It’s the 189-page “user’s guide” to the British Museum’s Department of Prints and Drawings, published in 1987. In it,…

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