November 2024 Decalcomania

By Adrienne Rusinko

November ushers in chilly days, early evenings, the beginning of the winter holiday season, and this year, a new set of stickers. A limited run of stickers are now available at Special Collections in Firestone Library, Mudd Library, and the Princeton University Library (PUL) Makerspace.

Scenographia systematis Copernicani, HMC01.3561, Historic Maps

This map, created by cartographer and cosmographer Andreas Cellarius, was originally published in his star atlas Harmonia Macrocosmica in 1660. This astronomical map depicts the Copernican view of the sun as the center of the cosmos. Copernicus’ model of heliocentrism, published just before his death in 1543, was largely dismissed until the early 1600s when Kepler and Galileo began developing the theory, which became the most globally accepted theory by the end of the 1700s.

This particular map illustrates the solstices and equinoxes, and shows the angles of how the sun hits the earth during different seasons. The planetary locations of Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars are also depicted. 

[Set of chromolithography albums], 2014-0037E, Graphic Arts

This frame is pulled from Volume 2 of a set of three albums of chromolithographic illustrations. Lithography took off at the end of the 1700s as a popular print-making technique, using chemicals to transfer single-color drawings from a flat surface to paper, rather than having to engrave each image on a wooden block. Chromolithography,  first patented in 1837 by Godefroy Engelmann, allowed for the mass production of multi-color prints, and was most often used for books with pictures, advertisements, fine art, and trade cards.

These volumes contain samples printed by presses in Mulhouse and Paris by Engelmann and his successors, and include uncut sheets of playing cards, product labels, and religious cards, among other things. The frame is one of four designed for Italian publications of the Scottish novelist, poet, and historian Walter Scott.

Richard Crout his book July 16th in the year of our Lord 1740, 95 ManuscriptsQ, Cotsen Children’s Library

Copybooks were educational tools used to teach subjects such as reading, penmanship, and arithmetic. Students would closely copy text passages and algebraic equations they would then solve, with many sections focusing on skills needed to run family and business accounts such as “Sub. of Apothecaries Weight,” “Barter or Exchange,” and “Add of Land Measure.” 

This copybook, belonging to Richard Crout and dated to 1740, is filled with striking doodles and illustrations, as well as leaf prints, throughout the margins of his homework. Sticking primarily to a palette of red, yellow, brown (which is possibly a faded green), and black, Richard decorated empty spaces of the pages with drawings of flowers, dragons, animals, geometric shapes, and patterns, and added textual flourishes to the headings. This abstract dragon was doodled below the heading “Alligation Alternate”, and goes to show the human nature of needing to doodle to stay awake in math class. Additional examples of doodled copybooks can be found on the Cotsen Children’s Library blog.

The trial of Thomas Paine, for certain false, wicked, scandalous, and seditious libels inserted in the Second Part of the Rights of Man, before The Right Hon. Lord Kenyon and a special jury, Lapidus 5.1244, Rare Books

This cheerful cherub is the tailpiece, a decorative illustration marking the end of a chapter or text, of the trial report of Thomas Paine, from a volume held in the Sid Lapidus, ’59 Collection on Liberty and the American Revolution. Paine, American Founding Father most known for the publication of Common Sense in 1776, also published his defense of the French Revolution Rights of Man while in England in 1791. Knowing the British government was censoring the promotion of such radical ideas, fearing thoughts of revolution would spread to England, Paine fled to France in an attempt to avoid prosecution. He was ultimately tried and convicted in absentia of the crime of seditious libel, and this publication soon followed detailing the “ false, wicked, scandalous, and seditious” crimes of Paine.

1875 Bric-A-Brac, Princeton University Publications Collection (AC364), Princeton University Archives

Though it can be aruged that yearbooks date back over 2,000 years to the time of the Romans, Princeton was among the first universities to begin printing yearbooks as we know them today. In 1875, the first edition of the Bric-A-Brac was published, and notes in its introduction that it was created because the existing General Catalogue contained only records of the year, college honors, and statistics, so students found it insufficient as it did not represent the interests of the undergraduates.

The first publication includes a wide range of topics covering student life, including a calendar of the current and upcoming semester, sports teams, student groups, “Oldest Living Graduate,” and eating clubs, where this header image is pulled from. Digitized copies of all yearbooks, excluding those published within the past 5 years, are available through the finding aid to the Princeton University Publications Collection. (Please note that in some cases these materials may contain images and language that is sexually explicit, derogatory, and/or racially insensitive.)

Decalcomania is a limited monthly release of stickers made available at Special Collections in Firestone Library, Mudd Library, and the PUL Makerspace. All images are selected from materials held by Special Collections. Check out the Special Collections website for information about visiting our reading rooms.

Did we run out of your favorite sticker? Do you want to make your own? Head over to the PUL Makerspace! Design your own or reprint a Decalcomania sticker using the cutting machines. 

Digital images of some of the materials in Special Collections can be found in the catalog and finding aids. Our blogs and Digital PUL have collection highlights.