By Adrienne Rusinko
October is spooky season! Brace yourself for the thrills and scares contained in the holdings of Special Collections. A limited run of stickers are now available at Special Collections Firestone, Special Collections Mudd, and the Princeton University Library (PUL) Makerspace.
La Fantasmagorie = Fantasmagoria, 36598 Eng 19, Cotsen Children’s Library
This mid-19th-century French/English language alphabet book is among the spookier of the genre. The caricatured illustrations, such as E for Écaillere (Oyster Woman) or N for Neige (Snow), are reminiscent of lantern slides, an early type of image projection that was often used to depict eerie figures like ghosts, devils, and skeletons. The page for letter R is Râteliers, or masticators, in English. It’s unclear what exactly this creature is supposed to represent–perhaps a fear of the dentist, cavities, or the disdain for chewing noises.
Bilder zum ersten Anschauungs-Unterricht für die Jugend, 44901 Euro 19Q, Cotsen Children’s Library
This creature is featured in the German children’s book, “Pictures for the First Visual Instruction for Young People: Containing 30 Colored Sheets on Cardboard Paper with Illustrations of Various Objects and Explanatory Texts” (the Library’s copy, notably, does not contain any texts, explanatory or not). The volume is full of illustrations of a range of categories, from household items, instruments, and animals to rooms, buildings, and a variety of individuals. These visual teaching tools would likely be displayed in a classroom and could serve to help children learn to organize and abstract information.
Tarakanishche / K. Chukovskiĭ, 33074 Pams / NR 20 / Cyrillic / Box 28, Cotsen Children’s Library
The children’s book Тараканище [Cockroach-monster], published in 1929 in the Soviet Union, provides its young readers with a goofy environment to deliver its anti-monarchy moral. Bears sit on bicycles, bunnies travel on trains, and frogs ride brooms in the start of this tale, but it all grinds to a halt when a mustachioed cockroach arrives on the scene, demanding deference and devotion, lest he swallow up the four-legged beasts. The largest of the beasts tremble in fear and begin devouring each other, offering up their offspring for the dictator’s dinner, until the kangaroo hops up and scoffs at his tiny size. A swallow swoops in to snatch him up and scarf him down, and the animals, freed from the tyranny, dance and sing and celebrate.
Decalcomania is a limited monthly release of stickers made available at Special Collections Firestone, Special Collections Mudd, 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.
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