clara elsene peck

I'm always thrilled to find illustrations done by women (like Elenore Abbott), but these are not only done by a woman, but done to illustrate books written by a woman.  Yay girls!  The books are Shake-speares Sweetheart and A Lady of King Arthur's Court by Sara Hawks Sterling (about which I could find no information), published in 1905 and 1907, respectively.  They were illustrated by Clara Elsene Peck in a delightfully Art Nouveau-ish manner.

I love the text on that last one.  "'Let us go,' she said.  'Life is before us.'"  I'd love to put that very thing on the inside of a wedding band, wouldn't you?

Scans from Golden Age Comic Book Stories

a song of the english

The most recent post from Golden Age Comic Book Stories features the illustrations from a 1909 edition of Rudyard Kipling's A Song of the English.  The illustrations, by W. Heath Robinson, absolutely blew me away.  Here are my favourites (there are a bunch, I really, REALLY loved them!):

Those last two are about the most beautiful things I've seen.  Something about the sea, the sky, and the women makes me want to sing.

elihu and the Rubáiyát

At my fellowship today, I was going through files on old exhibitions and I came across one on a show the SAAM put on in 1995 all about the illustrations Elihu Vedder did for The Rubáiyát in 1884 (the museum owns the full set). To put it simply, I fell in love. I love the quality of Vedder's work, his drawings by turns complex (see above) and simple (see below), but always possessing such gorgeous, stylized movement. Plus, he incorporates the actual text of the poem into the drawings in a beautiful yet easily read hand.
I highly recommend studying all of Vedder's Rubáiyát illustrations. This small sampling hardly does them justice!
PS: If any of this seems familiar, it's because I blogged about The Rubáiyát last summer when I discovered a copy with illustrations by Edmund Dulac in a local shop.

guaranty

Warning!: extreme dorking out ahead! Please secure your life jacket before continuing.

L: Circa 1900, R: 2006

An article in the New York Times today brought the city of Buffalo, NY to my attention. I knew it was there, of course, I'd just never had any reason to learn more. Boy, was I missing out. Turns out, after the completion of the Eerie Canal started to bring people in, it became a positive mecca for great Gilded Age architects: Henry Hobson Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted (of Central Park fame), Louis Sullivan, and Daniel Burnham (of Chicago's Columbian Exposition in 1893). I'd really love to prattle on about all out them, but this is a blog, not an architectural history class, so I'll stick to one: Louis Sullivan, and his Guaranty building.In 1894, a Buffalo businessman commissioned Sullivan's firm in the construction of a new office building. After he died suddenly, the Guaranty Construction Company of Chicago purchased it, followed by the Prudential Insurance Company. Both "Guaranty" and "Prudential" are on the building, so you'll hear it referred to by both names.The exterior is covered in gorgeous terra cotta depicting art nouveauish foliage and geometric patterns.

Look at that scrollwork! Love!

Let's take a look at the interior!So it turns out that I get as freakishly excited about old iron elevators as I do doors. Who knew? Aren't they fantastic?

If you're interested in learning more about the Guaranty building, other buildings, or historic Buffalo architecture on the whole, check out Buffalo Architecture and History (h/t to historic preservationist/jewelry designer/fellow dec arts student Amy Poff). I pulled most of my images from them.

For more on Gilded Age architects, I highly recommend reading Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, about the Chicago World's Fair, the men who put it together, and a rather nefarious individual who took advantage of it. It's nonfiction that reads like fiction. Trust me, I hate nonfiction.

There. Done. It is now safe to remove your jackets. I don't do too many of these because I worry about boring people, so if you enjoyed this little discovery as much as I did, let me know!