Antiquarianation

At the Morgan Library & Museum June 3 through October 2, 2011 As a habitual list maker, list refiner and scrapbooker, I jumped at the chance to visit the exhibit   Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists' Enumerations from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art   on view at the Morgan Library & Museum through October. In fact, I found it so intriguing that I visited twice. The exhibit, ingeniously brought together from different collections in the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art , was far more visually interesting than one might imagine. Some of the list makers include Grant Wood, H.L. Mencken, Alexander Calder, Joseph Cornell, Pablo Picasso, and N.C. Wyeth. Many, if not most, of the lists are illustrated and provide insight into the artists’ creative processes, motivations, organizational devices, social milieux and, in several cases, drinking habits. Exhibition catalogue Some of my favorite items include...

Tomorrow a copy of The Works of Edgar Allan Poe owned by Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is to be auctioned by Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. The dark themes portrayed in Kahlo's highly symbolic and often surreal paintings make her interest in the macabre works of Poe an important source of inspiration. The volume to be auctioned includes marginalia in Kahlo's hand and according the Hindman's description, "The inscriptions and collages in Kahlo's personal copy of The Works of Edgar Allan Poe form an extraordinary record of the artist's creative process in addition to revealing an important literary influence of her work. The item demands further study of Frida Kahlo's motivations, her selection of specific works, and the pointed references to her relationship with [her husband, Mexican artist] Diego Rivera."  It is estimated to sell for $20,000-30,000. Read the full description here:  Kahlo's Poe Copyright 2011 Antiquarianation All Rights Reserv...

Most appropriately for a nation founded on philosophical aspirations, an early name for the United States came out of a witty flaunting of British authority. Columbia lends its name to everything from the U.S. Capitol – the District of Columbia – to the oldest college in New York and many counties and towns across the nation. Have you ever wondered why? Columbia teaching John Bull [Great Britain] his new lesson c. War of 1812 Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. In the early 18th century, the publication of parliamentary debates was illegal throughout the British Empire. But the demand for such reports – especially in the colonies – was such that inventive journalists determined to find a way to publish the accounts of such debates. In order to skirt the law, the pioneering London periodical, The Gentleman’s Magazine , published the “fictional” Reports of the Debates of the Senate of Lilliput, drawing place names from Jonathan Sw...