Visual Materials

Series II. Loose prints and ephemera

Description

The contents list for this series provides basic descriptions of the more than 400 loose and matted prints and ephemera contained in the collection and captures each item's call number, item title, and, when known, date, artists, printer credit lines, and acquisition information. This list provides a preliminary inventory, and artist and printer names have not been standardized. Within the item notes, item type is identified broadly and the majority of images are listed simply as prints (though specific items incorporate intaglio, planographic, and relief printing techniques and include wood engravings, woodcuts, etchings, engravings, mezzotints, aquatints, and lithographs) or broadsides (though specific items include small advertisements, handbills, programs, and leaflets).

The items described in the contents list below are contained within the following call numbers: pri470 (Boxes 1-5), pri472 (Boxes 1-5), pri475 (Boxes 1-3), RB 3135, RB 3277, RB 4169, RB 4183, RB 4184, RB 4231, RB 10015 (Boxes 1-2), RB 72759-72762, RB 182143, RB 206395-206403, RB 240367, RB 646538, and RB 646539.

Type

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Huntington Library Aeronautica Collection: Prints and Ephemera

Visual Materials

This finding aid briefly describes the more than 600 prints and ephemera contained within the Huntington Library's Aeronautica collection. These materials date from 1762 to 1940 and document the early history of balloon flight primarily in France and England, as well as the use of aeronautical imagery in satirical, documentary, and decorative images. Items are housed either as loose and matted items in folders and boxes or pasted in one bound scrapbook. The images and texts within this collection include illustrations, diagrams, and descriptions of balloons and parachutes, balloon ascents, descents, and accidents; portraits of aeronauts; and political cartoons and fanciful or documentary pictures that incorporate depictions of balloons, airships, and flying machines. The collection features prints chronicling the progression of early aeronautical history from the first manned balloon ascent launched by French brothers Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier in 1783, to the well-publicized ascents of famed English balloonist Charles Green in the mid 1800s. While most materials concern the development of balloon flight, the collection also includes anomalous images of balloons such as in British satirical prints and in two 18th century Indian watercolors depicting scenes with demigods in flying machines (pri472 Box 1, Item No. 1, and pri475 Box 1, Item No. 1). The earliest dated image in the collection is a Scottish satirical print from 1762 depicting three men on a broom "Flying Machine" (RB 10015, Item No. 2:2), and the most recently issued item is a booklet of photostat facsimiles of trade cards held in the Bella C. Landauer Aeronautical Collection, copyrighted 1940 (RB 240367). Among the individual aeronauts, aviators, engineers, inventors, and scientists most frequently referenced and depicted in the collection are British aeronauts George Biggin, Robert Cocking (1776-1837), Charles Green (1785-1870), and James Sadler (1753-1828); Italian-English aeronaut Vincenzo Lunardi (or Vincent Lunardi) (1759-1806); and French aeronauts François Arban (1815-1849), Jean-Pierre Blanchard (1753-1809), Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles (1746-1823), Andre Jacques Garnerin (1769-1823), Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier (1756-1785), Joseph Michel Montgolfier (1740-1810), Anne-Jeane Robert (1758-1820), and Marie-Noel Robert (1760-1820). Item types consist primarily of prints, illustrations, and broadsides, but also include ephemera such as handbills, advertisements, original drawings and watercolors, invitations and tickets, handwritten notes, newspaper and magazine clippings, handwritten notes, scraps of fabric from balloons and parachutes, and sheet music. Languages represented include French, English, German, Dutch, and Latin. The materials were first described by the Huntington Library in paper-based box lists and catalog records beginning the 1930s and this finding aid builds off of the descriptions found therein. Two items listed in earlier box lists and included in this finding aid (pri 470 Box 4, Item No. 44a and pri472 Box 3 Item, No. 28) were identified as missing.

pri470, pri472, pri475, 10015, 139413, etc.

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Series I. Scrapbook

Visual Materials

pri470, pri472, pri475, 10015, 139413, etc.

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Item No. 14. Representation of Various Baloons [sic], with the methods of constructing and filling them. The Implements necessary for accelerating or retarding their Motion. See System of Aerostation

Visual Materials

[print, color; 14 vignette images and one diagram; same image as RB 10015, Item no. 26:1] Artist(s): Lodge. Printer /Publisher text: "Published as the Act directs by C. Cooke, No. 17 Paternoster Row Feby. 5th. 1784" From Maggs Bros. catalog no. 387, Item 1460.

pri472

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Item No. 36. March of Intellect. No. 2

Visual Materials

[print, color; caricature; same image as RB 10015, Item No. 52] Artist(s): Paul Pry. Printer /Publisher text: "Pub. By Y. Mclean 26 Haymarket wher Political and other caricatures are daily Pub. The largest collection of any house in London."

pri475

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Series II. Food Prints and Ephemera (large size)

Visual Materials

This series contains more than 45 large-size advertising and promotional items related to food industries in the United States from approximately 1845 to the 1960s, with the majority of items spanning from 1875 to 1920. The series is comprised mainly of lithographed advertising prints and labels produced for manufacturers, growers, packers, and distributors, but also includes engravings and woodcuts. Genres represented include advertising prints, views of factories and storefronts, and product labels. Items in this series range in size from approximately 12 x 13 inches to 29 x 42 inches.

priJLC_Food

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Series II. Transportation Prints and Ephemera (large size)

Visual Materials

This series consists of over 160 large-size printed items related to land-based modes of transportation primarily in the United States. The items date from the 1830s to the 1910s and consists largely of materials pertaining to railroads, with additional items concerning the bicycle and carriage, coach, and wagon industries. The series features lithographs produced by American artists, printers, and publishers, as well as engravings, letterpress, and woodblock prints. The items consist of advertising cards, posters, broadsides, system maps, timetables, views, and other visual materials primarily produced by transportation-affiliated entities including railroad companies and vehicle and part manufacturers such as wheel works, carriage builders, bicycle manufacturers, and locomotive machine shops. The series contains color-printed, hand-colored, and uncolored images and ranges in size from approximately 11 x 14 inches to 26 x 40 inches.

priJLC_TRAN

Series II. Loose prints and ephemera

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Huntington Library Aeronautica Collection: Prints and Ephemera

Series I. Scrapbook

Item No. 14. Representation of Various Baloons [sic], with the methods of constructing and filling them. The Implements necessary for accelerating or retarding their Motion. See System of Aerostation

Item No. 36. March of Intellect. No. 2

Series II. Food Prints and Ephemera (large size)

Series II. Transportation Prints and Ephemera (large size)