#facsimiles

The commemorative box created by the publisher.

Parts of the letter that Beatrix Potter wrote to her governess’s son, Noel.

Staff Pick of the Week

Before The Tale of Peter Rabbit became a well-loved children’s book for those in England, and eventually spreading further, it was a story created for one special boy. Beatrix Potter was very fond of her last governess, Annie Moore, who had left her position in order to get married. The two women kept in touch and Beatrix was known to send Moore’s growing family illustrated letters featuring many animal friends. When Moore’s eldest son Noel fell ill, Beatrix wrote him one of her famous letters and Peter Rabbit was born.

The idea of publishing Peter Rabbit didn’t come to mind until it was suggested by fellow author, Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley. Despite Peter Rabbit’s monumental success presently, Potter’s story was rejected multiple times and she ended up publishing it herself in 1901, though it was a limited quantity and sold within her social circle. To no one’s surprise, however, it was a big hit! Frederick Warne & Co had rejected the idea the first time around but quickly reconsidered, if Beatrix would do the illustrations in color. This she did, and the first edition was published by Warne in October 1902. After that, the story took off, and is now a “must have” on children’s bookshelves.

To commemorate 100 years of the original Peter Rabbit picture letter of 1893, Frederick Warne & Co created this 1993 limited-edition commemorative box set in a limited edition of 1175 copies that includes a copy of the original Peter Rabbit letter and facsililes of her privately-printed edition of 1901 and the first deluxe Warne editon of 1902, all printed and bound by the venerable William Clowes Limited. Although it’s a facsimile, it was made to look and feel exactly like the original. It’s very convincing! I chose this book as my first staff pick not only because I like her artwork but because it looked like it might’ve been an original.  

View another Beatrix Potter post. 

View more Staff Picks.

A Catesby River Bird Feathursday

This week we return to our 1974 folio facsimile set of Mark Catesby’s Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands originally published between 1729 and 1747. Our facsimile is a limited edition of 500 copies reproduced from a copy of the 3rd edition at the Boston Athenaeum, and published by The Beehive Press in Savannah, Georgia, with design and printing by The Stinehour Press, and the plates printed by The Meriden Gravure Company.

We focus on a few birds commonly found by rivers and ponds right here in Milwaukee: 

1.) Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon). 2.) Green Heron (Butorides virescens), called the "Small Bittern" by Catesby. 3.) Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias).

We juxtapose these plates with photographs of these birds for comparison.

View our previous post from Catesby’s Natural History.

A Feathursday of Extinction

English naturalist Mark Catesby (1683–1749) traveled and collected specimens in the southern American colonies and the Caribbean from 1712-1719 and then again from 1722-1726. His explorations culminated in his massive Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands published between 1729 and 1747. The plates shown here come from our 1974 large folio-sized facsimile reproduced from a copy of the 3rd edition at the Boston Athenaeum, consisting of 50 color plates and a descriptive catalogue, limited to an edition of 500 boxed sets.

Today we are showing plates of three birds observed and described by Catesby that are now extinct:

1.) Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), extinct by 1914, depicted in a Red Oak (Quercus rubra). 2.) Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis), extinct in the U.S. by 1944, depicted in a Willow Oak (Quercus phellos) . 3.) Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis), extinct by 1939, depicted in a Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum).

Hunting and habitat loss were contributing factors in their extinction, although it remains unclear what exactly led to the Carolina Parakeet’s rapid decline.

Due to restricted funding, Catesby etched his own plates and even hand colored the first of the two volumes. Our facsimile edition was published in 1974 by The Beehive Press in Savannah, Georgia, and was designed and printed by The Stinehour Press, Lunenburg, Vermont, with the plates printed by The Meriden Gravure Company, Meriden, Connecticut 

A thing is the book of itself

A book offered to the eye alone is reduced to what it has in common with a painting. To meet a book on its own terms, you have to touch it, hold it, turn its pages. And yet the more a book is handled the faster it breaks down. That’s fine for a mass market paperback on your shelves, not so good for for old, fragile, or singular books your museum is tasked with preserving. It’s a general dilemma…