#harvardfineartslib

Today is National Sewing Machine Day! This photograph shows a Singer sewing machine salesman demonstrating how the machine works. The Singer treadle sewing machine had a cast iron base and treadle. The machine also folded down into a cabinet.

Stephen Dingilian (left), a Singer sewing machine salesman. Sirvi-HIssar. photographs c. 1899 Armenian Repository: Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives, Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States HOLLIS number: 8000903763

Happy International Bat Appreciation Day!

Did you know that bats are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight? Their hand-like wings are formed from four elongated “fingers” covered by a cutaneous membrane. Pretty amazing!

Image: Bat with Young, 1881. Kyōsai Kawanabe (1831 – 1889) Plate from the illustrated book Kyōsai rankuga (Kyōsai’s Drawings for Pleasure)

Happy Year of the Rabbit!

2023 is the Year of the Rabbit, an animal that symbolizes longevity, positivity, auspiciousness, wittiness, cautiousness, cleverness, and deftness. We wish you a peaceful and restful year ahead.

Parasol tree and two rabbits Transliterated (Pinyin) Title: Wu tong shuang tu Alternate Title: Rabbit pair beside paulownia tree Leng Mei, 1st half of 18th cent., Chinese [artist] Materials/Techniques: silk, color 176.2 x 95 cm. Chinese Style / period Qing 18th century Repository: Palace Museum, Beijing, Beijing Shi, China HOLLIS number: olvwork380658

Happy Birthday to Anni Albers who was born on this day in 1899. Anni Albers (1899-1994) was a textile artist, designer, printmaker, and educator known for her pioneering graphic wall hangings and weavings.

Beginning in 1970, Anni Albers filled her graph-paper notebook regularly until 1980. This publication is a facsimile of her only known notebook which shows her working process.

The notebook follows Albers's deliberations and progression as a draftsman in their original form. It reveals the way she went about making complex patterns, exploring them piece by piece, line by line, in a visually dramatic and mysteriously beautiful series of geometric arrangements.

Having a field day or a terrible horrible bad day? That depends on if you’re a cat or rat in this woodblock print!

Kyōsai was one of the most celebrated painters of late nineteenth-century Japan. He was keen to reverse power relationships in his animal themed work, often giving smaller animals a chance to get their revenge on their predators, as we see in this humorous woodblock print.

Image: Kyōsai Kawanabe, “Rat’s Revenge”, 1871-89, Color-woodblock print, 24x25cm

This week is National Wildflower Week.

Gloriosa superba is a plant grown as an ornamental in warm climates the world over, but in India and parts of Africa it occurs as a wildflower. It is a species of flowering plant in the family Colchicaceae. Common names include flame lily, climbing lily, creeping lily, glory lily, gloriosa lily, tiger claw, agnishikha and fire lily.

In Zimbabwe, it is their national flower, and it is the state flower of Tamil Nadu state in India.

The plant is toxic, but also medicinal, and has been used to treat many ailments. Be alert, however. Every part of the plant is poisonous, especially the tuberous rhizomes. It is toxic enough to cause human and animal fatalities!

It is best to enjoy the flowers with your eyes only.

This image is part of FAL’s Digital Images and Slides Collection (DISC), a collection of images digitized from secondary sources for use in teaching and learning. FAL does not own the original artworks represented in this collection, but you can find more information at HOLLIS Images.

#Womenshistorymonth

Image 1: Front cover Image 2: Maria Geertruida Barbiers (1773 – 1838), Dutch “Tulipa,” cropped, Watercolor on paper, c. 1800s

Women artists Hart, Andrea London : Natural History Museum, [2014] 110 pages : color illustrations ; 26 cm Images of nature (Natural History Museum (London, England))

This collection celebrates the work and lives of women artists spanning the last three centuries and is illustrated with a selection of exquisite artworks from the unrivalled collections held in the Library of the Natural History Museum.