#uiowa

✨Happy Mini Monday!✨

It's a whimsical kind of day today, and what's more whimsical than a little circus? Viel Glück, when translated from German into English, means a very chipper, "Good luck!"

Mini Monday Merriment!

Dancing is often considered a cultural universal. That means that it is an action which can be found in all known cultures across the world. There is so much beauty to be found in dancing.

Dance Circle by Carol Cunningham with illustrations by Jacqueline Phelan discusses specific dances and their significance to various Native cultures. She highlights Wolf, Fancy Shawl, Eagle, and Crown Dancers in this mini, and these dances can be seen at powwows across America.

This mini has a very unique binding. It's called a box binding, and the points of the cover overhang ever so slightly giving a very nice tactile experience. On the inside of the box, there's a figure holding a pretty blue feather as a fan. It measures in at 70 x 75 mm from spine to point.

-- Hailee M.

A Dada Moment

Perhaps the most elusive of the dadaists, Julien Torma supposedly lived from 1902 to 1933 and published four books during his purported lifetime. However, there is no firm documentation of his life, and it is widely assumed that he never in fact existed.

Around 1952 the College of Pataphysics, a tongue-in-cheek institution founded in 1948, issued a broadside offering all four of Torma’s books for sale in honor of the 50th anniversary of his “birth,” caling him “the greatest pataphysician of the XXth century.”

We have recently acquired the complete set of four, and the inclusion of the broadside in one of the books strongly suggests that our copies came from the “Collège de Pataphisique.”

🌙 Moony Mini Monday! 🌙

There can be such beauty in simplicity. This mini, which looks fairly unassuming on the outside with only a small blue moon pasted to the front, features this wonderful pop-up and a lovely little story.

Sturgeon Moon by John Cutrone tells the story of a town in need of rain. A very helpful person called Cordie suggested that sending the sheep into the air would help bring rain. The sheep began to fly and lo and behold, the rain came shortly afterward.

In the colophon, it's mentioned that the mini was printed at Chosen Land under the Beaver Moon. Well, the Beaver Moon is the name for the full moon in November! Sturgeon Moon is the name for the full moon in August. Every month's full moon has a name which you can find on the Farmer's Almanac website.

This book measures 73 x 68 mm and is bound in red cloth. We have copy no. 36. Another fun fact about this book: it was created in Sabbathday Lake, Maine, which is the last active Shaker community.

-- Hailee M.

It's #MiniatureMonday!

Tea anyone?

Today’s Mini Monday is Alisa Golden’s “Mrs. White Has Tea,” a charming little book (or very large tea bag?) about friendship, colors, and, of course, tea! Pictured here are the second and third editions, printed in 1994 and 1999 respectively.

Material from Smith Miniatures Collection N7433.4.G57 M78 1994 and N7433.4.G57 M78 1999

Multi-Mini Monday!

(Okay, posted on a Tuesday, but, whatever)

Let me just start this by saying that the absolute joy that I felt from holding an actual handful of miniature books is unparalleled.

These are dollhouse books! There are 26 books, and the coolest part is that they are all readable! Sometimes when miniature books are made for dollhouses, they are blank books with decorated covers. These books were created by a wide variety of people and publishers, and I think that it shows how wide ranging the world of miniature book creation is!

Each book is unique, and they range in size from 18 to 25 mm. Some of them are gilt, some are illustrated, and some are quite plain. The bookcase itself is 11 x 9 x 4 cm. It is a beautiful wooden case that is decorated with gilt embellishments, orange silk, and golden ribbon trim.

More often than not, the miniatures in our collection are housed individually. It was very cool to see these items in a context that they originally could've been in. You can imagine playing with and reading these books and putting them back on their shelf as one would a standard sized book. It is so fun!

-- Hailee M.

A Chilly Tiny Tuesday!

Have you ever heard the phrase "Jack Frost nipping at your nose" from the Nat King Cole Trio's "The Christmas Song"? I've definitely thought about it whenever I'm riding my bike to work in this chilly weather.

Not everyone is upset when Jack Frost comes around, though! Paddy the Beaver featured in this mini book collection is delighted when his friend Jack Frost comes around. He needs Jack Frost to harden the mud used for his house with his cold breath.

This collection of children's stories from 1914 was created by Thornton W. Burgess. He wrote bedtime stories which featured animal characters such as Paddy the Beaver, Peter Rabbit (yes, like Beatrix Potter's titular character, name copyright was laxer back then), Buster Bear, Jerry Muskrat, Old Mr. Toad, and many, many more.

On to the physical objects, the books are all 59 x 74 mm. The case they come in is measured out to 80 x 60 x 15 mm, and each book is 9 pages. The covers were all illustrated by Harrison Cady who would become well-known for his Peter Rabbit comic strip illustrations. The minis were published in New York by Winthrop Press.

I love when minis come in their own cases. We have a number of minis in their own special housing here at the University of Iowa Special Collections, so I feel very lucky to get to work with them! Banana for scale!

-- Hailee M.

Cool Item Alert!

The International Dada Archive recently acquired an important item by Tristan Tzara, the 1977 edition of his play Le coeur à gaz (The Gas Heart), with color illustrations of the costume designs created by Sonia Delaunay for the notorious 1923 Paris performance that is traditionally marked as the end of the Dada movement.

During the performance, a fistfight broke out between members of opposing Dada factions, resulting in police intervention. The anti-Tzara faction, led by André Breton, soon went on to found the surrealist movement. The 1977 edition was the first publication of Delaunay’s designs, and was signed by the artist.