May 18, 2012
Christopher Plantin of Antwerp
The Department of Special Collections begins a series of postings highlighting the great printers and publishers with Christopher Plantin of Antwerp. Plantin turned Antwerp into the most important center for book production during the second half of the 16th century and he is one of the greatest names in the history of publishing. Born in France around 1520, he learned the printing trade in Paris at the time the work of the printers of France reigned supreme. He settled in Antwerp in 1549 and set up a business as a book binder and bookseller. Antwerp was an attractive location because of its prosperous printing trade known for producing quality work. Plantin's career as a book binder came to a premature end when his right arm was injured when he was attacked by a band of drunken men who mistook him for someone else.
The Plantin Press was established in 1555 and issued as its first work the Institution d'une Fille de Noble Maison. Soon after he established his printing establishment he surrounded himself with a group of scholars, linguists and engravers. By 1576 there were 22 presses in operation. This was production on a massive scale compared to the average printing shop of the day which employed two to six presses at most. The Biblia regia, a massive, eight volume polyglot Bible produced between 1568 and 1573 in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac and Aramaic, is considered to be Plantin's masterpiece. It was to be financed by King Philip II of Spain but he never supplied the funds he had promised and as a result Plantin was nearly financially ruined by the venture. This same Philip appointed Plantin court printer in 1570 and named him supervisor of all Dutch printing.
During his lifetime Plantin produced nearly 2000 titles at the sign of the Golden Compass and published in a wide variety of subjects including the classics, Bibles, dictionaries, medical books and emblem books. He also advanced the process of music printing and published the work of contemporary Dutch and Flemish botanists, geographers and cartographers. Plantin's types were French and he purchased types and strikes at the sales of Simon Colines' and Garamond's material. He commissioned Robert Granjon to design several series of types and engaged Guillaume Le Bé for his Hebrew type. Plantin employed more type cutters in his foundry attached to the printing house. The works of the press influenced trends in book illustration of the time. Plantin's establishment was the one chiefly responsible for spurring the popularity of the extravagant engraved copper plate title pages that spread over Europe (For more on this subject see: Christopher Plantin and Engraved Book Illustrations in Sixteenth-Century Europe. Karen L. Bowne and Dirk Imhof. Cambridge ; New York, N.Y. : Cambridge University Press, 2008). The famous device used on his title pages after 1557 consists of a compass that is usually held by a disembodied hand in a circle which is accompanied by his personal motto "Labore et Contantia," By labor and constancy. The device also incorporated elaborate borders, foliage, human and animal figures, and architectural shapes which were subject to frequent change.
Plantin headed one of the most prosperous business
establishments of the time that stretched as far as north Africa where his agents sold his Hebrew Bibles to the Jewish congregations. However, his life was far from easy. Early on, in the year 1562, he escaped to Paris. It is thought he feared for his life because he was a member of a secret sect called "The Family of Love" and indeed, since three Antwerp printers had been executed for heresy his fears were not unfounded. While he was away his worldly possessions were dispersed and auctioned off including some of his printing presses, type and books. He was able to return two years later with his name cleared. For ten years the fate of the polyglot Bible, which nearly ruined him, languished as the theologians of Salamanca tried to have it placed on the Index librorum prohibitorum (List of Prohibited books). There was concern that problems would arise if the Bible fell into the hands of the lay people. After Antwerp was sacked by Spanish soldiers during the revolt of the Netherlands the resources of Plantin's establishment were severely diminished but he built up again during the ensuing period of peace and prospered. In 1583 he left Antwerp again and worked as printer to the university in Leiden until 1585. His sons-in-law Francis van Ravelingen (Raphelengius) and Jan Moerentorff (Moretus) kept the establishment operating in his absence.
Plantin died in 1589, the year after the defeat of the great Spanish Armada by the British, and was buried in Antwerp Cathedral. His printing establishment was carried on by his son-in-law Jan Moretus and his heirs until the nineteen century. In 1866 the press issued its last work and the business was shut down. The unique materials that had been accumulated over the centuries were kept and the building was made into the Plantin-Moretus Museum. The city of Antwerp acquired the museum in 1876 which remains a place of pilgrimage today.
Our featured work from the Plantin Press is a book of martyrs published in 1589, the second edition of Martyrology Romanum: ad novam Kalendarii rationem, et ecclesiasticae historiae veritatem restitutum / Gregorii XIII. Pont. Max. iussu editum. Accesserunt notationes atque tractatio de Martyrologio Romano: auctore Caesare Baronio Sorano. Below is the engraved frontispiece page and title page with Plantin's device.
To view the latest list of Plantin titles identified in the Special Collections rare book holdings search author "Plantin, Christophe ca. 1520-1589" in Euclid Plus.
Image 1 above: Portrait of Plantin by Peter Paul Ruebens painted between 1612 and 1616 after a 1584 portrait from the Wikimedia Commons
Image 2 above: Plantin Device from the Pitts Theological Digital Image Archive
Image 3 above: Printing presses at the Plantin-Moretus Museum, World Heritage Sites web page
For more information contact the Department of Special Collections at the Kelvin Smith Library at 216-368-0189
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May 17, 2012
Curtain Pullers at Cleveland Play House
The Play House was interested in education at many levels. One program which was extremely successful was The Curtain Pullers.
Originally known as The Children’s Theatre when it was founded in 1933 by Play House actress Esther Mullin, the Curtain Pullers produced plays acted by children for children. Local schools were asked to select their 2 most talented students, aged 5-12, for positions in the Play House School at no cost. From 1936-1940 the Curtain Players grew to 500 children and their productions had an audience of 6,000.
Three productions were presented each season: at Thanksgiving, during the Christmas holidays and in early spring. Many of the productions were from original manuscripts. All the students were eligible for tryouts. There was also a continuing program of creative dramatics. "The Play House feels that the objectives of creative dramatics are to give the child an avenue of self-expression, to offer a controlled emotional outlet, to help build good attitudes and appreciations, to provide opportunities for growth and social cooperation and to help develop the latent imagination of the child. To this end, the youngsters are provided with an atmosphere of freedom, understanding and enthusiasm." (1)
Alumni of the Curtain Pullers include actors Paul Newman and Joel Grey.
Here is Paul Newman at age 11 in a 1936 production of St. George and The Dragon.
This program eventually evolved into the Play House Youth Theatre.
(1) Ruth Fischer, The Cleveland Play House. The Nation's First Professional Resident Theatre Company (October 1963).
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May 10, 2012
The Cleveland Play House Club
Planning for a non-profit theatre supper club, to be called the Cleveland Play House Club, was begun in the late 1950’s by the Men's Committee. Their goal was to enhance the theatre going experience and bring added income to the organization. The only requirement for membership was that the applicant be a season subscriber to the Play House.
Membership form for Cleveland Play House subscribers. 1960
The original club was located at the 77th Street Theatre facility and was designed by architect Francis K. Draz. His design converted a seldom-used rehearsal hall into a 6,000 square foot kitchen and a dining room with seating for 60 guests.
A noted feature of the club was a stained glass window with one word embellished at its center: "love." A relic from the building’s pre-Play House years as a Christian Science Church, the window was salvaged when the club was re-incarnated at the 86th Street location in time for the 1982-1983 season. The club then boasted a lounge with seating for 50 and three private dining rooms with combined capacity to seat 90. In conjunction with the launch of the new club facility and the popularity of signature club dishes prompted publication of Rave Reviews: A Cookbook of the Cleveland Play House in 1983.
For more information about Cleveland Play House Club and the Cleveland Play House Archives at the Kelvin Smith Library contact Special Collections or visit our CPH web page
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May 04, 2012
"Pantomime by Member of Play House Group Opens New Home”
Thus did the December 9, 1917 Cleveland Plain Dealer announce the opening of the Cleveland Play House’s new home at East 73rd and Cedar. The first production in its new home was an original pantomime, The Garden of Semiramis, written and directed by Olive Russell.
Although we haven’t finished processing all the production records, we believe this is the earliest production photo in the collection. The print is an enlarged reproduction, which accounts for much of the blurring.
For those interested in the archival behind-the-scenes details, the first phase of processing the nearly 1,300-foot Cleveland Play House Archives is proceeding on two parallel tracks. On one track archivists are producing summary box-level descriptions, linking boxes to series, and identifying additional physical processing needed (re-foldering, conservation treatment, etc.). This will allow us to begin answering users’ questions before the collection is fully processed as well as help us plan next steps. We’ve completed around 250 boxes and our average time is 3.5 minutes per box. (Rigid self-control and peer pressure are necessary to resist the temptation to delve deeply into the boxes at this stage.)
On the other track, our students have begun creating detailed descriptions of series that need little or no additional processing and that we believe will be in high demand. The first such series is production photographs. For the seasons from 1917/18 through 2003/4 there are over 1,100 productions for which we have photographs. Skillful work by Cleveland Play House staff before the collection was donated to Kelvin Smith Library resulted in photographs that are properly housed, well-labelled, and well-organized. Our students are building on this good work by transcribing folder labels to create a basic searchable inventory. That effort went faster than anticipated (1.5 minutes per folder). The next step, just getting started, is to prepare the photographs for digitization and to transcribe image labels to capture searchable details (Do we have any pictures of Margaret Hamilton? In what seasons was Antigone produced?). These descriptions will be turned into metadata accompanying the digital images when we begin digitization – Soon, Very Soon.
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April 20, 2012
Historic Cleveland Play House Stages
The historic stages of the Cleveland Play House, from it’s inaugural year in 1915 through the closing of the East 86th Street complex in 2011, were created for and adapted to the changing needs of the theatre.
Early Play House productions were staged in buildings located on the estate of Francis E. Drury near E. 86th Street and Euclid Avenue.
Growing attendance at increasingly ambitious productions led to the purchase and renovation of a church building at East 73rd and Cedar in 1917. Ten years of continued growth brought a need for a much larger, professionally designed physical plant. In 1927 the Play House returned to the site at East 86th Street to build a new home, unique for it’s two theatres (Drury and Brooks) under one roof.
An increased emphasis on educational activities fueled the acquisition and renovation of another church building in 1949. Located at East 77th Street and Euclid Avenue, this location would also host the Play House Club from 1960-1983.
Open Stage at 77th St. & Euclid Avenue. This model of the "open stage" amphitheater, based on the design of Frederic McConnell, was new and revolutionary. Without curtain or proscenium it allowed the actors and the audience to interact in harmony.
Planning for consolidation of all Play House activities at the 86th Street location began in 1975 and culminated in the 1983 opening of the Cleveland Play House complex designed by architect Philip Johnson.
For more information contact Special Collections
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April 16, 2012
Scholarly Resources & Special Collections Exhibit
No sooner had the tables of the Hatch Reading Room been cleared of the March exhibit celebrating the richness of the Cleveland Playhouse Archives acquisition then the librarians and archivists of KSL's Scholarly Resources & Special Collections team began selecting for display of a number of items illustrating the variety of information sources and services found in the CWRU Archives, Special Collections and Preservation departments.
Staged on April 11th, the one-day exhibit was opened following a lecture entitled "Victorian Serials: Essential Parts of the 19th Century Imagination" given by Robert H. Jackson, noted collector of rare books, who writes and speaks widely in the U.S. and abroad on the history and future of the book and literary culture.
We invite you to take a look at a sample of the exhibit items:
For more information contact Special Collections
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April 09, 2012
Early Relationships between CWRU and the Cleveland Play House
CWRU established a joint degree program with the Cleveland Play House in 1931 when the Administrative Board of the Graduate School of Western Reserve University at a meeting on 5/11 approved a trial year for graduate work in Drama and the Theatre to begin in the Fall of 1931. As described in the 1931/32 Catalog, “The distinctive feature of this program of graduate study is the cooperation of a theatre and a university. The unusual opportunity to receive instruction from the director and members of the staff of the Cleveland Play House assures emphasis upon practical experience. To this is linked a study of the drama in its historical, critical, and cultural aspects as literature.” Barclay Leathem (WRU faculty member), Frederick McConnell (director of the Play House), and Arthur White (WRU faculty member) had presented the proposal for the graduate program. From 1927 until this time, Cleveland College of WRU had offered 1 undergraduate course, Play-Production, for 2 credit hours. Instruction had been given by Mr. Leathem and members of the Play House staff.
Earliest extant brochure of joint program with Cleveland Play House
In addition to the curriculum, the two institutions shared personnel and spaces for productions. Cleveland Play House assistant director K. Elmo Lowe directed the WRU student production of The Cassilis Engagement as part of the Western Reserve University Centennial celebration in 1926. The WRU Adelbert College Sock and Buskin Club produced the Somerset Maugham play, The Sacred Flame, on campus in 1930 and at the Cleveland Play House during the 1934/35 season.
In an interesting twist, the Play House produced the Joseph Remenyi play, 30 Jefferson Arcade, in 1918 – nine years before Remenyi became a faculty member of WRU. Remenyi (1891-1956), novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright, was a faculty member in Comparative Literature 1927 until his death in 1956.
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March 30, 2012
Packing the Cleveland Play House Archives
During 5 days in December 2011, 25 Kelvin Smith Library and Cleveland Play House staff spent over 100 hours packing more than 1,000 boxes of documents, books, posters, and models. The purpose of this marathon effort was to prepare the Archives of the Cleveland Play House for transport to its new home at Kelvin Smith Library.
Some of the aisles were narrow. The boxes were certainly heavy.
Many of the shelves were high. A few of the items tested our packing ingenuity.
But the job was completed - on time and under budget.
A promising start to an exciting addition to Kelvin Smith Library's collections.
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March 22, 2012
Another highlight in honor of Charles Dickens 200th Birthday
The Cricket on the Hearth : a Fairy Tale of Home is the third of five Christmas books published by Dickens. It was originally published by Bradbury and Evans in 1846. Our featured work was printed by the prominent British private press, the Golden Cockerel Press, in a limited edition of 1500 copies in 1933. The Golden Cockerel Press was in operation from 1920 until 1960 and gained fame for its beautiful handmade books of classic literature that were produced in limited editions.
Facing page 6, plate 1: "The Perrybingle Family" The Cricket on the Hearth : a Fairy Tale of Home by Charles Dickens
Waltham Saint Lawrence, Eng. : The Golden Cockerel Press : Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, 1933
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March 07, 2012
O tempora! O lectores!
February brought an interesting array of readers through our doors for a variety of events, highlights of which we note here. The month began with a facilities tour and presentation on the history of the book given to students engaged in IMLS grant activities in the Kelvin Smith Library. The event included an exhibit of items from the Special Collections shelves, including Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts from the Otto Ege Collection and our Flemish Book of Hours.
frontispiece from Mr. William Shakespear's comedies, histories, and tragedies, faithfully reproduced in facsimile from the edition of 1685
Busy times continued with classes held in the Hatch Reading Room including English 310: History of the English Language, and, USSY 286S: Shakesploitation - 400 Years of Marketing Shakespeare. Professors conducting these courses, Dr. Kimberly Emmons and Dr. Barbara Burgess-Van Aken, respectively, worked with Special Collections and Research Services librarians to integrate a number of Special Collections texts into their syllabi, examples of which ranged from a first edition De humani corporis fabrica [1543] to a 20th century reprint of the bard’s first folio. Preparation for such visits would not be complete without a review of our bibliography William Shakespeare: Works Held in the Department of Special Collections- we hope you will take a moment to enjoy it.
A visit from Michael F. Suarez, SJ, University Professor & Director of Rare Book School at the University of Virginia offered an exciting opportunity to join local bibliophiles in enjoying his lecture at the Kelvin Smith Library: “Patrons and Illustrations: 17th Century British Books and Coming of the Enlightenment.” The event offered a fascinating look at the publishers, printers, and readers of that time followed by a spirited Q&A session.
If you would like to know more about Special Collections please be sure to visit our website.
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