Miniature Books at Maxwell Library Marcia Dinneen Bridgewater State University, Mdinneen@Bridgew.Edu

Bridgewater Review

Volume 33 | Issue 2 Article 10

Oct-2014 Miniature Books at Maxwell Library Marcia Dinneen Bridgewater State University, [email protected]

Recommended Citation Dinneen, Marcia (2014). Miniature Books at Maxwell Library. Bridgewater Review, 33(2), 31-32. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol33/iss2/10

This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. In 1832 Doctor Charles Knowlton Miniature Books at (1800-1850) wrote a manual on the then-taboo subject of birth control, and Maxwell Library published it under the innocuous title The Fruits of Philosophy, or the Private Marcia Dinneen Companion of Young Married People. or centuries, people have been fascinated by The book measures 2 M by 2 ½ inches and was easy to conceal. In 1862, the miniature books. Some have collected them; Emancipation Proclamation was printed others have written about them; still more have in miniature book form by abolitionist F John Murray Forbes of Boston. Copies simply enjoyed them. What many people do not know were given to Union soldiers to carry is that the Maxwell Library has its own collection and to distribute in southern states. On of miniature books. Housed in Special Collections, his travels in Africa, British explorer David Livingstone carried with him a these tiny treasures are rare in several aspects. The miniature book of the poems of Robert most obvious of these is their size. The standard Burns, and T. E. Lawrence gave miniature copies of the Koran to his Muslim definition for a miniature book as set by collector soldiers as a battle talisman. Adolf Percy Spielmann and by Julian Edison, editor of Hitler used miniatures for propaganda, Miniature Book News, is three inches in height—up issuing cheaply printed biographies of Nazi officers, folk songs, and praise to four inches “if the intent is miniature.” By this for himself. One miniature book, measure, the BSU collection has 78 miniature books, The Autobiography of Robert Hutchings Goddard, Father of the Space Age, pub- including Bibles, religious books, Thumb Bibles were particularly popu- lished by St. Onge, was aboard the novels, poems, hymnals and children’s lar, as were Almanacs. By the nine- Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in 1969. books. The collection also includes teenth century, technological advances 19 books published by Achille J. in typography and photography ena- St. Onge (1913-1978) of Worcester, bled the creation of the smallest books. Massachusetts, whose publications are “The 19th century,” Louis Bondy wrote regarded as among the best-produced in his Miniature Books: Their History from miniature books in America. Beginnings to the Present (1981), was “the supreme age of the miniature book.” In The origin of miniature books actu- that century, several London publish- ally precedes the invention of printing. ers developed complete libraries for The earliest miniature “book” is a tiny children that were housed in specially cuneiform clay tablet produced by the designed bookcases, and religious tract Sumerians and containing government societies produced huge numbers of Although miniature books were largely records. Miniatures were developed tiny books, which they often distrib- the creatures of publishers, some authors in manuscript form and only later uted for free. Since then, miniature wrote their works in miniature. The as printed books. The first printed books have conveyed many types of Brontë sisters and brother Bramwell miniature book, according to historian knowledge, from dictionary entries created their worlds of Angria and Douglas McMurtrie, was the Diurnale to poems. Gondal in tiny manuscripts. They Moguntinum, produced about 1468 by replicated published print in careful German printer Peter Schoeffer, who Fine workmanship is the hallmark calligraphy and used a variety of apprenticed with Johann Gutenberg. of miniature books. Care is needed materials (including a flour sack, a Early miniature books are rare. By the to cut and cast type, develop ink sheet of music, or a wallpaper scrap) sixteenth century, miniatures were that will not clog the tiny type, select for each “volume.” As described by produced more frequently, and there appropriate paper, and bind the minute Kate E. Brown in her 1998 essay are many examples that can be seen in volumes. Miniature books are works “Beloved Objects,” Charlotte Brontë’s such repositories as the British Library of art, but they are also useful. Because Never-Ending Story (1826-29) is less and the Library of Congress. In the of their size, they have been easy to than three inches tall, as is Bramwell’s seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, carry and, when necessary, to hide. History of the Young Men (1830).

November 2014 31 in Worcester holds all 49 miniature Miniature books are works books published by St. Onge. of art, but they are also useful. In addition to the St. Onge collection, BSU collection contains other Because of their size, they intriguing little books. There is the 1828 three-volume set of the gothic have been easy to carry and, romance Children of the Abbey, along with books published by the American when necessary, to hide. Tract Society, such as Daily Food for Christians (1880). One fascinating book is The Bliss of Marriage, The Way Miniature books have great appeal to the Altar, Matrimony Made Easy, or to the avid collector. In his book The How to Win a Lover (1854). The book Savage Mind (1962), anthropologist is included in Humbug. A Look at Some Claude Levi-Strauss called the minia- Popular Impositions (1859) as an example ture book the “masterpiece of the jour- of a famous hoax, purportedly offering neyman.” Some are driven to collecting advice for a happy marriage, but in miniatures because they can amass a reality selling various nostrums. great many of them in a small space. Among the miniature children’s books Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, are stories and poems difficult to had a collection estimated at between locate elsewhere, such as Frank L. 1800 to 2000 volumes; sadly, it was Baum’s short piece “The Christmas wholly lost during the 1871 burning of Frost. There are also inaugural presi- Stocking,” published in the Christmas the Tuileries Palace. President Franklin dential addresses: Kennedy, Johnson, Stocking Series. Other important titles Delano Roosevelt collected more than and Nixon. Some of the books at in the collection include The Ladies 750 miniatures. Among the many Maxwell are in poor shape and some Almanac, published in 1856, which libraries that collect miniature books of them are missing pages. The major- includes an informative article on are the Henry E. Huntington Library, ity of the books are written in English. women’s medical colleges. the Boston Public Library, the Library Some of the “books” are actually pamphlets and two are Christmas orna- Although housing and displaying a of Congress, the American Antiquarian collection of miniature books can be Society (which has 100 examples of ments, complete with string, to hang on the tree. challenging, having it is an asset to American editions of Thumb Bibles Bridgewater State. Many of the titles dating from 1765) and the New York Perhaps most interesting among the are valuable because they point to our Public Library (which has a copy of miniature books in the BSU collec- history and reflect aspects of a forgot- the first miniature book printed in tion, however, are a series of 19 min- ten past. Students, scholars and others America, William Secker’s A Wedding iature books (all of them in fine shape) fascinated by the riches inside these tiny Ring for the Finger, or the Salve of Divinity published by St. Onge. He started books would do well to set aside some on the Sore of Humanity [Boston, 1695]). publishing miniatures in 1935 with time to spend with them by visiting our Bridgewater State University’s own Noel, by Robert K. Shaw. His early Special Collections, on the third floor collection of miniature books ranges books were printed in this country, but of Maxwell Library. from literature to religion, from later he had his books printed abroad instructive manuals to biographies. The using, for example, the Enschede Press books are bound in cloth, paper, and of Haarlem, Holland (the one that various types of leather. Most of the also prints money for the country). books are children’s literature, 30 of St. Onge’s Inaugural Address of John them in all. Twenty-two books are of F. Kennedy was in such demand after a religious nature, ranging from prayer Kennedy’s death in 1963 that the 1000 books to books of Bible verses for each original copies quickly sold out, and the day. There are 13 Bibles. Sixteen books book had to be reprinted. Within the fall into the category of literature— year following Kennedy’s death, 7000 novels and poems including some by copies had been sold. The Robert H. Marcia Dinneen is Head of Reference recognized authors, such as Robert Goddard Museum at Clark University Services at Maxwell Library.

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