Native Wisconsin

Native People of Wisconsin by Ojibwe scholar and journalist Patty Loew (b.1952), published in 2003 by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press in Madison, Wisconsin, is a book for young readers about the twelve Indian Nations that live in Wisconsin, including my tribe, the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans. The book also includes the history of the First People in Wisconsin and the impact of European arrivals on Native culture.

Patty Loew, a Wisconsinite and member of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Ojibwe tribe, is a journalist, professor, author, community historian, broadcaster, documentary filmmaker, academic, and advocate. This children’s book is a testament to her work, showcasing tribal narratives that encompass different methods through which Indigenous communities preserve their history. With a particular emphasis on oral tradition, this work is a valuable resource for educators and individuals interested in Native American history and will surely captivate young readers.

View other posts from our Native American Literature Collection.

View more from our Historical Curriculum Collection.

-Melissa (Stockbridge-Munsee), Special Collections Graduate Intern

A Pigeon-fluencer Feathursday

This week’s post was inspired by a recent Guardian article on the rise of Pigeon-influencers on TikTok and their role in reviving the popularity of the oft-derided and underestimated birds.  

Throughout history, pigeons have provided sustenance (“squab”), labor (in the form of the “pigeon post”), and companionship to human populations. Though these days we may typically associate the Rock Pigeon (Columba livia, otherwise known as the common pigeon) with other animals classified as “pests” in urban landscapes, they are in fact understood to be the world’s oldest domesticated bird. Historical documentation of pigeons can be found in hieroglyphic texts and art dating back as far as ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. According to Colin Jerolmack, professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at NYU and author of The Global Pigeon, pigeons “have been in cities as long as we’ve had cities” and, prior to the technological innovation of the telegram, were “the most reliable messaging system in the world”. While “fancy” pigeons (like Frillbacks, English Magpies, Jacobin, and Archangel pigeons) were bred and kept as prized pets in the Victorian era, the North American Passenger Pigeon (or “wild pigeon”) was hunted to the point of extinction in the early 20th century.

To illustrate the complexity of our love-hate relationship with the birds we’ve selected a variety of illustrations and text from our collection and featured them alongside some images from outside sources.

The engravings in images #2 & #8 from The Illustrated Natural History: Birds (London: George Routledge & Sons) were created by the Brothers Dalziel, a wood engraving shop in Victorian London founded in 1839 and operated by George and Edward Dalziel. Image #1 from Birds of America; Fifty Selections (with commentaries by Roger Tory Peterson) (New York: Macmillan) is a reproduction of a hand-colored lithograph produced by the shop of J. T. Bowen of Philadelphia from a painting by naturalist and artist John James Audubon in the early 19th century.

–Ana, Special Collections Graduate Intern

Other image sources:

#3: Western Crowned Pigeon (Goura cristata) in TMII Birdpark - Western crowned pigeon - Wikipedia

#4: Keyla Rose with Tony, her pigeon, on a walk in New York. Photograph: Alaina Demopoulos/The Guardian. August 23, 2024.

#5-6: from City Creatures: Animal Encounters in the Chicago Wilderness Pigeons (poem) by Chicago-based Puerto Rican poet and community activist David Hernandez, DH+BH (image of tattoo) by Camilo Cumpian.

#7: Ceiling Fragment Depicting Pigeons in Flight | New Kingdom | The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org) (ca. 1390–1352 B.C.)

#9: a Memorial to the extinct Passenger Pigeon at Wyalusing State Park in Wisconsin (1947)

#10: from Nikola Tesla’s Obsession with Pigeons, Electricity, and a Plan to Wirelessly Connect the World (nautil.us)

Typography Tuesday

KAREL TEIGE

Presented here are the typographic photomontage designs by Czech avant-garde artist, writer, and designer Karel Teige (1900-1951) for the 24-poem sequence Abeceda (Prague, 1926) by his friend Vítězslav Nezval (1900-1958), featuring dancer Milča Mayerová (1901-1977). All were members of the Czech avant-garde group Devětsil (1926-1930). These images are reproduced in ABZ, edited by Julian Rothenstein and Mel Gooding, and published in San Francisco by Chronicle Books in 2003 (an earlier edition was published by Shambhala in 1993 as Alphabets & Other Signs).

Teige’s designs are a demonstration of his Constructivist aim to create a new “optical language, a system of signs capable of embodying words in graphic figures.” They are a manifestation of what László Moholy-Nagy had called for in his influential 1925 Bauhaus book Painting, Photography, Film – the dynamic combination of photographic image and lettering he termed “typofoto.”

View our other Typography Tuesday posts.

Happy Labor Day!

Today is Labor Day, the holiday where we celebrate the contributions of workers and the labor movement to our country. To celebrate, we are sharing some pages from the 1938 publication Labor Hi-Lites published by Union News Features. This pamphlet of cartoon/comic-like pages full of labor- and union-related factoids was compiled by lawyer, labor activist, and Hull House affiliate Charles P. Schwartz (1886-1975) and drawn by political/labor cartoonist Bernard Seaman (1913-1998).

Something unusual you may notice about these comic-book-esque panels is that the facts in each panel are generally unrelated to one another. They all focus on the theme of labor and labor unions, but otherwise don’t seem to be grouped by any particular rhyme or reason.

We hope these labor factoids help remind you how far we have come in the struggle for fair labor practices and laws to enshrine our rights but also how much farther we have to go and in some ways how little has changed.

View more Labor Day posts.

– Alice, Special Collections Department Manager

Shakespeare Weekend

Volume Two of The Pictorial Edition of the Works of Shakspere edited and published by Charles Knight (1797-1873) contains the remaining six comedies All’s Well That Ends Well, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night; or What You Will, As You Like It, Measure for Measure, A Winter’s Tale, and Tempest. Knight includes introductory notices prior to the start of each play throughout the collection to determine “the state of the text.” The notices provide brief overviews of the play draped with an editorial point of view, deliver a critical analysis of the “supposed source of the plot,“ and address character costumes.  

The notices are as heavily illustrated as the plays, and unique to Volume Two is an advertisement defending the editorial choices of how and which illustrations are chosen for inclusion. Knight informs readers that there are no editions of Shakespeare “in which the aid of Art has been called in to give a distinctness to the conceptions of the reader by representing the realities upon which the imagination of the poet must have rested.” He further explains that his pictorial edition will focus on representing the scores of rich scenes and characters without unnecessary embellishments. With one hundred and sixty illustrations in Volume Two alone, it is safe to say his intentions were well met.  

The Pictorial Edition of the Works of Shakspere was originally issued out of London in fifty-six monthly parts before being bound in an eight-volume set in 1839. 

View more Shakespeare Weekend posts. 

-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

Steamy Saturday

• “ … without the society of women, homosexual practices are likely to be evident… .”
• “Now Van moved into the masculine world of politics … where he learned that the price of power was a surrender to lust in all forms.”
• “Van was almost a senator when Jeff seduced him… and then blackmailed his career … and his manhood.”

Senator Swish by Aaron Thomas (misspelled Arron on the cover), published in 1968 by adult-book publisher William Hamling’s Phenix Publishing/Greenleaf Classics in San Diego as part of its Companion Book series, has a plot line where the main character goes beyond binary choice and learns to accept his bisexuality.

The story line is a little complicated, but here’s a synopsis: Van is a successful L.A. lawyer tapped to run for senator. His girlfriend Jennifer works in the fashion industry and is off on assignment for a couple of weeks. While she’s gone, her college-student brother Jeff shows up, and Van soon learns that Jeff is gay, which upsets him greatly. Nevertheless, Jeff manages to seduce Van, and while he’s conflicted about his sexuality, Van certainly enjoys his time with Jeff. Still, if this affair came out, it would jeopardize his run for senator, and then of course there’s Jennifer. Van decides to get Jeff an apartment so he can be with Jennifer and have her brother on the side. Yeah, that’ll work out great; problem solved.

Jennifer eventually returns and Van tells her that her brother has returned from college. Jennifer is confused and proves to him that her brother is still in Ohio at college. Plot twist! Jeff is not who he says he is! Turns out, this rather elaborate ruse by ersatz-Jeff was just a complicated (and not very believable) frame to blackmail Van! Oh no! But, Jennifer and Van turn the tables on counterfeit-Jeff (how? No spoiler here!), and Jennifer, while hurt by the affair that almost ruined their lives, forgives Van because, after all, she works in the fashion industry and understands the queer world where men can “go both ways.” Oh, lucky Van! They agree to marry, and presumably live happily ever after. We never do learn whether Van becomes a senator, however.

We don’t have any information on the author Aaron Thomas, although the name is used as author for quite a number of gay pulp novels, but we do know that the cover art (apparently trying to appeal to multiple sexual orientations?) is by noted artist and illustrator Darrel Millsap (1931-2012).

View other gay fiction posts.

View more LGBTQ+ posts.

View other pulp fiction posts.

Submerged in Psychedelia

Let’s dive into the technicolor waters of the Yellow Submarine! In 1968, when the world was spinning to the beat of peace, love, and trippy tunes, Pyramid Publications and King Features Syndicate jointly published the Official Beatles Yellow Submarine Magazine/The Beatles: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. The Beatles created this far-out treasure trove to celebrate their colorful fantasy film Yellow Submarine. The magazine features behind the scenes tidbits, an illustrated film synopsis, and even a few groovy sea creatures.

-Melissa, Special Collections Graduate Intern

A Yellow-feathered Feathursday

Today we bring you all the yellow-feathered birds illustrated in hand-colored wood engravings by British author and wood engraver Eric Fitch Daglish (1892-1966) from his 1948 publication Birds of the British Isles, published in London by J. M. Dent & Sons in 1948 in a limited edition of 1500 copies. From top to bottom:

• Eurasian Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus)
• European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)
• Horned Lark or Shore Lark (Eremophila alpestris)
• Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella)
• Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava)

Birds of the British Isles is a donation from our friend, Wisconsin wood engraver Tony Drehfal.

View more posts from this volume.

View more Feathursday posts.

Wood Engraving Wednesday

CARL MONTFORD

This engraving, “Fisherman’s Terminal,” by noted Seattle wood engraver Carl Montford, is from the wood-engraving collection Surroundings: Engravings in Wood printed for the Wood Engravers’ Network (WEN) at the Piano Press in St. Paul, Minnesota in a limited edition of 110 copies. Montford is a long-standing member of WEN and is considered the dean of Northwest wood engravers. A catalogue raisonné of his half century of work was published by Chatwin Books and is still available for only $45.

Our copy of Surroundings is a gift from our friend Jim Horton.

Carl Montford celebrating Thomas Bewick with fellow wood engravers at the historic bar, Blackies in Newcastle, England (2014).

View more prints from Surroundings.

View more prints by Carl Montford.

View more engravings by members of the Wood Engraver’s Network.

View more posts with wood engravings!

Staff Pick of the Week

Feeling that burn? With a heat wave gripping the Midwest this week and a heat advisory currently in effect in Milwaukee, we could all use a little relief where we can get it. Never fear, performance artist Allan Kaprow’s Air Condition is here with a silly yet charming strategy for beating the heat.

Kaprow (1927-2006), who is most well-known for his “Happenings” (which often manifested as performances, situations, or events), described Air Condition as “a ‘privacy piece’ meant for an individual alone, which was carried out by seven persons in the hills around the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, in October of 1973.”

This work, which was published in 1975, was donated to UWM Libraries by Kaprow himself in 1976, along with Warm-Ups, Testimonials, 7 Kinds of Sympathy, Match, Maneuvers, and Comfort Zones (all of which were published between 1975-1976).

–Ana, Special Collections Graduate Intern

View more Staff Picks.