MOVABLE STATIONERY Volume 2 Number 5
Movable Books in the Lilly Library Stephen H. Cape, Lilly Library Indiana University's Bloomington campus is the home of the Lilly Library, built to house the
University's rare book and manuscript collection. The majority of its collections are traditional, from vellum manuscripts to a copy of the Gutenberg bible, Shakespeare folios and other landmarks, but increasingly artifacts of popular culture are being acquired. It would not at first consideration seem to be a likely place to view, manipulate, or study movable books, but that is indeed the case, for a variety of reasons. Among the most important of these is the gift to the Lilly of about 8,500 books and related juvenile items from the library of Elisabeth Ball, the eminent children's book collector. This gift, presented in 1983, established the Lilly as an important center for the study of historical children's literature. In the early nineties, children's books and movable books from the collection of the noted miniature book collector Ruth E. Adomeit were presented to the Lilly, adding to the movable books which had been present in the Ball Collection.
Aside from these two notable gifts, however, movable books do arrive at the Lilly from a variety of other sources. The Library itself is now adding to the collection in the field of historical children's books, and this includes movable books. In addition, gifts continue to arrive. A notable example of this is the recent gift to the Library of a small collection of materials related to the production of Lothar Meggendorfer's books. Also, appropriately. the Lilly is situated directly opposite the School of Fine Arts. and students and faculty interested in paper engineering and book design actively use the collections, and the Library tries to support their research needs. The relatively recent development of the "artists' book" has added a small, but particularly interesting aspect to the collection of movable books in the Library.
Lilly collections are available to all researchers for use within the Library Reading
November, 1994
Room upon the presentation of a valid current photo-ID. The Library is open from 9 am. to 6 pm. Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to p.m. on Saturday. Those travelling to use the collection are advised to contact the Library concerning 1
holiday hours, etc.
Virtually all of the tov and movable books in the collection are separately cataloged in Indiana University's online catalog, IUCAT, which can be searched remotely by those with access to the Internet. It can be reached via Telnet at "juis.ucs.indiana.edu", login "guest", or by gophering to "lib-gopher.lib.indiana.edu". The subject headings "toy and movable books," "harlequinades," and "artists books" will retrieve movable books.
Movable books in the collection number about 300 items, ranging from the eighteenth century to the present. Early printed items include accordion folded "peepshows," intended to be held so that they can unfold toward the viewer's feet, with the cut-out scenes mounted within providing an astonishingly realistic 3-D effect. Also included are conjurer's "blow books," trick books which by sleight of hand can be made to appear to have one set of illustrations at one moment. and another set a moment later. Another type of early tov book has figures which are inserted into vignettes to illustrate accompanying story books. The majority of the movable books, however, consist of items trom the nineteenth century to the present. These include what most usually comes to mind when the subject of movable books arises: books with tabs to pull, wheels to spin, panels to slide. or vignettes to pop up. Among these are: Dame W onder''s Transformations of the Little Drummer (London: Dean & Munday. [between 1828 and 1843]), the Roval Moveable Punch and Judy (London: Dean & Son. {between 1873 and 1893]) and To and Fro, Round We Go (London: Emest Nister. New York: E.P. Dutton, {1885}. examples from the nineteenth century. and