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UW-Milwaukee Special Collections

@uwmspeccoll.bsky.social

Expect rare books, zines, fine press editions, comic books, artists books, and the occasional shelfie from the UW-Milwaukee Special Collections staff.

179 Followers  |  16 Following  |  181 Posts  |  Joined: 25.04.2025  |  2.6991

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Typography Tuesday

SAN SERIFS

Here are a few san serif typefaces, with a focus on Curwen type from The Curwen Press Miscellany, edited by Curwen Press typographer Oliver Simon and published in London by the venerable Jewish publishing house Soncino Press.

tinyurl.com/27urs3pt

25.11.2025 22:18 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1
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On November 24th, 1864, Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa was born in Albi (southern France). Here we highlight Toulouse-Lautrec, Paris, Lautrec, and Affiches de Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: dix reproductions en couleurs.

tinyurl.com/32fwds2a

Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern

24.11.2025 21:30 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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This week, we step into the enchanted world of Edda and the Oak, written by Elia W. Peattie & illustrated by Katharine Merrill. Published in 1911, this magical tale brings together nature, mystery, and quiet wonder beneath the branches of an ancient oak.

Melissa, DCLA πŸ„

tinyurl.com/3a3639h8

21.11.2025 19:53 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Toadally Autumn

As the leaves begin to turn and the air grows crisp, it feels like the perfect time to wander into the timeless world of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Michael Hague.

tinyurl.com/4jzukwxh

β€”Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant

14.11.2025 20:37 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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On The Road Again

This week we’re adventuring with The Traveling Musicians by the Brothers Grimm, featuring a donkey, dog, cat, and rooster who decide they’re tired of being underappreciated and overworked, so they hit the road to become musicians.

-Melissa, DCLA

tinyurl.com/5actpbje

07.11.2025 20:01 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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A House Sparrow Feathursday

Once again, we highlight one of our favorite common birds, the cheery House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). Besides being a delightfully homey bird, it is also considered a symbol of lust, sexual potency, commonness, and vulgarity. Ooo, la, la!

tinyurl.com/4v79mptr

06.11.2025 22:16 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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As October ends, we bid farewell to spooky season with What’s a Ghost Going to Do? (William Morrow & Co, 1966) by Jane Thayer, illustrated by Seymour Fleishman. This heartwarming tale follows Gus; a ghost faced with a haunting dilemma: the only house he’s ever known is being torn down.
Melissa, DCLA

31.10.2025 17:55 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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These preening Oystercatchers are from Bird Portraiture (β€œHow To Do It” Series No. 35) by noted British naturalist artist & illustrator Charles Tunnicliffe, published in London & New York by The Studio in 1945. The illustrations come from the chapter on β€œPoses and Action Studies."

30.10.2025 17:44 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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A Wicked Wood Engraving Wednesday

In 1985, Barry Moser printed his edition of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at his Pennyroyal Press. The images shown here are reproductions of Moser's original wood-engraved prints in the 1986 University of California Press edition.

29.10.2025 18:46 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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These initials were designed by Dutch book & type designer Jan Van Krimpen in 1925 for use by Harold Curwen's Curwen Press. The alphabet shown here appears in The Curwen Press Miscellany, edited by Curwen's typographer Oliver Simon, published in London for the Curwen Press by Soncino Press in 1931.

28.10.2025 20:35 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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October 27th, 1923: Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York City. On his birthday, we celebrate the pop artist w/ images from Pop Art One (Publishing Institute of American Art, 1965) & Roy Lichtenstein: Drawing First:50 Years of Works on Paper (Skira, 2015)

Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern

27.10.2025 18:08 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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This week, we're going door-to-door looking for candy with Lilly and Billy in Trick or Treat written & illustrated by Louis Slobodkin (Macmillan, 1959). this charming Halloween story captures the excitement & mischief of a classic night of trick-or-treating.

Melissa, DC Library Assistant πŸŽƒπŸ¬πŸ­

24.10.2025 19:41 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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The 56th Annual Morris Fromkin Lecture is happening next week!

To register to attend this event in person or via Zoom, follow this link! uwm.edu/libraries/sp...

Hope to see you all there!

23.10.2025 21:39 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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This week we present 2 wagtails: the Grey Wagtail & the Pied or White Wagtail. About these images: a color lithograph by Charles Tunnicliffe from his book Bird Portraiture (The Studio, 1945); a wood engraving by Eric Fitch Daglish from his book Birds of the British Isles (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1948)

23.10.2025 19:36 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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For Spooky Month, we bring you these creepy wood engravings by Swiss graphic & stained-glass artist Felix Hoffmann for the 1965 Limited Editions Club production of Bram Stoker's masterpiece Dracula, printed with 33 wood engravings, with eight in three colors, at the Press of A. Colish.

22.10.2025 21:23 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Here are some calligraphic initials by the German calligrapher & type designer Anna Simons, pared with a proprietary typeface designed by German type designer & fine press publisher Willy Wiegand. These examples are from an Italian edition of Dante's La Divina Commedia (Munich: Bremer Presse, 1921)

22.10.2025 14:37 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Today we celebrate the poet Robert Pinsky, born October 20th, 1940.

The images are from Pinsky's 1998 fine press edition of The Rhyme of Reb Nachman, designed and printed in a limited edition of 125 by Caryl Seidenberg of the Vixen Press.
Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern

21.10.2025 15:08 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Ghost Lake Energy πŸ‘»πŸŒŠ

This week, we’re diving into Spooky Lakes: 25 Strange and Mysterious Lakes That Dot Our Planet, written and illustrated by Milwaukee-based artist, author, and educator Geo Rutherford.

tinyurl.com/ya549v4h

β€”Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant

17.10.2025 19:51 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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A Stonechat Feathursday

The European Stonechat has been reclassified in Muscicapidae, the family of Old World Flycatchers, following genetic DNA analysis. The common name for the bird derives from its call, which sounds like two stones knocked together.

tinyurl.com/4hczwtxd

16.10.2025 19:24 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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For Indigenous Peoples' Day, we have Speaking with Light (Radius Books & Amon Carter Museum of Art, 2022) curated by Will Wilson & John Rohrbach. This work brings together Indigenous photographers who are redefining how their cultures, histories, & communities are seen.

Melissa, Stockbridge-Munsee

15.10.2025 15:35 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Glow Your Own Way

This week’s eerie spotlight is on Mystery of the Lonely Lantern (1976), a Halloween mystery written by Florence Parry Heide and her daughter Roxanne Heide, with shadowy illustrations by Seymour Fleishman.

--Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant

tinyurl.com/3usw6rxs

10.10.2025 20:21 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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A Swan Upping Feathursday

The annual British Swan Upping, an annual ceremony and census of all unmarked Mute Swans (Cygnus olor) on the River Thames, occurred this year July 14-18.

tinyurl.com/bdat4j2u

09.10.2025 20:24 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ‘»Fairytale Friday: Spooky EditionπŸŽƒ

Spooky season (my favorite) is upon us! This week, we're diving into the first American edition of Maurice Sendak's Seven Little Monsters, published in New York by Harper & Row in 1977. It's spooky, silly, and oh so Sendak.

πŸ‘ΉMelissa, DC Library Assistant

03.10.2025 16:36 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Here are wood-engraved birds by Spokane, Washington printer & printmaker W. Gale Mueller from his Forty Years of Birds β€˜n Blocks, printed from the original blocks at his Millstone Press in 2009 in an edition of 53 copies. Today we show engravings from 2004-2008, the final engravings in the book.

02.10.2025 19:27 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Here are 4 engravings of rural Wisconsin by Wisconsin born & educated artist Curt L. Carpenter from An Innocence of Prairie by Wisconsin educator, writer, & folklorist Robert E. Gard published by arborist R. Bruce Allison. Curt Carpenter made these prints from engraved end grain maple.

02.10.2025 14:25 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Typography Tuesday

Feral Font was created by Kalmyk-American poet, artist, and AI researcher Sasha Stiles and American artist, writer, and UW-Milwaukee art professor Nathaniel Stern using the Neural Network Font Type (NNFT), a custom AI typeface.

tinyurl.com/2w2t6jz3

30.09.2025 19:49 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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On September 29th, 1547, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born in AlcalΓ‘ de Henares, near Madrid. To celebrate we have The Dialogue of the Dogs (The Allen Press, 1969)) originally collected in Novelas ejemplares, published in 1613.

Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern

29.09.2025 22:03 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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L'Amour qui Pousse sur les Arbres

Yesterday marked Shel Silverstein’s (1930-1999) birthday, which makes this the perfect week to share his timeless work, The Giving Tree.

tinyurl.com/mwz89dn7

–Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant–Melissa, Distinctive Collections Library Assistant

26.09.2025 18:20 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Here are some wood engravings that serve as short-story title illustrations by American wood engraver & painter Gillian Tyler from the 1978 publication Banquet: Five Short Stories, published by Michael McCurdy's Penmaen Press. The
title-page calligraphy is by American calligrapher Margaret Shepherd.

24.09.2025 17:16 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Typography Tuesday

Today we are presenting more specimen pages from Specimens of Printing Types and Ornaments Cast by James Conner & Son, printed in New York by William L. S. Harrison for James Conner & Son in 1852.

tinyurl.com/a5cwcfvh

23.09.2025 20:50 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

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