Evening star., 1912-07-18
INSTALLNEWEXH|b|T
"The History of the Book at
Old Smithsonian.
SHOWS EARLIEST WRITINGS
Modern Specimens of the Printers
and Engravers' Art Also in
the Collection.

The whole appearance of the old
smithsonian building is being changed by
blg, new exhibit that is being installed.
mis- old red sandstone building is the
original Smithsonian 1t is said to be the
nnest specimen of Gothic architecture In
the United States. It used to house the
whole OF the national collection, but when
what is now the old National Museum
building was completed years ago the
collections were moved there. The Smith
sonian was then devoted entirely to the
bird collection which is one of the finest
In the world. Now that the New National
Musum is completed and partly filed, the
bird collection is being transferred to
the new building and its place is being
described as The History of the Book .
1t is the largest and most complete COL
lection of the sort in the United States
by Paul Brockett, the librarian of the
institution.
The exhibit begins with the baked clay
tablets of Babylon and the even older
tnaidean writings in cuneiform charac-
ters on rough globes Of baked earth The
implements used are shown in various
forms of the stylus. There are espeti-
mems OF writing on papyrus and the ear
nest paper. As the old tablets and scrolls
gave way to bound books, these are
shown with the earliest Of the so-called
plock books, in which a whole page
was printed from a single block an early
forecast OF the way a modern newspaper
is run off from stereotype plate. Then
comes printing from the first movable
type with specimens of Caxton and Gut
tenbarg. The old Illuminated manu-,
scripts in pen and ink are shown, the
artistic and painstaking work of the
monks in the dark ages
Specimens Of Engraving.
When illustrations began to come into
use there was spread in the popularity
of the book because 1t appealed then to
SO many of the illiterate class who could
not read There We're whole editions OF
the Bible made up of the crudest wood
cut line pictures. with scarcely any let
ter press. This was followed by the
more pretentfous steel and copper en-
craving. OF these there are many strk-
ingly beautiful specimens. landscapes.
portraits and art works. The illustra-
tons extend. then through all the
graduations of color and mechanical
processes, the earlier glass monotypes
half tones and color photography and
the three color and muiticolor systems
of reproduction.
Some of the most curious Of the illus
tration work is that of the Chinese In
these broad wall poster effects some
times as many as thrty-siX impressions
have to be made to print a single color
picture. Often it takes ten or fifteen
identical plates, each carrying more
than one color to print a single picture.
These plates. unlike the work Of occi-
dental wood engravers. are made on
boards, cut with the grain instead OF
across the grain of the wood
1t often takes years to complete a single
set of plates, and although the work is
freehand, the reproductions are so per-
feet that successive prints are made from
them on the same sheet of paper without
the least OVERLAPPING or mixing of colors
Some Effects Are Clever.
The object of the artist is always to
simulate brush work. and some of the
effects are remarkably clever.
In the realm Of modern illustration
there are many specimens that are in
trinsically beautiful. and many that are
curious as well as artistic in the various
steps taken to secure the final effect.
There are specimens Of all the most
artistic and expensive Of modern gold
fooled bindings, and the collection alto
gether is such as only a very large ma
tional collection could furnish the ma
terial to illustrate. 1t is an attractive
educational exhibit as we'll, and is likely
to prove extremely SO in the case of
many of the more advanced schools and
school teachers in Washington.