APHA / Chesapeake at the Hornbake Library
University of Maryland
December 5, 2015
About 30 of us were treated to a tour by Chesapeake Chapter members & “Alice” collectors August and Clare Imholtz at the Hornbake Library of the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. The exhibition titled Alice 150 Years and Counting…The Legacy of Lewis Carroll: Selections from the Collection of August and Clare Imholtz is on display through July 2016.
Couldn’t help but want to squeeze an original illustration of Alice by Lewis Carroll in here. The Imholtz collection numbers some 4,700 pieces suggesting things are pretty crowded over there too.
The exhibit begans with a number of early editions of Carroll’s most famous books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and includes Carroll’s other fictional, poetic, photographic, and mathematical works. There were a number of interesting stories about rejected printings by Carroll along with subtle differences between versions that typically excite an APHA crowd
The exhibition celebrates the worldwide and timeless appeal of Carroll’s legacy by showcasing how artists and illustrators have envisioned the Alice books. It also highlights at least a dozen foreign language illustrated editions, artistic bindings, unusual ephemera, and the role of Alice in popular culture over the past 150 years. The book, which has never been out of print during its 150 year existence, has been translated into more than 170 languages. A notable element to several translations was the change of Alice’s name – S0yia in one Russian translation.
The exhibition was quite well organized with a large number of pieces that was surely going to attract any viewer. A quite special area of the exhibition emphasized reprints of the story based on the illustrators, such as Ralph Steadman. Here is one by the well-known illustrator Barry Moser.
Jill Cypher chatting with August Imholtz prior to the formal talk.
Casey Smith, George Barnum, Chris Sweterlitsch and Chris Manson talk with Doug McElrath (2nd from right), head of Special Collections & University Archives at the Hornbake Library, University of Maryland. It gave a core group of the chapter the opportunity to discuss the potential of publishing a book of images relating to the printing trade from the book Doug is holding.
August & Clare look over some additional pieces in the reading room.
August starting the tour with a wonderful photo of the original Alice aged 10. – was responsible for the display of the exhibition.
It was a bit hard to not think “through the looking glass” while taking photos, in this instance of Clare making a point. Photographing from outside the glass-walled exhibition turned out to be one of the best ways to catch the focus of the talk and the people reacting to it.
August, in the orange shirt, explaining a few of the many translations included in the exhibit.
A nice photo by Casey Smith of Ray Nichols taking that photo above.
Clare Imholtz describing the differences in several early editions from the 1860s and 70s.
A special thanks to August and Clare Imholtz for the talk and Doug McElrath for hosting us.
Photos by Ray Nichols