Just in time for Reunions, Cotsen will be presenting our newest exhibition:

Building Books: Architecture for Children

The exhibition will feature a diverse array of toys and picture books focused around a central theme of all things constructive. Architects and architecture, builders and buildings, prints and cards and books and blocks! The items featured in the exhibit hail from 10 countries, across 3 continents, and nearly 275 years (from 1740 to the present day). Join us in celebrating the rich history of the connection between children’s books and toys with building and architecture.

Without spoiling too much of what will be available in the gallery, I though you might appreciate seeing some of the building that went into getting the exhibit ready (sorry, couldn’t help myself). Some of the items pictured below didn’t make it into the final show. You’ll have to come in on Thursday, May 29th to see what made it in. . .

Storybook City. 167 Pieces. Skaneateles, NY : T.C. Timber, ca. 1991. Manufactured by Habermaas Corporation.

Shinban Ueno Toeizan kirikumi toro-e. [Newly Printed Ueno Toeizan Cut and Assemble Sheet] Illustrated by Kuninaga. Tokyo? ca. 1920?

Das Kind als Märchenbaumeister [The Child as Fairy Tale Architect] Ludwigsburg, Germany : Hausser, Otto, Max & Mϋller, Freyer, ca. 1910.

A Grocer’s Shop. (Clark’s Monster Models, no. 3) London?: Clark, between 1860 and 1870?

Richter’s Anchor Box No. 12. Rudolstadt, Germany : F. Ad. Richter & Co. (Anker Steinbaukasten), 1884.

Friedrich Boer. 3 Jüngen erforschen eine Stadt: Ein Bilderbuch mit Foto, Bildmontagen und Zeichnungen. Berlin: Herbert Stuffer Verlag, 1933.

Congratulations to all our 2014 graduates, and welcome back Alumni!