Category Archives: Animals

Bridezillas! What Animals Wear to their Weddings

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Ratt-Brollopet [The Rats’ Wedding]. Illustrated by A. W. Eskiltuna, Sweden: Oberg, 1930. (Cotsen 29024).

Vintage for the mother of the bride?  Medals are always correct for the father.

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Kichibe Tsutsumi. Nezumi no yomeiri [The mouse’s wedding] Tokyo: Seiseido, 1916 (Cotsen 99577).

No one will ever forget this bride’s arrival . It’s not just the vehicle that makes a statement, it’s her attendants’ fabulous gowns.

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Louis Moe. Rosens bryllup med sommerfugeln [The Rose’s wedding to the Butterfly]. Copenhagen/ Kristiana, Oslo: Gyldendalske Bodhandle/ Nordisk Forlag ca. 1926. (Cotsen 22055).

A blueprint for a dream country wedding.

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Alfred Konner. Die Hochzeit des Pfaus [The Peacock’s Wedding]. Illustrated by Klaus Ensikat. Berlin: Altberliner Verlag Lucie Groszer, 1994 (Cotsen 72709).

A gown as romantic as the occasion.

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Aleksandur Bozhinov. Zlatna kniga za nashitie dietsa [The Golden Book for Our Children]. Sofia: ca. 1945 (Cotsen in process 4067937).

A stunning alternative to the billowing lacy veil.

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Adolf Holst. Die Hochzeit im Walde [The Wedding in the Woods]. Illustrated by Else Wenz-Vietor. Leipzig: Alfred Hahn’s Verlag, ca. 1926. (Cotsen 1027).

Ethereal but timeless elegance.  A dress that can dance the night away.

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Carl Sandburg. The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle and Who was in It. Illustrated by Harriet Pincus. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1967 (Cotsen in process item no 5362978).

And nothing but happy endings…

Who Can Turn the World Upside Down?

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The World Turned Upside Down, or The Comical Metamorphoses. London: E. Ryland, ca. 1770 (Cotsen 360). The boys crown their teacher with a dunce cap and horse him in preparation for a beating.

School boys in classrooms

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A fish angling on a river bank

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The World Turned Upside-Down Illustrated in 16 Wonderful Pictures. London: W. Darton, ca. 1830. (Cotsen 3883).

Hard working sheep and bears

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Die verkehrte Welt in Bildern und Reimen., plate 2. Stuttgart: Hoffmann’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1850. (Cotsen in process 6344921).

A girl or a nutcracker in the nursery

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The Taylors of Ongar, Signor Topsy-Turvy’s Wonderful Magic Lantern.  (Cotsen 7411). This savage little poem was also the work of Ann Taylor Gilbert.”

A hare, a turkey, and a tortoise in the kitchen

Committing sedition instead of being nutrition,

THEY CAN ALL TURN THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN!

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s showstopping number,  “Yorktown: The World Turned Upside Down,”  uses examples that resonate deeply with a contemporary audience instead of  the symbols of subversion from below that circulated  in popular prints (and even earlier in the margins of medieval manuscripts).  Just a few of the traditional role reversals are featured above, so here are two “World Turned Upside Down” prints to show more of them.

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