Our Peepshow: A Novel Panorama Book, with an introduction by F.E. Weatherly. London: Ernest Nister; New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1898.
'Printed in Bavaria, 855.'
Patterned after the popular traveling peep-shows of the nineteenth century, this book of illustrated children's tales and verse (by L.L. Weedon, Edith Nesbit, and others) is accompanied by three 'peep show' dioramas illustrated by G. H. Thompson, W. Foster, and E. S. Hardy. Although pop-up books developed into a clearly identifiable format only early in the 20th century, books with sophisticated movable parts and diorama structures were already popular in nineteenth-century Germany, America, and Victorian England. Ernest Nister, working in Nuremberg, produced, published, and perfected such works with great success, and his books served as important antecedents for the more dynamic experience that reading pop-up books provided in future years.
Gift: Harold M. Goralnick (Class of 1971).