52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations: Reflections and Visual Index

This year’s “52 Weeks of …” thread has now come to a close and it is time, once again, to finish the series with our image index. Last year’s “52 Weeks” thread was largely drawn from the Rare Books collection, focussing on fantastic bindings; this year we were able to open up the thread to all collections and curators to find just what inspires us about the collections we work with on a daily basis. With this “illustrations” thread we have been able to travel all around the world and across the centuries, examining medieval manuscript illustrations, early book engravings, architectural drawings, photographic reproduction methods, travel diaries and maps.

Illustrations provide a window into an author’s imagination; they provide an instance of reaction of an artist to an author’s words. We hope that this past year’s series has provided a unique glimpse into our collections, many of the items featured this year were new discoveries or treasures we often don’t get to feature. Here is a visual index of the items included in the “52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations” thread:

We are going to let the “52 Weeks” thread lie fallow for the next two months to allow us to recharge our curatorial batteries and plan the next year’s theme. So watch this space towards the end of September, and in the meantime keep reading Echoes!

–DG