Special Collections Department

This beautifully-produced French carriage maker's catalog contains numerous chromolithographed plates of carriages which range from elegantly simple designs to highly complex vehicles.

The collection includes many catalogs from the funeral industry. In addition to horse-drawn hearses for both children and adults, the company also manufactured memorial urns.

The eye-catching cover of this catalog is an example of color printing by chromolithography which reached its peak in the 1880s and 1890s. By the turn of the century, printers were turning increasingly to photo-reproductive processes.

The cover design and typography of this catalog were influenced by the magazines of the period, particularly Will Bradley's Chapbook and The Yellow Book, published in London. The book is filled with wonderful illustrations, unfortunately unsigned, of young men and women enjoying their bicycles.

All of the humorous illustrations in this catalog are taken from Shakespeare's plays and made to refer to bicycles. The drawings were done by Frederick Burr Opper (1857-1937), who was primarily known as a book illustrator and cartoonist.

The catalog says "Every third car sold in America during 1912 will be a Model T." The 26 reasons to buy, one for every letter of the alphabet, are all done in rhyme.

The catalog contains an essay entitled "The Motoring Woman" which describes the importance of women in popularizing the automobile. It goes on to say that "The automobile has been a great factor in advancing the independence of woman. It may be that when universal suffrage happens we can place a goodly part of the credit to the automobile."

The cover exemplifies pre-World War I America's fascination with all types of motor-driven transportation.

The locomobile was the top of the line in automobiles in 1914. The two-passenger roadster cost $5100; the seven-passenger "Berline" model cost $6500.

The simplicity of design and use of large areas of flat color in this cover, reflect the style of the "Poster Period" of the 1890s and the influence of the Japanese print on American art.

The Wright Company catalog included a great deal of information about the production, specifications and use of their airplanes, made for both civilian and military purposes. In describing their newest "whirlwind" engine, the catalog states that Charles Lindberg will use one in his attempt to make the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris.

The catalog contains pictures and testimonials from several award-winning women pilots, making it of interest to students of women's history.