Featuring hand-colored woodcut and lithograph caricatures of familiar social types, from raunchy spinsters to clumsy bachelors, mid-nineteenth century comic valentines encouraged buyers to observe the holiday through mischief.
Creators: Turner & Fisher Valentine Publishers (printer), Charles Colton (author)
Date of Creation: Dated February 12, 1847 (f1 r.); Written Feb. 20 (f1 v.); Sent Feb. 25 (f2 v.).
Place of origin: Printed in New York City; Sent from Charlestown, MA, to Enosburgh Falls, VT
Physical measurements: 2 leaves
Materials: Lettersheet, ink, watercolor paint, trace of wax seal
Process by which it was made: Handwritten letter; illustration made via wood-engraving, hand-colored with a stencil
Martin, John. “The Dance: A Revival, ‘Kykunkor’ is Restored to Its Original Form and Excellence – Week’s Programs.” The New York Times, January 13, X, 8, 1935.
Stiehl, Pamyla A. “The Curious Case of Kykunkor: A Dansical/Musical Exploration and Reclamation of Asadata Dafora’s Kykunkor, or the Witch Woman (1934).” Studies in Musical Theatre, 3(2):143-156, 2009.
Information contributed by Amimbola Cole Kai-Lewis.
Line Drawing of Teomamaque carrying sacred bundles after Codex Boturini, 2. Drawing by Molly Bassett.
The tlaquimilolli, or sacred bundle, is an extraordinary form of the quimilli or “bundle,” an object used in many Native American cultures, including the Mexica and Maya of Mesoamerica.
Creators: Mexica-Aztec priests
Date of Creation: c. 1325-1521
Place of origin: Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco
Physical measurements: Unknown
Materials: Textiles, pelts, bones, and other media
Process by which it was made: Collection and wrapping
Current location: There are no extant tlaquimilolli. Images of sacred bundles can be found in Contact-era codices, including the Florentine Codex.
Further Reading
Bassett, Molly H. The Fate of Earthly Things: Aztec Gods and God-Bodies. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2015.
Dean, Carolyn, and Dana Leibsohn. “Hybridity and Its Discontents: Considering Visual Culture in Colonial Spanish America.” Colonial Latin American Review 12, no. 1 (2003): 5-35.
Durán, Diego. Historia De Las Indias De Nueva-España Y Islas De Tierra Firme. Vol. 1, Mèxico D.F.: Imp. de J.M. Andrade y F. Escalante, 1867-1880.
Grecco Pacheco, Daniel. “Ontologias envolvidas: conceitos e práticas sobre os envoltórios de tecido entre os maias.” Antipoda: Revista Antropología y Arqueología. 2019, n.37, pp.119-135. ISSN 1900-5407. http://dx.doi.org/10.7440/antipoda37.2019.06.
Guernsey, Julia, and F. Kent Reilly. 2006. Sacred bundles: ritual acts of wrapping and binding in Mesoamerica. Barnardsville, N.C.: Boundary End Archaeology Research Center.
Houston, Stephen, David Stuart, and Karl Taube. The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience among the Classic Maya. Joe R. And Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.
Karttunen, Frances. An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl. Norman, OK: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1983.
Lockhart, James. Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts. Nahuatl Studies Series. Edited by James Lockhart and Rebecca Horn. Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2001.
Magaloni Kerpel, Diana. “Powerful Words and Eloquent Images.” Chap. 10 In The Florentine Codex: An Encyclopedia of the Nahua World in Sixteenth-Century Mexico, edited by Jeanette Favrot Peterson and Kevin Terraciano, 152-64. Texas: The University of Texas Press, 2019.
Martínez, José Luis. “Gerónimo De Mendieta.” Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl, no. 14 (1980): 131-95.
Mendieta, Gerónimo de. Historia Eclesiástica Indiana. México: Antigua Libreria, 1870.
Olivier, Guilhem. “The Sacred Bundles and the Coronation of the Aztec King in Mexico-Tenochtitlan.” In Sacred Bundles: Ritual Acts of Wrapping and Binding in Mesoamerica, edited by Julia Guernsey and F. Kent Reilly, 199-225. Barnardsville, NC: Boundary End Archaeology Research Center, 2006.
Olko, Justyna. Insignia of Rank in the Nahua World: From the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century. Boulder, US: University Press of Colorado, 2014.
Online Nahuatl Dictionary. 2020-2022
Sahagún, Bernardino de. Book 6: Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy. Translated by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson. General History of the Things of New Spain. 12 vols. Vol. 6, Santa Fe, NM: The School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1969.
———. Book 7: The Sun, the Moon and the Stars and the Binding of the Years.General History of the Things of New Spain. 12 vols. Vol. 7, Santa Fe, NM: The School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1953.———. Book 11: Earthly Things. Translated by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson. General History of the Things of New Spain. 12 vols. Vol. 11, Santa Fe, NM: The School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1963.
Courtesy of the General Archive of the Indies, Sevilla, Spain.
The first printed grammar for facilitating Nahua-Spanish communication and a reference for beginner Nahuatl-learners in the 1500s.
Creators: Alonso de Molina
Date of Creation: 1571
Place of origin: Mexico City/Tenochtitlan (in Pedro Ocharte’s printing press).
Physical measurements: 117 leaves + 10 manuscript inserted pages at back, 14 cm in length
Materials: Paper
Process by which it was made: Woodcut title illustration (Saint Francis receiving the stigmata), woodcut initials throughout, and moveable type. Inserts include use of vermillion, a cochineal lake, and a gypsum-based pigment.
Courtesy of the Nickels and Dimes Collection, Northern Illinois University Libraries.
A New Nick Carter Weekly dime novel, the third issue in a trilogy focused on a fictional criminal organization called the Black Hand.
Creators: Chick Carter (pseud.), but can be attributed to Frederick Van Rensselaer Dey (1861-1922). John R. Coryell (1851-1924) is the creator of the Nick Carter character.
Date of Creation: August 7, 1909. Reprinted in thick book format with New Magnet Library nos. 718 and 1268 in 1912 and 1929.
Place of origin: New York City
Physical measurements: 31 pages; approx. 5” x 7”.
Materials: Paper, ink
Process by which it was made: Stereotyping
Current location: Northern Illinois University: Nickels and Dimes, From the Collections of Johannesen and LeBlanc.
Rebecca Rubin doll and Meet Rebecca book, American Girl. Courtesy of American Girl.
The Rebecca doll, books, and accessories established the fictional character of a Jewish nine-year-old girl living in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood in 1914.
Creators: American Girl
Date of Creation: 2009
Place of origin: Middleton, Wisconsin.
Physical measurements: Doll is eighteen inches tall; book is 6.5 x 8 inches and 86 pages.
Materials: Doll has vinyl limbs and face and stuffed soft cloth body; book has glossy pages.
