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Linda
Hall Library
Crayon
on Stone: Science Embraces the Lithograph, 1800-1899
March
28 to September 14

Around
1800, Alois Senefelder introduced a new printing technique called
lithography. He printed from a polished block of limestone, instead
of a copper plate or a wood block, and the resulting lithograph
provided a new warmth and expressiveness that was difficult to achieve
with an engraved plate or a woodcut. Science took to the new technique
very quickly.
By
1830, Elizabeth Gould was making lithographs of birds for her husband
John, John Richardson was publishing lithographs of Arctic animals
discovered during the search for the Northwest passage, and Beer
and Mädler were revealing new features of the moon in their
large lithographed lunar map.
One
of the greatest applications of lithography to scientific illustration
was the portrayal of fossils. A fossil in its stony matrix is very
difficult to reproduce with an engraving or a woodcut. But with
lithography, one can use a crayon to perfectly duplicate the texture
and appearance of stone. It is not surprising that when the first
Compsognathus (a small dinosaur) skeleton was discovered in 1859,
and the first Archetopteryx skeleton (the "first bird")
in 1861, both were announced to the world in publications illustrated
by large lithographs. The irony is that both fossils were found
in the limestone quarries of Solnhofen, Bavaria, which also is the
source of the world's finest lithographic stone. So in the end,
we have limestone captured on limestone, a truly divine marriage.
By
the middle of the century we find chromolithographs printed in several
colors, and by the end of the century, we find 14-stone lithographs
illustrating books of birds and butterflies. It was even possible
to photograph directly onto a lithograph stone, and the resulting
photolithograph has the realism of a photograph, but the durability
and reproducibility of a lithograph.
This
exhibit will display eighty years of scientific lithography, from
the very first ever printed (we have the first American scientific
book with lithographs in the Library's collections) to the end of
the century. Many of the most stunning scientific illustrations
ever printed are lithographs, and we wish to include as many as
we can, to create what should be a visually stunning exhibition.
This
exhibition is made possible through generous support from the Linda
Hall Library Annual Fund.
For
more information visit the website at www.lindahall.org.
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