Southeast Windows
From the Outside In: A Visitor's Guide to the Windows
SOUTH | SOUTHEAST | NORTHEAST | NORTH
Decoration from Harmonice Mundi, Johannes Kepler, 1619
Letter from Gutenberg Bible, ca. 1455
Engraving from Schreibkunst, Anton Neudorfer, 1601
Portrait of Charles Dickens, J. C. Armytage, ca. 1868
Drawing, Edward Gorey, ca. 1948–52
Woodcut showing streetcar named "Desire," mid-20th century
Typescript of Women in Love, D. H. Lawrence, ca. 1919
The New York Yankees As Seen in San Antonio, E. O. Goldbeck, 1922
Botanical sketch, John Ruskin, 1861–62
Illustration for Lewis Carroll's "Hiawatha's Photographing," Arthur B. Frost, 1883
The image etched into the Harry Ransom Center windows of a wooden camera with a photographer crouching behind, hand outstretched, is an illustration by Arthur B. Frost for the poem "Hiawatha's Photographing" by Lewis Carroll. The poem parodies Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha (1855), an epic ballad that became popular despite having an awkward meter that was often mocked. Read more
Queen Victoria on Her Diamond Jubilee, Gunn and Stewart, 1897
Architectural drawing from La perspective, Hans Vredeman de Vries, 1639
First photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras (Retouched), Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, ca. 1826
One of the most renowned items in the Ransom Center's collections is the first recorded photograph, which has been faithfully reproduced on the Center's south atrium window. A French inventor named Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took this first photograph from the window of his studio in France in the early 1820s, and due to a fortunate series of events, the photograph has found itself on The University of Texas at Austin campus. Read more
Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Center.
Portrait of Edith Wharton, Kate Rogers Nowell, 1908
Letter by Jean Cocteau to Valentine Hugo with sketch of Stravinsky and Nijinsky, 1922
Transept of the Crystal Palace, Benjamin Brecknell Turner, 1852
This image captures the dramatic scale of the Crystal Palace, built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, the first international world’s fair. It was the largest glass building at the time, covering 990,000 square feet of Hyde Park in the middle of London, and so tall that it could enclose whole elm trees. The photograph was taken at the end of the Exhibition, before the Palace was dismantled and rebuilt in the suburb Sydenham, south of the city, as an even grander permanent exhibition space.
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Decoration from Harmonice Mundi, Johannes Kepler, 1619
Letter from Dora Carrington to Noel Carrington, 1921
Borzoi device for Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., W. A. Dwiggins, 1937
Henri-Pierre Roché, unidentified photographer, 1957
Portrait of James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, 1920
The windows of the Harry Ransom Center show two drawings of James Joyce, one by Desmond Harmsworth and one by Wyndham Lewis, depicting very different sides of the famous writer. The Lewis drawing, dated 1920, shows a portrait of Joyce from the outside: head down, identifiable by the thick eyeglasses and small beard. Lewis was one of Joyce's Modernist contemporaries—a novelist, experimental artist, and founder of the abstract art movement Vorticism. He was also a well-known curmudgeon and critic, and his sketch hints at the distance from which he approached his fellow artist. Harmsworth, in contrast, was one of Joyce's publishers and enjoyed long evenings talking and drinking with the writer. His drawing expresses more of Joyce's personal character. Read more
A Tewa Girl, Edward S. Curtis, 1921
Illuminated letter from Gutenberg Bible, ca. 1455
Dolphin and Anchor device of Aldine Press, ca. 1490s
Facsimile of Photogenic Drawing, G. Francis, 1839
Costume design, Gordon Conway, 1920s
Sketch of King Louis-Philippe, William Makepeace Thackeray, 1830s
Horse in Motion, Eadweard Muybridge, ca. 1886
It may come as a surprise in the twenty-first century to discover that in the 1880s, details of how objects move were unknown. The human eye, unaided, cannot resolve the details of fast motion. Eadweard Muybridge and his experiments with motion photography, such as this series of pictures of a horse's gait helped solve this mystery.
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Photography collection, Harry Ransom Center.
Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange, 1936
This powerful portrait depicts the weariness of a hard existence in poverty. Florence Owens, the migrant mother of the title, crouches in the foreground flanked by two of her children, their faces hidden. One's attention is directed to her eyes, which seem not to be looking at the camera but to be directed outward, perhaps contemplating a very uncertain future with little hope. Read more
Gernsheim collection, Harry Ransom Center.
Illustration from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, John Tenniel, 1865
"Curiouser and curiouser!" is what Alice cries when she suddenly stretches to more than nine feet tall, "like the largest telescope that ever was," in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In the drawing, we see Alice's large, startled eyes and open mouth expressing her surprise at her predicament. Read more
Illustration from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, John Tenniel, 1865
"Curiouser and curiouser!" is what Alice cries when she suddenly stretches to more than nine feet tall, "like the largest telescope that ever was," in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In the drawing, we see Alice's large, startled eyes and open mouth expressing her surprise at her predicament. Read more
Model of Motorcar No. 9, Norman Bel Geddes, ca. 1932
Image courtesy of the Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Foundation.
This streamlined car is the product of designer Norman Bel Geddes, who gained fame during the 1920s, '30s, and '40s for a broad range of designs. He got his start in New York designing theatrical sets in which he emphasized the use of lighting to set mood as well as provide illumination. He also designed film sets in Hollywood, including some for director Cecil B. DeMille. Read more
Portraits of D. H. Lawrence, Knud Merrild, ca. 1922–23
Portrait of Marianne Moore, Robert Stewart Sherriff, 1960s
