The Rise of Everyday Design: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and America February 9–July 14, 2019
See more than 200 items including books, drawings, furniture, decorative arts objects, photographs, and flyers, broadsides and advertising ephemera that offer a new and detailed look at the history of the Arts and Crafts movement.
The Arts and Crafts movement occupied a central place in discussions about modern life in Britain and America from the late 1840s to the early 1920s and beyond. Arts and Crafts reformers were concerned with the daily realities of the industrial age, and used design to envision and promote a new and improved way of living.
Discover how theorists and makers—like John Ruskin and William Morris (along with lesser known figures like Lucy Crane) in Britain and Candace Wheeler, Alice and Elbert Hubbard, and Gustav Stickley in America—spread their ideas through books, retail showrooms, and world's fairs, and how Arts and Crafts objects, which were originally handmade and costly, came to be manufactured and sold to the everyday consumer.
Stories to Tell: Selections from the Harry Ransom Center On view through August 18, 2019
The Harry Ransom Center houses some of the world's most significant collections relating to literature, art, photography, film, and the performing arts. More than 42 million manuscripts, 5 million photographs, 1 million rare books, and 100,000 artworks document our cultural history and the creative process.
Many stories can be told through the Center's collections. This rotating exhibition conveys stories of inspiration, innovation, collaboration, and frustration often associated with the creative work of leading writers and artists.
Current Highlights:
- Highlights from the newly acquired archive of playwright Arthur Miller
- Renaissance books showing collectors' search for the "perfect" copy
- Early childhood writings by Charlotte Brontë, Kazuo Ishiguro, David Foster Wallace, and others
- Drawings from the Aubrey Beardsley Collection and techniques for authenticating them
- Sketches, camera notes, and more from film director Norman Dawn
- Photographic "fakes" from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
The Gutenberg Bible
The Gutenberg Bible is the first substantial book printed from movable type on a printing press. The Ransom Center holds one of five complete copies in the United States.
First Photograph
The First Photograph was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827. The image depicts the view from an upstairs window at Niépce's estate, Le Gras, in the Burgundy region of France.
