51ĀŅĀ×

Welcome to the second of a nine-part video series, called #MovableMondays, highlighting publications from historic movable books through contemporary ā€œpop-upsā€ found within the Rare Book Collection in the Librariesā€™ Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections.

One leap forward in the field of pop-up books came with the publication of the ā€œThe Daily Express Children's Annual,ā€ (circa 1930s) printed by Lane Publications, which contains illustrations engineered to ā€œspring forward,ā€ or rise three-dimensionally when opened. Produced by Louis Giraud, this five-part publication laid the groundwork for Giraudā€™s well-known Bookano book series.

ā€œYou see a real evolution in the mechanics of the booksā€¦ Now all you have to do is open the page, and you are going to see a pop-up, even though they werenā€™t called pop-ups at the time,ā€ said Miriam Intrator, special collections librarian. ā€œGiraud called the moveable parts of his books ā€˜living modelsā€™ [because] they are some of the early examples of pop-ups.ā€

Despite their huge popularity, this genre of books may often be overlooked within the walls of academiaā€”which makes #MovableMondays even more enticing to the viewer.

Follow the series on the Librariesā€™ social media accounts: , , and ā€”and be sure to check out the Feb. 11 #MovableMondays featuring ā€œ.ā€

Here is the Jan. 14^th video you may have missed: Astronomicum Caesareum

Photo by Stephen Zenner/51ĀŅĀ× Libraries