August 20, 2019, Filed Under: Conservation, Exhibitions + Events, PhotographyIntroducing The Niépce Heliograph One of the most celebrated objects in the history of photography is featured in a permanent exhibition just inside the main entrance to the Harry Ransom Center. The untitled photograph—the earliest known surviving photograph made with the aid of the camera obscura—was produced in 1827 by the French scientist and… read more
July 22, 2019, Filed Under: Art, Exhibitions + EventsDetecting forgeries of Aubrey Beardsley’s influential artworks “Pray forgive my frankness when I say that two of them are not only not by A.B. [Aubrey Beardsley], but are not in the least like him! It is astonishing to me how many people are taken in. Is it not perhaps because they buy a name and not a… read more
May 24, 2019, Filed Under: Books + Manuscripts, Exhibitions + EventsGutenberg Misbound When Johann Gutenberg and his team published their Bible in the mid-1450s, what they were selling to buyers were sets of sheets, sheets of either paper or parchment that had text printed on them. What they were not selling were books—not, at least, if we take “book,” as we usually do,… read more
