Title: Lothar Meggendorfer Collection
Inclusive Dates: 1884-1995
Bulk Dates: 1888-1925

Creators:

• Hosmer, Herbert H. (Herbert Henry), 1913-1995

• Meggendorfer, Lothar

• Justin G. Schiller, Ltd.

• Verlag J.F. Schreiber

Unique Identifier: Collection ZK

Quantity: 5 linear feet of illustrated printing proofs and specimen sheets

• 5.0 Linear Feet
• 3 oversize flat boxes, 2 map-case folders

Repository:

University of Wisconsin-Madison. Department of Special Collections

Abstract:

The Lothar Meggendorfer collection includes over one hundred items related to German artist-paper engineer Lothar Meggendorfer (1847-1925). Meggendorfer created well over 100 children's books and gained international acclaim in the late nineteenth century. The collection consists primarily of large printing specimens of page samples and pictorial cover labels. Also included are proofs of illustrations and publishing advertisements, largely acquired from the collection of his second publishing house, J.F. Schreiber of Esslingen, Germany.

Language: German , English , French , Czech , Hungarian , Italian , Russian .

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-sc-zk

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This collection includes no known access restrictions.

Purchased from Charles Apfelbaum, 1999.

Lothar Meggendorfer (1847-1925) was born in Munich, Germany and attended the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. He later became an illustrator for the periodicals 'Fliegende Blätter' and 'München Bilderbogen'. In 1878, he designed his first movable book, "Lebende Bilder", for his son Adolf's Christmas present. Meggendorfer created a wide array of children's educational books with some employing intricate mechanics. He preferred four distinctive formats for his optical toy books: panoramas, slat- and flap-transformations and movables with coiled copper-wire rivets that he designed specifically for enhanced flexibility. His most renowned panorama was his "Internationaler Circus", first published in 1887. Once assembled, the entire work pulled out into a three-dimensional arena. The Munich firm of Braun and Schneider were the first to publish Meggendorfer's children's books. In 1889, J.F. Schreiber of Stuttgart and Esslingen began representing the artist, although Braun and Schneider continued publishing his works into the 1890s.

Meggendorfer's greatest contributions to children's book illustrations were his comedic sensibility and his technical refinements to moving mechanisms. He frequently designed the paper mechanisms so that for each individual scene, the child could pull a single tab in order to cause a series of movements. In 1889, he began the self-named periodical 'Meggendorfer humoristische Blätter', which frequently included his own illustrations and continued to be published until 1929. Although Meggendorfer's works were rarely published for an American audience, in 1906 he was contracted with 'The Chicago Tribune' to illustrate newspaper cartoons. After years of depicting marionettes, clowns, and comedic actors in his books, Meggendorfer created his own puppets and became a puppeteer, giving performances around Munich. He died in 1925 at age 78.

After Lothar Meggendorfer's death in 1925, his works were largely forgotten due to the bombing during World War II which destroyed the business archive of his first publisher, Braun and Schneider. In the 1970s, Meggendorfer's second publisher, J.F. Schreiber, discovered a large cache of old production files in its storage facility in Esslingen. These original drawings and hand-colored lithographs served as printing guides, text proofs and production files for 64 books and their foreign editions. They were auctioned by New York dealer, Justin G. Schiller, who eventually sold the collection piecemeal.

Herbert H. Hosmer Jr. (1913-1995), a retired Massachusetts teacher who owned the Toy Cupboard Museum and Theatre, purchased some items from the Schiller sale, and others from unknown sources. He exhibited Meggendorfer items in his museum and loaned pieces to local libraries for educational purposes. Hosmer delivered public lectures about Meggendorfer's works, utilizing the production proofs to demonstrate their paper engineering mechanisms. Some materials in the collection were those utilized by Hosmer to identify items for his records, others served as instructive materials for his Meggendorfer exhibits. Since Hosmer used his Meggendorfer collection for demonstrations and exhibitions, it is unclear whether he may have cut some of the moving parts from the large specimen sheets.

Items purchased from New Jersey bookdealer, Charles Apfelbaum, in 1999, from the Estate of Herbert H. Hosmer, Jr., of South Lancaster, Massachusetts. Hosmer acquired some items from the 1975 Schiller sale of the J.F. Schreiber publishing archive and others from unknown sources.

Lothar Meggendorfer Collection, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison

UW-Madison Special Collections has English-language facsimiles of Meggendorfer's "Im Stadpark", "Das Puppenhaus", "Internationaler Circus", and "Nur für brave Kinder".

Other repositories in the United States noted for their Lothar Meggendorfer Collections are the Manuscripts Division of the Charles E. Young Research Library at the University of California-Los Angeles and the Manuscript Collection, Lilly Library at Indiana University-Bloomington.

The Lothar Meggendorfer collection includes proofs of illustrations, uncut specimen sheets, covers, texts, and publishing advertisements of Meggendorfer's movable children's books. Some of the books were educational, introducing reading, the alphabet, multiplication, and the telling of time to children, while others were purely for entertainment. The items were largely acquired from the collection of his second publishing house, J.F. Schreiber of Esslingen. Some foreign covers and advertisements are included in the collection. Most of the items in the collection are listed in and referenced from the Justin G. Schiller auction catalog of the J. F. Schreiber sale. The Schiller auction catalog is included in the collection. Additional items in the collection relate to Schreiber's chromolithography overall, and are not representations of Meggendorfer's work. Additional notes from Hosmer have been included for some of the titles.

Item-level description is available in each box. Shelved with the collection is alphabetized list of the publications and item-level descriptions of the map-case folder.

Collection materials may be subject to laws governing rights. Researchers are solely responsible for determining the rights status of the materials they use. Permission may be required for some uses such as publication or reproduction.

Illustrators -- GermanyToy and movable books -- SpecimensChromolithography -- SpecimensIllustrated children's booksPublishers and publishing -- Germany

Box [89130031222]   1   folder 0.5	Supplementary Materials
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 1	Aufgepasst!
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 2	Aus der Kinderstube, mit Versen von Julius Beck
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 3	Beleuchtungsbilderbuch
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 4	Bilder aus dem Tierleben, 1924, Undated
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 5	Drehbilder ABC, 1898, Undated
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 6	Die Frau Bas'
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 7	Des Kindes erstes Buch
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 8	Lebende Bilder
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 9	Lustige Drehbilder
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 10	Lustige ziehbilder, 1916, 1926, Undated
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 11	Prinzessin Rosenhold
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 12	Das Puppenhaus
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 13	Reiseabenteuer des Malers Daumenlang und seines Dieners Damian
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 14	Struwelpeterbuch & Neues Struwwelpeterbuch
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 15	Die Uhr
Box [89130031222]   1   folder 16	Die Zwölf Monate
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 1	Advertisements
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 2	Da musst du Lachen
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 3	Ein mal Ein ist Eins. Text von Ferdinand Feldig
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 4	Der fidele Onkel
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 5	Gigerl's Freud und Leid. Text von Julius Beck
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 6	Kleines Legespiel, 1902, Undated
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 7	Lach mit Mir!
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 8	Die Lustige Tante
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 9	Lustiges kasperltheater and Neues Kasperltheater
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 10	Nur für brave Kinder
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 11	Prinz Liliput
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 12	Schau mich an!
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 13	Verschiedene Leute
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 14	Viel Köpf Viel Sinn
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 15	Zum Vergnügen! Ein fideles Ziehbilderbuch
Box [89130032857]   2   folder 16	Miscellaneous, 1884, 1925, Undated
Box [89130032865]   3   folder 1	Allerlei Scherz
Box [89130032865]   3   folder 2	Auf der Strasse
Box [89130032865]   3   folder 3	Gemischte Gesselschaft
Box [89130032865]   3   folder 4a	Internationaler Circus
Box [89130032865]   3   folder 4b	Internationaler Circus
Box [89130032865]   3   folder 4c	Internationaler Circus
Box [89130032865]   3   folder 5	Lustiger Kinder-Kalender, 1887-1888
Box [89130032865]   3   folder 6	Lustiges Automatentheater
Box [89130032865]   3   folder 8	Das Paradies
Box [89130032865]   3   folder 9	Verwandlungsbilder, 1910, Undated
Box [89130032865]   3   folder 10	Der Viehmarkt
Map case   2   othertype 1	Specimen sheet with pictorial covers, cover labels, and unidentified scenes
Map case   2   othertype 2	Specimen sheet with illustrations for Nur für Brave Kinder, Beleuchtungsbilderbuch, and Ein mal Eins est Eins
Map case   1   othertype 3	Specimen sheet with illustrations for Prinzessin Rosenhold and others
Map case   2   othertype 4	Specimen sheet with illustrations for Drehbilder ABC, Im wilden West, and Struwelpeterbuch 15 August 1913
Map case   1   othertype 5	Specimen sheet with illustrations for Drehbilder ABC, Aus der Jugendzeit, and unidentified scenes 28 January 1898
Map case   2   othertype 6	Specimen sheet with illustrations of German/French translations, Farbdruck v. Mal & Zeichenbuch, Legespiel, Erster ansch unterricht Taf, and Bilder v. Bun... 7 June 1902
Map case   1   othertype 7	Specimen sheet with illustrations of German/French translations, and others
Map case   2   othertype 8	Specimen sheet with pages from Sing Song! Allerlei verschen mit Bildern von Gertrude Romhlichlt and Neues Stuwelpeterbuch
Map case   1   othertype 9	Specimen sheet with "The Knight's Hall" and "Rustic Chamber"
Map case   1   othertype 10	Lustiger Kinder-Kalender 1888 and Ein Stück der Tafel XXV aus D. GH. V. Schuberts, 1888
Map case   1   othertype 11	Meggendorfer-Blätter