Pop-up, Spin, Pull, Fold: Toy Books from the Baldwin Library

Pop-up, Spin, Pull, Fold: Toy Books from the Baldwin Library is an exhibition featuring pop-up and movable books from the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature. The exhibition will run from September 2 through October 31, 2008, in the second floor exhibit gallery in Smathers Library East. The exhibition will be a chronological display of children’s books which foster an interactive experience between the reader and the book. The earliest item on display is a geography book published in 1789 “for youth at school” that contains a vovelle, a moveable chart that appeared in early science books. The rest of the exhibition displays examples of continually refined techniques of mechanical movement up through the complex pop-up books of current paper engineers such as Robert Sabuda.

A presentation and reception in conjunction with the exhibit will take place on October 2, 2008, in Smathers Library East, which will include a talk at 1:30 pm in Room 1A by paper engineer, Kyle Olmon, entitled, “How to Build a Castle: Contemporary Pop-up Book Production with a Look at the Past.” Olmon has worked in the art studio of Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart, and was the paper engineer for Castle: Medieval Days and Knights, a pop-up book published in 2006 by Orchard Books. This presentation will be followed by a reception in the exhibit area, providing an opportunity to view the exhibition.

At 1:00 pm, preceding the Olmon presentation, there will be the special dedication ceremony for a marker designating the Baldwin Library as an historical campus site. This ceremony will take place in the courtyard to the west of Smathers Library. The UF Alumni Association is sponsoring the markers throughout campus with the intention of providing returning alumni the opportunity to take a “walking tour” of the various historical markers. With the project, the Alumni Association hopes to highlight and publicize the research that is accomplished on campus and draw attention to the rich resources that are available to both students and alumni. The 103,000 volume Baldwin Library, one of the largest collections of historical English language children’s books in the world, is cited for the depth of its collection and for pioneering and supporting the study of children’s literature as an academic discipline.