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October/November 2001
The Girls and Boys' Miscellany (Philadelphia, 1848)
This recent acquisition, a gift of the heirs of Paul D. I. and Anna S. Maier, has a splendid decorative title page that was designed by Thomas Prichard Rossiter (1818-1871). In Rossiter's essay "Our Title Page, and the Appreciation of Design to Books" on p. 48 of the volume, he explains the symbolism of the image:
"Here, with the smallest amount of labor and ornament, a summing up of the character of the work has been attempted, and the design made to express the general meaning, as though it were a pictorial table of contents, with the motive appended …………
"[T]he first "G" represents a mother, and an infant reaching after a book, (or knowledge,) without knowing its importance. "I" is a school girl just interested in the thoughts of others. "R," a young miss watering flowers, representing culture, and indicating the expanding age. "L," two girls investigating nature, the period of analyzation. "S," a figure reading in a swing, conveying the idea of gathering intelligence even while in motion.
"The "And" is a lyre, expressing that music and sentiment unite the sexes. The word "Boys" commences with the teaching of childhood, and its intractability. "O," the sports of youth, or the graceful age. "Y," a boy contemplating an image which he has carved, admiration of one's own production, the impulse to the useful and intellectual arts. "S," represents a boy destroying a serpent, or overcoming vice and temptation, the last and most important labor of existence.
"The border signifies the plenty and luxuriance of Peace eras, in the vines and plants growing above the buried implements of war. A rake on one side, and a scythe on the other, united by wreaths of flowers, etc., indicate the arts of peace, suggest the flight of Time, the means of labor and the mode for increasing our material and intellectual treasure."
Thirty years old in 1848, Rossiter had spent most of the 1840s studying art in Europe, and mainly would paint religious subjects in his later life. -- Connie King, Reference Librarian