California and Alaska and Over the Canadian Pacific Railway

Alice Cordelia Morse|William Seward Webb|G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York

1890 · Dark brown leather over boards with gold stamping · Drawings and Prints

A leading New York book-cover designer in the late nineteenth century, Morse studied at the Woman’s Art School of the Cooper Union, then under John La Farge before working for Louis C. Tiffany as a painter and designer of stained glass. In 1887 she began to concentrate on book-covers, fufilling eighty-three commissions for New York commercial publishers by 1905. Complementing the text, she chose imagery ranging from classical, to Renaissance, Celtic, Arabic, Gothic, Rococo, Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau. This example is dark brown full morocco with gold and blind-stamping in the style of a sixteenth-century fanfare binding, and was produced for a deluxe gift book limited to 500 copies each costing $25, a high price in 1890.

Artist

Alice Cordelia Morse|William Seward Webb|G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York

Date

1890

Medium

Dark brown leather over boards with gold stamping

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Museum Accession, transferred from the Library