Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada

Alice Cordelia Morse|Washington Irving|G. P. Putnam, New York

1893 · Cream cloth covered boards with gold decoration · Drawings and Prints

A leading New York late nineteenth century book-cover designer, 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. To complement the text of The Conquest of Granada, Morse used a mixture of Arts and Crafts, Arabic, Moorish, and Persian ornament. The cover is bound in white plain-weave cloth, stamped in green, pink, and gold. This book and its companion publication, "The Alhambra," also written by Washington Irving, are two of the most elaborately produced gift books designed by Morse. An example of this cover was shown at the Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 1893.

Artist

Alice Cordelia Morse|Washington Irving|G. P. Putnam, New York

Date

1893

Medium

Cream cloth covered boards with gold decoration

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Alice C. Morse, 1923, transferred from the Library