Design for a Book Cover and Book Binding
ca. 1887â1903
Classification
graphic design
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Accession Number
1943-33-1-34
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Alice Cordelia Morse’s “Design for a Book Cover and Book Binding” captures a pivotal moment American graphic design. Created roughly 1887 and 1903, the work reflects the growing emphasis on attractive, marketable book covers during a period when mass-produced literature reached wider audiences than ever before. As a preparatory design, it reveals the careful planning that went into both the visual appeal and the structural integrity of bindings. Morse, an American artist active from the late nineteenth into the mid-twentieth century, contributed to a field that blended art with everyday utili...