Possible Alternate Design for "In Blue Uniform" 1893

Putnam, George I. In Blue Uniform: An Army Novel.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1893.



Design for a Book Cover. Drawing.  Alice C. Morse, Designer.
Dimensions: 19.3 x 12.4 cm.
Cooper Hewitt Museum. Accession number 1943-33-1-12.  

In keeping with my effort to compare Morse's original drawings for book covers with known published Morse book covers, I pose that the drawing above may have been an alternate design for In Blue Uniform, a design origianlly attributed to Morse by Gullans and Espy. Dubansky entry 93-5.

Polly

 

The Book Buyer (Vol. 11, February 1894-January 1895, p. 561) credits Alice C. Morse with the design of this cover for Polly: A Christmas Recollection (Scribners, 1894).  Polly is one of a four-title set of books by Thomas Nelson Page. The first title in the set is Marse Chan, published in 1892. It is also unsigned but attributed to Morse. Morse's own book-cover for Marse Chan is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession number 56.522.79; See Dubansky entry 92-12.)
To see the Museum's Marse Chan, click on:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/385894

The other titles in this set are Meh Lady (1894) and Unc' Edinburgh (1895). These have not been attributed to Morse.

A Bow of Orange Ribbon - A Newly Attributed Design by Morse?

There are numerous book cover designs for A Bow of Orange Ribbon by Amelia Barr in the 1890s and Morse may have designed one or more of them. Although this cover is not signed, I always thought that Morse may have designed it. This is only one of the many variants I have seen it in. Upon browsing my notes from the Cooper Hewitt Morse collection, I notitced this small sketch on the back of  another design. Could it be an early sketch for this pubhsiled design. It certainly looks like it. Note the crossed swords, the rough bow design and the type layout.

Examples of Morse's Cloth Specifications

In an interview with Gilson Willets entitled "The Designing of Book-Covers" (Art Interchange, November 1894, pp. 118-119) Morse describes that she presented her publishers with two or three rough sketches. Once the publsher had chosen a design, Morse prepared a finished colored drawing, specifying the colors of the design and book cloth. Two of Morse's drawings for book covers at the Cooper Hewitt Museum feature cloth specifications on the versos. They are for cloths made by the Bancroft and Holliston Mills.

A Sketch for 'My Study Fire' at the Cooper Hewitt Museum

This post relates to Dubansky entry 99-3 (p. 82), Morse's publsihed design for My Study Fire, by Hamilton W. Mabie, published by Dodd, Mead & Co. in 1899. This sketch, a gouache painting, is one of Morse's original works in the Cooper Hewitt Museum. (Accession number 1943-33-1-9. Dimensions: 20.7 x 13.2 cm.) This design is a rare example of Morse's drawings at Cooper Hewitt that feature a book title. That is one of the reasons why I believe that it may be a design that Morse presented to her publisher for the cover of this book -- probably along with a drawing for the cover that was published. The published cover is quite similar. It features a cartouche much like this one, set into a rectangular panel design. Morse stated in an Art Interchange interview that she regularly presented two rough sketches to her publisher. I have not seen the original sketch for the published cover.   



Morse's book-cover design as published

Design in Poker-Work, A Footstool

Now that so many American periodicals are online, it's much easier to find Morse designs than it was when I was working on my book. This dynamic design, by Alice C. Morse, appeared in Harper's Bazaar on April 24, 1897 on page 348. It is included in the Proquest database. The design is for a pyrography footstool.

'Crown of Straw'; Is 'Majesty of Man' a Series Binding?

Thanks go to Richard Minsky and John Lehner who both let me know about this Morse-designed cover for Allen Upward's Crown of Straw (Dodd Mead, 1896). It is the same cover for Alien's Majesty of Man, also Dodd Mead, 1896. So, it is probably a series binding (if two constitutes a series -- or set?) but more homework is required. Below is a photograph of Alice C. Morse's own cover for this book that she left to the Museum in 1924. Link to MMA catalog record. I admire this design so much that you may have noticed that I used it for the cover of my book on Morse, only in red. Notice how there is a problem with the green stamping on the reverse diagonal-rib bookcloth.

A clue to the fact that this may have been a series cover is that the lettering is not hand done, but stamped from type.