Booklet: "Frog Opera", 1880

The Henry Louis Stephens 1824-1882 series within the Paul Preston Davis Collection includes research materials, both original and reproduction, that cover the artist’s work and presence in the illustration industry from circa 1850 - 1880. Most items relate to Stephens’ contributions to periodicals and advertising, though there are four original drawings in the series. Periodicals in the collection feature examples of Stephens’ published work, such as bound volumes and individual issues of The Riverside Magazine, two issues of Punchinello, and tear sheets from St. Nicholas. Advertisement examples of Stephens work include several prints and trade cards for the tobacco company Kimball & Co., the department store Lord & Taylor, and “Pond’s Extract” trading cards and booklet. A notable part of this collection is Stephens’ personal scrapbook with print proofs of his illustrations for advertising, including: “Udolpho Wolfe’s Celebrated Schiedam Aromatic Schnapps,” “Howe & Odell Shadines,” “Bernard’s Golden Dentilave,” “Bush & Co.’s Borax Soap,” and “Dr. Colton’s Vegetable Dentonic.” Much of Stephens’ advertisement work in the series are lithographs and depicts anthropomorphic animals and other aspects of the natural world.

The Henry Louis Stephens series of materials were donated by Paul Preston Davis at the same time as the Alexander Charles Stuart 1831-1898 series, accessioned 41083.1. Davis’s research and notes are interspersed throughout the four boxes. These notes provide context for the primary sources in this collection. The research notes range from photocopies of nineteenth-century publications to website printouts, email correspondence, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century catalogs. Davis’s inscriptions on these documents identify works and writings that relate directly to Stephens. His interest in Stephens’s is potentially tied to Stephens’s trading card advertisement and children’s book illustrations; two concentrations Davis collected specifically.