Tiny Treasures
By Kristen J. Nyitray, Contributing Editor
This issue of Rare Treasures highlights miniature books from Special Collections, works typically defined as volumes no more than three inches in height. Miniature books have a rich history, with their origins tracing back to the Middle Ages when tiny handwritten manuscripts were created for private devotion and discreet prayer. With the rise of printing in the 15th century, miniature books became more widely produced, though they still required exceptional skill to design, typeset, and bind. By the 18th and 19th centuries, miniature books expanded beyond religious use and flourished as objects of curiosity and refinement. In the 20th century, miniature books saw a revival among private presses and book artists, who embraced them as a form of creative expression. Today, they are curated by collectors and institutions for both their uniqueness and what they reveal about the history of printing and reading.
La mode féminine de 1795 à 1820: 20 planches en couleurs (Paris: Éditions Nilssons, 1920).
La Mode féminine, published in Paris by Éditions Nilsson around 1920, is a small pictorial work that traces the evolution of women’s fashion from 1795 to 1900. Divided into four chronological sections, it uses 80 color plates to illustrate major shifts in style, from neoclassical high-waisted dresses after the French Revolution to the structured silhouettes of the Victorian era. With minimal text, it reflects early 20th-century interest in fashion as both art and historical record, offering a concise visual overview of changing clothing styles and social trends.
Thérèse de Dillmont, Alfabeto della ricamatrice, lettere, cifre, monogrammi e ornati a punti contati: seguiti da una serie di modelli e calchi relativi, per il ricamo in bianco (Mulhouse Alsace: Dollfus-Mieg & Cie, c1910). Gift of Richard Gentile.
Alfabeto della ricamatrice, lettere, cifre, monogrammi e ornati a punti contati (Embroiderer’s alphabet: letters, numbers, monograms, and counted-stitch ornaments) by Thérèse de Dillmont is a practical needlework manual focused on counted-thread embroidery. It presents alphabets, monograms, decorative motifs, and patterns reflecting late 19th-century domestic craft traditions and the standardization of design through printed guides. Beyond its instructional content, the book is often physically distinctive: a piece of cloth is wrapped around the cover, reinforcing its identity as a working object meant to be handled during embroidery, while also echoing the very textiles and techniques it teaches.
Sarah C. Edgarton Mayo, The Flower Vase: Containing the Language of Flowers and Their Poetic Sentiments (Lowell: Merrill and Heywood, 1848).
Sarah C. Edgarton Mayo’s The Flower Vase: Containing the Language of Flowers and Their Poetic Sentiments (1847) is a mid-19th-century example of the popular “language of flowers” genre, which assigned symbolic meanings and emotions to different plants. Blending botany, poetry, and sentiment, the book reflects Victorian-era fascination with coded communication and moral expression through nature. It served both as a reference and a gift book, allowing readers to convey feelings indirectly through floral symbolism, situating it within broader traditions of sentimental literature and social etiquette of the time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kristen J. Nyitray is Associate Librarian, Director of Special Collections and University Archives, and University Archivist at Stony Brook University. A Certified Archivist (Academy of Certified Archivists), she is recipient of the Chancellor’s Award (SUNY) and the President’s Award (SBU) for Excellence in Librarianship. Among her publications are the books Stony Brook: State University of New York and Long Island Beaches.