Interests

The practice goes back to the earliest days of print in the fifteenth century. Artists, printers, booksellers, consumers, and readers all applied color to originally black-and-white images. Before Gutenberg’s innovation of the moveable-type press, both woodblock and engraved prints, single sheets with printed images, were popular in Germany and parts of Central Europe. They were used in various ways, and many people did what we might do with them — hung them on the walls of their home. more »

Thousands of years before books were contained within a hand-held technological tablet or phone, there were cuneiform tablets no bigger than the size of a quarter. On view through May 19, 2019 at the Grolier Club, New York City, are 275 rare diminutive texts and bindings. A collector of miniature books for over thirty years, Pistner’s love for very small tomes began at the age of seven when she began “publishing” tiny books for her first doll’s house. The exhibition represents the history of the book in miniature form.  more »

Author Jesse Burton’s inspiration for The Miniaturist was a dollhouse that the author saw on display in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum* when she was on vacation. Made in 1689 for the real Petronella Oortman, the dollhouse was a detailed, elaborate, and precise replica of the Dutch woman’s own home. Fascinated by the exquisite furnishings for a doll’s house cost as much as the home in which it was displayed, Burton couldn’t help but wonder “Why?” That answer and her research led to The Miniaturist. more »

From Dr. Gilad D. Evrony: "I would never have predicted that I would spend my final month of medical school performing fetal ultra-sounds on a pregnant gorilla, phlebotomizing a 500-pound tapir with hemochromatosis, caring for a meerkat in heart failure, and investigating medical mysteries across the animal kingdom. Yet spending the final month of my MD-PhD program working at the veterinary hospital of a zoo was one of the more remarkable and humbling experiences I had during medical school — a unique capstone to my education as a physician-scientist;" - And a Peaceable Primate Sanctuary created to fill an unmet need and to provide a sanctuary for baboons retired from use in biomedical research, as pets or entertainers more »