Tunnel book depicting a promenade on the Champs-Élysées

Introduction

A photo of the cover of the tunnel book in the Kislak Center for Special Collections

The University of Pennsylvania’s Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts possesses a colorful, elaborately detailed tunnel book (a type of pop-up book) from the nineteenth century featuring a three-dimensional layout. This unnamed book, which contains five internal prints with hand-colored etchings and a front and back cover, measures approximately 13 x 19 x 1 cm when closed. It has no author and is cataloged simply as Tunnel book depicting a promenade on the Champs-Élysées. As the catalog title indicates, this tunnel book depicts people walking along the Champs-Élysées, a world-famous avenue in Paris, France.

The date and location of authorship are not provided; however, the book is thought to have been made during the nineteenth century, but not earlier than 1836, as this is the year when the Arc de Triomphe, which is depicted in the book, was completed after being commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte thirty years prior to celebrate his victories in war. In the Notes section of the library catalog listing, a comparison is made to a similar 1827 tunnel book depicting an unfinished version of the Arc de Triomphe: Optique no. 4 Promenade de Longchamp, ca. 1827. Cf. R. Hyde, Paper peepshows, cat. 24. In fact, many nineteenth century tunnel books may have portrayed similar scenes of the Champs-Élysées, differing in details based on the artist and the year created. Historian Ralph Hyde’s book Paper Peepshows: The Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner Collection describes Cat. 24: Optique No. 4 Promenade de Longchamp as depicting “the occasion of the Promenade de Longchamp,” with spectators seated in chairs and looking west toward the Arc de Triomphe, “still lack[ing] its attic storey,” which was added to the monument in 1836.

Due to the popularity of tunnel books in the nineteenth century, it is likely that the Kislak Center tunnel book was created at some point in the mid- to late-1800s, after the Arc de Triomphe was completed. There is no evidence of this book being copyrighted or licensed. The book was acquired by Penn in 2016, when it was donated by Alan Maxwell Fern (1930) and Lois Fern (1934).

Background

A collapsed view of the Kislak Center tunnel book (fully closed).

A side view of the Kislak Center tunnel book in its expanded (fully opened) form. Note that the front cover is shown at the top of the photo.

Many modern bound books typically present information in a flat, two-dimensional format. Physical books, however, can take on a wide range of shapes, sizes, and forms, with some having a three-dimensional, interactive design. Over the years, books with three-dimensional pages have been called a variety of names, such as pop-ups, optiques, areaoramas, cosmoramas, peepshows, and tunnel books These books feature images that pop up, fold down, move, rotate, or are arranged in a layered fashion that provides a three-dimensional effect.

A tunnel book is designed in such a way that the user must actively lift up the cover in order to “read” the book, which often involves looking at pictures rather than reading words. Individual pages are actually detailed cutouts with openings that enable viewers to peer through the pages, all the way to the back of the book. Pages are held together with paper strips that can be folded, allowing the user to open and close the book like an accordian. Openings on the covers (peep holes) invite the viewer to peer inside when the book is pulled open. When looking through these holes and peering at the scene, the user can shift their gaze and viewing angle so that more or different parts of the scene are revealed, making the viewing process more interactive and less static, unlike a piece of two-dimensional art.

In the Victoria era, paper tunnel books featuring colorful, layered scenes that “gave the illusion of depth and motion” became very popular and were mass produced . In her 2002 article for Journal of Design History, scholar and researcher Amy Ogata describes nineteenth-century peepshow books as being common and inexpensive (“if not cheap”), and typically made of “flexible folding paper or linen bellows with lithographed or engraved, and often hand-colored, scenes paced in succession to give the visual effect of receding space."

Structure and content of Tunnel book depicting a promenade on the Champs-Élysées

The antique tunnel book at the Kislak Center is structured in a manner similar to Victorian-era peepshow books. The front and back covers are pasteboards with prints glued on top; the front cover has three viewing holes and the back cover has one. Individual pages are made of paper and have the prints (etchings colored by hand) directly on the page. Paper strips hold the pages together and enable the book to be opened and closed like an accordian. When opened, the book expands from 1 cm to approximately 51 cm. There is no evidence of marginalia, other than what appears to be a handwritten (and difficult to discern) name on the back of the front cover. Because tunnel books are not like traditional books with words and margins, notes or comments would seem to be unnecessary and take away from their beauty or use as souvenirs, toys, or pieces of art.

One of the pages features a full-page print on both sides of the leaf; however, on the rest of the pages, each print is not a full page but is instead a cutout, carefully designed to display the scene when one pulls the book open, holds it out, and looks into one of three different viewing holes on the front cover or one on the back cover. The middle opening on the front cover is a slightly larger square hole that directs the viewer to the Arc de Triomphe at the end of the Champs-Élysées, while two slightly smaller circular holes to the left and right display the scene from slightly different perspectives. If we look over the top of the front cover, we can see that every page is a part of the scene. If we look over the top of the back cover, we can still see a scene, but we are viewing only one side of the leaf with the full-page print. The pages with detailed cutouts are solely for the view from the front cover, as they help to create a feeling of depth and dimension.

As mentioned earlier, this tunnel book portrays a promenade on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The scene depicts men, women, and children of varying ages, all in Victorian-era clothing, such as dresses, bonnets, waistcoats, and top hats. Some people are walking while others are on horseback or riding in horse-drawn carriages on the tree-lined avenue. Along with people, trees feature prominently in the images. The trees are a rich green color, indicating a spring or summer scene. The use of bright color is evident throughout the book in each of the different etchings and is especially well-preserved on the covers. Upon peering into the holes on the front cover of the book, the viewer can see crowds of people strolling down the avenue, perhaps on their way to the Arc de Triomphe, which we can see at the very end of the book. The front cover features the Chevaux de Marly, which are sculptures of horses atop tall pedestals on either side of the avenue’s entrance, while the back cover shows people in a park, perhaps the Place e la Porte Maillot, as noted in the library catalog.

Victoria & Albert Museum Collection

There is an extensive collection of tunnel and peepshow books at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, England. More than 350 of these books were gifted to the museum from collectors Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner (Kahn). The Gestetner’s had possessed the world’s largest collection of 19th-century peepshow books prior to donating them to the museum, which digitized the books to ensure that they can be viewed by the public without being damaged, as many are very fragile (Daley). The peepshows in this collection feature a wide range of scenes from Victorian life as well as faraway places and famous events. V&A curator Catherine Yvard, as interviewed by The Guardian in 2016, stated that the books in this collection “offer wonderful insights into social history. Considering that most of them would have been made quite cheaply, it is a miracle that so many have survived” (Daley). The collection includes numerous books devoted to the Thames Tunnel and the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London (V&A). In addition to 19th century paper tunnel books, the museum has a few solidly built peepshow boxes that are considered to be precursors to the tunnel books. Two of these are 18th century pieces called “perspective views,” created by German engraver Martin Engelbrecht and featuring vocational scenes, such as a painter’s studio and printing workshop (V&A). Additionally, the Gestetner collection contains a piece that is considered one of the oldest tunnel books ever created: a peepshow by H. F. Muller showing a country house and garden, dating back to 1825 (Daley).