TRAVELING IN A TINY HOME THAT IS REALLY AN ARTISTS' BOOK ON WHEELS

Peter and Donna Thomas have been making fine press and artist's books for over 40 years. When they started, as craftspeople at Renaissance Faires, they fell in love with the graceful beauty of "gypsy wagon" caravans that other vendors had made to sleep in or use as booths for selling their wares. In 2009 Peter and Donna built their own tiny home on wheels, designed after a typical late 19th century Redding Wagon. This blog documents their trips around the country, taken to sell their artists' books, teach book arts workshops, and talk about making books as art; as well as to seek out and experience the beauty of the many different landscapes found across the USA.

Peter and Donna started their business in 1977 and made their first book in 1978, so from 2017-18 are traveling to celebrate 40 years of making books with shows in a dozen libraries across the country. See the schedule on the side bar to find if they are coming to a town near you....

Follow the Wandering Book Artists on Facebook and Instagram!
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Friday, October 13, 2017

Gipsy Life in the Providence Athenaeum*

The Providence Athenaeum was "just what I imagine the library at Hogwarts was like." That was what the guy standing next to me said, as I took my panorama picture.



And it sort of was. There was still a card catalog.


Donna started look through it and found that the 397s had books under the heading in the catalog: "Gypsies".


After searching around she found the 300 section and then an interesting book.


It was full of really wonderful line drawings.










*"Gipsy" is the spelling that was used in 19th century England. Kenneth Grahame in "the Wind in the Willows" uses this spelling. 

Caravan is the English word for what we in the USA call a trailer. Some other words that have been to describe the same vehicles are "wagon, waggon, van, caravan and living wagon" We describe our trailer as a tiny home on wheels, or  as a caravan designed after the 19th century wagons built in Reading, England. Such caravans were primarily built for the English Romani (sometimes spelled Romany or written as Roma) people. The Romani word for a horse drawn living wagon is 'vardo'. This word is sometimes used to describe any trailer with a curved roof.




3 comments:

mary c doughty said...

I was on a walking tour of Providence in August and saw the Athenaeum but unfortunately it was closed that day. Lovely city.

ukeplayer said...

Fantastic!

Rhan Wilson said...

Lovely pictures of the countryside, and I also like seeing the "Gipsy" Trailers.
Nice trip.
Rhan