The Union Catalog of Early Movable Books is a searchable database of copies of metamorphic pictures published between 1650 and 1890. The database is searchable by multiple variables and the results are sortable by year, title, author, place, and holding institution. Additions or corrections to the database can be made by submitting a request through the Catalog Change Request Form. Search instructions and tips can be found below. (You can also now view items from the Union Catalog on a map!)
Search Tips and Instructions
It is possible to search by several search elements in a single inquiry to provide more refined results. Returned results are then sortable by multiple elements.
Searching by Keyword: Searches across most of the bibliographic elements and acts as the general search for the catalog. However, because of the broad nature of this search option, it may result in numerous excess records.
Searching by Title: Searches both the titles and first sentences of the items in the catalog to account for the many untitled items. Multiple words in the search field are treated as if they had the Boolean operator “and” between them.
Searching by Author/Illustrator: Searches both the author and illustrator elements of the items in the catalog. Names in the catalog are formatted with last name first followed by a comma and first name (e.g, Grimaldi, William).
Searching by Year of Publication: Searches by year of publication. The search field searches a date range since many of the items in the catalog have uncertain publication dates. The most relevant and exact results will appear at the top of the results page, however it is wise to review items further down on the list for matching items with uncertain dates of publication.
Searching by Place of Publication: Searches the place of publication element of the items in the catalog. This element includes cities when they are available. The catalog includes items published in England, France, Germany, Ireland, and the United States of America.
Searching by Publisher, Printer, and Distributor: Searches the publisher, printer, and distributor elements of the items in the catalog. Names in the catalog are formatted with last name first followed by a comma and first name (e.g, Tringham, Wm.).
Searching by Holding Institution: Select a holding institution from the drop-down menu to see only items held in that location. It is only possible to select a single location per inquiry.
Searching by Genre: All items in the catalog are categorized as “Metamorphic pictures”. Selecting “Metamorphic pictures, Harlequinades” will return only items that feature the character Harlequin.
Searching by Hand Coloring: Selecting “Yes” will return only items in the catalog that are hand colored. Selecting “No” will exclude hand colored items in the results page.
Sorting Results: It is possible to sort search results by year of publication, place of publication, title, author, holding institution, and whether or not the item is colored.
Full Record View: From the results page select “full record view” under the desired item to view all bibliographic elements of the items record.
Citation View: From the results page select “citation view” under the desired item to view an MLA-style citation for the item.
Viewing all Items: To view all of the items in the database, leave all of the search fields blank and select “metamorphic pictures” under the Genre drop-down menu and click “search”.
