Shape up!

Prang's inexpensive color lithography technique revolutionized advertising and made color greeting cards commonplace. His work appeared in millions of scrapbooks in the the late 19th century. He also made novelty books like this shaped book of Little Red Riding Hood.

In the original Perrault telling of Little Red Riding Hood, our young heroine is eaten by the wolf. It is a cautionary tale about the wolves of the world that stalk young women. But the story has become much nicer over time. But in this 1863 edition, Little Read Riding Hood is saved at the last minute by a hunter--not even her grandmother dies. It still has a cautionary moral at the end, but it only reminds the young to shape up and obey their mothers.

Eerily, when you open the book, it looks remarkably like a tombstone.

Come see it by asking for 1926 Collection V489.