Thirty Great Fable Cards
The Carlson Fable Collection demonstrates how storytelling and material culture intersect in unexpected ways. These thirty fable cards—small in scale yet rich in detail—combine illustration, typography, and narrative in a format designed for circulation and collection. Produced across different periods and contexts, the cards reflect evolving artistic styles and popular tastes while preserving the enduring appeal of traditional fables. This exhibit explores how these modest objects functioned as both entertainment and moral instruction.
Postcards
This set of cards, dubbed the "Amorous LaFontaine Fables" card series, uses fables to describe romantic moments between soldiers-in-uniform and young women. Each scene is accompanied by a little poem. The card featured here uses the fable of The Fox and the Grapes to show the scene. A rough translation of the poem goes like: "Seeing his prey escape him, he says to himself, I must have been mistaken, and certainly these attractions did not deserve so much expense. But he would have wanted to check, up close, to see if he had been right!"
This postcard belongs to a set known as "Aesop's Fables Up to Date." The postcards are used to satirize the Germans during World War I.
