Special Collections and Digital Initiatives

Book cover and black & white portrait of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The latest addition to the Auraria Library Digital Collections is Goethe's Works Illustrated by the Best German Artistsa 10-book set of the works of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, the most prolific member of the Sturm un Drang literary movement. While the Weimar Classicism and a general sense of impending, devilish doom of Goethe's words are well-known, the highlight of this 5-volume set are the illustrations. Mostly wood engravings, the illustrations in this set range from benignly regal to the roundly bucolic and everything in between. The engravings, of which there are hundreds, were cut by dozens of German artists including Eugen Klimsch, Max Volkhardt, and Otto Seitz.

To see these volumes in person, swing by Special Collections this month as they will be on display in the reading room.