In June 2017, on the occasion of the 200th birthday of Henry David Thoreau, the Morgan Library & Museum opened an exhibit entitled This Ever New Self: Thoreau and his Journal.  The show includes 20 of Thoreau's journals (part of the Morgan's permanent collection) as well as a number of his personal possessions.  I had the amazing opportunity to visit the museum before the show opened to view the journal collection.   I was particularly interested in the many illustrations that Thoreau inserted into his writings.
The images are very simple, and inspired me to arrange them into colorful patterns for a letterpress project.  

After many iterations of layouts and color combinations, I chose these three patterns for a collection of letterpress cards.  I hope I have captured the beautiful simplicity of Thoreau's illustration style, and that I've chosen colors that would have pleased him.  And I would like to extend special thanks to the Morgan Library for allowing me to work on this project.