
The 1885 engraving of the Flapping
Bird
|
|
About
this Project
Information
about the history of paperfolding found on the
internet, and, indeed, in many published sources,
is often based more on myth and imagination than
on fact and scholarship. The Public Paperfolding
History Project aims to collect information from
verifiable historical sources from which a more
reliable narrative of the development of
recreational paperfolding as a whole, and of
individual paperfolding styles and designs, can
be shaped, and to make this information publicly
available for everyone to study and enjoy.
Objects
made of paper are ephemeral and the record we
have of them at an early date relies largely on
their chance survival or their mention or
appearance in poetry, books, fabrics, drawings,
prints and paintings. It is likely that many
practical and recreational paperfolds are much
older than the earliest evidence we have for
their existence. Unfortunately, of course, we
cannot know, even approximately, how much older
they might actually be.
It is my
intention to record everything I can discover
about paperfolding history up to and including
1970 in these pages. After that date designs and
publications proliferate so fast that it would be
impossible, for me at least, to record them all.
I have recorded some information about later
events, but only where the information is
relevant to the development of themes that
particularly interest me, such as the history of
modular origami design.
The
information I have recorded is drawn from texts
in Japanese, Spanish, German, Dutch, French,
English and several other languages. I am only
fluent in English and rely on on-line translation
tools for assistance. This will necessarily mean
that I have made mistakes. If you find any errors
or inaccuracies in these pages, or are aware of
additional information, particularly early
information, that I do not know of, or may have
overlooked, please let me know.
Some of the
information I have recorded comes from my own
original research. Much more of it, however, is
drawn from the research of other people that has
kindly been provided to me. I would particularly
like to acknowledge the assistance of Juan
Gimeno, Michel Grand, Masatsugu Tsutsumi, Edwin
Corrie, Jaume Coll Guerrero, Koshiro Hatori, Joan
Sallas, Laura Rozenberg and Coral Roma, but many
other people have helped as well. It goes without
saying that the late David Lister's writings on
paperfolding history have also been invaluable.
David
Mitchell
**********
The
main body of this part of the site is divided
into three sections:
Source
Pages contain information relating to
books, articles in newspapers and magazines,
illustrations, exhibitions, and historical
survivals, that are the raw material of
paperfolding history.
Topic and
Individual Design Pages contain
information about topics or individual designs
extracted from the Source pages. The Topic Pages
also act as indexes to help you find information
about an individual design you may be interested
in.
Paperfolding
People pages contain information
about historically important paperfolders.
There are also some useful
overviews:
A Brief History of
Recreational Paperfolding in Western Europe and
Japan until 1931
When time
allows this Brief History will be expanded to
include the years 1932 to 1970.
A Chronology of
Paperfolding History (not fully complete
at present)
**********
|