Brown University Library’s Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays, housed at the John Hay Library, contains a wealth of poetry-related ephemera. A promotional flyer from 1969 — designed to become a paper airplane glider — was recently acquired for the collection. The flyer advertised a February 5, 1969 reading at the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church (New York City) by Ted Berrigan (1934–1983; born in Providence, RI). As the previous owner of this item noted, the flyer itself was likely designed by Joe Brainard, who had collaborated with Berrigan in the past. (The original artwork resides in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature at the New York Public Library.)
Since the flyer only becomes fully legible when folded, we decided to reconstruct the plane: our high-res. photos of the newly acquired printed copy, digitally processed to use as high-contrast line art, became a double-sided print ready for folding. Shown below is a view of one side of the flattened flyer, the reprinted flyer assembled as a paper airplane (underside view), and evidence of a successful test flight.
Flattened newly-acquired print
Preflight snapshot of folded reprint
Test flight