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Skeletons, skulls, and bones are essential and spooky images for Halloween. They are also essential imagery for Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead in English)—a Mexican celebration that is growing more common in the U.S. This has become increasingly visible lately thanks to films like Coco and the James Bond thriller Spectre. But, for Día de Muertos, those skeletons and skulls, calaveras in Spanish, are not meant to be scary. On the contrary, calaveras  are a way in which several cultures throughout Mexico celebrate life through death. The logic behind this is that when we accept our mortality, we are able to feel more alive. Calaveras poke fun at death and caricatures of skeletons as well as the popular poetry form that shares the name calavera celebrate both the dead and the living through satire. 

In recent years, the Calavera Catrina, the skeleton lady with an elegant hat (see Image 2), has gained worldwide recognition. But did you know this image originated over a century ago? If you want to learn more, come see, through November 28, the on-site display (Images 3 and 4) at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building or explore our bilingual exhibition "The Skeleton Caricatures of Posada | Las meras meras calaveras de Posada".

When he died, amid the political and social upheaval of the Mexican Revolution, the artist José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913) left behind an enormous body of work. A commercial illustrator, Posada created designs that appeared in advertisements, periodicals, cookbooks, children’s books, and, most famously, on the brightly colored penny broadsheets sold primarily to the working class in and around Mexico City.

The New York Public Library’s Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs holds over 600 prints by artist José Guadalupe Posada where one can find much more than calaveras. Our Posada Collection has been recently digitized for all to consult for free online.  

In the past weeks, we have also added 85 chapbooks to this collection from the Biblioteca del niño mexicano, the only works in which Posada used chromolithography to print his designs. Here is a video of the exciting moment that we unboxed it!