The work of Susan Howe and R.H. Quaytman, who happen to be mother and daughter, is linked not only by this publication but also by their mutual interest in working with borrowed sources. In her screenprinted paintings, Quaytman layers and weaves together archival imagery with abstract, geometric shapes to evoke, if not fabricate and reference various narratives. For "Tom Tit Tot", Quaytman gathered pictures from art historical, institutional, scientific, and literary sources, including the 1836 publication Atlas, to "Accompany a System of Universal History" by the 19th-century American educator, writer, and women’s rights activist Emma Hart Willard. Quaytman’s loose print, which accompanied the deluxe editions of "Tom Tit Tot", shows Willard’s "A Chronological Picture of Nations", or "Perspective Sketch of the Course of Empire", wherein history is visualized as a triangle with roads (one for each country) leading from the creation of the world at the top to the Napoleonic Empire at the bottom. Quaytman modified the image by removing substantial areas of text and overlaying the entire image with a succession of pink triangles.