The Historian and the Visual Record
Instructor, Lisa Darms
Lisadee@nyu.edu
Spring 2014
Thursday, 4:55 – 7:35
Berol Room, Bobst
Historians and other humanities scholars have long relied upon written texts as primary sources,
but increasingly, they are turning to visual records to enrich their understanding of the past. At
the same time, textual records are being studied as visual resources, and scholars are using
visualization methods to represent data. As a result, it has become progressively important for
archivists, public historians, curators, and museum professionals to understand the historical
context of and be able to identify visual documents, as well as have some familiarity with how
researchers use these resources.
This course will be a survey of techniques of visual reproduction techniques, primarily in the
West, with a focus on cultivating the ability to identify visual genres, and will explore how
scholars from various disciplines use visual materials for research. We will study historical
processes of reproduction, such as photography and printing techniques, but will also examine
printed books, audiovisual materials, and digital files as visual objects.
The course is directed at curators, archivists, public historians, and others who need to be able
to identify and understand these genres and formats. We will read works by scholars
who utilize or study visual resources, and will work closely with visual documents from the
collections of the Fales Library & Special Collections, as well as other archives in New York
City.
Required Texts
Scribes and Illuminators, Christopher de Hamel
Altered and Adorned: Using Renaissance Prints in Daily Life, Suzanne Karr Schmidt
Cartographies of Time: A History of the Timeline, Rosenberg and Grafton
Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography, Geoffrey Batchen (available at Course
Reserves)
Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the 19th Century, Jonathan Crary
(available at Course Reserves)
How To Identify Prints, Bamber Gascoigne (available at Course Reserves)
Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance,
Ellen Gruber Garvey (available online via NYU)
What Do Pictures Want? WJT Mitchell
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott McCloud (available at Course Reserves)
Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for Literary History, Franco Moretti (available at Course
Reserves)
(+ additional articles as listed in schedule, available online)
Office Hours
Please feel free to make an appointment to meet with me in my office at the Fales Library &
Special Collections, between the ours of 10:00 and 5:00 Monday to Friday.
Schedule
January 30.
➔ Introduction to Course
Readings:
Visual Culture: A useful Category of Historical Analysis? Michael L. Wilson, from The
Nineteenth Visual Culture Reader, Schwartz and Pryzblynksi. eds. (chapter available in Google
Books)
The Book In History and the History of the Book John P. Feather. Journal of Library History 21
(1986), 12-26
What is The History of Books? Robert Darnton, Daedalus 111.3 (Summer 1982), 65-83.
February 6. Medieval Manuscripts and the History of the Book
➔ Visit: The Morgan Museum
Readings:
Scribes and Illuminators, Christopher de Hamel
February 13. 1. The Birth of the Printed Book and Printmaking in the Renaissance
➔ Classroom Lab: woodblock prints, engraving, scientific books, herbals, etc
Readings:
Altered and Adorned: Using Renaissance Prints in Daily Life, Suzanne Karr Schmidt
February 20. Maps and Timelines
➔ Classroom Lab: maps, timelines, etc
Readings:
Cartographies of Time: A History of the Timeline, Rosenberg and Grafton
February 27. Birth of Photography
➔ Assignment 1: Due today
➔ Classroom Lab: Daguerreotypes, tintypes, etc
Readings:
Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography, Geoffrey Batchen
March 6. The Photographic 19th century
➔ Visit NYPL Photography Reading Room
Readings:
Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the 19th Century, Jonathan Crary
March 13. The 19th century in print (from the hand press to the industrial age)
➔ Guest presentation, Charlotte Priddle, Librarian for Printed Books, Fales Library
Readings TBA
SPRING BREAK
March 27. The Photographic 20th century
➔ Classroom Lab: silver gelatin print, c-prints, etc
Readings TBA
April 3. DIY: Scrapbooks, Zines etc
➔ Assignment 2 due
➔ Classroom Lab: scrapbooks, zines, manuscript cookbooks, etc
Readings:
Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance,
Ellen Gruber Garvey
April 10. Printmaking Techniques and The Rise of Office Copying
➔ Proposal for final project due
➔ Classroom Lab: prints, Xerox, etc
➔ Visit: Publicide Print Shop
Readings:
The Office Copying Revolution [supplied by professor]
The Practice and ‘Pathologies’ of Photocopying, Rowan Wilken
How To Identify Prints, Bamber Gascoigne
April 17. Film, video, audio
➔ Guest Presentation, Brent Phillips, Media Specialist, Fales Library
Lab: film, videocassette, audiocassette
Readings:
Audiovisual Archiving: Philosophy and Principles, Ray Edmunson
and TBA
April 24. 1. Comics + contemporary ephemera / objects + realia
➔ Classroom Lab: comics, flyers, t-shirts, everyday objects, etc.
Readings:
What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images (Part II: Objects)
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott McCloud
May 1. Digital objects
Readings:
SpecLab: Digital Aesthetics and Projects in Speculative Computing (excerpt), Johanna Drucker
May 8. Image as research
Readings:
Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for Literary History, Franco Moretti
Grading & Assignments
Seminar participation (20%)
Weekly: Email me a short paragraph summarizing the readings, and proposing 2 aspects of one
or all of them that interest you and that you’d want to address in seminar. Your grade will also
reflect in-class participation.
Assignment 1. Due February 27 (20%)
Select a book (print or manuscript) from before 1900 from the Fales collection and write a 1,200
to 1,500 word paper about the book as visual and material object. Although I want you to draw
on the readings, presentations and field trip, this is not primarily about having the “right”
answers, but about asking interesting questions about what we can learn about this object as a
visual record.
a. Describe everything you know about the book as a text: title, date, author, publisher,
edition, if applicable, and subject matter. (You do not have to read the book, and it does not
have to be in a language you are fluent in)
b. Briefly, what is the cultural context of the book? How does it reflect the geographical area
and era it was produced in? What political or cultural events or tendencies are reflected in
this book, as an object?
c. Describe the book as a visual object: what kind of paper does it appear to be printed or
written on? what can you tell about the paper from observation? what is interesting about the
type or script? what is interesting about the binding? Are there annotations? What if any
illustrations appear, and what is notable about them? etc.
Assignment 2. Due April 3 (20%)
Select a photograph or printed document from the Fales, NYU Archives or Tamiment collection
and write a 1,200 to 1,500 word paper about the document as visual and material object.
Although I want you to draw on the readings, presentations and field trip, this is not primarily
about having the “right” answers, but about asking interesting questions.
a. Describe what is known, or what you can deduce, about the photograph and document
(this may be very little): title, date, author, etc. What Archive or manuscript collection is it in,
and how does it relate to the larger collection?
b. What is the cultural context of the photograph or document? How does it reflect the
geographical area and era it was produced in? What political or cultural events or tendencies
are reflected in this photograph or document?
c. Describe the photograph or document as a visual object: what photo or print process is it,
and how did you come to this conclusion? what kind of paper does it appear to be printed on?
what can you tell about the paper from observation?
Assignment 3. Due May 15 (35%)
Select a process and/or format to investigate further. In a 2,700 to 3,200 page paper, discuss
a. its history and evolution
b. its technical aspects, and
c. some examples of how it’s been employed as an object of research.
A one-page proposal with a “bibliography” of at least 5 sources (texts, websites,
archives, people) must be submitted by April 10 (5%)
Some possible topics:
Books of Hours
Comics
Etching
Engraving
Handwriting
Halftone printing
Illuminated manuscripts
Maps
Photography: Daguerreotypes
Photography: Paper negatives
Photography: Cyanotype
Photography: The digital image
Photography: Tintypes
Photostat
Scrapbooks
Letterpress
Marginalia
Motion picture film (or a specific format of)
Newspapers
Photogravure
Posters/broadsides (specific era)
Typography/Type
Timelines
Xerox and/or mimeograph
Videotape (or a specific format of)
Web interfaces
Woodblock prints
Zines