ARLIS/DC MD VA Chapter Newsletter
Spring 2004
Editors: Kristen Regina, Roger Lawson, Atalanta Grant-Suttie
BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT
Please help us name our new child!
This newsletter, the first produced under the editorship of Kristen Regina, Librarian at the
Hillwood Museum and Library, Roger Lawson , Administrative Librarian at the National
Gallery of Art, and Atalanta Grant-Suttie, Team Leader in the Preservation Production
Group at the University of Maryland Libraries, College Park. In order to engage the
imagination of our members in the search, the chapter is conducting a CONTEST to give
the publication a title. The winner will receive (in addition to recognition in the next
issue) one year’s chapter membership plus lunch and a tour of Hillwood for up to 4
people.
Please send your suggestions to Chair Sharon Wasserman no later than May 1, 2004.
NEWSSTAND
Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC)
The Washington Art Library Resources Committee (WALRC) met on November 14,
2003 at the Corcoran Library. The focus of the meeting was WALRC’s web site,
including its design and hosting. Sara Cormeny of Paperlantern.com gave a presentation
about web design, hosting options, costs, and what her company can do. After the
presentation, it was decided to pursue a new web site design; and a committee consisting
of Joan Stahl and Claudia Covert was named to gather suggestions and act as liaisons between Paperlantern.com and WALRC. It was also agreed that the University of
Maryland would continue to host the web site, with Joan Stahl serving as web master.
WALRC accepts preliminary proposals for publications relating to, or documenting, art
history in the Washington, D.C. area throughout the year. For complete information about
WALRC, proposal forms, and detailed minutes of the November 14th meeting, please see
WALRC’s website at http://www.lib.umd.edu/Guests/DCARCHres/walrc.html. The next
WALRC meeting will be held on May 7, 2004 at the University of Maryland. (Linda
Tompkins-Baldwin)
MEMBER UPDATES
Anita Carrico is enjoying 'retirement' as part-time librarian in the Enoch Pratt Free
Library's Special Collections.
John Hagood joined the National Gallery of Art Library staff as reference librarian in
December. John was formerly reference librarian at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Barrie Howard is having a fantastic internship with Claudia Covert at the Corcoran
College of Art + Design Library while he continues working toward his M.L.I.S. degree
at Catholic University. Claudia has been a strong mentor to him, enriching his
educational experience and serving as a fine role model.
George-McKinley Martin, Chief of the Art Division of the District of Columbia Public
Library, has written an article entitled "Harlem Renaissance in the United StatesWashington, DC." The article will appear in the forthcoming Routledge publication
Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance.
Ruth R. Philbrick, Curator of the Photographic Archives of the National Gallery of Art
since 1976, retired in February. Mrs. Philbrick was responsible for adding many
important collections including the Venturi/Rewald Archives, building the collection of
19th century albums, and expanding the vast holdings of images in microforms.
Following the retirement of Mrs. Philbrick the Photographic Archives and the Slide
Library were merged to form the Department of Library Image Collections.
Gregory P. J. Most, Chief Slide Librarian at the National Gallery of Art since 1992 was
named as Chief of the new department whose holdings number around nine and one-half
million images of works of art and architecture. (Gregory Most)
Sally Sims Stokes has been selected by the Organization of American Historians (OAH)
to receive the White House History Fellowship in Pre-collegiate Education for scholars
pursuing projects that illuminate the historical roles of the White House as home,
workplace, museum, structure and symbol. The fellowship in Pre-collegiate Education is
awarded for White House and presidential history initiatives that reach the K-12
classroom. In "Backstairs Social History: Lessons and Activities for Understanding the
Experiences of White House Workers," Stokes will mine interviews in the archives at the
Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage to create an online exhibit of the
behind-the-scenes efforts of White House residence staff. Activities will urge the analysis
of White House protocol and the workers as de facto (and multi-generational) family.
Recollections-both transcribed and presented via audio and video-will be presented on
the web, and a classroom component will be created to supplement a traveling exhibit.
(OAH Press Release)
Tylka Vetula has recently joined the Dumbarton Oaks staff from George Washington
University's Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library where she was serials librarian. Tylka
previously worked as a photograph cataloger in the History of Medicine Collection at the
National Library of Medicine, and as serials librarian in the Jacob Burns Law Library of
George Washington University. Before moving to Washington she worked as a serials
assistant at Harvard's Frances Loeb Library and Littauer Library. Tylka received her
M.S.L.I.S. from Simmons College and her Master of Theology and Master of Divinity
degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary. (Sheila Klos)
Paul Wasserman’s memoir The Best of Times: A Personal and Occupational Odyssey
(Detroit: Omnigraphics, 2000) received a positive review in the journal Libraries &
Culture, Fall 2003 (vol. 38, no. 4). As many ARLIS/DC-MD-VA members know,
Wasserman started the School of Library and Information Services at the University of
Maryland and served as its first dean. He also happens to be the husband of former
NMWA library director and current curator of book arts Krystyna Wasserman.
AWARDS
The ARLIS DC/MD/VA chapter is pleased to announce that its second annual Diversity
Committee Award will go to Trin Intra, a student at the University of Maryland College
of Information Studies. The Diversity Committee Award is designated for a library
school student of color to attend the ARLIS/NA conference each year. It provides
membership in both the local chapter and ARLIS/NA, as well as conference registration
and a travel stipend. Please join the DC/MD/VA chapter in congratulating Trin and
welcoming her to ARLIS/NA. (Lucie Wall Stylianopoulos, Diversity Committee Chair)
The Professional Development Committee of the DC/MD/VA Chapter is pleased to
announce that Phyllis Graham has been selected as the winner of this year's Caroline
Backlund Award. Ms. Graham is a local member residing in Athens, Greece and is the
Assistant Librarian at the Blegen Library in the American School of Classical Studies at
Athens. Please convey your congratulations to Phyllis when you see her at the conference
in New York. (Sally Stokes)
IN OUR LIBRARIES
Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library has recently expanded into a sparkling new
building designed by the architectural firm of Ayers Saint Gross. The “Annex” is a
beautifully appointed addition that fits seamlessly with the original 1933 library. The
Annex houses the library’s most environmentally sensitive works, including the
Maryland Department, African American Department, and the newly formed Special
Collections Department.
Special Collections of the Central Library/State Library Resource center (SLRC) of the
Enoch Pratt Free Library consists of more than 10,000 rare books, manuscripts, post
cards, greeting cards and other memorabilia. The H.L. Mencken and Edgar Allan Poe
collections are highlights. Of special interest to art librarians is the Reuben Kramer
Archives, which span the years 1925-1991 and contain his personal photographs,
newspaper clippings, selected letters, and mementos collected during his 66 years as a
Baltimore sculptor.
The Prints and drawings collections include etchings and prints of Baltimore and
Maryland scenes by artists such as Marie Deveaux Clements, the Jones Sisters, Aaron
Sopher and William Yardley. In 1933 George Cator bequeathed his collection of over
200 prints of Maryland scenes to the Pratt Library. The political cartoons from the Civil
War created by Adalbert Volck form another interesting collection. A very large
collection of World War I and World War II posters is still being processed in Special
Collections. Many have been digitized and can be viewed on our web site.
Special Collections was formed by foraging among all the EPFL departments and coming
away with hidden treasures! Please view them on www.epfl.net/slrc/special_collections
and come in to see the splendid new Annex. (Anita Carrico)
The libraries of the Hillwood Museum and Gardens and the National Museum of
Women in the Arts (NMWA) were featured last year in issues of the journal Libraries
& Culture. The journal, which looks at the cultural history of libraries and recorded
knowledge, presents a different bookplate in each of its quarterly issues. The cover of the
Spring 2003 (vol. 38, no. 2) issue boasts the personal bookplate of Hillwood’s founder
Marjorie Merriweather Post, and is accompanied by an article by Hillwood librarian
Kristen Regina. The NMWA bookplate, designed by local artist Pamela Wedd Brown,
graces the cover of the Fall 2003 (vol. 38, no. 4) issue, which includes an article about the
library by editor Judith Overmier.
THINGS TO DO & SEE
Hillwood Museum & Gardens (www.hillwoodmuseum.org)
started a new exhibition program in their Dacha building.
Myths of St. Petersburg (February 1 – December 31, 2003)
Celebrated the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg. No
Catalogue published.
Tradition in Transition: Russian Icons in the Age of the Romanovs (June 1 –
December 31, 2004)
Examines how icons were perceived, collected, and valued in late imperial
and early Soviet times. An accompanying color catalogue will be
published.
In the Visitor Center:
An exhibit of rare library books to complement Tradition in Transition (Fall
2004).
Sharon Wasserman, Director of the Library and Research Center at the
National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) and Krystyna
Wasserman (no relation), NMWA’s curator of book arts have been busy
over the past year curating exhibitions at the museum:
http://www.nmwa.org/exhibition/
Book Arts Exhibitions (held in the museum’s main galleries):
Insomnia: Landscapes of the Night (March 10 – November 30, 2003)
Featured works by 30 artists, including Louise Bourgeois, M. Jordan
Tierney, and Kate Kern, who interpret the many sources of sleeplessness.
The exhibition included paintings, drawings, assemblages, and artists’
books. There is a color catalogue.
Book as Art XV (March 29 – Nov. 28, 2004)
An overview of recent developments in the field of artists’ books, the
exhibit features known artists, such as Mirella Bentivoglio and Claire Van
Vliet, and twenty artists new to the museum, including Yani Pecanins,
Brenda Watson, and Sohayla Vafai. Their work includes painted books,
pop-ups, and works on fabric. There is a catalogue.
Library Exhibitions:
Palaces and Personages of St. Petersburg (February 14 – June 18, 2003)
Held in conjunction with NMWA’s exhibition An Imperial Collection:
Women Artists from the State Hermitage Museum, it included rare books
and works on paper centering on the people and places of 18th century St.
Petersburg. A highlight was NMWA’s sketchbook by French artist
Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842), executed by the artist during
her stay in St. Petersburg in the 1790s. The exhibition also featured a
number of rare books from the collection of Hillwood Museum and
Gardens.
Enterprising Illustrators, 1880-1930 (October 24, 2003 – February 29, 2004)
Featured the works of American women illustrators including Jessie
Willcox Smith, Alice Barber Stephens, and Rose O’Neill (creator of the
Kewpie doll). NMWA borrowed a number of original illustrations from
the Kelly Collection of American Illustration in Great Falls, Virginia. The
exhibition was rounded out with magazine covers and illustrated books, as
well as a few original Kewpies.
Green Tales for Nordic Kids (April 23 – September 12, 2004)
Will complement NMWA’s exhibition Nordic Cool: Hot Women
Designers, and will explore the theme of the natural world in children’s
books from the five Nordic countries. Artists and illustrators featured in
the exhibition will include Elsa Beskow, Tove Jansson, and Astrid
Lindgren (author of the Pippi Longstocking stories).
The National Gallery of Art Library’s exhibition program included
selections from the rare book collections.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/exhibits.htm
In the main reading room:
Romare Bearden (September 2003 – January 2004)
A selection of books, photographs, and music loaned from Romare
Bearden's personal library were exhibited to complement the artist's
retrospective exhibition in the main galleries.
Revelations from Reproductions: Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings in the
National Gallery of Art (February--April 2004)
Featured selections from the Library and the Photographic Archives to
mark publication of the most recent volume in the series of systematic
catalogues.
What is a Portrait? (April-August 2004) see article by Jacob Lewis later in this
issue)
In the West Building Library Gallery:
Collecting Sculpture (February--October 2003)
Highlighted notable examples of private collection catalogues from the
Rare Book collection commemorated the opening of the new ground-floor
sculpture galleries.
The Arts in Eighteenth Century France (November 2003--March 2004)
Works featured were in conjunction with a series of gallery exhibitions on
French 18th century art (Houdon, genre painting, color prints).
PUBLICATIONS IN PRINT AND ONLINE
Smithsonian American Art Museum's Pre-1877 Art Exhibition Catalogue
Index now online at: www.siris.si.edu/saam.htm
“Unlocking data buried in hundreds of rare exhibition catalogs” (to paraphrase John
Davis in a recent Art Bulletin article) is just what the Smithsonian American Art Museum
accomplished with its compilation and publication of the Pre-1877 Art Exhibition
Catalogue Index.
Now easily accessible via the worldwide web, the Pre-1877 Art Exhibition Catalogue
Index (AECI) is comprised of 136,494 records describing fine art works exhibited in this
country and in Canada up through 1876 (the Centennial year). Information was
compiled from over 1,000 exhibition catalogs, broadsides, newspaper articles, and gallery
notices.
Of particular interest, two catalogs in the Art Exhibition Catalogue Index reflect some of
the earliest recorded art exhibits in the United States: a notice placed in the Virginia
Gazette (March 4, 1773) describing a display of six paintings brought by Matthew Pratt
to Mrs. Vobe (of Williamsburg, Virginia); and an exhibition of four paintings by Robert
Edge Pine shown in Philadelphia in 1784.
For further information about the scope of the database or for help in searching, send an
email to artref@saam.si.edu or call us at: 202-275-1932. (Christine Hennessey)
Washington Area Library Directory, Third Edition
Published by Three Area Groups
Ready for the new year, a new edition of an area favorite, The Washington Area Library
Directory, has been published through the cooperative efforts of three local library
associations: District of Columbia Library Association, Special Libraries Association,
Washington, D.C. Chapter, and Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. The
directory is a time-tested reference tool for information about the collections, staff,
reference, access, and interlibrary loan policies of all types of libraries and information
centers in the Greater Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Area. Last published in 1996, this
new edition includes information about nearly 1,000 of the capital region's academic, art,
association, corporate, government, law, medical, news, and public libraries and
information centers. Three indices and a special foreign embassy section supplement the
directory's main listings.
The Third Edition's lead editorial team was comprised of Eileen Deegan
and Amy Pass representing DC/SLA, Judith Weiss representing LLSDC, and Michael
Kolakowski representing DCLA (Mike is also a long-time member of ARLIS/DC-MDVA). It goes without saying that the directory also reflects the great efforts of many
dedicated volunteers and the cooperation of hundreds of the region's rich and varied
libraries.
To order a copy of the Washington Area Library Directory, Third Edition, please contact:
Diversified Publishing Services in Telford, Pennsylvania at 215-799-2225 (fax: 215-7991976) or order via the Web at www.arealibraries.com. The Directory is available in soft
cover paper binding for $129 plus $5 shipping and handling. (Michael Kolakowski)
WORK IN PROGRESS
Joan Stahl is working on a proposal to survey materials of the 1893 World’s Fair
Columbian Exposition. She is looking at developing a web site that includes images,
essays and teacher’s tools. The project will survey institutional holdings and choose an
array of images for the web site, which will reside on the WALRC site
http://www.lib.umd.edu/Guests/DCARCHres/walrc.html. The University of Maryland
has a professor who teaches courses on world fairs and may help with the project. (Linda
Tompkins-Baldwin)
George-McKinley Martin is at work on a project to document African-American art
exhibitions. This comprehensive annotated bibliography will cover the last quarter of the
20th Century, starting with David Driskell's Two Centuries of Black American Art held at
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1976.
What is a Portrait?
by Jacob Lewis, Academic Year Intern at the National Gallery of Art Library
Johann, Freiherr von Schwarzenberg (1463-1528)
by Hans Weiditz (ca. 1495-ca. 1536); after Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
in:
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
Officia M.T.C. Ein B°uch so Marcus Tullius Cicero der Römer z°u seynem Sune Marco…[Augsburg, 1531]
(National Gallery of Art Library)
What Is a Portrait?
When I was accepted as an Intern in the Museum Profession for the National
Gallery of Art Library, I assumed my skills as a student of art history and as a former
intern in an art library would be put to the test. However, I did not expect the daunting
task that lay ahead. Working with Executive Librarian Neal Turtell, I constructed a
database index for the vast collection of portrait prints buried in the pages of more than
8,000 volumes in the Rare Book Collection. I was certain even before I began that I
would not see the final product. Sure enough, as my time here draws to a close, the
portrait index will require continued development by future interns and library
employees. The final objective is to have the index loaded on to the internet, where it can
be available to researchers interested in the portrait prints tucked away in the collection.
Knowing I was obliged to not only create but fill that database with information
and make it accessible, I thought it best to talk to several staff members of the NGA
before I even inspected my first portrait. I discussed the project with people from several
departments. I ended up with advice from a large audience: I spoke with librarians,
painting and print curators, a cataloger, a slide librarian, photograph archivists, web
developers, and an automation coordinator. After hearing some great suggestions and
advice, I decided upon a format for the database. I chose to use Microsoft Access for the
format because of its simple transition to web applications. I also took the advice of a
curator: I tackled the extent of the collection by narrowing the focus to books published
before 1700, a familiar period based upon my undergraduate experience in art history.
I selected several categorical descriptions that would help someone searching for
a particular portrait or type of portrait. Most important was to get as much data as
possible to determine the sitter’s name using bibliographic records, encyclopedias,
biographical indexes, name authority files in RLIN and the Library of Congress, and
general web-related searches. I made sure to preserve the raw data taken from the book
that helped me ascertain the sitter’s identity, so as to demonstrate the connection between
the personal name and the data mined from its source. Other search categories included
variant names, the sitter’s nationality, title, or main occupation, any inscribed dates, the
portrait’s size, the bibliographic citation, and the page number. I also decided to collect
information on the artists involved in making the portrait, if any names were given.
Based on information appearing on the print as well as on the bibliographic record, I
learned how to determine the printmaker, the print designer, the printer and the original
artist. In addition, I researched how to identify various print processes.
I have now indexed over 1,800 portraits, and will continue to collect information
through May of 2004. Once I breached the 1,000 mark, all the while getting a sense of
the project’s grand scale, I thought it best to promote both the quality and quantity of
portraits available to researchers at the NGA Library. All I needed was the proper forum
and topic.
I remembered when describing my job to a Williams College professor, he
quickly asked “How do you recognize what a portrait is or isn’t?” I must admit the
question remains puzzling, for my past notions of what constituted a portrait were thrown
out once I started working on the index. While working on the project, I came across
portraits of those depicted as having just died, or of those that had been dead for over
1,500 years. I witnessed how a portrait from an original source had changed through 300
years of development in printmaking. I also found portraits within portraits, of artists
depicting themselves in the process of depicting others. Furthermore, I noticed that many
prints defy the category altogether. Does a print of a portrait bust display the sitter or the
object, or both?
In the main reading room, there are approximately 30 feet of display cases
specially designed to exhibit highlights of the collection, encouraging researchers to use
its valuable resources. The many portraits in books I had seen during my stay here both
supported and eluded the definition of portraiture, and I felt this concept merited close
investigation in the form of an exhibition. After getting advice from the library staff and
proposing the idea to my supervisors, ‘What Is a Portrait?’ went from a passing thought
to an actual exhibition in the NGA Library. The best thing about it: not only will these
portraits spark interest in the outstanding Rare Book Collection, but the portrait index
itself will make its shy, yet important, preliminary debut.
(The exhibition will be held in the NGA Library’s main reading room from mid-April
until August.)
MARKETPLACE
Shelving components
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library has a new facility under construction, with
completion expected in summer 2005. New shelving will be installed, leaving a
significant amount of shelving in the old library available for donation to any library that
can make good use of it. While the mechanical systems of the old compact stacks would
not be re-useable, uprights, shelves, and shelf brackets are in excellent condition and
could be used with most brands of shelving. The majority of available components are
Spacesaver brand. If you know of a library that is interested in shelving components in
summer 2005 - it's free as long as they truck it away.
Contact: Sheila Klos, (202) 339-6998.
Volunteer opportunities
The National Gallery of Art Library seeks volunteers to assist with a variety of
projects in the Reader Services and Image Collections departments. Motivated
individuals will have the opportunity to participate in essential functions of a major art
research library in the nation’s capital. For more information about the Library and its
collections, please see: http://www.nga.gov/resources/dldesc.htm
Familiarity with library operations and visual resource management is preferred, as is
some experience with using automated library systems. Candidates must be available to
volunteer during the Library’s business hours, Monday through Friday (except Federal
holidays) from 9:00 am until 5:30 pm.
Please direct inquiries to:
Lamia Doumato, Head of Reader Services
National Gallery of Art
Library Reader Services (DLR)
Mailing address:
2000 B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
Telephone: (202) 842-6510
e-mail: l-doumato@nga.gov