A set of four pop up books from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 were recently treated in the book conservation lab. The books are part of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library World’s Fair materials. The World’s Columbian Exposition took place in Chicago in 1893 and these four books reveal four different views of the exposition. The four books were in good condition for pop-up books. The chromolithographic prints are still vibrant and the paper supports, while brittle, are still in good condition.
Alana Jiwa, 2014 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Library Intern
Earlier this year, the Cooper-Hewitt Library was awarded a Smithsonian CCPF 2014 (Collections Care and Preservation Fund) grant to continue the conservation work we started based on a CCPF funded condition survey of our Special Collections in 2010.
This summer, Library intern Alana Jiwa is focusing on custom enclosures for our rare folio sized materials. She is measuring books, using a new custom made folio sized book measurer made by Don Stankavage in the SIL Book Conservation Lab. Stay tuned for progress reports from Alana…
~This post was written by Katherine Williamson, an intern at the American Art/ Portrait Gallery library.
Cast-iron Eagle in the Smithsonian NCFA/NPG Library c. 1975. Photo by Wolfgang FreitagSmithsonian NCFA/NPG Library, 1975. Photo by Wolfgang Freitag
As part of my work as an American Art/Portrait Gallery Library (AA/PG) intern, I answer reference questions from patrons that involve some type of research, either within our collection or using online sources that the library subscribes to. One of the most interesting reference questions I have received actually came from our Head Librarian, Doug Litts. Through his own research involving the original location of the AA/PG library – Room 331 of the main museum building – he came across a list of paintings, a marble bust and a cast iron sculpture, that were located in what was known as the NCFA/NPG Library when it was housed in the museum. Through circumstances unknown to us, those artworks were never transported to the Victor Building when the library moved here in 2000. He became very interested in the history of the artworks, as well as where they are now, and recruited me to help him in his research.
-This post was written by American Art/Portrait Gallery Library (AAPG) Spring 2014 intern Sara Cecilia Johnson.
Image of “Brooklyn Bridge” from the exhibition catalog “Stella 1943” (AA/PG Art & Artist Files)
Joseph Stella’s paintings sit quietly, unnoticed on the second floor of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. People often pass them by, maybe one or two stopping to admire the vibrant color or dynamic movement, but otherwise Stella remains an obscure, unfamiliar name to the average American. What they don’t know about is his striking spectrum of work that evolved during the inter-war period in the 1920s and ‘30s or about his friendships with leading art figures of him time, such as Alfred Stieglitz, Walter Arensberg, Katherine Dreier, and Marcel Duchamp.
This post was written by Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library volunteer, Elena Grant.
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library is working on getting the attention of area’s curators to Smithsonian Libraries’ resources on Latin-American art and connecting them with the Hirshhorn Museum team.
L: Monumental Bronze Catalogue, p.66. R: Dodge Monument, 1871. Congressional Cemetery, Washington, DC. Photo courtesy of Elise M. Ciregna.
This Catalogue of the Monumental Bronze Co. is one of the many examples of trade literature that the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Library has in its collection; they are among the most valuable research resources for documenting the tastes and trends of culture, and the products being marketed and sold in a given time period. These are Victorian era zinc sculpture and ornaments for cemetery grave markers and “monuments”. “White bronze” was an attractive, elegant trade name for zinc. It actually has a bluish gray color and is easy to spot from quite a distance amongst the more traditional and widely used traditional marble, limestone and granite memorials in cemeteries.
