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Category: Art and Design

Weeding the Z’s

Anne Evenhaugen
September 13, 2013
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"Z" classification books to be deaccessioned from the AA/PG Library.

 The following post was written by American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery Library intern Becca Tanen. She is currently in her second year of a dual master’s program in Library Science and English at Catholic University.

Two years ago, I was working at the library of a K-12 private school in Maryland when one of the librarians handed me the CREW (Continuous Review, Evaluation, and Weeding) manual for weeding modern libraries, developed by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

This library had never weeded the collection before, so I thanked her, excited to begin tackling such an exciting challenge. “I don’t think anyone has ever thanked me for giving them a weeding manual before,” she said, laughing.

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Liberating fashion: Poiret’s plates

Jen Cohlman Bracchi
September 11, 2013
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three ladies wearing long evening dresses
Les Robes De Paul Poiret racontées par Paul Iribe. (1908) Smithsonian Libraries.

This fashion plate from Les Robes De Paul Poiret (1908) is one of eleven illustrations, all recently scanned and now available for your viewing pleasure. Poiret is often credited with liberating women from the body constricting corsets popular during the Victorian and Edwardian eras (1837-1910).

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Robes et Femmes

Elizabeth Broman
September 9, 2013
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Cover of Robes et Femmes by Enrico Sacchetti
Cover of Robes et Femmes by Enrico Sacchetti

 

 New York Fashion Week is held in February and September of each year in  New York City; dates for 2013 are  September 5–12th. The Special Collections  of the Cooper- Hewitt National Design  Library in New York have always been a  great research resource for people working in the fashion and related industries. We have in our collection a rare fashion title Robes et Femmes, published in 1913 by the Italian designer  Enrico Sacchetti (1877-1967).

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Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Walt Kelly

Erin Rushing
August 23, 2013
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This post was written by Leslie K. Overstreet, Curator of Natural-History Rare Books.

Walt Kelly, famed field naturalist of the Okeefenokee Swamp, was born on Aug.25, 1913.

He first revealed Okeefenokee’s extraordinary zoological community to the world in 1949.  It included an alligator, turtle, owl, porcupine, skunk, three bats, even worms on occasion, and various others.  Contrary to basic scientific protocols, Kelly tended to personalize, even anthropomorphize, his research subjects: He named them, for example, and published a series of illustrations of their behavior and interactions that ran in newspapers nationwide for decades. 

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Defaced Donation Leads to Exhibition Exploration

Alexandra Reigle
July 31, 2013
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Imagining Our Future Together: South Asia Artists Exhibition catalogue
Imagining Our Future Together: South Asia Artists Exhibition catalogue

This is a post written by Rita O’Hara who works at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library.

In February, Richard Koshalek, the Hirshhorn Museum director donated to the library a copy of The World Bank exhibition catalog entitled Imagining Our Future Together: South Asia Artists. The exhibit featured the winners of a regional art competition organized by the World Bank’s South Asia vice presidency and the World Bank Art Program. This gift of the catalog led to a reconnection with a former classmate and a field trip to The World Bank.

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