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Tag: Elizabeth Broman

Pop-Up-O-Philes in Philly

Elizabeth Broman
October 6, 2014
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The Movable Book Society 10th Biennial Conference. Philadelphia, Sept 18-20, 2014

Left: Elizabeth Broman, Cooper-Hewitt Librarian and Pop-up artist Sam Ita. Right: Pop-up artist Colette Fu and Stephen Van Dyk, Cooper-Hewitt Branch Librarian
Left: Elizabeth Broman, Cooper-Hewitt Librarian and Pop-up artist Sam Ita. Right: Pop-up artist Colette Fu and Stephen Van Dyk, Cooper-Hewitt Branch Librarian.

 

This was my very first pop-up book conference and I came away absolutely charged up, inspired and quite proud of our pop-up book collection here at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum Library. I’ve been a member of the Movable Book Society for a number of years, and add the quarterly newsletter, Movable Stationery, to our serial collection, which has been fully digitized and available online. It is indexed on the Movable Book Society website.

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Fashion for Hair – A creepiness I like

Elizabeth Broman
June 25, 2014
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The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Library owns many types of pattern books for architecture, textiles, wall coverings, and ornament for use by designers. Among our more unusual “how to” pattern books and trade catalogs are two recently digitized hair jewelry pattern books – The jewellers’ book of patterns in hair work and Charles T. Menge’s price list of ornamental hair jewelry and device work.

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Meet Cooper-Hewitt Library Intern Alana Jiwa

Elizabeth Broman
June 12, 2014
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Alana Jiwa, 2014 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Library Intern
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…

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1964: Fountains, Fireworks, Fifty Years Ago – a World’s Fair

Elizabeth Broman
April 21, 2014
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World's Fair steel replica of the planet earth
Unisphere, by day and by night, at the 1964-65 New York World’s fair. New York World’s Fair 1964-1965 Corporation. Official souvenir book of the New York World’s Fair, 1965. West Nyack, N.Y.: Dexter Press, c1965. Smithsonian Libraries. T786 1964 .C1

 

The Cooper-Hewitt Library has a large collection of over 2,000 World’s fair catalogues and books. Many are the official guidebooks that visitors could purchase with descriptions of pavilions and that helped locate sights and other points of interest. As a teenager, my mother had loved the 1939 World’s fair, so that when it came to New York City again in 1964-65, she wanted to see another World’s fair and have us children experience the same excitement and wonder.

 

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White Bronze for the hereafter

Elizabeth Broman
April 4, 2014
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L: Monumental Bronze Catalogue, p.66. R: Dodge Monument, 1871. Congressional Cemetery, Washington, DC. Photo courtesy of Elise M. Ciregna.
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.

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Women’s History Month: An American in Paris, Thérèse Bonney

Elizabeth Broman
March 21, 2014
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Women’s History Month: An American in Paris, Thérèse Bonney
Thérèse Bonney. Paris, France, 1925-30. Scissor shop sign, denoting the business of a seamstress or tailor.
Thérèse Bonney. Paris, France, 1925-30. Scissor shop sign, denoting the business of a seamstress or tailor.

Born in upstate New York, Thérèse Bonney(1897-1978), was a photojournalist whose work reflected a wide variety of interests and subjects. She studied at the University of California at Berkeley and Radcliffe College in the 1910s. Bonney immigrated to France in 1919 where she became one of the first ten women to graduate from the Sorbonne and founded the first American illustrated press service in Europe, the Bonney Service, in 1924. 

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