FALL 2018 FALL center MAGAZINE

Ed Ruscha Mary Shelley Terrence McNally “ The West Virginian novelist Jayne Anne Phillips, a writer of Faulknerian

boldness and poetic range, began as a young writer of vibrant and original

short stories; her collection Black Tickets was groundbreaking narrative art.

Now 40 years later she is the author of many works of prose fiction, including

two novels—Machine Dreams and Lark & Termite—that are both acknowledged

masterpieces in the genre of the American war novel.”

Secretary of American Academy of Arts and Letters inducting Jayne Anne Phillips during its Ceremonial, May 23, 2018 Jayne Anne Phillips photo by Jerry Bauer ContentsFALL 2018

A Decade of Digital 6 Liz Gushee on making great strides in digital collections services.

Terrence McNally at 80 9 Eric Colleary interviews one of our most enduring and respected American playwrights.

Central Texas to 11 West Texas and Beyond Matthew Harrison on using the internet as a rare books room to teach Shakespeare.

Traces of the Artist 12 Jessica S. McDonald on the new exhibition Ed Ruscha: Archaeology and Romance.

Arts & Class 18 Bridget Gayle Ground on the Center’s recent collaboration with the School of Architecture.

Powerful Currents 20 Tracy Bonfitto on artist John Wilson’s Down by the Riverside prints.

DEPARTMENTS “ The creator looms outside her work’s Around the Plaza...... 2 unwaning fame, haunting it.” Artifact . 5 Events...... 8 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein at 200 | pg. 24 Conservation...... 28 COVER: Ed Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Pool #2 (detail), from the portfolio Pools , 1968; printed 1997. Chromogenic color print, 40.4 x 40.7 cm (image). Edward Papers and Art Collection, 2013.16.2 © 22.2 x 36.2 cm (open). Edward Ruscha Papers and Art , February 1969 (detail); in studio notebook, 1967–1969. Ink and pencil on paper, Ed Ruscha (American, b. 1937), notes and sketches for A Few Palm Trees Collection, 17.10 © Ed Ruscha AROUND THE PLAZA

Director’s note Shop our online store In 2013 the National Need one of our archival box Endowment for the pins or a pair of Gutenberg Humanities awarded the socks? Browse our new online Ransom Center a highly shop to purchase these unique competitive challenge gifts, books, posters, and more grant to create a two at shop.hrc.utexas.edu. million dollar endowment to support the Center’s successful public exhibition program. Thanks to many of you—loyal friends and many first- time donors—we have successfully met this challenge. The Frank W. Calhoun Exhibition Endowment is named in honor of our long-time friend and former Advisory Council Chair. It provides recurring funding to support exhibition program costs. It will also help us introduce ever larger audiences to our collections. The Calhoun Endowment will provide support for curatorial research, essential to tell the stories of these collections in smart and engaging ways. It will make possible conservation treatments to prepare the collections for public display. It will allow us to make strong visual design statements in our galleries, including media and technology components, and support the highest museum standards of care. While our exhibitions draw primarily upon the Center’s own collections, the Calhoun Endowment will allow us to borrow rare and unique objects, when necessary, to complete a story exhibition curators are eager to share. The endowment will also support the training of our CONNECT WITH US @ransomcenter staff, docents, and volunteers who ensure that every visit to the Ransom Center is a learning experience. LLILAS BENSON @llilasbenson The Ransom Center was founded as a research center, 28 Aug and it remains an essential destination for students .@llilasbenson director Virginia Garrard led a #ReadingRoundup session and scholars engaged in original, primary source at the @ransomcenter for @UGS_UT on García Márquez’s “Love in the study. We know that this research has a broader Time of Cholera.” #GoneToTexas #HookEm @LiberalArtsUT @UTAustin relevance and meaning for us all. My colleagues and I are grateful to the NEH and to all who gave generously to support this cultural work.

STEPHEN ENNISS Director, Harry Ransom Center

2 | Ransom Center magazine Scholarship & Research

UPCOMING FELLOWSHIP NEW FINDING AIDS PROGRAM ACCEPTING • Harry Houdini collection Flair Symposium, April 4–6, 2019 APPLICATIONS Ethical Challenges in and papers Cultural Stewardship 1,200 projects and counting • Anne Jackson and An opportunity for inter- We fund research requiring on- Eli Wallach papers disciplinary conversations site use of our collections in art, • Carson McCullers literary file about pressing ethical questions photography, film, literature, and photography collection confronting museums, performing arts. Applications due • McSweeney’s film collection libraries, and archives today. November 15, 2018. Supported by The Gladys Visit ransom.center/fellowships Krieble Delmas Foundation. for details. Community LAW AND THE HUMANITIES

The Ransom Center recently held a special session for the University’s School of Law Mentorship Program. Lawyers from the Austin community and their law student mentees viewed materials that highlight the intersection of legal history and the humanities. We looked at early legal documents, including a 1556 edition of the Magna Carta with a beautiful binding and a 1607 Indenture witnessed by John Milton’s father. The lawyers and law students were invited to look over photographs of Emmeline Pankhurst and others speaking on women’s suffrage, and the papers of ACLU lawyer Morris Ernst for trials about birth control, censorship, and evolution. We examined Gloria Swanson’s 1950 contract for the film Sunset CONNECT WITH US @ransomcenter Boulevard, Arthur Miller’s working notebook for The Crucible (1953) alongside Lillian Hellman’s press statement to the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Woodward and Bernstein’s source files as part of their investigation of the Watergate break-in.

To change your contact information, please notify: The publishers have made FALL 2018 every effort to contact Suzanne Krause, Editor | [email protected] Volume 2 | Issue 2 all copyright holders for permissions. Those we Suzanne Krause Editor have been unable to reach Ransom Center Magazine is published Anne-Charlotte Patterson Designer are invited to contact us so biannually for members and friends that a full acknowledgment of the Harry Ransom Center at Leslie Ernst Art Director may be given. The University of Texas at Austin. Unless otherwise noted, photography by Pete Smith and Derek Rankins. © 2018 Harry Ransom Center. All rights reserved.

Phone: 512-471-8944 | www.hrc.utexas.edu

Bob Woodward’s notes from the preliminary hearing for the five men arrested at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate office complex, June 17, 1972. Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers. Woodward and Bernstein Watergate office complex, June 17, 1972. notes from the preliminary hearing for five men arrested at Democratic National Committee Headquarters in Bob Woodward’s hrc.utexas.edu | 3 RANSOM CENTER LOANS Where in the world can you find us? Collection materials on loan to other museums, galleries, and libraries are starring in exhibitions around the globe. What’s near you?

BLANTON MUSEUM OF ART Framing Eugène Atget: Photography and Print Culture in Nineteenth Century Paris | Through 12/2/2018

DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART The Cult of the Machine | Through 1/6/19

NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER The Nature of Arp: Sculpture, Reliefs, Works on Paper Through 1/6/2019

MORGAN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM It’s Alive! Frankenstein at 200 | Through 1/27/2019

NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA/MUSEE DES BEAUX-ARTS DU CANADA Oscar G. Rejlander: Artist Photographer Through 2/3/2019

MUSEUM OF TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era: A Celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible | Through 3/3/19

PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment 2/2/2019–5/5/2019

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART Splendor in the Dust: The Daguerreotypes of Girault de Prangey | 1/28–5/12/2019

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON Arte Popular: Frida Kahlo & Folk Art 2/27–6/16/19

4 | Ransom Center magazine Bassin du Nord, 1902. Albumen print,17.8 x 21.3 cm. Gernsheim Collection, purchase, 964:0040:0011 | Norman Bel Geddes, Motor Car No. 9 (without tail fin) , ca. 1933. Oscar Gustaf Eugène Atget (French, 1857–1927), Versailles, Rejlander (British, born Sweden, 1813–1875), [Mary Constable and her sister], 1866. Albumen print, 19.9 x 15.0 cm (image). Ger nsheim Collection, purchase, 964:0639:0002 | Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (French, 1804–1892), 139. Kaire. 1843. G. S. Kalaoun , Daguerreotype, 24.0 x 9.5 cm. Gernsheim Collection, purchase, 964:0020:0123 | Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907–1954), Untit led [Self-portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird], 1940. Oil on / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Mexico, D.F. © 2017 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, canvas mounted to board, 62.5 x 48.0 cm. Courtesy Harry Ransom Center. Notes from Aaron Latham’s notebook relating to Urban Cowboy: The Musical, 2003. Aaron Latham Papers. Little Song Big Swagger, (2003). Hisarchive isheldattheRansomCenter. for theBroadway production UrbanCowboy:TheMusical the characterBud(playedbyJohnTravolta inthefilm) mechanical bull.”Here, hedescribessomenotesabout says, “ofanunusuallovetriangle:agirl,boy, anda the Houston-area honky-tonkGilly’s,thestoryis,he of themovieitinspired, UrbanCowboy(1980).Setat America’s Search forTrue Grit”andthescreenplay magazine article“TheBalladoftheUrbanCowboy: two aboutswagger. Thejournalistwrote 1978’sEsquire As anativeTexan, Aaron Lathamknowsathingor –Aaron Latham is whohereallyis. That’s worth realizing. youBud’sThat gives unsteady swagger which never finished: instance thesenotesItookforthistune one character orevenonething. Take for Or youcanwriteasmallsongabout withoutandwhatyoucan’t. can live what’s important andwhat’s not,whatyou single song. That tellsyoualotabout To compressthewholeplotintoa Sometimes it’s goodtotry. way ofhearingyourcharacters. ten gallon hat. You doitjustasadifferent Even ifyoucouldn’tcarry atunein Even ifyou’re notasongwriter. Sometimes it’s timetowriteasong. But I’mmeaner It maybemean Like nothin’ you neverseen Gotta ridethatmachine THE BULL’S SONG

hrc.utexas.edu ARTIFACT

| 5 COLLECTIONS A Decade of Digital LIZ GUSHEE, HEAD OF DIGITAL COLLECTIONS SERVICES FROM 2012–2018

It’s been a banner decade for Digital Collections Services. How did we get here?

When I arrived at the Ransom Center in 2011, I stepped into the new role of digital collections librarian, tasked with establishing a program to promote access to and the preservation of the Center’s digitized collections. For the first several years, I was a department of one, but found that the collaborative nature of colleagues throughout the Center would ensure the success of many digital collections-based projects.

In 2015, the department of Digital Collections Services was established, consolidating the formerly separate areas of digitization, born digital processing, and digital collections into a single unit.

The department includes our librarian department head, two digital project librarians, our digital archivist, photographer, and digitization lab manager. Our work encompasses access initiatives for born digital and digitized collection material, digital

2009  2013 2015  Launch of the Edgar Allan Launch of our Digital Adoption of open access policy Poe Digital Collection to Collections Portal: over 8,000 removes permissions and use accompany the 2009 Poe (now well over 125,000!) free- fees for a significant portion Bicentennial Exhibition From ly available digitized images of our online collections in the Out of the Shadow: The Life and including the photographs of public domain Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe Lewis Carroll, manuscripts by Charlotte and Emily Launch of Project REVEAL: free 2010  Brontë, and Harry Houdini’s access to 22,000 images of fully Launch of online image database scrapbooks digitized manuscript collections of Medieval and Early Modern of some of the best-known Manuscripts collection Launch of the Frank Reaugh names in literature, including digital collection Joseph Conrad, Jack London, 2011  and Katherine Mansfield Hire of Digital Collections Librarian Tape recording of Mel Gussow interviewing Katharine Hepburn. From the collection Tape

6 | Ransom Center magazine imaging activities, and digital preservation for our digitized and born digital assets.

As with all projects here, cross-departmental collaboration is the key to ongoing success. Many digital initiatives are based within this department, and they are only possible through the creativity, expertise, and generous collaborative spirit of staff from across all divisions. The Council on Library and Information Resources funded several projects.

So, what’s next? In the coming months, expect to see the launch of a pilot project to provide reading room access to email correspondence by selected authors. Be sure to visit our digital collections portal for additions to our online collection of movie posters, a new online presentation of the Gutenberg Bible, and much more (hrc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/).

2016 2018 Establishment of born digital Installation of new digitization processing lab equipment ACCESS BORN DIGITAL 2017  Launch of the Movie Posters digital MATERIALS FROM THESE Data recovery from 90 percent of collection gives online access to COLLECTIONS IN OUR our born digital materials more than 1,000 posters from our READING ROOM: vast collection Alice Adams Access to born digital Julia Alvarez collection materials in Reading Launch of the Mel Gussow audio T. C. Boyle and Viewing Room interview recordings gives online Christine Brooke-Rose access to the interviews of this J. M. Coetzee Launch of the Gabriel García New York Times theatre critic Billy Collins Márquez online archive Testing of platform for processing Kazuo Ishiguro Adoption of web-based, image- email in selected literary collections Mad Men sharing technology Gabriel García Márquez Establishment of the Digital Ian McEwan Redesign of Digital Collections Portal Preservation Planning Committee Iain Sinclair Lady Ottoline Morrell (British, 1873–1938), [Katherine Mansfield at Garsington Manor], 1917. Gelatin sil ver print, 13.5 x 8.6 cm. Photography Collection, Katherine Mansfield Literary File, 980:0165:0005 Lady Ottoline Morrell (British, 1873–1938), [Katherine Mansfield at Garsington Manor], 1917.

hrc.utexas.edu | 7 Unless otherwise noted, events are free and take place at Calendarthe Ransom Center. Full calendar at hrc.utexas.edu/events.

READING 18 THURSDAY 6 PM Don’t miss this chance to hear award-winning author Michael Ondaatje read selections from his latest novel, Warlight, which tells the dramatic story of two teenagers whose lives are changed when they are left in the care of a mysterious figure named “The Moth.” Ondaatje, who received the Golden Man Booker prize this year for his 1992 novel The English Patient, placed his archive at the Ransom Center in 2017. Co-sponsored by the Michener Center for Writers. Venue: Jessen Auditorium in Homer Rainey Hall. OCTOBER

SCREENING 25 THURSDAY 6 PM Maxine Gordon introduces the filmRound Midnight (1986), starring her late husband, jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance. Gordon plays Dale Turner, a tenor saxophone player who leaves the U.S. for Paris in the 1950s. Directed by Bertrand Tavernier. Runtime 131 minutes. Rated R. A book signing of Maxine Gordon’s Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon will immediately follow the film.

SCREENING LECTURE 11 SUNDAY 2 PM 15 THURSDAY 4:30 PM Enjoy the new documentary Every Act of Life, Learn how one of the world’s leading independent followed by a conversation with playwright Terrence publishing companies brought the works of Michael McNally. Spotlighting the life and career of the Ondaatje, J. K. Rowling, Khaled Hosseini, Margaret four-time Tony award-winning playwright and LGBT Atwood, and other major authors to a global audience. activist, this film premiered earlier this year at the Bloomsbury Publishing Founder and Chief Executive Tribeca Film Festival. Venue: Texas Union Theater. Nigel Newton will speak about highlights in the Free tickets at shop.hrc.utexas.edu. company’s 32-year history, including making 800,000 pages of the documents of Winston Churchill available to students and researchers online. NOVEMBER

8 | Ransom Center magazine Terrence McNally at 80 INTERVIEW BY ERIC COLLEARY, CLINE CURATOR OF THEATRE AND PERFORMING ARTS

Terrence McNally is one the most enduring and respected American playwrights, responsible for over 80 plays, musicals, and opera librettos over the past 50 years. His contributions to the theatre extend to his advocacy for playwriting as a profession and the Eric Colleary: Do you remember the first performance you saw that helped you to mentorship of emerging realize the power of theatre to change the way people see the world around them? artists. His works have What was it about that performance? helped launch the careers Terrence McNally: Theatre has the power to change people when all the elements of some of America’s great —script, performance, design—are aligned in perfect harmony to reach across the actors, including F. Murray stage and lift the audience en masse to a new level of awareness and collective emotional resonance. Does that happen very often? No, but when it does there is Abraham, Nathan Lane, nothing like it. (How many games of any sport do you sit through before you see and Doris Roberts. a truly great one? Be honest.) In the theatre people stop breathing and hold their

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS in the Claire de Lune. His Andre’s Mother and Love! Valour! Compassion! humanized the AIDS crisis for McNally’s writing was ahead of its time. When other audiences struggling to cope with the epidemic, and his writers might have given up in the face of early-career Corpus Christi grappled with contemporary homophobia criticism, McNally not only persisted, but his style and hate crimes. Musicals like Ragtime and Kiss of the ultimately shaped American drama through works like Spider Woman expanded the possibilities of the form, and Master Class, The Lisbon Traviata, and Frankie and Johnny his opera Dead Man Walking is one of the most frequently

ollection. | Terrence McNally by Michael Nagle. Michael Ondaatje © Rolex-Bart Michiels | Photo of Maxine and Dexter Gordon courtesy from her C ollection. Terrence hrc.utexas.edu | 9 continued

breath in emotional suspense. Or Several of your works have been If you could offer your younger self they laugh torrentially as one. I’m based on historical figures—Maria any advice, what would it be? thinking of the profound silence in Callas in Master Class, Diaghilev and the final minutes of Peter Brooks’s Nijinsky in Fire and Air, and most of I would listen to my peers and not production of King Lear with Paul the characters in Ragtime to name my critics. I would make sure I was Scofield. I’m remembering the a few. How do you research? How always surrounded by people who uncontrollable hilarity of Nick do you balance historical fact with were smarter than me—people I Hytner’s production of One Man, creative license? would learn something from and Two Guvnors with James Corden. Or not feel superior to. I would travel Angela Lansbury selling “The Worst On two occasions, Master Class and more. I would do more things that Pies in London” in Sweeney Todd. Or Fire and Air, I have written major terrified me. Bruce Springsteen alone on stage characters based on real people (i.e. in a small theatre with an acoustic Maria Callas and Sergei Diaghilev). guitar. What was special and will In the first instance, I wanted to Do you have any new projects remain so about these nights at the write about the interpretative artist coming down the pipeline? theatre is that they never can be who through their particular genius duplicated. You had to be there. becomes a creative artist. In her case, I think it is bad luck to talk about I think Callas brought almost as plays I am going to write. I do much to the table as the composers want to alphabetize my library this “Theatre has the she sang. With Diaghilev, I wanted year, however. R to write about a man whose genius power to change people was discovering the genius in others—dancers, choreographers, when all the elements composers—without possessing a special talent of his own. My career —script, performance, depends on producers. It was time design—are aligned in I tried to write about one. I believe I chose the greatest one of them who perfect harmony.“ ever lived.

continued

produced contemporary American operas around the world. In 1999, McNally donated his archive to the Ransom Center. The hallmarks of McNally’s writing are his sharp wit, his Over the years, he has generously added to the papers, complex characters, and stories that touch the core of and the most recent addition includes manuscripts for his the human experience. This year, McNally was elected to latest play, Fire and Air, which premiered in 2018 and will be the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The honor of performed at Austin’s ZACH Theatre in the spring of 2019. election is considered the highest form of recognition of artistic merit in the United States.

10 | Ransom Center magazine Central Texas to West Texas and Beyond MATTHEW HARRISON

“What do the books smell like?” asked one of It was thrilling to be able to interact with these materials, my students. In my Shakespeare class at West Texas even remotely via our classroom projector. When Pratt A&M University, we must use the internet as our rare stacked a quarto on top of a folio, it made the size book room. Our institution could never afford the kinds difference far more vivid than any amount of lecturing of specialized resources we use every week online: my I could do. The result was a wide-ranging conversation students can easily flip through digitized Shakespeare about playwriting in Shakespeare’s England, the book quartos, see performance clips and stills, and trawl trade, the editorial tradition, and the ways meanings are through databases of historical records. made through reception. For many students, it was a highlight of the course. As one said, “It was like a portal The digitization efforts of libraries like the Harry Ransom was opened up between our classroom and Early Modern Center let my students immerse themselves in rare England.” material. But, as my student’s surprising question made me realize, the challenge of so much internet research Our session with Dr. Pratt helped us to keep reflecting on is that we lose track of the materiality of the text: the what one of my students called the “economic and cultural size of early books, the feel of turning pages, and yes, currency” of these texts. These discussions resonated even their smell. Luckily, at the time we were holding a throughout the semester. Indeed, one student left class Skype session with Aaron Pratt, the Center’s Pforzheimer and immediately tracked down a digitized Fourth Folio to Curator of Early Books and Manuscripts. Pratt replied propose a project on textual editing. with a fascinating discussion of the physical processes behind early print, from the rags used in paper production But even beyond the intellectual discussions, my students all the way through to the bindings. were blown away by the chance to interact with such rare material, amazed that “we have it here… in Texas.” I look The hour we spent with Pratt covered far more than just forward to future partnership with the Ransom Center and the odor of the archives, of course. He used a two-camera with Pratt. He, however, might need to watch out. As rig to provide us a tour of collection materials selected spe- one student told me, “I want his job.” cifically to resonate with our class discussions: manuscript and print commonplace books, an early seventeenth- Matthew Harrison is the Wendy and Stanley Marsh 3 Assistant century quarto, the 1709 edition that first introduced Professor of Shakespeare Studies at West Texas A&M. He recently illustrations to Shakespeare, and (most exciting for my stu- completed research for his book about Renaissance conceptions of dents) the famous First Folio of 1623, the book that brought bad poetry. Harrison was the recipient of a Harry Ransom Center 36 of Shakespeare’s plays together for the first time. fellowship supported by the Carl H. Pforzheimer Endowment.

hrc.utexas.edu | 11

Traces of the Artist IN THE NEW EXHIBITION ED RUSCHA: ARCHAEOLOGY AND ROMANCE JESSICA S. MCDONALD

DRIVING ALONG ROUTE 66 appear in silhouette just above the artist’s book, Twentysix Gasoline in 1962, Ed Ruscha pulled over at roofline, and a row of smaller rabbits Stations (1963), over the course of the Jack Rabbit Trading Post just along the roof’s edge are aligned several road trips along the same outside Joseph City, Arizona. He with the horizon, ready to hop into route. He selected one for the book picked up his camera and made at the desert. Both photographs are and identified it with the caption least two exposures: one at an oblique intentionally “artless,” as if taken Texaco, Jackrabbit, Arizona; he filed the angle from the narrow parking lot by an anonymous amateur, yet their variant away with more “outtakes” in front, placing the gas pumps comparison invites us to imagine the in his studio. Both are now preserved and Texaco sign near the center of artist moving through the scene. at the Ransom Center, alongside the frame; and another from across other preparatory materials for the the highway, composing a wider These views of the Jack Rabbit 16 books Ruscha published between view of the popular tourist stop. In Trading Post are just two of the 1963 and 1978. Manuscripts, printing that exposure, the long ears of the photographs Ruscha gathered as records, and page layouts in the trading post’s giant wooden mascot potential illustrations for his first collection trace the production of

OPPOSITE Ed Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Preliminary notes for Some Los Angeles Apartments, 1965. Ink and pencil on paper with color chips, 27.9 x 21.5 cm. Edward Ruscha Papers and Art Collection, 1.8 © Ed Ruscha

Texaco, Jackrabbit, Arizona[Unpublished], 1962. Gelatin variant silverof Texaco, print, 8.8 x 8.9 cm. Edward Ruscha Papers and Art Jackrabbit, Collection, Arizona, 2013.39.2 1962. © EdGelatin Ruscha. silver Texaco, print, 8.8 x 8.9 cm. Edward Ruscha Papers and Art Collection, 2013.39.1 © Ed Ruscha hrc.utexas.edu | 13 continued

14 | Ransom Center magazine Lots , 1970; printed 2003. Gelatin silver print, 74.1 x 73.5 cm. Edward Ruscha Papers and Art Collection, 2013.20.4 © Ed Lot #4 (Los Angeles) , from the portfolio Vacant Ed Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Vacant Ed Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Page from Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass (Hollywood: published by the artist, 1968). © Ed Ruscha, courtesy Gagosian Gallery hrc.utexas.edu | 15 continued

those groundbreaking books, and form the core of the exhibition Ed Ruscha: Archaeology and Romance.

After completing Twentysix Gasoline Stations in 1963, Ruscha published an artist’s book each year for the next five years. Despite the appearance of a linear production schedule, Ruscha’s production files make it clear that he actively worked on several projects at TUESDAY | NOVEMBER 27 | 7 PM once, with many other ideas incubating in notes and Curator Tour with Jessica S. McDonald sketches. A loose page headed “APTS.,” filed with Learn how unpublished production notes, cover production material for his book Some Los Angeles layouts, and studio notebooks from our holdings Apartments (1965) serves as one lively example (see provide insight into the conception and design p. 12). Ruscha adhered color chips in shades of coral of Ruscha’s renowned artist’s books, and how and blue—perhaps early contenders for the book’s motifs introduced in those books inspired later cover typography—next to a short list of apartment prints, drawings, and portfolios. complexes. He filled the remainder of the page with ideas for future book titles, some more absurd than others. One idea, “Fourteen Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass,” closely predicts the title of a book he published three years later, substituting nine pools for the original fourteen.

Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass (1968) was Ruscha’s first book with color photographs, and production records preserved in his papers show that he controlled the printing process with brilliant subtlety. Four layers of ink are customarily used to reproduce a color photograph in print—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black—yet Ruscha’s handwritten printing specifications call for “10 3-COLOR SEPARATIONS (NO BLACK).” Omitting the black layer yielded a cost savings of $1.50 for each photograph in the book, according to a price list for color separations retained in Ruscha’s files; yet other decisions, such as increasing the page count from 48 to 64 in a book with so few photographs, suggest that Ruscha’s priorities were aesthetic rather than budgetary. Printing the photographs in only three colors limited depth and detail in the shadows, leaving the swimming pool scenes with a too-bright, sun-bleached, strangely illusory feel (see p. 15).

Alongside these traces of the process leading up to Ruscha’s landmark publications, Ed Ruscha: Archaeology and Romance explores the ways in which the artist subsequently transformed the motifs introduced in his books into works in other media. The exhibition

16 | Ransom Center magazine features a selection of Ruscha’s been known only in reproduction. cropped and rotated for layout in screenprints and sketches based on That year he produced Gasoline the book Thirtyfour Parking Lots in the gasoline station motif, drawings Stations 1962, a portfolio of ten Los Angeles (1967). The portfolio informed by his studies of Los gelatin silver prints from his original Vacant Lots (2003) offers four Angeles apartments, and a poster he negatives. Ruscha has since revisited “outtakes” from the book Real Estate designed for an experimental, multi- the photographs made for several Opportunities (1970), including one media magazine, featuring one of of his books, and has created new in which Ruscha appears in shadow, his 34 parking lots. Six lithographs portfolios and suites of prints. holding his twin-lens reflex camera from the series Book Covers (1970), In many cases, these new works above his head to frame an elevated included in the exhibition, show that allow viewers to see what Ruscha perspective (see p. 14). These subtle Ruscha not only engaged the motifs included, left out, or changed in traces of the artist and his creative within his books, but also depicted the process of creating his books choices appear throughout Ed his books as whole objects. decades earlier. Ruscha: Archaeology and Romance, and suggest that a great deal remains to It wasn’t until 1989, however, that The portfolio Pools (1997) gives be learned from his papers in the Ruscha returned to the photographs viewers the opportunity to see Ransom Center collection. R that populate the pages of books Ruscha’s nine swimming pools in such as Twentysix Gasoline Stations, full color, and removed from the Jessica S. McDonald is the Nancy and considered presenting them context of his 1968 book, where they Inman and Marlene Nathan Meyerson as independent works. In the are encountered at unpredictable Curator of Photography, and the intervening quarter century, intervals between blank pages. curator of the exhibition Ed Ruscha: Texaco, Jackrabbit, Arizona and other Parking Lots (1999) offers full-frame Archaeology and Romance. photographs from the 1960s had versions of aerial views originally

Ed Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Real Estate Opportunities, from the series Book Covers, 1970. Color lithograph, 41.0 x 50.9 cm. Edward Ruscha Papers and Art Collection, 2013.3.6 © Ed Ruscha hrc.utexas.edu | 17 Arts&

ClassBRIDGET GAYLE GROUND

School of Architecture students collaborate with the Ransom Center to learn exhibition design

Just steps away from the Ransom students in several aspects of exhibi- display systems without overwhelm- Center is The University of Texas at tion design. Between assignments, ing the original objects; and how to Austin School of Architecture, where students attended a series of lectures engage broad audiences with the hundreds of students work diligently by professionals in the fields of light- exhibition through accessible digital on a wide range of design assign- ing and graphic design, historical and physical spaces. ments, from the scale of furniture and color research, and interactive tech- interiors to that of cities and regions. nologies, as well as lectures and tours Because the studio took place These assignments are often based on by Ransom Center staff and the exhi- relatively early in the exhibition’s real-life scenarios, providing practical bition’s curators, UT faculty members planning stages, it offered a learning experience to prepare students for Christopher Long and Monica Penick. opportunity for students as well as their professional careers. for the exhibition planning team, who As a result, students balanced were likewise engaged with these Our upcoming spring 2019 exhibition their exploration into concepts for questions. The studio created a forum The Rise of Everyday Design: The Arts twenty-first-century exhibition design where ideas and approaches for the and Crafts Movement in Britain and against the specific parameters of our exhibition could be proposed, tested, America recently served as the focus exhibition project, from its objects and and discovered. for a semester-long advanced interior narrative to our gallery space. For design studio. example, students grappled with the Bridget Gayle Ground coordinates the challenge of how to evoke a period Ransom Center’s research fellowship The studio, led by Associate Professor through color and graphics while program and assists with the planning and and Director of the Interior Design maintaining a sense of interpretive implementation of other academic programs, Program Tamie Glass, engaged distance; how to create engaging including the biennial Flair Symposium.

18 | Ransom Center magazine MORRIS Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea com- modo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Excepteur sint occaecat Arts& cupidatat non Class Rendering by Taylor Moore

BRENNEN BIRCH, TAYLOR MOORE, Master of Interior Design, Bachelor of Science in Candidate (2018) Interior Design (2018)

I began my design process with a period of user re- The goal of my design system is to provide an search, by interviewing visitors to the Center’s Mexico exciting way to highlight and display objects Modern exhibition. After discovering that visitors most without distracting from their inherent interest. enjoyed learning about the characters behind the ob- jects on display, I distilled this finding into my “narrative Large graphics and color were used in this table” strategy, which groups objects related to one design in order to orient visitors throughout the character or actor from the Arts and Crafts movement on exhibition. These graphics hint at the time period one display table. This way, each table tells a complete of each exhibition section, showing an evolution narrative within the larger story of the exhibition. from organic to geometric to architectural forms.

Aesthetically, I wanted to give a nod to the familiar This use of color and graphics creates a domestic environment that resulted from the movement wayfinding system as well as a backdrop, while while also responding to the context of the museum. allowing the objects to be displayed within the The table is low to the ground and surrounded by voids of color. stools, encouraging visitors to spend some time with the objects and to engage in conversation as they might This studio helped to inform my design process. By around a dining table. looking deeper into the design of exhibit spaces and studying the objects being displayed, I gained My experience with this studio reminds me how impor- an understanding of how to allow those pieces tant visitor research is in the exhibition design process. to be the focus of (without competing with) an When a designer has an accurate idea of the visitors equally exciting design concept. and their needs, they can design a rich and meaningful experience that engages all types of learning styles.

hrc.utexas.edu | 19 COLLECTIONS POWERFUL CURRENTS

John Wilson’s Down by the Riverside Prints TRACY BONFITTO, CURATOR OF ART

20 | Ransom Center magazine John Woodrow Wilson (American, 1922–2015), The Richard Wright Suite, 2001. Color etchings with aquatint. Museum purchase, 2001.5.4-.7. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. T registers asexposure ratherthanhope. appearance oftheprevious images, prints, incontrasttothethick, muddied The jarringlywhiteskyofthe finaltwo edge. of theleaflesstrees attheriver’s figure, andbythesharplyangledlimbs visual confusionaround thecentral the raisedarmsofattackersincrowded here gone,thoselinesreplaced with indication ofdarknessandrainare slicing through theprevious printsin The fourthprinttakesaturn:thelines drained. in blackandwhite,appearsstark one intheseriestobeexecutedsolely more thanpity. Thisprint,theonly expression revealing acknowledgement white malefigure looksonwithabland edge ofanexaminationtable,whilea of herleftarmdrapedsharplyoverthe the bodyofalifelesswoman,line the centralmalefigure stoopedover plane—the nextprintintheseriesfinds an otherwisedarkandmuddledpicture scene—a smallsquare oflightpiercing Despite thepromise inherent inthat of alarge house. toward thebeaconofalightedwindow the smallcraftagainstcurrent and huddled figures havemanagedtoshift worry andfear. Inthenextimage, to herside,faceangledwithlinesof elderly womangripsasmallboyclose of thesimple,slat-shingledroof, an second stoopedmale.Inthelowshadow ground, itsportsidesteadiedbya through thefloodwaters toward higher rowboat. Theboat’s bowispointed page, liftsaslightwomanintosimple the denselinesthatcover to thedrivingrainindicatedby he darkmalefigure, headbent hrc.utexas.edu

| 21 continued

In the final print, a lifeless black male have rendered unrecognizable, and lifeless at the water’s edge. The bitter body, twisted unnaturally, lies at the heads toward the lit window of a paradox of that juxtaposition—the edge of the receding river. It fills the large house. active decision to turn away from ag- lower half of the image, confronting gression jutting up against the image the viewer with its unnerving combi- Mann calls out to the inhabitants of of Mann’s violent death—is further nation of agitated angle and stillness. the house, where, to his terror, he exacerbated by the on-the-surface finds not help but the stolen boat’s benign, even idyllic, sounding phrase. Even without knowing the story these white owner. Realizing the affront, prints illustrate, we sense from the the boat’s owner fires his pistol in Lithographer and painter John images alone that this male figure has the direction of Mann and his family. Wilson—whose career included died largely because he was black. In an act of desperate self-defense, significant work on the themes of The prints are part of John Wilson’s Mann kills the man and frantically oppression and the execrable condi- 2001 series The Richard Wright Suite, rows against the current toward the tions suffered by black Americans— created in conjunction with the hospital. The family arrives at the selected the story for publication in Limited Editions Club publication of hospital too late: Lulu and her unborn partnership with Limited Editions Down by the Riverside from the same child have died. Club owner and publisher Sid Shiff. year. That story was originally part Wilson, who recalled first reading of Richard Wright’s 1938 collection of A distraught Mann is now conscript- Wright’s Uncle Tom’s Children in 1945, novellas, Uncle Tom’s Children. ed into assisting with flood rescue also wrote the afterword for the 2001 efforts. In this new role—knowing too publication. In it Wilson describes The backdrop and driving force of well that the action will likely result the effect of having seen press Down by the Riverside is a devastating in his exposure—he saves the family images of lynchings in the early and flood. Against the rising waters and of the man he had earlier killed. Upon mid-twentieth century; he writes, “I the threat of the levee breaking are reaching higher ground the rescued understood that simply being black a southern black family’s desperate family immediately reports the earlier was the most important reality attempts to escape to safety. killing. The story closes with the body affecting my entire life.” Protagonist Brother Mann has been of Mann, who has been shot to death offered a stolen boat; balancing the as a murderer, laying by the side of Wilson elected to use a form of risk of being a black man found with the river. etching known as aquatint to create a stolen white man’s boat against the these prints, stating in his afterword risk of his wife’s premature and life- In the context of the pre-Civil War that the technique is an ideal one threatening labor, he decides to use spiritual song from which it is for interpreting the “dark brooding, the boat to transport his son, mother- derived, the phrase “down by the murky atmosphere” of Wright’s story. in-law, and wife Lulu to the hospital. riverside” evokes the casting off of Mann rows his family through the aggression and conflict. The phrase confusion of a once-familiar also, as Wilson’s final image poi- landscape that the floodwaters gnantly demonstrates, conjures the final, literal image of Mann’s body,

22 | Ransom Center magazine The aquatint method—in which have resulted in scores of displaced later, Wright would reconsider the grains of rosin are heated and the lives and the ways in which the long- book’s power, asserting that it was resultant acid “bites” create a rough reaching aftermath of such storms an inadvertently sentimental and surface on the plate—produces a tend to be particularly disastrous for “naïve” attempt to address ongoing print with a painted, rather than underprivileged populations. injustice on the basis of race—one etched, appearance. Such a technique that, he feared, fostered the release speaks both to the forces of nature In a Ransom Center copy of Uncle of cathartic tears rather than served that drive Mann’s desperate flight Tom’s Children, Wright penned an as an inescapable call to action. The and to the violence that confronts him inscription to the book’s former tragic plight of the Mann family is at the story’s close. owner, filmmaker and poet Willard undeniably poignant. But Wilson’s Maas, in 1938. “To Willard Maas,” prints, currently on view at the These images of a desperate family the author writes, “in hope that we Ransom Center as part of Stories to escaping rising floodwaters are may stand shoulder to shoulder Tell, help demonstrate the haunting today impossible to view without in that fight that represents the timeliness of their depiction of considering the recent catastrophic last, best hope of this earth.” In an displacement, separation and loss, hurricanes and tropical storms that essay published only two years tragedy, and desperate hope. R

hrc.utexas.edu | 23 , 2001. Color etchings with aquatint. Museum purchase, 2001.5.8. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. New York, Suite , 2001. Color etchings with aquatint. Museum purchase, 2001.5.8. Licensed by VAGA, Wilson (American, 1922–2015), The Richard Wright John Woodrow DIANA SILVEIRA LEITE The Companion Celebrating Mary Shelley at the of the Dead 200th Anniversary of Frankenstein

In 1818, a strange anonymous book came into the world. The dedication to William Godwin on the inscription page provided a clue to the author’s identity—after all, Godwin was her father. Still, when Walter Scott published his famous review of Frankenstein that March, he failed to uncover either her identity or gender. He struggled to define this strange work. In the review, published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Scott described it as both a “novel” and “romantic fiction,” two distinct species of publication at the time.

Two hundred years later, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel still eludes generic qualifications.

Frankenstein’s bicentennial inspired exhibitions, articles, and other forms of homage. For who does not know the story and the creature that somehow became greater than the novel? The creator looms outside her work’s unwaning fame, haunting it. Unlike her fellow Romantic writers—her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley; George Gordon Byron, her sometimes friend; Scott, her admiring critic—Shelley did not become a celebrity-author; only the novel was celebrated.

In the first edition of her fourth novel, The Last Man (1826), Shelley is credited simply as “The Author of Frankenstein.” Although she had long abandoned anonymity by then, her name was well known enough to remain omitted, and yet not important enough to work as her own book’s publicity. Maybe Shelley’s personal obscurity serves as evidence of her “original genius and happy power of expression,” as Scott described her in the 1818 review. The creation was born so powerful that it seems to have eclipsed the creator.

24 | Ransom Center magazine Highlights from the Ransom Center’s Shelley Materials

The Ransom Center holds first editions of most of Shelley’s novels, her travel narratives, and the two P. B. Shelley posthumous poetical collections, which she edited.

The Robert De Niro Papers have production photographs from the 1994 filmMary Shelley’s Frankenstein, directed by Kenneth Branagh. De Niro, who starred in the movie as “The Creature,” appears dramatically transformed in the pictures. His face is covered in gruesome stitches and scars, resembling the work of a butcher instead of a scientist.

Since 1831, when British painter Theodor von Holst created the first widely circulated illustrations of Shelley’s masterpiece, Frankenstein has never stopped inspiring visual representations. Engravings of Holst’s art appeared first in the revised and illustrated 1831 London edition.

American artists Lynd Ward’s illustrations in a 1934 edition of the novel manifest Victor Frankenstein’s moment of success and the “breathless horror and disgust” that filled his heart once he beheld “the wretch—the miserable monster whom [he] had created.”

Additional letters and a pencil portrait sketch of P. B. Shelley, in her hand, are pasted into an imperfect copy of The Poetical Works Diana Leite is a graduate research of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats (1829). This copy, from which associate at the Ransom Center and Coleridge and Keats’s works have been removed, was a collector’s a doctoral student in the Program piece for the P. B. Shelley aficionado. The authenticity of the two in Comparative Literature at The letters added to this volume, from Mary Shelley to the publisher University of Texas at Austin. Leite William Galignani, dated 1829 and 1830, is questioned. and fellow graduate research associate Jana Zevnik curated the display Shelley’s last published work is the travel narrative Rambles Celebrating Mary Shelley: The in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842, and 1843 (1844). Shelley’s 200th Anniversary of Frankenstein musings on her return to the shores of Lake Geneva evoke earlier this year, during the 26th the dark melancholy, which only the last remaining Romantic Annual Conference of the Eighteenth- writer could have felt in the onset of the Victorian era. Revisiting and Nineteenth-Century British Villa Diodati and Maison Chapuis, where she conceived of Women Writers Association. Frankenstein in the company of her son William, P. B. Shelley, Claire Clairmont and Lord Byron in 1816, she felt as “the companion of the dead.” All others were gone; her child, her husband, her sister, her friend. Much like Lionel Verney, the protagonist of her fourth novel, The Last Man, Shelley survived the death of her companions from the Shelley-Byron circle.

(London: H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1831). Wolff Collection. 1831). Wolff The modern Prometheus (London: H. Colburn and R. Bentley, Shelley (1797–1851), Frankenstein, or, Theodore von Holst (1810–1844), engraved by William Chevalier (1804–1866), Frontispiece in Mary Wollstonecraft Frankenstein (1994). Robert De Niro manuscripts collection production still from Mary Shelley’s David Appleby, hrc.utexas.edu | 25 A Day in My Life... ALICIA BUSH as a Preservation & Conservation Intern

As an English student at Florida A&M University, I was attracted to this internship because it granted me an opportunity to really explore an archival library. As a writer, I have learned that research is an important part of my process, and I thought it would be really interesting to spend my time learning preservation and conservation methods for research materials. I was completely new to this field. Learning bookbinding was one of the most rewarding parts of my internship. There’s just something fascinating about learning how something is made, especially because I have so many books. I also really enjoyed working in preservation and helping with the sink mats for David O. Selznick’s storyboards and rehousing the large photographs by Carleton E. Watkins. Now I’ll be able to impact my own campus library and continue learning how to preserve items that will be beneficial to future researchers.

Here, I’m pasting paper corners to the supports to keep the photographs in place.

8:30 a.m. Photograph conservator Diana Diaz and I rehouse some large photographs (around 18” x 21”) of Yosemite Valley by Carleton E. Watkins. We used archival polyester film and a Polyweld machine to make U-shaped pockets, and high quality mat board to support the photographs. Given the size of these images, it’s best to work with someone else to properly handle the photographs.

26 | Ransom Center magazine Photos by Holger Waschinski 11 a.m. Preservation technician Genevieve Pierce and I work on sink mats for storyboards from the David O. Selznick collection.

2 p.m. Book conservation fellow Kimberly Kwan teaches me how to bind a book. She is showing me how to trim book cloth before I paste on decorative papers.

3:45 p.m. I’m looking at leather samples under a microscope and making sure the image appears on screen. The leather fibers are a reference to determine the condition and treatment of leather on old books.

Alicia Bush’s internship was made possible by the HBCU Library Alliance and the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation. It introduces interested students attending historically black colleges and universities to the field of preservation and conservation.

hrc.utexas.edu | 27 CONSERVATION Tools of the Trade Conservators Olivia Primanis and Kimberly Kwan of the book and paper lab and Diana Diaz of the photography lab talk about the tools that make their work possible, from the esoteric and vintage to the commonplace and modern.

OPTIVISOR BRUSHES It’s a wonderful This is a pounding brush, magnification tool for seeing made of fibers from the how the fibers of a tear overlap hemp palm tree. when we’re mending paper. In making a repair, we might have to change the direction the fibers lie or apply adhesive in a tiny area. It’s also great for examining photographs.

The wooden paddle of this sheep hair brush allows us to hold it in a specific way to apply paste.

The tiny, stiff fibers on the smaller brushes are useful for mending photographs, helping spread and align the paper fibers and strengthening the paper layers. SPOKE SHAVE This is actually a woodworking tool, but it’s used for thinning leather when repairing bindings or making AGATE BURNISHER new covers. This agate burnisher is used in the process of gilding the edges of a book. The stone helps to polish and blend gold leaf applied to a surface. It’s soft and doesn’t scratch the gold leaf.

28 | Ransom Center magazine KITCHEN TOOLS SCALPELS, DENTAL TOOLS This is a ceramic saucer for soy sauce! We also use surgeon scalpels and dental tools from It’s black, so we can easily see the white standard dental supply stores. The one with the paste used to mend tears in photographs. spoon edge would be used for dental fillings, but we use it to precisely press the adhesive during a photographic mend. Other common kitchen tools we use sometimes are oyster shuckers, spatulas and graters of different sizes, and chop- stick holders like this fish.

LOUPES LIFTER To mend photographs, This wood tool is made from lignum vitae, a we usually work under hardwood tree that grows in South America. microscopes or while using this It’s quite thin but still flexible. We often use magnifying loupe (an old photographer’s it to separate layers of board. You don’t tool for reviewing negatives). always want a sharp edge, which can cut into the area you’re trying to lift.

KNIVES English binders typically use a paring knife and a spoke shave to thin the edges of a piece of leather. If a spine is miss- ing and the covers are detached, we add a new piece of leather to the spine and tuck it underneath the material on the front BRASS ROLLS and back cover. Thinned edges reduce lumps. These brass rolls are used for decorating leather book covers with gold. You’d make an impression, add a special shellac, then add the gold using a heated tool.

DIVIDERS This one is a rounded French-style blade. French We use spring dividers for binders don’t use a spoke shave; the rounded measuring. They are much blade does the work. more exact than a ruler.

All conservators learn to shape and sharpen knives in their training. We test whether the blade is sharp enough by shaving off some arm hair.

hrc.utexas.edu | 29 The University of Texas at Austin Harry Ransom Center Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage P. O. Drawer 7219 PAID Austin, TX 78713-7219 Austin, Texas CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED Permit No. 391 Plate xxii from Christopher Dresser, Studies in Design Plate xxii from Christopher Dresser, (London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1876). Evelyn Harry Ransom Center. Library, Waugh