Washington Print Club Quarterly WINTER 2011-2012 (ISSN 0896-7598) Is a Publication of the Washington Print Club, a Non VOL
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QUARTERLY Collections of Works of Art on Paper in the Library of Congress The Washington Print Club Quarterly WINTER 2011-2012 (ISSN 0896-7598) is a publication of The Washington Print Club, a non VOL. 47, NO. 4 profit organization established in 1964 in the District of Columbia to encour age interest in prints and other works of art on paper. Its members are col lectors, artists, dealers, educators, cura tors, students, and others interested in works on paper. Contributions to the WPC and membership dues are tax deductible. Membership categories and annual dues are: Contributor, $50; Student, $20; Gallery, $75; Donor; $75; Col A RTICLES lector, $200 (includes original print). Nonmembers outside the DC metro 2 Works of Art on Paper at the Library of Congress politan area may subscribe to the KATHERINE L. BLOOD, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CURATOR OF FINE PRINTS AND GUEST EDITOR Quarterly ($25). To join or subscribe, send a check payable to The Washing 3 The Prints & Photographs Division of the Library of Congress: Some His ton Print Club, attn Joan Cooper, torical Background 13804 Dowlais Drive, Rockville MD ALAN FERN 20853-2957. For more information, 5 Not Just Pretty Pictures: Fine Prints, Posters and Interdisciplinary Research visit www.washingtonprintclub.org; e- at the Library of Congress mail, WashingtonPrintClub@com KATHERINE L. BLOOD cast.net; or call (301) 460-5019. WPC President Chris With can be reached 13 Timely and Timeless: Cartoons, Illustrations, and Documentary Drawings at [email protected] or (202) 797 and Prints at the Library of Congress 8789. MARTHA H. KENNEDY As a matter of policy WPC mem 18 Documentation & Art: Building the Photographic Collections at the bership and mailing lists are kept con fidential; however, gallery and artist Library of Congress members may send WPC members VERNA POSEVER CURTIS exhibition announcements, etc. (for 23 The Persistence of the Image: The Visual Arts in the Rare Book Collections more information, see contacts above). MARK DIMUNATION Contributions to the Quarterly are welcome. To submit contributions or 26 A Behind-the-Scenes View of the Library’s Rare Book & Special Collections ads, write Marion F. Houstoun at Division [email protected] or 739 10th DANIEL DE SIMONE Street SE, Washington DC 20003, or 28 Connecting People with Collections: Visiting the Prints & Photographs call (202) 544-2128. Material in the Division in Person or Online Quarterly, except that copyrighted, HELENA ZINKHAM may be reprinted provided that proper credit is given. A NNOUNCEMENTS 17 Contributions to the Quarterly Are Welcomed 32 “Drawn to Washington 2” Exhibition 32 Recent & Forthcoming Programs for WPC Members COVER ART: Jules Guérin, View of the Library of Editors: Margot Backas, Jenny Freestone, Marion F. Houstoun Congress, Jefferson Building, n.d. Editorial Committee: Janet Tracy Anderson, Deron DeCesare, Joan Filson, Anne Collins Goodyear, Ginger Crockett Hammer, Gregory Jecmen, Harold Quayle, Ann Wagner (between 1898 and 1915), color Executive Board: Janet Tracy Anderson, Jordan Benderly, Joan Cooper, Joan Filson, gouache drawing. Jay Finkel, Meaghan Olwell, Margaret Adams Parker, Raymond Prince, Joan Root, Robert Steele, LuLen Walker, Brian Weinstein, Christopher B. With Advisors: Verna Curtis, Alan Fern, Jay Fisher, Helen Frederick, Jane Haslem, Joann Moser, Andrew Robison Web Page: http://www.washingtonprintclub.org Design and Production: Phoenix Graphics, Inc. Works of Art on Paper: Prints, Photographs, Drawings, and Rare Books at the Library of Congress PEN to the public at large, the tions. My own offering explores the remarkable visual collections in the Library of Congress serves as potential of P&P’s fine prints and Library. For example, P&P houses the Othe national library of the posters as primary research resources in Center for American Architecture, United States and research arm of the their own right but also in tandem with Design and Engineering, founded in U.S. Congress. Founded in 1800, it is primary materials housed in other 2002 to promote the study of its exten also America’s oldest federal cultural multi-format and multi-disciplinary sive collection of drawings and photo institution. After acquiring Thomas Jef divisions in the Library. Martha graphs, which runs the gamut from ferson’s extensive, multi-disciplinary Kennedy gives us a tour of P&P’s large Benjamin Henry Latrobe’s stately library in 1815, the Library followed collections of cartoons, illustrations, design drawings for the U.S. Capitol to that Enlightenment thinker’s example and documentary drawings and prints the archive of Modernist master Paul by collecting works encompassing virtu with a focus on how the great artists of Rudolph. This hallmark collection has ally every facet of knowledge and cul these genres, for example, Herblock, been the source of numerous books, ture, including extensive holdings of met, but also often transcended, the including a recent series, published in visual art. Today, its collections offer demand that they address the political partnership with Norton, on such sub researchers and visitors nearly 147 mil and social issues of their day. We then jects as barns, lighthouses, theaters, rail lion items, from printed books and get a taste of P&P’s vast holdings of road stations, and public markets. electronic resources, manuscripts, maps, documentary and art photography in Also notable for its visual holdings is and works of art on paper, to movies, Verna Curtis’s article on the history and the Library’s Geography & Map Divi music, and sound recordings, and its philosophy of our collecting in this sion, whose Martin Waldseemüller’s reference services for the general public field. Next, RBSCD Chief Mark Dimu 1507 map (the first known document respond to more than half a million nation provides a brief history and to use the name “America”) is the crown inquiries each year. overview of the division’s collections of jewel in its wide-ranging collection of Original art can be found in myriad some 800,000 rare books (the largest in cartographic works, many of which are forms and places in the Library’s vast the U.S.) and describes its two collec masterful works of art as well as func number of special collections. However, tions specifically devoted to contempo tional objects. Indeed, works of art on the principal repository of its visual col rary book arts, the Fine Press Collection paper are found in research centers lections is the Prints and Photographs and Artists’ Book Collection. He also throughout the Library, including those Division, which today holds about 15 indicates ways in which the RBSCD dedicated to the study of manuscripts, million photographs, prints, and draw collections can be used to study the music and performing arts, motion pic ings, dating from the 15th century to development of graphic and printing tures and television, sound recordings, the present day. In addition, the Rare techniques, the history of printing, and and American folklife collections, but Book and Special Collections Division the physical book, in all its manifesta also its area studies centers, which focus holds an impressive collection of materi tions over the centuries. on different parts of the world. als relating to the art and technology of Daniel De Simone then takes us on Though these articles provide only the print, ranging from 15th-century a behind-the-scenes journey through glimpses of our pictorial holdings, we at illustrated books and the grand produc key curatorial projects and programs in the Library and our WPC friends hope tions of the Renaissance and the En which he recently participated as the that this inaugural special issue of the lightenment to contemporary book arts. RBSCD Rosenwald Curator. We con Quarterly will inspire readers to explore Members of The Washington Print clude with P&P Chief Helena them further. These are in fact your col Club, which was founded in 1964, have Zinkham’s article describing ongoing lections and resources: they are freely long been familiar with P&P and P&P efforts to make the wealth of its available on our Web site and in our RBSCD holdings, and we are delighted visual resources more accessible to the research centers, where you can confer to be given an opportunity to reach out public at large as well as to researchers, with our curators and reference special to new audiences by inaugurating a students, collectors, and artists. In addi ists, as well as attend special programs series of occasional WPC Quarterly spe tion, its sidebars list online P&P on the visual arts, such as tours, lec cial issues on major public collections of research resources on its collections, tures, panel discussions, and exhibi works on paper. We begin with an his acquisition and appraisal policies, refer tions. Meanwhile, we hope you will torical perspective on the Library’s pic ence aids, exhibitions, and special pro enjoy the articles in this issue. torial collections by Alan Fern, who grams, as well as selected publications from 1961 to 1982 played a strong role on the Library’s pictorial collections. KATHERINE L. BLOOD in shaping the Library’s collections, ini Given the space constraints of a peri Library of Congress Curator of Fine Prints, tially as a curator, then P&P Chief, and odical print publication, we have neces Guest Editor, The WPC Quarterly ultimately Director for Special Collec sarily given short shrift to many other Winter 2011-2012 Special Issue 2 The Washington Print Club Quarterly The Prints & Photographs Division of the Library of Congress: Some Historical Background N 1800, when the seat of the U.S. decades that followed, neither the influx tions, and the Library’s gallery had government was transferred from nor the need for more space abated; become known as one of Washington’s IPhiladelphia to Washington, the today, the Library is housed in three major cultural resources.