AHPCS News Letter
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FALL 2017 | VOLUME 42 NUMBER 2 The 43rd Annual Meeting of the AHPCS American Historical Print Collectors Society News in Sacramento and Yosemite National Park May 16-19, 2018 Organized by Rich Holmer and Jim Brust Letter Grand Sheraton Hotel, Sacramento, California. A quarterly publication of the The Sheraton is built on and retains portions of American Historical Print Collectors Society Sacramento's original market place. The market was designed by female architect Julia Morgan who also was the Chief Architect for Hearst Castle and Asilomar. The hotel and the downtown area are 15 minutes from the Sacramento Airport. We have a block of rooms reserved at $163 per night. For reservations, call (800) 325-3535 or online: www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/ AHPCSMay2018 Wednesday, May 16th: Board of Directors meeting. Thursday, May 17th: Morning welcome sessions will include two speakers, AHPCS member Kevin Lynch on illustrated music covers of California and the Gold Rush, and Gary Kurutz, retired curator of the State Library collection, whose talk at the 1999 annual meeting in Pasadena, CA. was praised by all. After lunch we will tour the State Library collection, then visit the State Capitol. Dinner will be at the hotel, followed by the Print Mart. Friday, May 18th: Highlight of the meeting, a full day bus trip to Yosemite National Park. We’ll depart early in the morning, arriving in the Park in time to begin our sightseeing before noon. Special arrangements have been made for us to have lunch at the iconic Ahwahnee Hotel. After a little time in the village area near Yosemite Falls, we’ll spend the afternoon on a guided tour of the matchless beauty of Yosemite Valley. May is the best time of year to visit Yosemite with nice weather and maximum flow in the waterfalls. There’ll likely be a box dinner at some particularly beautiful spot before driving home in the evening. All students of 19th century American art have “seen” Yosemite in paintings, prints and photographs. If any of our members have never been there, this is a marvelous opportunity to see it in real life. It should be a memorable day. Saturday, May 19th: The schedule is still incomplete, but will include a visit to the Crocker Museum, and free time to visit Sacramento's historic waterfront, which was the terminus for the Pony Express and has a renowned railroad museum and a stern wheel steamboat. We’ll have dinner at the hotel that night followed by our annual fund raising auction. After the meeting: For those wishing to come early or stay later, there are many wonderful places to visit within easy driving distance, including all the sites of the California Gold Rush. Toward the coast is the wine country of Napa and Sonoma counties, and of course the incomparable city of San Francisco. Fall 2017 | Vol. 42 No. 2 ANNUAL MEETING PRE-TRIP TO MANZANAR Manzanar, July 1942 There often seems to be a collective desire in this country to ignore or forget the internment of over 110,000 Japanese Americans, most citizens, in isolated camps during World War II. It was an event of great poignancy that raised questions about the legal foundations of this nation that are now suddenly coming back into focus amidst new debates about the exclusion of feared ethnic groups. Yet the relocation is taught only in a spotty fashion, and opportunities to learn about it on a human level are rare. The first camp to open was Manzanar, located in California’s eastern Sierra mountains, a remote area of spectacular beauty but harsh climate and few comforts. There was literally nothing there when people began arriving in March 1942. Wooden barracks were built to house over 10,000 people, then removed at war’s end leaving the spot desolate, unmarked, and all but forgotten. Not until the National arkP Service took over the site in 2004, nearly sixty years after the camp had closed, was any kind of meaningful interpretive program established. But Manzanar is now a moving historical site. Co-chair Jim Brust is offering a special opportunity for members attending the annual meeting in Sacramento and Yosemite to visit Manzanar. Those who wish to go would meet in Los Angeles (actually at Jim and Kris’s home in San Pedro) on Tuesday morning, May 15, 2018. It’s a 4 hour drive to Manzanar, where we’ll visit all afternoon, including a special Ranger tour. We’ll have lodging in the eastern Sierra that night, then arise on Wednesday morning and drive over Tioga Pass Road to the Yosemite high country (a part of the Park we won’t get to see on our Friday bus tour), then on to Sacramento. It’s a packed agenda, but well worth it. Those wishing to come along, please contact Jim Brust as soon as possible either by email (jsbrust@aol. com) or phone (310-832-7943) so he can plan the logistics. New Books of Note to Members John Baskerville: Art and Industry in the Enlightenment. Edited by Caroline Archer-Parré & Malcolm Dick, published by Liverpool University Press in 2017. Prints in Translation, 1450-1750: Image, Materiality, Space. Edited by Suzanne Karr Schmidt and Edward H. Wouk, published by Routledge in 2017. 2 AHPCS News Letter Copyright © 2017 Member Institutions Showcase American Historical Print Collectors Society Historic Prints During 94 Marine Street October Conferences Farmingdale, NY 11735-5605 www.ahpcs.org AHPCS member institutions, the American Antiquarian Society and the Library Company of Volume 42 Number 2 – Fall 2017 Philadelphia continue to excite scholarship on historical prints in conferences. Lauren Hewes, President The Center for Historic American Visual Culture Nancy Finlay, 1st Vice President (CHAViC) at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Allen W. Bernard, 2nd Vice President with the American Printing History Association Peter Heller, Secretary (APHA) held a joint-conference, “Good, Fast, Cheap: Robert Newman, Treasurer and Past President Printed Words & Images in America before 1900” in Nancy Finlay, Regional Activities Chair Worcester, Mass. October 6-7, 2017. John Zak, Membership Chair "William Birch and the Complexities of American Erika Piola, Publication Committee Chair Visual Culture," a symposium celebrating the 10th Roger Genser, Nominating Committee Chair anniversary of the Visual Culture Program at the Sally Pierce, Imprint Editor Library Company of Philadelphia will explore the Jackie Penny, News Letter Editor visual, cultural, and social themes elicited from the work of Philadelphia artist William Russell Birch (1755- Directors: 1834) in Philadelphia, Penn. on October 5, 2018. Look Robert Bolton for additional information in upcoming issues of the Donald Bruckner News Letter. Roger Genser Jourdan Houston Mike McKenzie Eric Terwilliger Charles Walker Member Book of Note Sarah Weatherwax Images of Value: The Artwork Behind US Security Advertisements: Engravings, 1830s –1980s, by Mark D. Tomasco, with For members wishing to place a classified ad, a preface by William H. Gerdts, New York, NY: The the cost is $25 for 1/3 of a page and $50 for 1/2 Grolier Club, 2017, 174pp., paperback with flaps, ISBN: a page. Send check and copy to: AHPCS, 94 9781605830674, $40. This fully illustrated catalog, Marine Street, Farmingdale, NY 11735-5606. published to accompany an exhibition held at the Your ad will appear in the next issue. Grolier Club in 2017, contains an excellent selection of original works by noted American artists, paired Editor’s note: with the engravings that appeared on bank notes and The AHPCS News Letter is published securities. The frontispiece in each copy is an intaglio quarterly. Deadlines for information are the print of Abundance, engraved by Robert Savage in 10th of January, April, July and October with 1927, from a work by Alonzo E. Foringer. Available publication dates of the 1st of February, May, from Oak Knoll Press. August and November. Please allow three weeks for delivery. Any prints of the American scene that are A Loss for AHPCS 100 or more years old will be considered. News items are always desirable, as are Marshall Richard Berkoff passed away on October 18, articles about little-known engravers and 2017. A distinguished, long time member of AHPCS, he lithographers, shops, remarks about unusual had served as Board member and President, and was print making equipment, comments on always available to the organization as legal advisor. personal or museum collections, exhibits and See page 4 of this issue for a glimpse of one of his most publications. The editor reserves the right to special achievements as a member of this group. Please make any changes without prior approval. expect a full obituary in the winter News Letter. Send contributions to [email protected] 3 Fall 2017 | Vol. 42 No. 2 Great Moments in AHPCS History Photograph and Text submitted By James S. Brust In 1988, the American Historical Print Collectors Society undertook the “New Best Fifty” project. At that time, collectors, curators and dealers knowledgeable about Currier & Ives lithographs were very familiar with the original “Best Fifty” large and small C&I prints, chosen in 1932 and 1933 by a jury of experts that included Harry Shaw Newman of the Old Print Shop in NYC, legendary collector/author Harry T. Peters, and antiques editor Charles M. Stow, who published the selected prints in the New York Sun. In a series of steps over the coming two years, a “New Best Fifty” large and small folio were chosen, not to replace the original list, but to complement it. The results were announced at the society’s 15th annual meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On Friday June 8, 1990, after a series of talks in the morning, those attending went to the Milwaukee Art Museum where the selected prints were on display.