Written by Gavin Moulton (Class of 2020) As a student assistant in the Fine Arts Library, I spent the Spring semester diving into the prints of the library’s recently acquired Edwin Binney 3rd Collection of Orientalist Prints. This collection is an unparalleled resource for the study of Western and Central European perceptions of the Ottoman…
Salted Paper Prints from Special Collections
Here you see the wide range in tonality and richness in colors. Indeed, monochrome can be very colorful. We are so glad that many of these salt prints have remained in good condition, such that the facial expressions and details of clothing and accessories for each sitter are still astonishingly clear. In collaboration with the…
Salted Paper Prints Symposium
Salted Paper Prints: Process and Purpose A Collaborative Workshop in Photograph Conservation In collaboration with the Foundation for the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, Harvard Art Museums, and Houghton Library, Harvard Weissman Preservation Center (WPC) is hosting a symposium on salted paper prints on September 14th and 15th. Registered participants will be able to attend a special…
Highlighting Artists’ Books
Take a break from studying and liven up your imagination by taking a peek at some artists’ books. Here are a couple of highlights to get you started! The Book of Warnings by Daniella Deeg 2001 Women’s Studio Workshop This screen-printed artist book is stunning at first glance, tucked in a box with orange…
Take a Trip Around America… at the Harvard Fine Arts Library
A grey, Boston winter is soon upon us, we could all use a sunny postcard or two to brighten the day. Luckily, the Harvard Fine Arts Library has an enormous postcard collection ready for your viewing pleasure. This collection mainly created in the early 20th century focuses on landscapes, architecture, and historical buildings and sculptures,…
Sporting Portraits Collection
Nicknames and Stylish Hair: all a day in the life of a bare-knuckle boxer. Take a moment to explore images from the Sporting Portraits collection. This collection contains over 350 photographs, prints, broadsides, clippings, and hand-drawn illustrations from the mid-18th to the 20th centuries. These portraits captured the likeness of more than 100 American, British, and Irish…
Occuprint Portfolio 2012 Acquired
The Fine Arts Library recently acquired a portfolio of 31 prints selected to represent the global Occupy movement. The works were selected from among hundreds submitted by Occupy groups worldwide and exhibited online by a group called Occuprint; the project supports their educational outreach program. The non-profit Booklyn Artists Alliance helped select the posters to…
Listen, listen : a new artist’s book
The Fine Arts Library has just purchased a copy of the limited edition Listen, listen : Adadam Agofomma : honoring the legacy of Koo Nimo produced by the book artist Mary Hark as a tribute to a Ghanaian musician. Listen, listen is a visual interpretation of Nimo’s ‘palmwine music’. Hark uses native materials such as…
A Boston merchant-adventurer and his illustrated souvenir of the Smyrna trade, ca. 1838
One of the Fine Arts Library’s most unusual recent acquisitions is a lovely little volume of hand-colored engravings and lithographs. The volume consists of 25 plates depicting people and places in Turkey, Greece and the Levant. Once we had the book in hand, we were faced with the problem of how to record this new…
Color lithographs of the Siege of Paris
La Tramblais, E. de. Les désastres de Paris en 1871. Paris : E. de La Tramblais, [1871?] All of the scenes depicted in Les désastres come from the final, desperate ‘May Days’ of the Commune, when many of the great landmarks of Paris were burned to the ground. The printer Badoureau established himself on the…