A living archive dedicated to contemporary art and visual culture is one that starts now: everything from this point forwards and backwards is recorded and preserved.
It is a constantly evolving, never static repository that gives the often ephemeral nature of the contemporary art world a permanent form.
It reveals the myriad shifting relationships and connections in the production of contemporary visual culture. And it continues to reflect the reality long after it is gone: the works exist and are accessible in perpetuity.
"Will Schofield’s blog is quite possibly the richest source of book-related design and illustration in the universe. Will displays the fervour of the most dedicated historian whilst time and again proving he has an eye for exceptional images." —David Pearson
Somewhere between Ernst Haeckel’s biological lithographs and The Wellcome Collection’s archive of anatomical illustrations falls Anatome Testudinis Europaeae by the German physician and naturalist Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus (1776–1827). The two-volume tome in Latin, featuring some stunning images of turtle anatomy, was published in 1820 and is now in public domain, digitized by Harvard for your viewing pleasure.
Created as a set of 24 slides based on Sir John Tenniel’s original illustrations for the Lewis Carroll classic but altered to avoid copyright conflicts, these gems were meant for viewing on a magic lantern, or Laterna Magica — a primitive projector dating back to the 17th century, consisting of a concave mirror in front of a light source. Though the exact year is unknown, the slides were created sometime between 1910 and 1925.
The first comprehensive, historical exhibition to examine the international foundations and legacy of feminist art, WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution focuses on the crucial period 1965â€"80, during which the majority of feminist activism and artmaking occurred internationally. The exhibition includes the work of 120 artists from the United States, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Comprising work in a broad range of mediaâ€"including painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, and performance artâ€"the exhibition is organized around themes based on media, geography, formal concerns, collective aesthetic, and political impulses.
Goldsmiths Textile Collection and Constance Howard Gallery is part of Goldsmiths Library Special Collections. Our mission is to become a leading centre for the study, promotion and dissemination of the collections we hold. We document, promote and foster the pioneering history of textiles at Goldsmiths from the 1940s to the present day.
Painter and printmaker Werner Drewes (1899-1985) studied with Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, and Oskar Schlemmer at the Bauhaus in Weimar. Born in Germany, Drewes immigrated to the United States in 1930 and was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group.
Throughout his life, Drewes would design and print greetings to send to his friends and family. These original Christmas cards were created by Drewes and are a part of the Werner Drewes papers, 1924-1984. All cards date from the latter half of the 20th century.
Though it is a relatively recent field of study, women's history is inscribed across all of the Harvard Library holdings gathered since 1638. By examining those holdings afresh and querying them in a new and feminist light, the curators of Women Working have aggregated thousands of items that illuminate women's history. The result is a unique, virtual collection, comprising over 650,000 individual pages from more than 3,100 books and trade catalogs, 900 archives and manuscript items, and 1,400 photographs.
License digital images illustrating more than two hundred years of American history
More than 200 images of algae specimens, title pages, contents lists, and other texts, in cyantoype (blueprint), plus inscriptions and parts' wrappers.
Thousands of menus beginning with the oldest items in the collection from 1851. The collection is strongest for the period between 1890 and 1910. Organization is primarily chronological by date or range of dates.
More than 500 silver gelatin photographic prints depicting American social conditions and labor, including immigrants at Ellis Island and construction of the Empire State Building, Hine's principal subjects.
Several rare and unusual published resources of interest to students of western dress and fashion from the 19th to the early 20th-century. Includes historical surveys as well as manufacturers' booklets and sample swatch catalogs.
Scores of dance photographs feature specific dancers, and range from publicity stills to professional photographers' vintage prints.
306 toy theatre prints portraying plays and actors in character, from the early- to mid-19th century; these prints comprise the visual materials in the William Appleton collection of theatrical correspondence and ephemera, 1697-1930.
Over 1,700 images of the civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and other ancient Mediterranean cultures as conceived and depicted by artists and travelers from the 18th to the early 20th century, as represented in book and periodical illustrations, engravings, lithographs and photographs. A wide range of subjects includes arms and armor, architecture, furniture, pottery, mythology, religion, theater and the Seven Wonders of the World.
More than 1,800 vintage holiday postcards from the New York Public Library's Picture Collection themed around national celebrations of the United States: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, Valentine's Day, Washington's Birthday, among others. More personal commemorations are represented by over 200 birthday cards.
Human ecology is an academic discipline that deals with the relationship between humans and their natural, social and created environments. Human ecology investigates how humans and human societies interact with nature and with their environment. The Human Ecology Collection brings together, in digital form, primary and secondary materials relating to human ecology.
American art from the Howard University Collection is part of a national touring exhibition. This major exhibition and conservation project was a three-year collaborative effort by a network of cultural institutions. It was organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art and The Studio Museum of Harlem, in association with the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, Howard University, and five other Historically Black Colleges and Universities.