Martin Droeshout's 1623 Engraving Of William Shakespeare.The purpose of any portrait is to capture the essence of the subject. To somehow convey in a single image not just the outward appearance of the sitter, but his soul. But if the subject is a great writer, does that task become impossible? Poet Ben Jonson thought so, and maybe the curators at Princeton University's Firestone Library do, too.Those curators have just opened a new exhibit of 100 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, marble sculptures, and plaster death masks, depicting literary giants. The title of the gallery show is: The Author's Portrait. But the...
Cowgirl Round-Up At Cowboy Library
Bulldogging Cowgirl Fox Hastings.In an 1851 Indiana newspaper editorial, John B.L. Soule famously advised: "Go West, young man, and grow up with the country." Apparently, young women were either better off back East, or didn't need to grow up. In any case, a lot of young women did go West, and many of them found the freedom of the frontier allowed them to escape their traditional Victorian roles as wives and mothers. Oklahoma's The Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center at The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum has organized an exhibit that highlights the women who took...
Shooting History: Notorious 1963 Photo On Exhibit At Truman Library
One of the most famous shots (literally and figuratively) in the history of American photojournalism was snapped by a photographer who'd already blown one chance to capture a historic moment, and was sure it was about to happen again. That's just one of the fascinating stories behind the Pulitzer Prize winning photos on exhibit through January 24, 2010 at the Harry S.Truman Library and Museum.Robert H. Jackson, a 29-year-old photographer for the Dallas Times Herald, was assigned to cover the Friday, November 22, 1963 visit of President John F. Kennedy to the Texas city. According to a NBC news story,...
Libraries Keep MLK’s Crucial Comic Book
The Comic Book That Changed A Nation."The comic book [is] the marijuana of the nursery, the bane of the bassinet, the horror of the home, the curse of the kids and a threat to the future."John Mason Brown. (American literary critic, 1900-1969)In December of 1957 a comic book was published that really did threaten the future--at least the future of American segregationists. Carefully preserved in the special collections of several academic libraries, such as The Smithsonian Institution, Morehouse College, and Stanford University, The Montgomery Story, a 14-page comic book is, credited with being one of the most influential teaching tools...
Library’s Letters Reveal The Real Van Gogh
Still Life With Plate Of Onions, 1889, Oil on Canvas.Note the letter and the book. This painting is said to refer to Charles Dickens' remedy against suicide: "A daily glass of wine, a piece of bread and cheese, and a pipe with tobacco."London's Royal Academy Museum and Library will host the city's first major exhibit of the works of Vincent van Gogh in over 40 years beginning January 23, 2010. Curated in conjunction with Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum and Library, the show is entitled: The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters. The letters of Van Gogh, borrowed from...