Current Awareness Websites: Print Revival in the late 19th/early 20th Century

November 2, 2015

Ms. Minverva McGonagall

Dornoch Castle Retirement Community for Witches and Wizards

Castle Street

Dornoch, Sutherland

IV25 3SD

Dear Ms. McGonagall,

I received correspondence regarding your research on print revival in Britain and America in the late 19th and 20th centuries and would be happy to guid you through the resources available here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as some websites of other organizations that should be helpful as you plan your research trip. Let us begin with the resources available here at the Met.
Historical records of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are held in several locations, including here at the Museum Archives. We’ll start by looking at the central library here at the Met, and then move along to some links to associations and websites beyond our Museum that may help you at with your research.

Resources at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Watson Library is the central library here at the Met whose primary mission is to support the research activities of the Museum staff while also serving a community of international researchers. The library has an extensive reference collection and a comprehensive collection of auction and sale catalogs. Over 5,000 manuscript items, vertical files containing press clippings, brochures and ephemeral material on over 20,000 artists may be useful if you are researching particular artists. You can explore our library holdings online via Watsononline, and can access many of our electronic resources.

The Museum Archives holds the corporate records and official correspondence of the Museum. If you decide to explore the Museum’s development of the Print Collection at an institutional level, the Board of Trustee records may be of interest to you and they can be accessed here at the discretion of the Museum Staff.

The Reference Collection and Study Rooms for Drawings and Prints (Department of Drawings and Prints) will best suit your research needs.  The Museum’s collection has over one million prints by almost every European and Mater printmaker. The Reference Collection for the department has a remarkable library of books on the history of prints and drawings. Please be aware that the Reference Collection for Drawings and Prints is only open for limited hours during the business week, so you will want to plan your research visits accordingly.

Our museum blogs are another resource to explore for current research and articles on the Museums’ collection and exhibitions. Older blog posts are searchable in our online archive. 

Beyond the Met: Resources on Prints and Printmaking History

Professional organizations

Here are three organizations that may prove helpful; even if you’re not interested in becoming a member at this time (although membership definitely has its perks and should be considered!), all three sites have useful information on current events and scholarship.  

The Association of Print Scholars - This is the go-to group for print scholars internationally. A non-profit organization, the Association of Print Scholars (APS) “encourages innovative and interdisciplinary methodological approaches to the history of printmaking.” The APS has an active website featuring recent news, recent scholarship, opportunities for print scholars including fellowship announcements and job postings. Their membership directory might be particularly useful in locating colleagues affiliated with museums, libraries and private collections internationally. The site also serves as a link to other resources (some of which are mentioned below) and an on-line forum open to APS members.

The “News” section is a great place to find announcements on upcoming lectures, exhibitions, book publications and conferences. Given your line of research, of particular interest may be an item in the “News” section of this site discussing the upcoming APS professional Session at the College Art Association meeting this coming February in Washington, D.C. The title of the session is “The Art of Collecting” and relating to the formation and development of three major print collections at the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century:  the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at the Hammer Museum, and an examination of the career of the first professional curator or prints at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

American Printing History Association  - Another organization that may be helpful is The American Printing History Association (APHA) which “encourages the study of the history of printing and related arts and crafts. The APHA has an annual three-day conference and lecture series, an oral project, fellowship program, special publications and Printing History, a biannual, scholarly journal. 

Association for Art Historians - I suspect you are already aware of this organization for art historians based in the United Kingdom but I would feel remiss if I did not include it here. The Association for Art Historians (AAH) not only supports those working in institutions working in higher education and museums, but also offers an active community for independent scholars. The AAH publishes Art Journal and hosts an annual conference that attracts panelists and scholars internationally. 

Scholarly Journals

Art in Print is a website and a bi-monthly journal devoted to artist’s prints from ancient Chinese printmakers to living artists. This is perhaps the most current resource available to those interested in printmaking and print history: the journal is published bi-monthly and members (by subscription) can receive daily updates on print culture. Contributing writers include curators, art critics, scholars and printmakers.

Print Quarterly is an international, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the art of the print. The journal is yearly and my prove to be a good resource to discover other research on printmakers, techniques, and print collecting. 

Other Print Collections at Museums and Libraries

The Victoria and Albert has a print collection of approximately 500,000 objects including printmaking and equipment. The museum's print collection as well as archival materials and reference books on printmaking may be accessed in the Prints and Drawings Study Room. The V & A's website offers a searchable database with high resolution images of many of the prints in the collection. The Victoria and Albert also has an active blog; a quick search yields a number posts written by the curator of Print Collection on printmakers and print history. Well worth a visit. 

The British Museum has a collection of over two million prints dating from the 15th century to the present.  For research purposes, the reference library boasts approximately 50,000 books, periodicals and sale catalogues. The Study Room is open to the public and researchers may ask to see one of the prints on special request. A database of the collection is available on line with high resolution images of the prints. The museum blog may also prove to be a valuable resource of current articles on the collection. 

The New York Public Library Print Collection consists of almost 200,000 original prints and has a reference collection on the history of prints and printmaking of over 15,000 volumes. The New York Public Libraries digital collections can be accessed here, but I strongly suggest visiting the library when you come to research in the spring. The collection is particularly strong in 19th and 20th century American prints.

The Boston Public Library Print Collection (Boston, Massachusetts) is one of the largest public collections of prints in the United States (over 100,000 prints) with a strong collection of prints by American and British artists, with a particular focus on printmakers with local ties. One of the largest collections of prints by Boston Chromolithographer Louis Prang are housed here and are available for viewing on their Digital Commonwealth site. The Print Collection is currently closed while undergoing an inventory, but the collection should be kept in mind when researching establishment of print collections in the United States in the beginning of the 20th century.

_______________

Finally, regarding your final question, yes, we do have many fireplaces as well as mantels here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including several on permanent display in several of our period rooms. Unfortunately none of the fireplaces are working fireplaces due to fire safety concern and for the protection of our collection.

If you have any additional questions in preparation for your spring research trip, please feel free to call or email. I look forward to meeting you in person in March.

Best regards,

Lisa Welter

Assistant Archivist

Museum Archives

archives@metmuseum.org

Phone: (212) 535-1234