Goodness! Time just races by! I remember once reading that Patton said every general has a plan before he sees the battlefield – and then has to form a whole new one. I went into this feeling like the best thing would be for me to get a good grasp on what a Western History and History of Science Collection look like. I wanted to familiarize myself with the landscape of the subject. I began reading, going back and forth between the two types of collections as things caught my interest. I will admit I have gotten rather caught up. I graduated as a Poli Sci major, but only as a flip of the coin. I had just as many history hours. I have found this to be absolutely fascinating material. It is at this point that I realize I am over-saturating with the wrong subject matter. Or, at least, the wrong angle of it. You’ll see what I mean.
So here’s what I’ve done since last we spoke…. I had ordered several books and all but one has come in. The first was a book about the Gund Collection. It’s a small art collection. This particular book tells the backstory of some of the works and the artists. Remington & Russell are prominently featured and the collection is dominated by their works. There’s a revealing portrait of Gund himself and some of the impetus behind his choices. All of this was absorbing. Though no education is a waste, I realize the most germane element of this book to my project is the last section. It is the catalog of the works of the Gund Collection.
Each entry gives the name of the piece, the medium in which it was created, the artist, and its physical dimensions. Each entry also includes some of what I’ll refer to as the provenance details. How many castings were made of a bronze work, for instance; the state or area of the country where the work was created or which inspired it; what tribe the subject is from, etc. It was interesting to me that dates were not always included. Copyright dates are given, of course, when applicable. Only 25 of the 71 works listed, however, mention a date of any kind. I have a big juicy streak of wanting to bring order to all discovered chaos and aberration so these anomalies are difficult for me to digest as they are. I believe my attitude in this regard is a reflection of how a computer would feel about it, so my instinct tells me that the way I would bring order to it in my mind would be a good way to organization the data digitally.
I chose this book because I felt that a small collection would be a great microcosm that would make it easy for me to boil down what details matter. I knew it was an art collection and that it wouldn’t include details specific to other works, but it would be a good place to put my feet. Plus it’s terrifically interesting.
One of the other books was one published in 1950 about the beginning and growth of the Denver Public Library. Yellowed and encased in acid-free plastic, the slim volume was written by the librarian, Malcolm Wyer. He first discussed how and why the collection was started, specifically mentioning a nearby college professor’s suggestion that they make a concerted effort to acquire a pictorial history of the west. This early suggestion has obviously ripened into one of – if not THE greatest – collections of western history art works in the world. The Library of Congress borrows from the Denver Public Library, as I’m sure you knew but of which I have just recently become aware. Also of value to me in this reading were the many new words I came across. I found myself looking up photogravures, rotogravure, glass negatives, daguerreotypes, lantern slides, and more. These led to a broader education in illustration types than I think was strictly necessary for this project but which was, again, very interesting.
Wyer speaks of individuals who made philanthropic contributions as well as specific acquisitions that advanced the collection. The photographs of David Barry, a collection of Remington works, the negatives of the photographer William Jackson, and the works of Alfred Mathews and Karl Bodmer, among others. Some groups of works were acquired which depict a specific area, people, or event. The first half of the booklet is, in fact, absorbed in tales of pictorial acquisitions with one paragraph which refers to “the standard sets of books on the Indians.”
Wyer gives prominence, however, to the ‘books, pamphelets, magazines, and clippings’ of the collection. He goes on to talk about specific acquisitions again. The story of the Eugene Fields collection of Mr. Morse are discussed, as well as the Buffalo Bill collection. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show produced many programs, pamphlets, and other ephemera and the Denver Public Library has it all. Wyer also includes a colorful description of one the Library’s most valued possessions – a full set of the regional newspaper, the Solid Muldoon. Many other individual acquisitions are mentioned, emphasizing the variety and scope of the collection. There are manuals which set down the regulations of mining camps, directories of Fifty-Niners, maps, and many, many others.
In describing the breadth of the DPL’s collection, Wyer emphasizes the skill and local knowledge required in selecting and acquiring material for the library. A sense of the history of the region, its people, significant events, trends, patterns of migration and development… these are what turn one’s nose toward the truly remarkable finds.
It is, again, in the last bit that I find the material most applicable to the project. Wyer talks about the difficulties of this type of collection being housed in a public library. He feels convinced that, due to the increasing use of materials from an ever-widening geographic pool of interested parties, the library should make much more extensive use of microfilm and Photostat copies. This is the most interesting statement to me because it lies at the heart of my project. That is – to provide wider, better access while protecting our collections for the future.
This blog entry is getting overlong and I still have much to talk about. My fault completely for wanting to read more than I wanted to write. I am also painfully aware that my audience knows much more than I about all the points of my writing and I fear boring you. I will end this entry by saying that knowledge of how a collection grows – what is acquired, by what means, and when – is just as important to building a system of cataloging as are the different points of data inherent in a given work or group of works. To build into one’s system a way to accommodate changes is, I think, the hardest part. There are many who can take a static collection and pin it down in all corners – it’s the management of a living, growing, changing entity that is the ultimate hat-trick. I’ve read more than I’ve talked about, but that’s more than enough for now. Any feedback is welcome.
