Okay, you’d think a staff member in the Prints & Photographs Division would be capable of making a photograph with better composition than what I achieved last weekend at the National Book Festival. But my photo does at least reflect the reality of the occasion: We had such a steady stream of enthusiastic visitors stopping by the Prints & Photographs Division table in the LC Pavilion that I had to snap my picture fast in order to capture more than visitors’ backs and bags.
My colleagues and I had each chosen one of our favorite picture stories to highlight at our table:
Donna Collins, Photo Preservation Specialist, brought samples of Arnold Genthe’s photos documenting Sanctuary: A Bird Masque, a 1913 production that celebrated the launching of a new sanctuary for birds in Cornish, New Hampshire. The sanctuary was intended to help protect birds then being decimated by the vogue for plumes (and sometimes entire stuffed birds) as fashion accessories, particularly on hats.
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Verna Curtis, Curator of Photography, featured a very recent acquisition, an evocative photograph by Leslie Starobin entitled, “What Kevin R. Flike Carried on September 25, 2011–The Day He Got Shot in Afghanistan.”
I brought reproductions of a pair of prints that step you through the life cycle of a man and of a woman as portrayed by print publisher James Baillie in 1848.
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Gay Colyer, Digital Library Specialist, brought very authentic looking reproductions of stereographs from our recently acquired Stanford Collection. Printed from digital files and viewed through plastic viewers we brought along, the stereos show scenes on a South Carolina plantation before the Civil War–in 3-D! (Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post where Gay will tell you more of the story.)
We enjoyed introducing visitors of all ages to the pictures and their stories, and hearing, in turn, visitors’ stories about the photos they have at home, those that they seek for their family histories, and the interesting ways in which they research pictures. Many thanks to all who stopped by our table and shared their enthusiasm for pictures and libraries with us!
Learn More:
- Read more about the “Sanctuary: A Bird Masque” production in a centenary blog post, and sample illustrations from the early twentieth century highlighting the fashion for feathers and its consequences.
- Explore additional selections from the Stanford Collection of stereos, highlighted in an earlier blog post.
- Read about this year’s record-breaking National Book Festival.
- Re-live some of our National Book Festival activities of yesteryear through earlier book festival blog posts.