Author Archives: Deirdre Lawrence

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About Deirdre Lawrence

Deirdre Lawrence has been the Principal Librarian at the Brooklyn Museum since late 1983. Before coming to the Brooklyn Museum, she was Associate Librarian at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She received her M. L. S. from Pratt Institute in 1979 and has studied art history on the graduate level. At the Brooklyn Museum she has established the Museum Archives and implemented many projects to preserve and make accessible the research collections. Deirdre has overseen a major renovation project, implementation of an online catalog and several collaborative projects with other libraries. She has written articles on the collections and lectured frequently on the research collections held in the Libraries and Archives as well as Brooklyn Museum history. Deirdre has curated several exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum and elsewhere. She is a visiting professor at Pratt’s School of Information and Library Science and serves as a board member at the Center for Book Arts in New York.

Project CHART at the Brooklyn Museum

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has been an important supporter of several initiatives to make the Brooklyn Museum’s collection much more accessible to a wider audience. One good example of this initiative is the M-LEAD Project which has … Continue reading

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Skylar Fein and Abraham Lincoln: a look into Brooklyn’s collections

With the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War it is a good moment to look back through time and how Americans have been depicted over the years in both the objects we live with and through the popular press. … Continue reading

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Native America: Images from the Brooklyn Museum Libraries and Archives

The Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains exhibition provides us with a wonderful opportunity to showcase the Museum’s Native American collections and resources. As someone who has studied Native American art and whose Grandmother was Native American, I am very … Continue reading

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Cards from the Library Catalogs – Want some?

One of the results of projects to bring our Libraries and Archives into the digital world is that we have boxes of cards—mostly typewritten or computer generated—available for the taking and ready to be transformed into a second life.  Since the Library … Continue reading

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Wilbour: One Man’s Obsession with Egypt

It’s a well known fact that the Brooklyn Museum has a great Egyptian collection but did you know that we have one of the best libraries devoted to the study of Ancient Egypt that is open to the public? We … Continue reading

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Sufi-Inspired Artist Books

One of the great feelings I experience at the Brooklyn Museum is when I see a true connection between the Library and art collections here. This connection was felt recently at a public program showcasing the work of the widely-admired … Continue reading

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Walt Whitman and the Arts in Brooklyn: A Commemoration in the Brooklyn Museum Library

We are very proud of the fact that Walt Whitman not only lived and worked in Brooklyn but that he had a direct connection to this institution in its early days as a library. This past Saturday we had a … Continue reading

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The world through Goodyear’s eyes: photographs from the 1890’s to 1923 from the Brooklyn Museum Archives

Seeing the response to historic photographs that we have posted on Flickr Commons begs a look back on why we have these images and who created them. Being an art museum library and archives our mission is to collect and … Continue reading

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Artists’ Books Conference and the Brooklyn Museum

This week there is a contemporary artists’ book conference being held in collaboration with Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair. The conference is being co-organized by representatives from the Brooklyn Museum, MoMA and the New York Public Library as well … Continue reading

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Flickr Commons: Begin at the Beginning

We have just joined The Commons on Flickr to share a selection of images with the Flickr community and to begin our partnership, it seemed appropriate that we start at the beginning! William Henry Goodyear was the Museum’s first Curator … Continue reading

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What is a book?

On April 5th we had our second talk in a series of discussions to commemorate the 185th anniversary of the founding of the Library. The well attended talk – entitled What is a book? – was given by Andy Birsh … Continue reading

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Book Art in DUMBO – 5 + 5: a dialogue

Brooklyn has a rich community of artists and galleries and this is especially true for artists who work in the realm of the book. By that I mean artists who choose the book form to be their canvas to express … Continue reading

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Following in the footsteps of Walt Whitman: 185th anniversary of the Brooklyn Museum Library

A little known fact is that Walt Whitman was the acting librarian in 1835 of the Brooklyn Apprentices’ Library which was the nucleus of the Brooklyn Museum. This year is the 185th anniversary of the founding of the Brooklyn Apprentices’ … Continue reading

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Academic Open House Part 2

Eleanor Whitney and I had a great time at our recent Academic Open House which was an exciting first step towards engaging professors and to hear what they would like from the Brooklyn Museum. In the Museum Libraries and Archives … Continue reading

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Pandora’s Book

If Marshall McLuhan were a gypsy and his teacup the art world, the tea leaves would be artists’ books. —Ingrid Sishey (National Arts Guide, vol. 1, no.1, Jan-Feb. 1979, p.2-3) This quote resonates so well with me as it points … Continue reading

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