Collections: Libraries and Archives

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Rare Tissot resources on display in the Libraries and Archives

Tara Cuthbert on November 24, 2009

The Tissot exhibition recently opened to the public. On your visit to see the exhibition, don't forget to stop by the Libraries and Archives display cases to view additional Tissot materials from our Special Collections and Archives. On display are early Tissot exhibition catalogs, a limited edition book set signed by Tissot, and letters regarding the 1900 exhibition installation, and purchase of the collection.  Also, there are rare illustrated Bibles from the Library collection in the Tissot exhibition.

Portrait of Tissot. American Art Association (1898).The life of Our Lord Jesus Christ: illustrated by over four hundred paintings and drawings taken from the four Gospels and from studies made in Palestine by J. James Tissot / exhibited under the management of the American art association of New York, managers for J. James Tissot, New York. New York: Press of J.J. Little & co., 1898.

Tissot's artworks attracted much attention at the turn of the twentieth century. The traveling tour of Tissot's watercolors drew masses of people, the record being 23,000 visitors in one day in Chicago. At the closure of the tour in 1900, the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences agreed to solicit funds for purchase of the collection, in part by public subscription. The call for help was made to Brooklynites through a series of notices and announcements in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Subscriptions flowed in at the rate of $300 - $1000 per day for several months, and the names of contributing individuals were periodically published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. These articles can be viewed online through Brooklyn Public Library's digitization of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Conducting a simple keyword search for "Tissot" will return many results, revealing the public perception of Tissot's artwork and the story of how the citizens of Brooklyn came together to acquire these works for the Brooklyn Museum collection.

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Recent Archival Accessions

Tara Cuthbert on November 13, 2009

New York City is getting ready once again for the annual 5 Dutch Days event! This five-day celebration encompasses the five boroughs of New York City, and celebrates the continuous influence of Dutch arts and culture in NYC. Numerous institutions participate in this event; see the 5 Dutch Days website for more information on Dutch themed activities such as walking tours, lectures, concerts and more.

Dismantling of the Schenck House. Records of the Department of Decorative Arts. Objects. Installation: Schenck House, [11] press and photographs (1933-1964).

Dutch culture has had its fair share of influence on us here at the Brooklyn Museum. One of the largest objects in our collection, the Schenck House features prominently in our connections to Dutch-American history. This month the Brooklyn Museum Libraries and Archives are reflecting on the ways Dutch history has influenced our collections, we are currently highlighting published and archival materials documenting the ongoing influence of the Dutch.



Sunday News clipping on Schenck House restoration, May 12, 1963. Records of the Department of Decorative Arts. Objects. Installation: Schenck House, [11] press and photographs (1933-1964).

In celebration of the ongoing influence of Dutch arts and culture, the Museum Libraries and Archives are highlighting a recent archival accession, a collection of documents regarding the Jan Martense Schenck House. These documents have recently been processed and are now available [pdf] to the public for research. Included in this collection are images of the Schenck House on its original location in Brooklyn; letters from numerous Schenck family descendents who have visited and supported the Schenck House over the years; and newspaper clippings from the 1964 Museum installation. We have also produced a list of published resources [pdf] on the Schenck House and Schenck family genealogy in the Museum Libraries. If you would like to schedule a visit to see any of these materials, please send us an e-mail. We are open to the public for research on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Schenck descendant Edith Schenck DeLozier visiting the Schenck House in 1964. Records of the Department of Decorative Arts. Objects. Installation: Schenck House, [07] corresp: A-G (1961-1974).

If you are a Schenck descendant please let us know, as we always enjoy hearing from Schenck family members!

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Common Ground 2009: A Flickr Meetup with NYPL and the Brooklyn Museum

Shelley Bernstein on September 30, 2009

If you are a fan of the The Commons on Flickr and live in the NYC area, come to our Common Ground meetup this weekend to celebrate—we've got tons and tons of neato stuff to give away!  The folks from the NYPL are going to be joining us to meet and greet and answer questions about the fantastic images being uploaded to The Commons.  We'll be running a really big slideshow curated by the Flickr community in the lobby, so come find us this Saturday October 3rd, 6-9:30 pm!  That's smack dab in the middle of a fabulous opera-inspired Target First Saturday, so there will be lots to do here that evening.

Don't forget, this is a global meetup, check out these other venues if you live closer to these areas:

Sydney, Australia. A bit jealous of our colleagues over at the Powerhouse Museum who have been making preparations all week for an outdoor slideshow on the facade of their building.  The Powerhouse peeps are teaming up with the State Library of New South Wales for a joint event.

Brisbane, Australia.  The State Library of Queensland is also presenting the slideshow outdoors on their Queensland Terrace—one of my personal favorite buildings in all of Australia is the Queensland Library, so that should be an amazing event in a great location!

Canberra, Australia.  The Australian War Memorial is also taking part with a projection in their orientation gallery.

Safety Harbor and Tallahassee, Florida.  The State Archives of Florida are running two events in the area.

Rochester, New York.  George Eastman House is hosting an event in their theatre and that means you can meet Ryan...he's the one we have to thank for the slideshow because he did a ton of work programming the voting tool and the slideshow via the Flickr API.  Thanks, Ryan!

Corvalis, Oregon.  Don't miss the photograph on this event listing—these Oregon peeps have a sense of Flickr-humor and we love them for it.

...but perhaps the Swedish National Heritage Board has us all beat!   They are hosting their event in the Medieval St. Karin Church ruin in central Visby on the island of Gotland, Sweden.  That very same church ruin is actually pictured in one of the photographs they've uploaded to The Commons.  It kind of doesn't get more meta than that!

Coming to a meetup?  Tweet using the #CommonGround hashtag and if you upload photos to Flickr, tag them CommonGround2009 and we'd love to see them added to The Commons group.  Hope to meet you there!

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