October 11, 1940
A third showing of photographic prints from the collection of over 2,500 negatives made by George B. Brainard of Brooklyn, between 1870 and 1880, and now in possession of the Brooklyn Museum, goes on public view October 11 to run just over three weeks. In addition to Brooklyn views, which include two sections, Prospect Park and Coney Island, there are sections of views from Long Island, Staten Island, Albany and Troy, and two prints from New Jersey.
A new feature inaugurated this time is a frame of six unidentified scenes. The public is asked to pick out the subject, if possible. The first person appearing at the Museum and making satisfactory identification will receive a print from the negative as a reward. Although Brainard was meticulous about putting the label on the envelope in which the negative was kept, the fortunes of the collection have been such that some of the envelopes have gone to pieces, thus leaving some gaps in the Museum’s information. As more unidentified prints appear from time to time, a similar practice will be followed.
These exhibitions are a part of the work which is constantly going on of making prints of the 2,500 negatives to discover their subject matter in positive form. This collection is one that was brought to light when a house on Gates Avenue was emptied several years ago, and the negatives were deposited with the Brooklyn Museum.
Brainard was a resident of Brooklyn, and began working as an amateur photographer in 1858, at the age of thirteen. In 1878 he was a Deputy Water Purveyor. He spent a great deal of time in the 1870’s photographing scenes in Long Island, Staten Island, Manhattan, Bronx, up-state New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Philadelphia and Delaware.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939 - 1941. 10-12/1940, 173. View Original
October 11, 1940
BROOKLYN
Brooklyn - From Bridge Tower
#1425, 1428, 1431
Brooklyn Bridge
#1784
Erie Basin
#1794, 1799
West Brighton
#276
View of Brooklyn
#1424
Washington Street
#1767
Adelphi Academy
#1309
Public School #3
#1332
Ice on Logs at Hunt’s Dock
#1310
Church of the Redeemer
#1603
The Dump
#1391
Morris House
#1314
City Hall
#1303
Painter on Brooklyn Bridge
#1803
Public School #15
#248
Christmas Letter Carrier
#1592
Building Brooklyn Bridge
#1614
Brighton Beach
#1609
Pipe Yard, Gowanus
#1334
Storage Reservoir from the Dam
#1337
Pipe Yard, Gowanus Bay
#719
Up the Trout Brook, New Lots
#838
Football - Fort Greene
#1790
Photograph of a Painting of Brooklyn
#1435
Washington’s Headquarters
#1312
City Hall Park from Window
#711
Down the Meadow Lane, New Lots
#831
Fort Greene Park
#1743
Ice on Hunt’s Dock
#1313
Sleigh at 3rd Avenue
#1812
Fort Greene Park
#1827
De La Paine House
#1306
Geese on Fourth Avenue
#1792
Rag Picker
#1599
Underhill Avenue
#1347
Coal Shoveler
#1810
Street Tinware Man
#1824
Hogs at Dump
#1616
Ducks in Gutter
#2191
Candy Man
#1736
Bay Ridge
#728, 724, 702, 723
Distant View - Fort Hamilton
#832
Flatbush, from Reservoir
#1597
Building Group in Flatbush
#387
L. A. Wilbour House - Flatbush
#383
Entrance to Flatbush
#177
Railroad Station, Flatbush
#709
Storey’s Wife’s Father’s House
#639
The Wyckoff House - Flatbush
#1315
Dutch Reformed Church - Flatbush
#386
Cortelyou House - Flatbush
#713
Methodist Church – Flatbush
#417
Group of Houses and Street
#421
Lott’s Mill - Flatbush
Photograph of sketch by W.H. Story
#179
Johnny Smith’s Boat House
#2178
Repaving Clinton Street
#1796
Buffalo Bill
#2202
Clinton Street, Brooklyn
#1793
Montague Street - Bridge
#1763
Soap Fat Man
#1604
Repairing Clinton Street
#1788
Packard House, Remsen Street
#1744
LONG ISLAND
Conelquot River at Club House
# 581
Club House
#560
Life Boat - Amagansett
#1621
Ely’s Artesian Well (?)
#1622
From Hill - Flanders, L.I.
#577
Distant View of Blue Point, L.I.
#615
Creek at Ashmonague, L.I.
#600
Beach at Ashmonague, L. I.
#984
Station at Babylon
#608
Meeting House Creek - Aquebogue
#500
Belle Pago, L.I.
#613
Sandbank of Belle Pago Brick Yard
#610
Cider and Sorghum Mill - Aquebogue
#501
Congregational Church, Aquebogue
#499
Club House - Long Island
#582
Station at Club House - L.I.
#578
Church - Amagansett
#1620
Claybeds of Belle Pago Brick Yard
#611
STATEN ISLAND
New Brighton, Staten Island
#1566, 1567
North Shore, Staten Island
#1560, 1559
Elm Park, North Shore
#1564
Staten Island
#1561
Elm Park, Staten Island
#1568
PROSPECT PARK
Lake at Prospect Park
#1747, 1758
Prospect Park
#1589, 729, 1538
A Breakdown
#2238
Snow Scene - Prospect Park
#267, 708, 1000, 1430, 270
Sheep - Prospect Park
#1542
Deer - Prospect Park
#1821
Bridge Prospect Park
#1050
Mt. Prospect Engine
#1362
Storage Reservoir, Gate Chamber
#1335
Prospect Park, View from Mountain
#1539
Prospect Hill Residence
#1474
Skating - Prospect Park
#1765
Payne's Bust - Prospect Park
#715
Gate House, Prospect Hill Reservoir
#1544
Prospect Hill Reservoir
#1540
View from Prospect Hill Reservoir
#1541
Tablet at Prospect Hill Reservoir
#1546
CONEY ISLAND
Coney Island
#1135, 714, 1127, 2136
Beach - Coney Island
#275, 2119, 2116
Coney Island Railroad Station
#277
Wreck on Beach - Coney Island
November 3, 1874
#706
Steamboat Landing - Coney Island
#701
One-Legged Athlete at Coney Island
#2111
Coney Island from Little Pier
#271
Coney Island Brighton Beach Railroad Station
#389
North View of Coney Island
#2127
Coney Island East from Iron Pier
#274
Swings at Coney Island
#2114
Little Wader at Coney Island
#2117
Entrance to Iron Pier - Coney Island
#2113
ALBANY & TROY
Mastadon - Albany, N.Y.
#955
River at Albany, N.Y.
#1142
Albany, New York
#1134, 1140
Second Street, Troy, New York
#1574
River & Grand Division, Troy, N.Y.
#1578
Holy Cross Church, Troy, N.Y.
#1572
One River Street, Troy, N.Y.
#1576
At the Bridge - Troy, New York
#1581
NEW JERSEY
View near Communipow, New Jersey
#1517
Children at Bridge
#1737
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939 - 1941. 10-12/1940, 174-6. View Original
October 19, 1940
The Brooklyn Museum’s plans for the greater part of the 1940-41 season and the first part of the 1941-42 season have just been announced.
The principal exhibitions of the year begin with “Art Finds a Way,” a graphic comment on the subject of skilled work, about which there is so much discussion today, and will demonstrate the great skills man has developed through the years in producing useful objects that have become recognized as objects of art. This exhibition, arranged under the direction of Dr. Herbert J. Spinden, Curator of the Department of American Indian Art and Primitive Cultures, will be made up principally from the Museum’s collections augmented by several loans. It will run from November 1 through January 2.
Also opening in November is an exhibition of Children’s Clothing, showing the development for the last 125 years and the emergence from slavish copying of adult costume into special designs for the younger generation. Materials for this exhibition will also come principally from the Museum’s collection, enhanced by a few loans. This show is being arranged by Mrs. Michelle Murphy, Supervisor of the Department of Education, and will extend from November 9 through January 12.
On the 23rd of January, “Paganism and Christianity in Egypt - The Art of Egypt from the First to the Tenth Century,” will open. It will be the first purely Coptic showing arranged in this country. This is being prepared by the Museum’s Department of Egyptology. The exhibition will close on March 9.
A show for which the Museum is internationally famous, the Biennial Water Color Exhibition, will open on March 27 and close May 11. It will be arranged under the supervision of John I. H. Baur, Curator of the Department of Painting and Sculpture.
Another exhibition arranged from the Costume collections will be a showing of millinery, past and current, from March 8 through April 20, which will also be arranged by Mrs. Michelle Murphy, Supervisor of the Department of Education.
The last large exhibition of the season will be made up of art from the printing press, to demonstrate the problems of those who are producing art every day, week and month for the great public, and the process involved in doing so. This exhibition is being arranged by a committee composed of Ralph Halker, architect, George Welp, art director, and Edward A. Wilson, illustrator, together with representatives of the Museum.
Following the Silk Screen Prints exhibition, arranged by the Print Department, which opened September 20 and will run through October 20, is “The Stage is Set”, running from October 4 through November 17, made up of reproductions of theatre, opera and ballet subjects selected from Library material. As the result of the continual work which is going on in the Photographic Department at the Museum of the printing of negatives from the George B. Brainard Collection of 2,500 views of this part of the country, a third showing of prints will be put on view October 11 and will continue through November 3.
On the 24th of October the Print Department will hang an exhibition of Current Campaign Cartoons by artists well known in this field, which will continue through December 1. During the same period but opening a day later, October 25, a gift in the form of a group of pressed glass, collected by Mrs. William Greig Walker and presented to the Museum as the result of a subscription fund, will be shown for the first time. The 138 items are all impressed with subjects relating to persons and events that held public interest in the United States, and to some extent in Europe, between 1820 and 1940. The title of the exhibition is “History in Pressed Glass.
“The Nativity in Art,” made up of reproductions of 15th Century woodcuts and medieval manuscripts, will be put on view November 22 to continue through January 5. This exhibition was arranged by Miss Alice Ford, a member of the Art Reference Library staff. A showing of Recent Accessions will open on December 5 and extend through January 12. In this same period the exhibition called “Forever Young” will be shown. The latter will be composed of illustrations for children’s books, arranged by the Print Department. January 18 through February 2 the annual showing of the work of Brooklyn artists, restricted this year to water colors, will be arranged by John I. H. Baur, Curator of the Department of Painting and Sculpture, and there will be another exhibition in January of other views of Brooklyn and Long Island from the George B. Brainard Collection, from January 9 through February 9.
For the 1941-42 season the following exhibitions are already planned: Paintings by John Quidor (1801-1881), and also a collection of works by William S. Mount (1807-1868), both arranged by John I. H. Baur, Curator of the Department of Painting and Sculpture; and “Colonial Art of Latin America,” prepared under the supervision of Dr. Herbert J. Spinden, Curator of the Department of American Indian Art and Primitive Cultures.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939 - 1941. 10-12/1940, 181-3. View Original
