Meeting held Friday, October 20, 2006. 10-11:30 a.m.
This year’s progressive conference was rich with interesting and informative tours. What better way to warm the trail than with the incredible visual materials found at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The HRC Web site identifies the collections as “one of the world's finest cultural archives ... [which] houses 36 million literary manuscripts, one million rare books, five million photographs, and over 100,000 works of art.”
It was with great pleasure that we were treated by curators’ selections from the Art, Photography and Performing Arts collections.
The Art Collection, introduced by Associate Curator Peter Mears, includes original works of art, prints and artists’ books, as well as associated works such as manuscripts. We were presented with literary portraiture, art by writers, fine press illustrations, and architectural drawings. Larger holdings include those of Max Beerbohm, Eric Gill, Mexican art, twentieth century posters, and the collections of Texas artists Tom Lea, Elisabet Ney and Frank Reaugh.
Linda Briscoe Myers, Assistant Curator for Photography, provided a wonderful selection of prints that led the discussion on the history of collecting photographic material at the HRC. The bulk of the material arrived in 1963 with the purchase of the collection of renowned photo historian, photographer and collector Helmut Gernsheim. Today, over 5 million prints and negatives, a library of over 40,000 volumes, and over 400 pieces of original photographic apparatus now make up the Department of Photography. One of its treasures is the world’s first photograph captured from nature in 1826 involving an exposure of over 8 hours. Collection strengths are nineteenth-century holdings, including British and French. Almost too numerous to mention, our presentation included works by Charles Dodson (Lewis Carol), Julia Margaret Cameron, a Victorian scrapbook album, a Carlton Watkins mammoth plate print, prints by Russell Lee, Walker Evans, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and contemporary photographers Susan Meiselas and Binh Danh. It was as if we were walking into a history of photography textbook.
Our visit was topped off by the selections of Rick Watson, Research Associate for the Performing Arts Collection. This subject-driven research collection is also rich in visual materials, as it overlaps with works on paper, paintings, photographic material, costume and scenic design, models, and topics of circus and magic. Material spanned from Norman Belle Geddes, whose work ranged from experimental theater to streamline industrial design; to a collection of playbills and programs; to a selection from the over 34,000 costume designs of B.J. Simmons & Co.
We thank our hosts for their thoughtful presentations and for choosing a selection that represented only the tip of the iceberg from the HRC holdings. That must have been difficult! For more information, please see the Ransom Center’s Web site.