The Hirsch Library’s seventh Highlights of the Hirsch Library exhibition opened on April 17. Installed in a small gallery near the library in the Caroline Wiess Law Building of the MFAH, the exhibition, Building Foundations: Ima Hogg and Bayou Bend in the 1920s, offers a glimpse of the key role Miss Hogg played in Bayou Bend’s original design and construction. Items on display from the MFAH Archives and the Hirsch Library include auction catalogs that Miss Hogg used in acquiring items for her collection and letters from the decorative artist William Mackay regarding designs for the dining room wall covering. Mackay’s original watercolor and gouache schemes are also on display along with a fragment of the final painted canvas. A 1920’s portrait of Miss Hogg by Wayman Adams is also included, as well as the New England colonial chair that Miss Hogg saw in Mr. Adams’s studio and credited with inspiring her interest in American decorative arts.
Kerri Menchaca, who has been a part-time Reference Assistant in the library for over a year, moved into the full-time Acquisitions Assistant position on February 21, replacing Amy Sullivan, who is now at the Menil Museum. We are happy to have Kerri with us on a full-time basis as she deals with the book orders and budget during the busy last months of the fiscal year.
Submitted by Margaret Culbertson