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Print Department Project - Pt. 3 Prepared by: Martha R. Mahard, Consultant

February 27, 2015

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BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

Project Benchmarks

Executive Summary

Developing a Collection Management Overview

• Intellectual Framework

• Scope

• Physical Organization and Related Space Problems

• Collection Care and Preservation

Next Steps

Appendix

• Gallery of images

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY PRINT DEPARTMENT

PROJECT BENCHMARKSAugust 30, 2014: 1st preliminary report December 15, 2014: 2nd preliminary report February 27, 2015: 3rd preliminary report May 30, 2015: Final report due

To cover: • evaluation of current descriptive information including: Binding aids, inventories,

catalogues raisonnés, accession records, catalog cards, online collections, databases, and spreadsheets

• needs assessment for under-‐described items and/or collections • assessment of physical arrangement • articulation of collection hierarchy and organizing principles • recommendations for descriptive record creation including: controlled vocabularies,

content standards, schemas and other descriptive structures • assessment of data mapping strategies from and into the BPL systems (e.g., ILS, digital

object repository, DPLA) • outline proposed strategy for implementation of changes or adjustments to physical

organization • initiate testing of TMS and data mapping !

The Birst report discussed the physical arrangement of the collections, attempted to articulate the collection hierarchy and organizing principles, and presented the Birst part of an extensive evaluation of current descriptive information. !The second report focused on intellectual control, descriptive cataloging and the use of appropriate standards. It continued the evaluation of current descriptive information and examined under-‐described items and collections, including preliminary recommendations for four levels of descriptive record creation, incorporating current standards and established best practices. !This report continues the work begun in the 2irst half of the project by looking at the collections in the context of a collections management overview. !The Binal report, due May 30, 2015, will review the collection assessment including physical arrangement, intellectual access, mapping strategies, suggested workBlow for TMS integration, observations on collection condition and storage requirements. The report will conclude with a proposed strategy for implementation of changes or adjustments to the physical organization and management of the collection.

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY PRINT DEPARTMENT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY !The Birst two reports in this year-‐long project addressed issues of intellectual access to the collection, the physical arrangement and organizing principles of the collection, under-‐described collections, and proposed improvements to the current standards for description. This report will put these issues into the context of overall collection management and look at preservation management concerns. !At this point in the project considerable effort is going into analysis of what we have found in the Birst six months. These results will form part of the Binal report along with recommendations for implementation. !Work on the TMS part of the project remains suspended while technical difBiculties are being addressed. At this time it is unlikely that these problems will be resolved before the cataloger for the Merriam project is hired. An alternative workBlow is under consideration.

Reading Room in 1871 at the first Boylston Street building, the library's location between 1858 and 1895. Note the framed prints prominently displayed throughout the room.

!5Mahard / Report 3

DEVELOPING A COLLECTION MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW !Collection management encompasses everything that is done to take care of collections, to develop the collections, and make them available for use. Collection management policies generally include sections on acquisition, description, preservation management, and may extend to daily operational functions and work flow. This report will extend the previous reports’ analysis of the contents of the collection and demonstrate how the collection supports the mission of the Boston Public Library.

THE MISSION: “The Boston Public Library's mission is to preserve and provide access to historical records of our society, and to serve the cultural, educational, and informational needs of the people of the City and the Commonwealth.”

INTELLECTUAL FRAMEWORK An intellectual framework for a collection is the “underlying conceptual structure that focuses the [institution’s] collection.” It is built around the library’s mission and the needs of the 1

community of scholars, researchers, students, artists, and citizens that it serves. !In attempting to describe the intellectual framework of a collection such as the BPL’s Print collection it is useful to consider both the collection as it is today and the motivations of the founding collectors. Although the Print department was ofBicially inaugurated in 1941 the Library had been acquiring prints and photographs in large quantities since 1869. Visual materials were used for exhibition from the earliest days of the library, “enabling the people of Boston to study European cultural treasures without going any farther than downtown.” This 2

brief recap of some of the important foundation collections makes clear the essential documentary nature of the Print collection. !

Some of the building blocks: The more than Bive thousand prints in the Tosti collection, presented by Thomas G. Appleton in 1869, provided a magniBicent basis for the study of Italian Renaissance prints, reproductive prints documenting the art work of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and twenty-‐nine volumes of the works of Piranesi, among others. The images in the collection provided a signiBicant cornerstone for the study of Bine art at that time. Nearly seven thousand photographs were acquired by librarian Herbert Putnam in 1897 to serve as a guide to the art and architecture of Europe. Many public libraries at the turn of the century were developing large picture Biles of photographic reproductions of

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John E. Simmons. Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies. American Association of Museums. 2006.1

Julie K. Brown. "Making culture visible." Humanities 22, no. 2 (2001): 39. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed February 25, 2

2015).

paintings and architecture, as well as documenting the “industrial arts” and the holdings of European galleries and museums. Otto Fleischner, head of the Fine Arts Department at that time, “wanted to attract patrons from a broader spectrum—especially those in the artisan class, who were not traditional library users.” He based his plans for an ‘index to 3

the arts’ on the already extensive research collections of the South Kensington museum (now the Victoria & Albert Museum) of London. Putnam, Fleischner and others who succeeded them, continued to add to the picture Bile throughout their tenure. Louis Prang collection. In 1899, in conjunction with his retirement, Prang presented the Library with a large gift “comprising his complete work in lithography.” His widow 4

continued to donate to the collection after his death. The Alfred H. Wiggin gift, begun in 1941 and continued until his death in 1951. Perhaps the most substantial gift of prints and drawings received by the Library since the Tosti collection, Wiggin’s gifts eventually included more than 10,000 items. The Annual Report of 1943 notes his gift of 214 prints by George W. Bellows, 95 prints by Joseph Pennell, 123 by James A. McNeill Whistler, and many more. In 1944 Wiggin is reported to have presented 241 items by Thomas Rowlandson, including prints, watercolors, drawings and books, 54 prints by Goya, and more than 80 prints, books, cancelled plates, and watercolors by Anders Zorn. Wiggin continued to support the collection through purchases speciBically made for the collection as well as through his continued gifts. Historic documentary photographs of the 19th century. The nineteenth century saw heroic photographic campaigns, starting in this country with the coverage of the American Civil War. Surveys of the American West were documented photographically despite the rigors of traveling with large glass plate negatives, cameras and the chemicals required for the wet plate collodion process. More than 900 photographs of the American West by nearly 40 different photographers are represented in this collection. The collection contains an astonishing array of views of the world as photographed in the 19th century including:

John Thomson’s Illustrations of China and its people (222 photogravures in 2 volumes) Samuel Bourne and Charles Shepherd’s photographs of India including their “Royal Album” documenting the Indian tour of Edward Prince of Wales in 1875-‐76 The “Middle East” photographed by Antonio Beato, Felix BonBils, Francis Frith, G. Lekegian, J. Pascal Sebah and C. and G. Zangaki Brothers, among others The Holy Bible illustrated with 56 photographs of the Holy Land by Francis Frith and dedicated to Queen Victoria

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ibid.3

BPL Monthly Reports, October 1900. 4

Thebes and its Five Greater Temples with 40 large Woodburytypes taken by William De Wiveleslie Abney

The Boston Herald Traveler photo morgue, ca. 1908-‐1972. A Boston newspaper with roots that stretch back to 1846 through numerous incarnations and owners that included William Randolph Hearst and the Hearst Corporation. There are more than 500,000 photographs in the collection by staff photographers, contributing photographers, and the major wire services. An essential resource for the history of Boston sports, celebrities, politicians, and much more. Leslie Jones collection of photographic negatives. Jones’ archive dates from 1917-‐1956 and documents the whole spectrum of news events in Boston from that period. The Boston Pictorial Archive. This collection was assembled from the Library’s older holdings including Biles collected for the Fine Art department’s old “picture Bile.” This collection has been digitized and is among the most heavily used of the collection. !

As these cornerstones indicate, the intellectual framework of the collection is based around the history of printmaking, with representative holdings of the most well-‐known Old Masters, a major collection of reproductive prints from the late seventeenth through the eighteenth centuries, with comprehensive holdings in French, British and American printmaking from the late eighteenth century through the mid-‐twentieth century, and signiBicant collections for the study of lithography and chromolithography in America. Another signiBicant part of the framework features historical photographs of the nineteenth century, in North America and throughout the world. Both the prints and the photographs provide signiBicant documentation of the culture of their times. The collecting patterns of the second-‐half of the twentieth century to the present have built on these strengths, adding signiBicant resources in the visual documentation of the city of Boston and New England, as well as in representing the work of contemporary printmakers and art photographers of the area. !What was Thomas Appleton’s goal in securing the Tosti collection of engravings for the Library in 1869? When Appleton’s gift was accepted by the Library Trustees the Boston Art Museum was still in embryonic form. After they had been cataloged, the Tosti prints were on display in Bates Hall every Friday morning, for the pleasure and enlightenment of all. We can take pride in the vision of the early supporters and donors like Appleton, who envisaged the importance of a collection of prints and photographs in the public library, and how important it was to the citizens of Boston to have a library of distinction that ranked with the best in the world. !It is not really so incongruous to have such a collection in a great library. The history of printmaking is deeply interwoven with the history of the book and of printing. The art of book illustration is an essential part of the study of printmaking and leads to the livres d’artiste and the artist’s books of the twentieth century. In a library collection these strands can be studied and researched together. Photographically illustrated books are essential to the study of

!8Mahard / Report 3

photography as it becomes integrated with publications and comes to dominate the world of visual communication. These collections are the enduring assets that distinguish this library from other cultural heritage institutions. !At its simplest the intellectual framework of the Print collection can be seen to have evolved with the collections to emphasize documentary images, supported by collections which tell the story of the art of printmaking and the history of photography, while at the same time providing a comprehensive visual record of the cultural heritage of Boston in particular and the world in general.

What kind of collection is this anyway?

It has become evident that the nature, the value, and the great potential of the Print collection needs to be more clearly understood. It would help if it were to be referred to as the Prints and Photographs Collection, but name changes are not easy for long established collections. Collections of prints and photographs often embody the conBlicting duality of art work and visual documentation. Not all prints and photographs are works of art on paper. Many were produced with speciBic functionality in mind -‐ from the satirical prints of the late-‐eighteenth century to the chromolithographed advertising posters of the early twentieth century, and the voluminous output of modern photojournalists. This duality is inherent in the nature of the BPL’s Print collections, as curators and staff try to Bind a balance between rariBied museum practice, the exigencies of a major research library, and the necessary accessibility of a public library. !Print collectors and connoisseurs alike have recognized the value of their collections as teaching tools and sought to collect examples of all stages of the print-‐making process. Arthur Wiggin understood the value of being able to study an artist’s complete output and focused his collecting on artists of his time. This enabled him to develop relationships with living artists and with dealers, and to acquire the variant states and editions that he knew would be essential for future study as well as for connoisseurship. By concentrating on artists of the late nineteenth and early-‐to-‐mid-‐twentieth centuries, Wiggin was able to compile astonishingly complete collections of some of the great print-‐makers of that time while other collectors competed for the works of the Renaissance masters. This strategy makes Wiggin’s collection both a great teaching collection and an essential source for research into the art of the print from 1830 to 1930. His collection is complemented and greatly enhanced by the further collecting of subsequent curators, who continued to seek out new work by artists in the Boston area and to add to the strengths of Wiggin’s core collections. !What kind of a collection is this? It is a teaching collection, a research collection, a community resource, an art collection, and above all a collection of consequence and distinction.

!9Mahard / Report 3

!Differences between a museum collection and a research collection.

While we acknowledge that the BPL print and photograph collections contain many museum-‐quality works, like special collections in libraries all over the world, we are governed by the library ethos of open access and service to the public. It is true that BPL’s prints and photographs parallel the holdings of major museum collections in many ways. This is, however, not a museum. As a special collection in a major research library we share many of the same values and principles about collection management and care with our museum colleagues. But as a public library we need to make those values serve a different public with different expectations. Emphasis on the educational value and uses of the collection must be a focus. Support of the local art and education community is critical. Access and preservation are at the heart of what library collections are about. !Before technology and the Internet became part of our everyday lives, museums and libraries had much more distinct differences. While museums were typically concerned with collections of unique objects, libraries collected published works that were generally available in multiples. The systems and standards of the museum community were developed to support study and interpretation, while the library community supported systems to enable widespread discovery. Museums today have embraced (albeit sometimes reluctantly) the opportunities provided by the Internet and have evolved into much more outward-‐facing institutions than they were in the past. They have learned much from libraries and we see many more areas of common practice than we were accustomed to in the past. !

!10Mahard / Report 3

The BPL’s collection of prints and photographs provides a good example of the pitfalls and barriers to success inherent in a situation that calls for a combination of best practices from two different professional worlds. The professional literature has been Billed with discussion of the convergence of museums, libraries and archives for almost twenty years. Because museums collect unique items of high aesthetic quality they are not accustomed to deal with the large quantities of items that are vital to a library research collection or to an archive. It is neither possible nor desirable to treat every photograph in the Herald Traveler collection (for example), as a treasured object, with its own special mat and folder. We do need to ensure that those photographs are kept in a proper storage environment, are properly handled, and made available to the general public and the scholarly research community at large. The approach to intellectual control of the collection has been haphazard and un-‐standardized for too long. A card catalog based on museum practice prevalent in the mid-‐twentieth century provides what is essentially an incomplete inventory of the collection. It is unsupported by reference to corresponding shelf locations so all it really does is conBirm that the collection holds a speciBic print. !The digitization of parts of the collection, such as the Boston Pictorial Archive, has meant that, for isolated parts of the collection, description of individual items has been brought up to current library standards, and the points of access have been enriched as well. A strategic approach to future digitization projects is now essential to ensure that the collection’s goals are served. !!!!!!!!!!!!!


Prints and Photographs as Documentation.

It was Hitchings who acknowledged and built on the important documentary aspect of the prints and photographs in the collection. These images have value beyond their aesthetic appeal; they are visual documents of our past, whose value is enhanced by the context in which they exist. One photograph of a Red Sox game at Fenway Park may have some local associational value, but a collection with thousands of photographs going back to the earliest games played is a research collection with high documentary value. These images are powerful communication tools, they convey information in visual format without the need for language. !This documentary nature of the collection was a conscious curatorial decision. The collection was not intended to compete with the Old Masters collected by the Museum of Fine Arts or Harvard’s Art Museums, but rather took the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian collections of prints and photographs as models. !William M. Ivins, Jr., founding curator of prints in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, notes: !

While the number of printed pictures and designs that have been made as works of art is very large, the number made to convey visual information is many times greater. Thus the story of prints is not, as many people seem to think, that of a minor art form but that of a most powerful method of communication between men and of its effects upon western European thought and civilization. 5!

and he continues: …it was through the engraved picture that the world received its visual notions about most of the things it had not seen and studied with its own eyes—which is to say about most of the things in the world. 6! !!!!!!!!!!


William M. Ivins, Jr. Prints and Visual Communication. Cambridge: MIT Press,1969 (158).5

p. 1726

SCOPE Measuring collecting strengths. With a collection of this size it is often difBicult to isolate particular strengths, as there are likely to be so many. Particular collections and the works of speciBic artists are mentioned repeatedly in attempts to characterize the holdings. A collection gains strength and depth as many different strong collections are brought together. !One way of measuring collection strengths widely used in research libraries is based on the Research Libraries Group (RLG) conspectus model , developed originally to enable uniform 7

evaluation of collections. This model deBines six levels of collecting as follows: 0. Out-‐of-‐scope

1. Minimal level 2. Basic Information Level 3. Instructional Support Level 4. Research Level 5. Comprehensive Level !

Although designed for the evaluation of book collections, it can be a useful tool for our consideration, with modiBications to the deBinition of each level suitable to a collection of prints and photographs. !Preliminary suggestions for how we might define the levels:

0. Out-‐of-‐scope: The Print Department does not collect in this area. This is an essential level for most collection development policies as it enables curators to avoid having to cope with inappropriate gifts, such realia or family snapshots. As an example, it might be that the Print collection should consider non-‐political cartoons out-‐of-‐scope. !

1. Minimal level: An area in which few selections are made beyond the very basic. No more than a few examples in the current collection. Japanese woodblock prints might be an example of this level. Where there is not an existing strength in this area no effort is made to acquire, although gifts may be accepted if they meet other criteria. !

2. Basic information level: In the book world a collection at this level might be aimed to satisfy current needs at the undergraduate level, including introductory texts and reference materials, helpful for the general user but not sufBicient to support courses of independent study.


For more information see the Library of Congress’ web site on Collecting Levels at: http://www.loc.gov/acq/devpol/cpc.html7

http://www.loc.gov/acq/devpol/cpc.html

For example, in the area of children’s literature we have sizable collections of the works of several distinguished illustrators of children’s books, but the collection could not be said to be more than basic in the overall subject area. !

3. Instructional support level: This level is generally understood to be able to support most undergraduate, some graduate and sustained independent study. An example in our collection might be images of the United States outside of the New England area. !

4. Research level: Exceptionally broad and deep range of coverage. Complete or near complete holdings of a particular artist’s oeuvre would be in this category. One would expect the collection to be well supported by necessary reference works, monographs, and exhibition catalogs as well. Similarly, a topic such as New England, is collected at this level while Boston and Massachusetts are collected at the comprehensive level. !

5. Comprehensive level: Intended to indicate a collection that “so far as is reasonably possible, includes all signiBicant works” in a particular Bield. This is the level at which most special collections operate. The aim is exhaustiveness. In terms of prints or photographs one might collect not only the work of a speciQic artist, such as Cruikshank, but also of all his contemporaries, as well as multiple editions, states, and variants. This is presumed to be the level which supports connoisseurship, and original research at doctoral and post-‐doctoral levels; the collection must be consulted by anyone researching or writing a book on the topic. !

As can be seen, special collections tend to fall in the “4” and “5” ranges. Acquisition decisions are generally focused on collections at these levels. If there are parts of the collection that fall below those levels it may be that they consist of legacy materials acquired before a Birm collecting policy was in place. Similarly, the work of a French lithographer, such as Daumier, might be collected at the comprehensive level but French lithography in general at the research level only.


Strengths As I have already discussed in outlining the intellectual framework on which the collection is built, there are many areas in which the BPL’s Print collection holdings are of exceptional depth and breadth. I have not attempted to quantify the Print department’s holdings to the conspectus level of detail as a much deeper knowledge of the collection would be required for such an undertaking. The still-‐ongoing shelf inventory has, nevertheless, made clear areas of signiBicant strengths. These include:

• the visual documentation of Boston and New England, • the work of contemporary artists and photographers of Boston and New England, • the art of printmaking from the late eighteenth century through the mid-‐twentieth century in England, France, and North America, with particular emphasis on

• chromolithography of Louis Prang • French and British masters of lithography and etching • the satirical prints of Thomas Rowlandson, George Cruikshank and their contemporaries

• documentary and news photography of the 19th and 20th centuries !Interesting models of collection policies abound online. The Frick Art Reference Library, for 8

example lists thirteen “core subject categories” in which it collects comprehensively. These categories include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and mosaics, but are all collected “within the Library’s geographic and chronological parameters.” These parameters are, not surprisingly, rather broad, taking in art “in the Western tradition from the fourth to the mid-‐twentieth century.” Further qualiBications indicate categories that are collected “selectively.” Architecture is only collected if “coverage includes ornamentation with painting, sculpture, or stained glass, or if they are architectural designs by an artist who worked in all media, e.g., Michelangelo or Gianlorenzo Bernini…” and “dress and costume [are] acquired if content supports the study of the Bine arts.” The Thomas J. Watson Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York , 9lists subject scope closely related to the Museum’s “encyclopedic collections of art in all media.” Interestingly, the Watson’s policy notes that it collects on photography “worldwide from its invention to the present, primarily Bine art photography but including other genres such as landscape and documentary photography.” !Collecting parameters For many years, large research collections merely asserted a policy of “adding to our strengths” but now many feel the need for greater speciBicity. For collection building purposes it is important to articulate clearly the broad outlines, or parameters within which additions to the collection are sought. In addition to strengths that can be measured as outlined above, other


http://www.frick.org/research/library/collection_development_policy8

http://libmma.org/portal/watson-library-collection-development-policy9

http://libmma.org/portal/watson-library-collection-development-policy

http://www.frick.org/research/library/collection_development_policy

criteria for consideration may include time period, medium, format, condition, content, and geographic area -‐ in our case relevance to Boston and New England. !Some suggested collecting parameters for the BPL Print Collection A chronological parameter for the BPL Print collection could be from 1450 to 2000, with particular emphasis on the late Renaissance through the mid-‐twentieth century. A geographical parameter would be our particular emphasis on visual documentation and the contemporary art of Boston and New England. A format parameter in the area of photography might be that lantern slides and 35mm slides are not collected. Condition should always be a criteria for 10

selection. Photographic negatives, like color slides, require the continuous maintenance of special environmental conditions for storage and if this storage cannot be provided they should not be acquired. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


In fact there are lantern slides and 35mm slides in the collection but they are not desirable collection objects and should only be accepted if 10

they are a part of the documentation of an artist’s work.

Core categories Taking the Frick Art Reference Library and the Met’s Watson Library as models, the following core categories might be used as guidelines. Additional categories should be added as appropriate, this short list is meant to be suggestive rather than deBinitive. !Boston and New England

• A major collecting emphasis is on visual documentation of Boston and New England from the seventeenth century to the present. !

Art of Boston and New England

• Another deliberate collecting emphasis has always been on contemporary art of Boston and New England. Developed over almost seventy-‐Bive years of active collecting this is one of the Library’s most distinguished (and distinguishing) collections, with over 700 artists represented. These acquisitions support the library’s mission as a supportive, nurturing hub of the community.

!SIDE NOTE: …not just Boston but the whole world We should also bear in mind that Boston was the home of men and women who traveled the world and brought back collections of prints and photographs documenting those travels. !Writing about how collections reBlect their communities, the great print scholar and curator A. Hyatt-‐Mayor wrote: !

Boston was the home of the Universalists and Transcendentalists who equated all religions, who read, along with the Bible, the Vedantas, Confucius, the Mahabharata, and the Koran. They plunged into the Far and Near East, into the Greek world of Plato and Aristotle. So naturally one of the great collections of Greek and Roman things is there, one of the great collections of Indian things, Chinese things, and the greatest collection of Japanese things outside Japan. They would never have come to Boston and Cambridge if this intellectual interest had not preceded them in the very advanced and remarkable Bostonians of the nineteenth century._ !

He refers in part to collections that went to the Museum of Fine Arts and the Harvard Art Museums, but these collecting interests are reBlected in the BPL collections as well. !


French printmaking of the 19th and early to mid-20th centuries

• Outstanding holdings of the works of artists like Daumier, Garvani, Charlot, Forain, Fantin-‐LaTour, and Jacques Villon rank with the holdings of major museums in this area. !

British satirical prints of the late-18th and early-19th centuries

• An important collection of the works of Thomas Rowlandson, James Gillray, and George Cruikshank, includes drawings, watercolors, and book illustrations.

!


PHYSICAL ORGANIZATION AND RELATED SPACE PROBLEMS In my Birst report I undertook an analysis of the physical organization of the Print stacks along with the Birst part of the shelf survey. The organizing principles behind the placement of the collections in the stacks has long been obscured from whatever the original system may have been. It would be desirable, as space can be freed up, to re-‐arrange parts of the collections into more logical sequences. With a collection as inconsistently documented and as heavily reliant on the knowledge of the current staff as this one is, it should be a high priority to get the collections into a physical order that facilitates the location of uncatalogued materials. For my initial recommendations on a potential organization scheme see Report 1, pages 32-‐35. !Plans to relocate a large collection of photographic negatives to off-‐site storage are underway. This will free up approximately 1,900 linear feet of shelving. This will be a good start but it is not going to solve the current problem. Careful consideration needs to be given to next steps before Billing those shelves up with refugees from the CAB room. This is an opportunity to make some much needed adjustments to the current arrangement. For example the boxes of the digitized Boston Pictorial Archives prints now stacked on top of Bile cabinets should be a priority for relocation as shelves become available. !The current physical state of the collection is a major problem. Several factors account for the problem as I see it, but most critical is the need for more space. The staff can hardly be faulted for the fact the things don’t seem to be in order or to get put away. Both the Print stack and the CAB room space are Billed to capacity. Putting one print or one box back on the shelf is a major undertaking when shelves are obstructed and heavy boxes are stacked on top of each other. Figuring out where it might have come from, or should go, is another issue. Access to the shelves in some aisles requires moving book carts, framed objects and often, other boxes. Sadly, if the stacks were better organized, clearly labeled, logically arranged, then temporary or part-‐time staff could help putting things away. As it is now, it requires the time and effort of highly-‐trained staff to return materials to their proper locations. !It may be possible to designate additional parts of the collection to be moved to off-‐site storage. All photographic negatives in the collection would beneBit from storage in a regulated cool/cold storage area. In addition any 35mm color slides should be in cold storage. Some further points to consider: !

• Materials that have been digitized and cataloged could be sent to off-‐site storage • Departmental correspondence Biles, curatorial Biles, boxes of publications, old sales catalogues, need to be assessed, weeded and relocated

• Additional over-‐size drawers/map cases might provide relief for the currently unboxed and unshelved materials

• Investigate the feasibility of compact shelving !!19Mahard / Report 3

Reality check: let’s look at some numbers !

*very rough guess

!!!the numbers explained:

• The Print stack has 3084 shelves @36” wide and 828 shelves @ 30” wide for a total of 10,908 linear feet !

• The CAB room has 1136 shelves @ 36” and 80 shelves @ 30” wide for a total of 3,608 linear feet !

• There are 222 solander boxes housing the Boston Pictorial Archive which are currently stacked on top of the metal Bile cabinets housing the Herald Traveler photo morgue. These boxes would require an additional 296 linear feet of shelving. !

• In the CAB room there are ca 185 “banker”-‐type boxes housing the remnants of the Ticknor collection postcard archive. These take up more cubic feet than the solander boxes but would need about another 200 linear feet of shelving.

# of units total linear feet

Print stack shelves 3912 10,908

CAB room shelves 1216 3608

Boston Pictorial Archive 222 boxes 296

Tichnor postcard archive 185 boxes 200*

Metal file cabinets 154 213

Flat files 18 79

Temporary shelving (on wheels) 44 396

Unprocessed collections ca. 100 boxes +/- 150*

15,771


!• Metal Bile cabinets, both letter and legal size, in the print stack and in the CAB room, containing the departmental correspondence (in need of serious weeding), correspondence with artists, notes for publications and catalogues, and the Herald Traveler photo morgue, account for 213 linear feet. !

• Flat Biles (sometimes called map cases) of drawers for oversize materials account for 79 linear feet in the print stack. These are distributed around the room in awkward and occasionally inaccessible locations. They are primarily second-‐hand and not all of them are completely functional. !

• And Binally, the small army of book trucks and baker’s racks that provide “temporary” storage for the unshelved and unshelve-‐able needs to be accounted for. There are a total of 44 book trucks/racks in the Print stack. !

• In addition to the above there are some large unprocessed collections which will require major rehousing and processing before they are usable. These include two fairly recent acquisitions (McCurdy purchase, Webb bequest) and some older legacy collections (estimated at ca. 150 linear feet when processed). !

Total linear feet required to house the existing collection – making no allowance for growth: !15,771 linear feet (almost 3 miles) !!

!!!!


COLLECTION CARE AND PRESERVATION !Climate control

Ninety percent of preservation management is in the maintenance of appropriate climate-‐controlled environment. Sadly, almost thirty percent of the collection is currently housed in an uncontrolled environment (890 boxes stored in the CAB room). Moving this part of the collection into an appropriate environment is of the utmost urgency. !Preventative preservation measures

If we look beyond the intractable problem of what to do about the CAB room and its contents there are a number of areas where better practice could be instituted. Preventive care encompasses the steps that are taken to reduce, block, or mitigate the impact of various agents of deterioration. In addition to incorrect temperature and incorrect relative humidity there are seven such agents that are generally referred to in the literature on collections care. They are: !

• Direct physical forces • Thieves, vandals, and curatorial neglect • Fire • Water • Pests • Pollutants and contaminants • Light and Radiation !

This simpliBied table is based on the Framework for the Preservation of Museum Collections developed Stefan Michalski and the Environment and Deterioration Research Division of the Canadian Conservation Institute. !Agent of deterioration Nature of agent Control measures

Direct physical forces Cumulative or catastrophic forces, including sudden and gradual physical forces (e.g., dropping, inadequate support, abrasion) and deterioration caused by the intrinsic nature of the material (inherent vice)

staff and user training, proper object supports, stable collection storage environment and appropriate work space

Thieves, vandals, curatorial neglect Human activities, physical neglect and intentional damage, including poor curation and security issues

staff and user training, good security


!!A full-‐scale preservation assessment is not part of this project, which is primarily concerned with arrangement and description of the collection. I have, nevertheless, been encouraged to include comments and recommendations on areas of concern. !First the good news The Print collection is cared for by well-‐trained staff, who are adept at the proper handling and treatment of works of art on paper. They are confronted with obstacles to success that, at present, seem to be beyond their control. The majority of the prints and photographs in the collection are housed in standard, good-‐quality mats and boxes. The Print stack area which houses about 70% of the collection seems to be environmentally stable. !Areas of concern Of the seven agents of deterioration outlined above the areas of most concern are the following: !• Direct physical forces. Over-‐crowding on the shelves, materials stored on the Bloor and leaning against shelves are all risk factors. • Collection items left for prolonged periods of time on “mobile/temporary” shelving are at risk of falling, bending, abrasion, or loss.

• Boxes stacked in piles of four or Bive high present risks to the staff. With no clear work areas in the stacks there is nowhere but the Bloor on which to put boxes that have to be moved in order to retrieve a box from the bottom of a pile.

Fire damage from fire, smoke, heat, and water and fire suppression as well as the clean-up processes

building integrity, adherence to safety standards; control of fuel and ignition sources

Water flooding; leaking pipes, windows and ceilings

building integrity, regular inspections

Pests any organism that damages collections or serves as a food source for other pests

program of integrated pest management

Pollutants and contaminants organic and inorganic gases, particulate pollutants (acidic and/or abrasive)

Staff training, building integrity, control of chemicals used in building, application of micro environments

Light and radiation Ultraviolet, visible, and infrared raditaion

use of barriers and filters

Agent of deterioration Nature of agent Control measures


• Photographic negatives, color slides, and to a lesser extent certain types of photographic prints are at risk from “inherent vice.” Damage to negatives and color slides can be mitigated by cool/cold storage environment.

• Thieves, vandals, curatorial neglect. Thefts have occurred in the past and some parts of the collection are particularly vulnerable because of their potential market value. Security systems are in place to limit the number of staff with access to the stacks and CAB room. The primary security risk however is the lack of intellectual control. • Without better documentation it is almost impossible to protect the contents of the collection.

• Ownership marks have not been consistently added to new acquisitions which further complicates the security problem.

• Pollutants. Dust and dirt has accumulated over time and is particularly acute in the CAB room. This adds to the necessity for clear and clean work areas where the contents of the collection can be examined, studied and processed without damage. !

Finally, I must add that the proximity of construction projects is often a source of disaster in library and museum collections. Preservation experts agree that an inordinately high percentage of disaster response activity is related construction/contractor related incidents and infrastructure failures. While work continues in and around the third Bloor this might be a good time to refresh the staff on emergency response procedures.


NEXT STEPS !Merriam Collection project

In February the RFP for the Merriam project cataloger was posted and we are currently awaiting applications. DifBiculties continue with access to the TMS database and as a result we have made no progress on data mapping or the export of existing spreadsheets. The original typed document containing Merriam’s own list of the collection has been scanned and will be coordinated with the shelf inventory compiled in the 1990s. Assistant Keeper of Prints Karen Shafts has been working with an intern from the Art Institute of Boston program to identify the works related to children’s literature within the collection in anticipation of the start of the project. !A revised workBlow for the project has been developed to compensate for the ongoing difBiculties with TMS. The cataloger will prepare the collection for digitization, establishing unique identifying numbers according to an agreed upon standard, and prepare a spreadsheet for data entry. Once the unique numbers and artist’s names have been established scanning can begin. Description will proceed using the spreadsheet with data Bields following the agreed upon structure (as discussed in Report 2), using Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO) as a content standard, the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) and the Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (TGM) as the principle data value standards. These records will be compatible with the excel template used for ingest into the repository. !On-going collection survey

We will complete the survey of the collection and our assessment in the next three months. We will prepare and submit an outline of a proposed strategy for implementation of changes or adjustments to the physical organization of the collection and for ways in which the current descriptive practice can be adjusted to better serve the current needs of the department. !As the snow subsided, three interns from the Simmons School of Library and Information Science began work on projects in the Print collection. These include the creation of collection level records for photographic collections, and the creation of geographic metadata for the images of the Boston Pictorial Archive. !!!


APPENDIX !Gallery of Images

Images collected from the Internet showing various shelving arrangements in other print collections. Of particular interest are the examples showing the use of combined types of compact shelving units.

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