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Hello everyone! Welcome to the class blog for Spring 2019's Eugene Lang College Civic Liberal Arts course, Mining NYC's Art History: Archiving Arts Programs at the Department of Records. Here we will be sharing our unique finds from the archives as well as what we learn during the process. I'm looking forward to sharing this experience with all of you!

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This is where our class gets to meet every week!

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This is where our class gets to meet every week!

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I always have been fascinated by New York City in the 1980s, (for all of it’s good and bad), and first became interested with the period through the art that came out of it, and as I learned about the environment that fostered it, my interest in the decade almost surpassed the product. More than thirty years later, a city that was once bankrupt now boasts one of the highest costs of living in the country. For many people who lived in New York City for decades, the city is quickly becoming unrecognizable. When I take walks through Lower Manhattan I find myself longing for some kind of “Google Street View” that also functioned as a time machine and although this sounds sort of ridiculous, I was surprised and delighted to find this sort of exists when I learned about the tax photos taken of every lot in Manhattan taken in the 1980s. I immediately dived into the website and was completely sucked into the countless photos the online archive lists. It isn’t particularly a user friendly resource, you have to start at the absolute beginning in Battery Park and scroll through the website photo by photo, although you’re also able to search by lot number. I really enjoyed visiting some of my favorite places and my apartment through the lens of the tax photos, and although I was expecting to be blown away by the dichotomy between the past and present, I was surprised by how familiar everything seemed. Looking through these photos also made me think a lot about how in 2018, the landscape we inhabit is being documented more meticulously than ever due to security culture as well as the hyper-documentation of life by companies like google and other internet sourced. The documentation of every lot was a hefty task a few decades ago, and the scale of the job required it to be conducted by a city-orchestrated program. Today, the individual takes on the role of the archivist in their personal and virtual lives. We are documenting our surroundings, thoughts, memories, photos, and landmarks in ways that make the map of the past more vivid and multi faced than imaginable at the time of the 1980s tax photos.

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During our time at the New York City Municipal Archives, we had the opportunity to visit the paper conservation lab in the basement where documentary are preserved through a variety of techniques. Many of the older documents used a form of iron oxide ink which would burn through the paper after time, leaving holes around the text. The conservationists mentioned a process called “leaf-casting” which they use to fill holes in the paper as well as strengthening it. I was intrigued and wanted to see what this process and machine looked like.

https://youtu.be/9GiPGjlAkvA

This demonstration at the National Archives of Japan shows how the archival document is sandwiched between sheets of extremely thin paper. Then, blended fiber is dissolved in a large quantity of water and the document is placed in the machine. The water with the fiber is then run over the document and fills any exclusions in the paper as well as strengthening it.

https://youtu.be/dcb3JwPjDjA

I also came across this video of the Illinois state archivist, Dottie Hopkins-Rehan, discussing some of the basics of paper conservation.

She begins by answering an important question which we were all familiar with the answer to after our time at the Municipal Archives: why no gloves? Although gloves are still worn for handling photos, antique documents can be properly assessed with gloves on. With the barrier of a glove between you and the document, it becomes impossible to feel the quality and exact needs of the paper in order to properly treat it. The conservator also mentions that the gloves are “one size fits all” and as such do not fit her properly, which could lead to damage in the long run due to lack of dexterity.

The process begins by humidifying the document in order to soften and then flatten the paper. An archival document can not simply be unfolded due to its delicacy and the possibility for damage.

Here, the conservator shows an at home method to humidify the document using a sealed container and a damp towel.

After flattening the documents, it is important to clean them. Even if the dirt on a document is not obscuring it’s information, it can act as an abrasive which will erode the paper over time. As such, the documents must be cleaned. First, the conservator uses a soft bristled brush to remove a majority of the dirt. More stubborn dirt is removed using ground art gum eraser with is gently worked over the surface of the document. The final level of stubborn dirt can be cleaned with a regular pink pencil eraser.

The next step involves removing an extraneous objects, like rubber bands and staples, using a micro spatula tool.

Now the document must be stored using an acid free folder with a pH between 7.5 and 10. It is important to label any folders in pencil in order to avoid any acid from ink leaching into the archival document.

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DORIS & 31 Chambers St. - A quick photo essay.

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DORIS & 31 Chambers St. - A quick photo essay.

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1. Film reels in the archive
2. 31 Chambers st. exterior
3. The preservation lab
4. An original lantern slide
5. Record books in the archive
6. An exterior building detail

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DORIS is home to many different kinds of photographic materials including color slides, cyanotypes, gelatin silver prints, lantern slides, 8x10 negatives and more.

Each of these processes create a very different look and leave the viewer with a different impression of the photograph at hand.

Color slides are very typical of the 80s and were meant to be projected larger than their dimensions. The Kodak Ektachrome transparencies housed at the archives are known for their vivid color and low shadow detail.

Cyanotypes are highly recognizable from their color scheme of blue and white. They were an earlier popular option for photographic prints because

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The Functions of Photographs Documenting Art Work

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The Functions of Photographs Documenting Art Work

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Looking through the photographs documenting the WPA murals in New York City, I found a photograph documenting the painting process of the mural, with a caption included. The caption states, “An experiment in the therapeutic value of the arts. One panel of a mural illustrating the “Normal Pursuits of Man”, in the Exhibition Room of the Psychiatric Building in Bellevue Hospital. Working on the mural are William Karp, WPA artist, and, in the lower left-hand corner, his assistant, George Brubaker. The mural is being executed under the direction of the Federal Art Project of the W.P.A.”

This text places this photograph as a promotional image for the mural, and the larger project of the entire WPA. Reading this image with a caption brought these images from the archive into the political and social world of America in the context of the New Deal. Many of the images of murals seem to be intended for an archive because most of the images document the finished murals within the spaces. Looking through the photographs, it felt as though they functioned as documents, rather than promotional images. The photograph with the caption however shifted this perspective. The language used restates the importance of art within society, almost validating the Federal Art Project as much as attempting to focus productive creative acts as “normal”, or implied as healthy “pursuits.” The caption included with this image illustrates the ideologies of the murals and how the photography was used to further the ideology of the WPA.

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Adolf Wolff: Federal Art Project Sculptor 

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Adolf Wolff: Federal Art Project Sculptor 

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Born in Brussels in 1883, Adolf Wolff immigrated to America while he was a small child.

His artwork and activism are now widely forgotten and his sculptures for the Federal Art Project are some of the few remaining pieces of his work with known whereabouts.

Wolff’s presence in the New York art scene starts in 1912, when the artist was teaching at The Ferrer School in Harlem. This was the most radical anarchist school in New York City at a time when many artists and creatives were adopting the anarchist ideology. The school was unique in that it both held art classes for children during the day, some of which taught by Wolff, and socially radical classes for adults at night, which Wolff attended. The school hosted notable guest lecturers, including birth control activist Margaret Sanger, author Upton Sinclair and noted anarchist Emma Goldman. Wolff was one of the schools most active participants, teaching and attending classes as well as editing the school’s publication “The Modern School.”

Some of the only descriptions of Wolff’s character come from his close friend, the artist Man Ray via Ray’s autobiography. Ray described Wolff as “A kind and gentle man” despite his gruff and stern air. Wolff wrote poetry to be published in the school’s magazine, as well as other anarchist publications, but the work was critically panned.

Wolff’s view of sculpture as a means of propaganda and activism is most clear in a project completed in 1914 after his involvement in the “Lexington Avenue Explosion,” an accident which occurred where three artists were killed while attempting to create bombs to be used in an anti-Rockefeller action. Wolff designed an urn for the ashes of his three slain friends, Arthur Caron, Carl Hansen, and Charles Berg, which was a pyramid shape with a clenched fist rising out of the top. This image was used as the cover of Emma Goodman’s publication “Mother Earth” in July of 1914.

After the success of this project, Wolff was contracted to create a similar urn for Sacco and Vanzetti, two executed Italian anarchists, in 1927.

Despite the intensely political nature of Wolff’s work and his close ties to powerful anarchist figures and artists of the day, his work has been mostly forgotten. Ironically, two of his few remaining sculptures on view in the courtyards of The First Houses Public Housing Project, which he created as part of the Federal Arts Project, are apolitical animal statuary.

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The Federal Art Project (FAP) was a government-funded program developed in the summer of 1935 as part of Federal Project Number One under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in order to provide work for American artists in various mediums. The Federal Art Project was wide-reaching—under the direction of Holger Cahill, WPA artists from all over the United States created over 150,000 artworks for the FAP. These works included murals, oil paintings, water colors, sculptures, textiles, posters, and much more.

When Federal Project Number One was terminated in 1939, the Federal Art Project survived and was renamed the WPA Art Program, continuing under that name until it stopped operating in June of 1943.

While much of the artwork created under the WPA Federal Art Project has since been lost, many pieces have been cataloged by the Living New Deal, an organization dedicated to uncovering and presenting New Deal public works. Plenty of works have also been archived by institutions such as New York City’s very own Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)!

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The WPA was a precursor to the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. “Art ignites change” are the words The Mural Arts Program lives by and that is what the WPA put in place many years before. The start of the WPA was to put to work artists in order to bring economic change. The Mural Arts Program was established to bring social change in Philadelphia, graffiti was everywhere and the government officials were not happy about it and wanted the city to look ‘cleaner.’ Through this guise of social change the public arts really creates as spaces for people that don’t have access to the art spaces normally. The Philadelphia Mural Arts program put to work those very graffiti artists that were working for free and tagging the city. They were able to create a fund using city money to pay these artists while they got to create larger and more socially relevant. Using resources that they didn't have the access to before. In those respects these program were incredibly similar and the ways that artists were able to show work for government money is important and feels like the wealth is being distributed fairly. Public arts promises access and visibility and to engage with a historical version of the Mural Arts Program was incredibly enjoyable and informative.

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I was really taken aback by the beauty of the inside of city hall when we went on a short field trip there a few weeks ago. It felt like walking into a time capsule- one part eighties and one part twenties.
Amid constant snips from security guards telling me, "No photos!!" I took some quick snaps of the beautiful space.
Among the highlights of the space include a giant mural in the central dome depicting government over the centuries (everything from Egypt to America) and a series of murals in the juror's waiting room showing older and then contemporary New York City. It included sights such as The New York Public Library and Rockefeller Center.

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Many of the murals commissioned by the WPA were in spaces built as other WPA projects. For example, as I was looking through the archived photographs, I noticed that many of the murals were in public schools around the city. Looking up these schools on the Living New Deal website came up with results for the WPA projects to build these schools, and the murals were commissioned as a part of the building. I was interested in the relationship between the murals and the space they were put in, especially how the architecture around the art worked with it. For my final post, I collaged the architecture from Andrew Jackson High School, Frederick Douglas High School, and Aviation Trades High School. Throughout the photos, the architecture of the spaces influenced the murals composition and their interaction with the space.

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Located on 3rd st between First Ave and Ave A in the area now known as Alphabet city, The First Houses represent the first low income housing project in America. The buildings were designed by Frederick Ackerman and completed in 1935.

The Federal Arts project was commissioned to create sculpture for the courtyard of the building. The resulting work is a series of animal sculptures, including and baboon and seal by Adolf Wolff. In 1974, the buildings were designated as a national historic landmark.

In addition to being the first low income housing project in the country, the demolishing of dilapidated Victorian era tenements and subsequent installment of more modern housing represent the first project undertaken by the newly formed New York City Housing Authority, which still exists today. Although the project was originally meant to be a “gut rehab,” where the old tenement buildings would be restructured, the architect found that the existing structures were too delicate for this plan to be plausible, and the Houses were built from scratch. They were designed with rear exits in order to provide more light and air circulation than the previous buildings, as well a courtyard with a playground, where the federal arts project sculptures were installed.

The buildings also represent a legal milestone in New York State, which gave the housing authority the right to exercise eminent domain to forcibly buy properties from their owners in order to get rid of buildings which provided a significant menace to public health.

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I was immediately drawn to Max Yavno's photographic style from the first print I saw of his. I was going through a folder of various WPA commissioned sculptures when I found one of a seemingly marble shot-putter. The background of the image was a deep velvet black and and sculpture was rendered perfectly into a 2D image.

Yavno was born in New York in in 1911 and spent time working with the WPA as well as on other things before moving to San Fransisco later in his career. He has work in the permanent collection at MoMA and won a Guggenheim grant in 1951.

The more time I spent with the images in this WPA collection the more quickly I could pick out what was a Yavno- and what was not. The next week I found some beautiful photographs he took of a topographic map and immediately had a feeling that those images were his work. His unique angle and contrasty printing style really attract me to his work.

As I kept going through the folder that housed the images of the topographic map the images seemed to change. I checked the back of the photographs to see what had changed and sure enough, it was now a different photographer.
The last image I have included at the end of this post is by a different photographer shooting the same exact thing for the same exact client- still seen so differently though.
I'm fascinated by how even through a strict 'documentation' lens an artist's style can still come through so strongly.
Being in school for art and very closely studying photography I'm very drawn to these differences in visual language and how two things that seemingly should give off the same feeling do not- simply just because of the artist who snapped the shutter. (and the thousand other decisions they made without hardly a thought before pressing their finger down)

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Techniques

Silkscreen, lithograph, woodcut

Allowed design and production to be under the same roof

600 prints per day

The Poster Project

Not supported by Congress

The WPA’s Poster Project allowed technical techniques to produce images of the great aspects of our nation. While images of our national parks, encouragement to be healthy, and work for your community are shown, the posters themselves are a true outcome of craftsmanship, design, and originality. They suddenly act as a stimulating influence for becoming a decent citizen.

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Growing up, I lived a half mile from the beach. It was my favorite place to be every summer and anytime I go home I take a picture to see how it’s changed. When I pulled this photo of Easel Art by Paul Keller called “Storm at Ebb Tide” I was immediately back home watching the waves barrel onto the sand. I love that art not only inspires us, but makes us feel comfortable and familiar at times. I have attached a photo of my home beach, Pirate’s Cove along with the Paul Keller so you can appreciate the comparison.

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Willem de Kooning and the Williamsburg Housing Project Murals

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Willem de Kooning and the Williamsburg Housing Project Murals

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The series of Federal Art Project murals done in the Williamsburg Housing Project are often cited as the first non-representational or abstract murals in the United States. At the time of this project, the Federal Arts Project was being directed by Burgoyne Diller, an artist himself and one of the earliest American advocates of abstract art. Due to their historical importance, the three murals were restored and acquired by the Brooklyn Museum in the 80s.

The muralists for this project were Ilya Bolotowsky, Paul Kelpe and Albert Swinden, although the archives include a proposed sketch for a mural in this location which was never executed by Abstract Expressionist master Willem De Kooning, mislabeled as "William Kooning." De Kooning's mural never made it to the wall due to the fact that he left the Federal Arts Project in 1937 after less than two years because he feared his non-citizen status would be uncovered.

Ilya Bolotowsky, one of the other artists involved was mentored early on in his career by the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, famed for pioneering the "De Stijl" movement of abstract painting. Bolotowsky was also affiliated with the anti-Academy group "The Ten Whitney Dissenters" and founded the collective "American Abstract Artists" (AAA) with fellow Wiliamsburg Housing Project muralist Albert Swinden.

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Rebecca Rankin, Patron Saint of the Municipal Archives

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Rebecca Rankin, Patron Saint of the Municipal Archives

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Just like any good story, the story of New York City’s Municipal Archives has its heroes. One of these heroes—or rather, a heroine—stood out to me in particular. She was only a short aside in a presentation given by Director of the Municipal Archives Sylvia Kollar and Head of Collections Management Alexandra Hilton on our first day of class, but Rebecca Rankin’s story kept me thinking long after I left the building. Using an image from the Municipal Archives included in a timeline Sylvia Kollar generously shared with me as a jumping-off point, I decided to learn as much as I could about Rebecca Rankin, a woman I have come to think of as the patron saint of the Municipal Archives.

On April 5, 1887, Rebecca Browning Rankin was born in Piqua, Ohio. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 1909 and held a position as a cataloger in the university’s library until in 1912 she received a scholarship to attend library school at Simmons College in Boston, one of the top library programs in the United States even today. She graduated from Simmons in only one year, then became the librarian of the State Normal School in Ellensburg, Washington. Here, Rankin worked towards creating a library that could help train teachers, and after five years took a leave of absence. This is where New York City enters the picture.

In 1918 Rankin travelled to New York to visit her mother, a recent widow, and her older sister. In September she made the decision to remain in New York City in order to support her family. By January 1919, her job as assistant to NYPL director Edwin Anderson had transformed into an appointment as assistant librarian at the city’s Municipal Reference Library (MRL). Within one year, her supervisor resigned and recommended to Mayor Hylan that “Rebecca Browning Rankin who has shown marked ability” replace him—she officially became municipal reference librarian on Valentine’s Day in 1920, a mere two years after her “vacation” to New York. Everything, it seemed, was falling into place for Rebecca Rankin. But she wasn’t one to stay content—Rankin had strong convictions about how a government should keep its records, and big dreams for the historical materials of New York City.

One of the first things Rankin noticed when she began working at the MRL was the city’s “lack of space for archival storage,” as Barry W. Seaver writes in his 2010 article in The Cultural Record, “Rebecca Rankin's Campaign for a Municipal Archives in New York, 1920–1952.” The ever-proactive Rankin knew she had to act fast. Seaver quotes her as saying, “Right away I had to find room in the basement [of the Municipal Building] to have these things moved down there.” Rankin is credited as the woman who rescued the “early Mayors” series and the Common Council papers, named by Kenneth R. Cobb on the NYC Department of Records and Information Services blog as “two of the most notable Municipal Archives core collections.”

As she made progress on transforming the way New York City took care of its records, Rankin was also cultivating a relationship with Fiorello H. La Guardia, then the president of the Board of Aldermen. In his quest to consolidate the city’s transit system, La Guardia often found himself calling Rankin for her and the MRL’s help in his research and, thanks to Rankin, was able to propose such a system at his second annual message to the Board of Aldermen. Years later in 1939, Rankin tackled the mess in the basement of City Hall for a third time and decided it was time for a change. La Guardia was now the mayor of New York City, and because of his familiarity with New York’s historical records he readily agreed to Rankin’s request for a program to care for the city’s records. He created the Mayor’s Municipal Archives Committee, and appointed Rankin Chair. The Committee did not gain much traction due to steel shortages and other war-time efforts, but after World War II the new Mayor William O’Dwyer reinstated the Committee and restored Rankin to her position as Chair. She was tasked with developing a model for government record management programs, and Rankin delivered; by 1950 she had created a record retention manual and a records manager training course, and by 1951 shelving and archival boxes were purchased. Considering the many years she put into transforming New York City’s records management, it is fitting that Rankin’s career culminated in her dreams coming true. On June 30, 1952, two major events occurred: The Municipal Archives and Records Center formally opened, and Rebecca Rankin retired.

Information in this post comes from a post on the NYC Department of Records & Information Services blog titled “Rebecca Rankin” by Kenneth R. Cobb dated March 30, 2018, as well as the 2010 Barry W. Seaver article “Rebecca Rankin's Campaign for a Municipal Archives in New York, 1920–1952” published in The Cultural Record. Special thanks to Sylvia Kollar for all her help and resources.

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Going through these photographs, we see a lot of documentation. Photographers are attempting to capture the murals as precisely as possible in order to preserve the art in another medium. That’s why this photo struck me as I pulled it out of the protective sleeve. We get a glimpse of the reaction of the intended audiences first look at the murals being installed. In this instance, Axel Horn’s “Economic Pursuits of the Early American Settlers.”  The audience, are the residents of Staten Island’s Farm Colony across from Seaview Hospital. The residents were mostly poor and elderly, working to grow crops not only to provide for themselves, but other city institutions as well. As the murals are being installed, we see the residents gathering around them taking in their new decorations. They hung there until the farm colony closed in 1975. The murals now hang at the Richmond County Courthouse in Staten Island. While the Colony no longer exists, the dilapidated buildings still stand and give us a peek into the same building from this photograph, something that’s rare to see with the murals we’ve been studying. have attached more recent photos of the building, which are technically closed to the public, but much of the surrounding woods are open for tours and hikes.

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Documenting the murals in the spaces after they are completed and while people are using the spaces gives another sense to the scale and presence of the WPA murals. In this image of the Newark airport, the central figure of the mural overlooks the space and dominates the visual space. The people at the kiosks are dwarfed by the figures in the mural, which adds a grand presence to the architecture.

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Sensitivity and Exaggeration in the WPA Posters

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Sensitivity and Exaggeration in the WPA Posters

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A print that immediately caught my eye while going through the WPA posters was this one from the 1930s. It's visually striking, with the intense and dark background with the lone, pale woman shining from the center. She is painted, but the basket she holds is a photo that has been collaged into the poster. I saw use of collage in a few of the murals, but for some reason the use of it in this specific work stood out to me. I wondered why they chose to use a photo for the basket alone, and not the woman. This slightly distorted collage allows for the basket to appear comically large. Due to it's creation during the depression when food was scarce, the exaggerated basket allows for the image to read more gently, and maybe more humorously, than if they simply depicted a woman with an abundance of food which would have been almost offensive to the general public as unemployment and bread lines were both prevalent.

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Many of the photographs documenting the mural projects conducted by the WPA also give us images of the process of creating these murals as well. The artists were creating work specifically for the site in content, but also very carefully composed the murals based on the physical site as well. The mock ups of the space with the mural give insight into how the space affected the artist's choices on composition and placement for the commissioned mural.

Model of Newark Airport Foyer by A. Gorky

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While doing some research on the WNYC murals that were installed in '38 and '39, I found out a short bit of information that I thought might be of interest to the class. I came across an article on the WNYC website that included a breakdown of each artist, and each of the murals that they were commissioned to do for WPA at WNYC. When reading about Byron Browne, I found out that he was, "the only one to tailor his work to fit the studio" In fact, Byron painted his mural on the acoustic tiles, instead of on a canvas, or traditional medium. I think it would be interesting to know if this difference in medium and method of working hindered, or even sped up, his mural process at all. Below is a photo of the mural when it was first completed:

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While working through a folder of “easel art” this past week, I stumbled upon one document that was not what it seemed. The artwork, attributed to “Kelpe” and simply titled “Abstraction” on the back of the photograph, was supposedly an abstract painting, location and survival unknown. But as I looked further into the identity of the artist and the details of the work, I discovered that this was not a piece of easel art at all, but a portion of a famous mural! “Kelpe” refers to Paul Kelpe, a German-born American abstract painter who created two of the five Williamsburg murals. The Williamsburg murals are cited as being the first abstract murals in the United States, and the image I was looking at happened to be that of a right panel from one of Kelpe’s Williamsburg Housing Project murals. Kelpe’s were the only murals from the Williamsburg Housing Project that were found undamaged, as the other three were painted over. The surviving murals are now installed in the 1st floor café of the Brooklyn Museum, on a long-term loan from the New York City Housing Authority. I have included a link to the Brooklyn Museum’s website below which talks about the murals, as well as the photograph I came across.

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/williamsburg_murals

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https://www.wnyc.org/story/wnycs-wpa-murals/

If you're interested in learning more about the artists of murals, this is a great little piece! Short and sweet with some interesting facts.

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#cultivatingacreativespark

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This post continues on some of the themes I brought up in my last post where I wrote about the practice of the WPA of valuing the countless niches and trades that American artists had to offer. Here, we see what seems to be a studio shot of a woman at a weaving loom. It is not only a very interesting opportunity to see the work in the process versus it in its final form, what is truly interesting about this scene is how it allows a glimpse into the life of a woman artist in the 1930s. Although the vast majority of the works in the WPA are made by men, (this is one of the only I found that wasn’t), the subject of this photo is as equipped and involved as any other artist that was featured. She holds a tool in her hand before her loom, and has a painting by her side. A shelf above her workspace is lined with what appears to be handmade pottery. Although the immediate assumption that the WPA merely had a woman do the things like weaving and knitting (even though I still cannot find any evidence of any kind of textile branch of the WPA) while the painting of murals was left to the men, this woman was clearly a very knowledgeable and multidisciplinary artist.

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In the collection of images of the WPA mural projects, many schools were documented. One school in Queens was photographed in order to document the murals, however the photograph also documents a significant amount of the architecture, with the mural placed within it, but not the focus of the frame. The Living New Deal site explains that P.S. 127 was built as a WPA project. It seems as though the murals were planned with or integrated into the construction, instead of simply placed where they could work around existing architecture in order to fit the space. The photograph is documenting multiple New Deal projects rather than just the murals, and also shows how the architecture and murals interact.

https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/p-s-127-aerospace-science-magnet-east-elmhurst-ny/

Image of P.S 127

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Although my personal taste in art often did not align with the art produced by the WPA, this poster for the Municipal Broadcasting Station, WNYC, was immediately eye catching to me. Although it’s not obvious that it’s about radio, the image’s function lies more in it’s artistic value. The image striking and ethereal at the same time, and its audience would likely be awestruck. The statuesque woman in the image brings together the past and the future, and resembles only antiquated marble statue, but with power lines that string above her head, which show that she’s within the realm of technology and progress. This image was likely intended to uplift the blending of the two seemingly opposite forces and all the beautiful possibilities they contain.

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One of my biggest areas of interest in regards to the WPA was how the works they produced allowed a very unique insight on the multiplicities of the actual realities of individuals at the time, perhaps due to their inclusion of a wide variety of voices and artists. Although I enjoyed the photos of the murals themselves, the ones that included details surrounding the works themselves. For example, this photograph of a man in his studio making paper mache mannequins is clearly a relic of another time. The details in the photo, such as the almost doll-like quality of the mannequins themselves is a little unnerving, but makes it clear how much craftsmanship and skill went into each creation. Each one is unique from it’s makeup, to it’s hairstyle, to the textured skin that reflected the paper mache that was used. Although I could not find a greater context of the image, I tried to do some research into any possible textile or fashion departments of the WPA and did not find anything that provided more insight. Directly produced by the WPA or not, this image clearly shared their value of utilizing the myriad of skills and talents of the American people.

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When I first began exploring the vast amount of art that was created via the WPA’s Federal Art Project, I was pleased to see the amount of artists that chose a social justice themed inspiration for their creations. One in particular, which I will focus on here is “The Role of the Immigrant in the Industrial Development of America.” This mural, designed by Edward Laning, was 10 feet tall and 190 feet long featuring many scenes of the labor intensive work performed by immigrants. I began thinking about how today’s artists could do the same, and found an an NYC based organization called Groundswell that features social justice centered murals and decided to dive a little deeper into the artist of one of our socially conscious murals from 1937 and the work Groundswell is doing to make that a reality today.

Our WPA mural artist, Edward Laning was born in Illinois and attended Art School in Chicago. Laning and his two assistants James Rutledge and Albert Soroka were chosen by the Commissioner of Immigration & Naturalization, Rudolph Reimer to complete the murals for the Ellis Island Dining Room in 1935. Work was completed in 1937. Most of the mural was ruined by a storm, and the salvaged pieces were restored and installed at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse where they remain to this day.

From my research in the NYC Archives, I found photographs showing three of the panels featured in the mural. One panel features men clearing land and lumber, with picturesque homes sitting silently in the background. The work and reward are on clear display as we the homestead provided by these mens toil to make building development possible. The next features settlers clearing the path for many to come as they seek new opportunities and land while a native american man looks on in the distance. A comment perhaps on not only the achievements of our immigrant ancestors, but what they took from others as well. Finally, we see the building of a railroad and the tilling of fields for crops. Honest labor, that was back breaking but secured the United States future in technological development and cross country travel, as well as the development of today’s farming methods. These panels are clear examples of how our modern day United States has benefitted over the lifespan of our country from those that moved here seeking a new life of their own.

I believe the spirit of Laning’s mural and many other artists of the Federal Art Project continues at Groundswell, “a NYC-based organization that brings together youth, artists, and community organizations to use art as a tool for social change, for a more just and equitable world.” While most of the art from the F.A.P. communicated a message, Groundswell specifically targets “social justice centered” artists who want to help with “community collaboratively created art.” I spoke with Yana Dimitrova, an artist, who has worked with Groundswell and she shared the “Scaffold Up!” model that helps shape the murals. The “4 C’s” (Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Compassion) are the foundation for this model and work to “engage underserved, marginalized and economically disadvantaged youth in public art-making to gain the inspiration, tools and agency to take ownership of their futures,” “To link personal expression to community activism, resulting in high quality work that conveys compelling messages + concerns of youth + partners,” and “To catalyze change for a more just and equitable world in collaboration with partner organizations by raising awareness, stimulating learning, and building community.” One such mural, “I Just Want to Come Home” was installed in Bushwick and sought to foster “police-civilian” relations. From the website, “The mural utilizes the phrase I Just Want To Come Home as its rallying call to action, inspired by their interview with police from the 90th Precinct. The youth asked What do you think about when getting ready for work? to which one officer responded, I just want to come home at the end of the day.” “Within the words are faces of the artists and local community members, which bring a focus to Bushwick as an important site for reflection, debate, and activism.” Like Laning’s mural, Groundswell’s “I just Want to Come Home” sheds light on a tense topic and tries to create a conversation. By creating opportunities for a community to talk,  Groundswell’s work promotes a greater understanding of one another and takes us one step further towards an answer to some our nation’s societal issues.

Groundswell’s “I Just Wanna Come Home” - https://www.groundswell.nyc/projects/i-just-want-to-come-home-88

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As Olivia wrote in an earlier post, William Karp's murals are well-documented in the WPA archives, and I also found myself drawn to the photos documenting Karp's process. Karp (born 1905) is an artist who was brought up in New York City, studying at the Art Students League and the American Artists School before becoming involved with the Work Projects Administration in the 1930s. He was first an administrator who hired artists, but eventually became a mural artist himself, creating two murals for the Federal Art Project according to the Living New Deal Website—one at Bellevue Hospital (the mural Olivia wrote about and attached a picture of in her post) and one at the now-demolished Hebrew Orphan Asylum, which stood on Amsterdam Avenue between 136th and 138th Street.

It was the Hebrew Orphan Asylum mural that I came across while working on the WPA collection last week. Karp completed the mural, titled “Armed with Learning and Reality, Looking from the Past to the Future” in 1938. It’s massive, spanning 1,500 feet over seven sections of wall. But what really interested me about this mural was the documentation of Karp’s process I found in the Archives. Many of the photographs were detail shots of the mural, but there were also several candid photographs of Karp showing his mural to groups of people and even painting. It stunned me how this documentation altered my perception of the mural—after seeing these photos of Karp at work, the mural no longer seemed to just be a static piece on a wall. It instead became a dynamic artwork in conversation with its surroundings, a massive mural that people in fact made with their own hands. These candid photographs really contextualized the mural for me. Seeing Karp leaning from a shabby wooden scaffold, putting the finishing touches on a section of the mural with a tiny paintbrush, I began to realize more fully just how much work went into these murals, and the many hours of labor involved. It is easy to see a photograph of an artwork and imagine it as existing in a vacuum. But these process photographs posture the mural as an artifact of its time and serve as concrete evidence of Karp’s labor. As basic as it may seem, viewing the photographs of Karp presenting groups of children his mural reminded me that this is an artwork real people interacted with, and one that had a place in their lives.

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When our class was presented with boxes of archival materials for the first time this past Friday, I opened the box closest to me and selected the first folder I saw. The contents of this folder happened to be a selection of artworks from the Index of American Design, a WPA Federal Art Project I had never heard of before but would become well-acquainted with in the next few hours.

According to the National Gallery of Art’s website, “the Index of American Design comprises 18,257 watercolor renderings of American folk and decorative arts objects from the colonial period through 1900…this visual archive of a ‘usable past’ documented woodcarvings, textiles, whirligigs, weathervanes, and other objects from thirty-four states in six regions of the US: the West Coast, Rocky Mountains, Midwest, South, New England, and New York.” Given their place in the NYC Municipal Archives, I think it’s safe to say the artworks I encountered are based on objects from the New York area. But, unfortunately, the artworks did not give me much to go on. This is what really interested me—for most of the murals in the WPA archives, the artist is often noted on the reverse of the print, and sometimes the date or even location. But for the Index of American Design prints, more often than not I was left wondering who created these artistic renderings of a “usable past,” as the NGA so aptly puts it. The watercolors are mostly of domestic objects: furniture, kitchenware, quilts, etc. and after reviewing my folder, I found I had more questions than answers.

I believe that what is omitted from the archive says as much about society as what is included, and this case is a great example of the former. Why, I wonder, were the artists of so many of these works not recorded, as opposed to other types of artworks such as the murals? It is not as if the drawings were simply dashed off, either—each includes a high level of detail and what appears to be great technical skill. I have long been interested in the artifacts of everyday life, such as the decorative arts, because I believe the mundane often tells us more about life than anything else. After all, don’t we surround ourselves with regular objects, each of which has been designed and created with ordinary life in mind? My first instinct is to attribute the anonymity of these artists to the general dismissal American society often has for the domestic, the craft arts, the traditionally feminine. But one thing is clear: I will have to do much more digging into the Index of American Design to get my answers.

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A Hero's Journey Creative Archiving Exercise

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A Hero's Journey Creative Archiving Exercise

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Attached is a class exercise we did with creative archivist Janine St. Germain! A group-created story - each student wrote a section inspired by an image from the photo collection we worked with. #cultivatingacreativespark

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During our initial tour of the archives building, I was struck by the artistry and craftsmanship when looking at the original documents from when Manhattan Island was first purchased by the Dutch.  I was able to grab a photo of the proposed coats of arms and transcribe the caption that came with it.

"Found amongst the papers of Hans Bontemantel, Director of the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company, were these proposals for a coats of arms for New Netherlands and the city of New Amsterdam. The drawing on the right was adopted for New Netherland. The drawings left and center were proposals for New Amsterdam. The left drawing was rejected immediately because the beavers replaced the lions, an integral element in old Amsterdam's Coat of Arms. The middle drawing was initially accepted, but ultimately rejected. - The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909, Volume IV, by I.N. Phelps Stokes"

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Hugh Mangum Photo Collection, Duke University
https://repository.duke.edu/dc/hmp

ArchivesGrid
https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/

New York Public Library Digital Collections
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/

Access to the Papers of Henry Darger, American Folk Art Museum
http://folkartmuseum.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/12

Municipal Archives Collections
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/records/historical-records/collections.page

Archives of American Art
e.g. Collection of Joseph Cornell Papers

https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/joseph-cornell-papers-5790/series-5/box-18-folder-27

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ARCHIVEGRID: A Great Resource for Searching Archives.

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ARCHIVEGRID: A Great Resource for Searching Archives.

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Archivegrid is a searchable compilation of information about archives across the country and around the world. It includes access to "over 5 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,000 different archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies."
https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/

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If you'd like to bring some murals home, or ID sites to see some of NYC's best extant murals, check out the coffee table book, Murals of New York City for images and background on 30 impressive murals throughout NYC. "The murals featured in this volume act as both an artistic and cultural guide to New York and its citizens over the past 100+ years—from the Victorian sensibilities of the 1900’s, to the New Deal outlook of the WPA-commissioned artworks, to the graffiti-inflected art of Keith Haring..." https://www.amazon.com/Murals-New-York-City-Paintings/dp/0847841480

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Without implying recommendations, here's a list of services that will print digital materials in various forms:
1. AdoramaPix
2. Shutterfly
3. Mixbook
4. Picaboo Photo Book
5. Artifact Uprising
6. Motif
7. Snapfish
8. Costco
9. Amazon Prints
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-photo-books,review-2651.html

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janine@janinestgermain.com

Connect via Instagram
@janinesaintg

upload as you wish from today's workshop using #cultivatingacreativespark

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"Treasuring the Past: How the Municipal Archives Preserve NYC's story" Front page news!

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"Treasuring the Past: How the Municipal Archives Preserve NYC's story" Front page news!

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The cover story of the Monday March 4, 2019 edition of am New York ("Manhattan's highest daily circulation newspaper" aka free paper), touted the Municipal Archives, highlighting many things our class saw on site: the 'majestic' building, 17th century maps, Brooklyn Bridge engineering drawings, and even home plate from Ebbets Field.

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Everything you wanted to know about New York City history can be found in a majestic building on Chambers Street in lower Manhattan.

The Surrogate's Courthouse is home to the Municipal Archives, the Municipal Library and the Records Center.

With a lobby modeled after Garnier's Paris Opera House, the landmarked building is an appropriate site for this priceless treasure trove.

That's where you can find 17th century maps and documents that provide a unique look into life in the city. It also houses the home plate from Ebbets Field, architectural drawings of the Brooklyn Bridge, birth and marriage records, as well as papers from every mayor dating to 1826.

"If you are any bit of a history buff or a city nerd, it's just heaven because so much is here," said Pauline Toole, commissioner for the city Department of Records and Information Services, which maintains the enormous collection of documents, maps, architectural renders, films, photos and other ephemera.

Many people who use these resources are conducting genealogical research. But birth, death and marriage records are just one part of what can be uncovered here.

"What is the evolution of public housing in New York? It didn't just happen, it was a series of governmental decisions," said Toole. "The documents showing that are in the archives and the library. Do you want to know why we have clean water in New York? We can show you the land acquisition for all that space upstate where we get our water from."

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Toole and Assistant Commissioner Kenneth Cobb are passionate about sharing these riches with the public.

There are currently 1.6 million digital images online, including a 720,000-photo collection of every building in New York City from the 1940s that went online just late last year.

As impressive as that seems, it's not close to the archives' entire photo collection, which tops 4 million images.

The agency describes its' holdings as over 200,000 cubic feet of material.

"We have records of your city," Cobb said. "You might want to know what the houses looked like in your neighborhood. Why is this here? Why is that there? This is the place to come for that information."

The library and reading room are open every other Saturday to accommodate people who cannot visit during the work week.

And work is being done to better coordinate descriptions of collections so that specific material is easier to track down.

A recent visit to the archives found conservators working with fragile maps and books. Blueprints from the Flatiron Building, printed on cloth, were being carefully handled in preparation to be preserved digitally.

One hallway boasts an original architectural sketch of the Brooklyn Bridge, notable for its detail and the whimsical touch of a woman carrying a parasol.

With these sketches housed just one block from the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, Toole said it's the perfect place for school classes to visit as young students learn about the bridge while incorporating math and science skills.

Some of the oldest holdings in the archive include maps and documents from Gravesend, when it was a city all its own. There are the meticulously hand-written "secret sessions" of the Board of Aldermen in Brooklyn and chilling slave records from Gravesend that list the births of children while documenting their status as property in 1799.

The archives also have the original designs for Central Park, showing the attention spent on engineering, planning and aesthetics. That collection will be featured in a new book by Cynthia Brenwall, a conservator at the archives, on sale in April.

Maintaining the archives while keeping them accessible to the public is costly. The agency has been looking at creative ways to use its holdings - such as selling copies of blueprints and photos - to raise funds so it can digitize additional material to be shared online.

One new effort is the sale of vintage bonds and stock certificates from the 1920s to the 1980s, issued to pay for improvements to rapid transit, docks and other city projects. Each one is a work of art, elaborately illustrated and signed by mayors including Jimmy Walker, Fiorello LaGuardia, Robert Wagner, John Lindsay and Abe Beame. Prices range from $120 to $250.

Toole said they were retrieved from a warehouse in Brooklyn, where many were in surprisingly good shape.

"They are beautiful," she said.

Toole said she would love to have enough funding to digitize the records of Mayor LaGuardia.

"So much of what the city is today is reflected in the decisions he made then," she said. "I'd put those up in a heartbeat."

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Municipal Archives home to years of New York City history

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Everything you wanted to know about New York City history can be found in a majestic building on Chambers Street in lower Manhattan. The Surrogate's Courthouse is home to the Municipal Archives, the Municipal Library and the Records Center. With a lobby modeled after Garnier's Paris Opera House, the landmarked building is an appropriate site for this priceless treasure trove.