wolfsonian

[wolfsonian]

In honor of May Day, here’s a powerful political statement from Soviet Russia immortalized in the work of poster designer Nikolai Dolgorukov. In Dolgorukov’s 1932 photomontage, he contrasted two sets of photographs—separated by what appears to be a grid of prison bars—to create an image calling for international revolution. In the foreground, groups of contented workers in the Soviet Union march in a parade on May 1, the international workers’ holiday. Behind the bars, in foreign capitalist countries, masses of angry demonstrators face police repression as they rally in support of Communism and the Soviet Union.

See this and many other posters from the collection of Svetlana and Eric Silverman on display in Constructing Revolution: Soviet Propaganda Posters from Between the World Wars, organized by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and on view this summer at The Wolf.

[wolfsonian]

Happy Valentine’s Day!

You might recognize these faces from our 5th floor, as part of Art and Design in the Modern Age: Selections from The Wolfsonian Collection. Painted in 1934 by artist Anja Decker, The Strange Couple and its strange title allude to the unexpected sight of an interracial couple walking along a Paris boulevard in the 1930s.

Popular images of black culture had proliferated in Paris during the Roaring Twenties, when entertainers such as Josephine Baker enjoyed enormous celebrity. The artist may be challenging the viewer to confront societal attitudes about interracial relationships, while the discordant portrayal of the couple suggests the anonymity and loneliness of city life.

Image: Painting, The Strange Couple, Anja Decker, 1934.

[wolfsonian]

From Magazines to Zines

By Frank Luca, Wolfsonian Chief Librarian

Throughout November and December 2017 and January 2018, 10 teachers and 212 students from 9 Miami-Dade County schools visited The Wolfsonian–FIU to participate in the museum’s third edition of our Zines for Progress program. These visits included students from G. Holmes Braddock Senior High,…

All photographs courtesy of Zoe Welch

…Hialeah Gardens High School,…

…iPreparatory Academy,…

…José Martí MAST,…

…Miami Beach Senior High,…

…Miami Norland Senior High,…

…South Miami Senior High,…

…Southwest Miami Senior High,…

…and Terra Environmental Research Institute.

As was done in the previous year, the museum’s education program coordinator, Zoe Welch, brought each group of students up to the library for presentations that introduced them first to the history of zines. The students were afterwards exposed to various types of bindings, cover design and illustration, typography, artistic styles, photomontage, and unusual papers and materials that might be used in the creation of their own small-edition run of zines.

Finally, the students were encouraged to look at a display of thematically oriented materials specifically tailored to the subjects they and their classroom teachers had requested, before creating their own class zines.

Emerging as an abbreviated version of magazine, the “zine” is most commonly defined as a work of original (or appropriated) art, text, and images inexpensively produced by a single person or small group of individuals. Typically, a zine is reproduced using inexpensive and simple methods, and was helped by new technologies such as Xerox photocopying machines and desktop publishing software. Unlike the periodicals published by commercially driven companies and institutions that were intended to circulate to large audiences, zines were designed to reach out to and communicate with smaller, specific groups or subcultures. The content of a zine could take on a wide variety of formats ranging from handwritten, typed, and comic book-style text and imagery. Zines have dealt with a broad range of topics as well, including politics and poetry, personal and social issues, art and graphic design, and a host of taboo topics ignored by mainstream magazines.

Some of the first zine “prototypes” emerged in the United States during the 1930s. With nearly 600,000 youths dropping out of school, hopping freight trains, and hitching rides in a desperate search for work, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made it a priority to address the problem of street kids and delinquency. Within a couple of months of assuming office, FDR enrolled 250,000 of these unemployed urban youths in Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps situated across the country in state and national parks. In these camps, FDR’s “tree army” were given uniforms, were fed and housed in barracks, and worked planting trees, building roads and bridges, compensated with a monthly salary of $30. In their off-hours, the CCC boys were encouraged to take advantage of educational, vocational, and technical training programs designed to better their future employment prospects. To encourage their literacy skills, many CCC units self-published zines intended to circulate in a single camp using carbon paper and hand-cranked mimeograph machines.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Promised Gift

The Wolfsonian holds a number of these CCC camp news bulletins. The cover page typically features some amateur artist drawings, while the contents include typed-up poetry, jokes and humorous cartoons, and sports news. The six or seven pages were most often joined with a simple staple binding.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Promised Gift

In the 1930s, mainstream presses and publishers also facing an uncertain economic future churned out cheap, mass-produced “true crime” and science fiction “pulps.”

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

The latter genre generated such fan mail and critiques by skeptical amateur science buffs, that the publishers began reprinting and recirculating their letters and addresses as fanzines. While zines (or their prototypes, then) originated during the Great Depression, they experienced a major revival in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1970s, spurred on by fans of the Punk Rock music scene.

The Miami-Dade students visiting The Wolfsonian were inspired by the design and format of magazines in our library to produce zines of their own. The students had the opportunity to look over some 100-year-old magazines and books with traditional sewn bindings and others with Orientalist silk ties.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchase, Acquisitions Fund

They also had the chance to see some modernist masterpieces with plastic and metal spiral bindings, and even an Italian Futurist book held together with aluminum bolts.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

In addition to discussing different strategies for binding their zines, we also examined a variety of cover illustration designs, paying particular attention to typography and artistic styles ranging from realistic versus surrealist or abstract imagery, and techniques like collage and photomontage.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Loan

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

We also talked about the use of unconventional materials such as foils, plastics, textiles, and transparencies to attract the attention and enhance the experience of the reader.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

In advance of each class visit, the participating teachers supplied us with a list of themes and subject matter chosen by the students. For each group, we painstakingly laid out materials from our collection that would reflect on the widely ranging issues they wished to explore in their own personalized zines.

Some students focused on the issue of body image and beauty culture.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Robert J. Young

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Environmental concerns was another issue brought up by the students. While our collection predates concerns with climate change and sea-level rise, we do have some materials dealing with the Dust Bowl—the greatest ecological crisis of the twentieth century—and Expo ’74, the first ecology-themed world’s fair.

The Wolfsonian���FIU, Gift of Christopher DeNoon

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca

Animal cruelty, exploitation for entertainment, animal testing, and the fur trade were other popular subjects among the students.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Vicki Gold Levi Collection

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Other students were interested in exploring how clothing manufacturers and the fashion industry have been able to manipulate and persuade people into buying certain brands.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

While some students focused on the issue of bullying in general, others focused more specifically on LGBTQ issues and prejudices towards persons based on sexual orientation. The library holds a children’s book published just a year before U.S. intervention in the Second World War, for example, that noted that most bullies acted out to cover up their own insecurities and argued that the best way to handle the ultimate bully was to laugh at his pretensions.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Pamela K. Harer

The library had on display a number of gay, lesbian, and bisexual-themed “pulp” paperbacks from the early 1950s for these students to peruse.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

Given the prominence in the news of the Black Lives Matter movement, racism, racial stereotyping, racial injustice, and ethnic prejudices were popular themes with the visiting students as well. The Wolfsonian–FIU Library holds a wealth of material on such subjects.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of David Almeida & Gina Wouters

The Me Too movement appears to have generated some scholarly interest among the high school students, many of whom expressed interest in male chauvinism, gender inequality issues, the sexualizing and objectification of women, and gender-role stereotyping.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of David Almeida & Gina Wouters

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

The Wolfsonian gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Wells Fargo for the museum’s Zines for Progress program. You can search and view completed zines from past cycles at zines.wolfsonian.org.

[wolfsonian]

Like many architects and designers associated with the design reform movements widespread across Europe at the turn of the 20th century, Austrian artist Julius Klinger was strongly interested in the principles of ornament, and he published three portfolios on the subject early in his career. The third, shown here, focused on designs that integrated the female form. The book offered an exhaustive range of possibilities to incorporate clothed or naked bodies within schema “for decorative paintings, posters, drawings, illustrations, vignettes, carpets, ceramics, metal‐, leather‐, wood‐, glass‐, and textile works.” In many cases, the designs reflected the current fashion for Jugendstil (the equivalent of Art Nouveau in Germany), and the book appeared immediately in French as well as in a German‐language edition.

This plate as well as several others from the same portfolio joins hundreds of works currently on view in Julius Klinger: Posters for a Modern Age, open through April 29 at The Wolfsonian.

Image: Portfolio plate, Das Weib im modernen Ornament: Ein Vorlagenwerk für alle Gebiete des Kunstgewerbes [The Woman in Modern Ornament: A Sourcebook for All Fields of Applied Arts], Baumgärtners Buchhandlung (publisher), 1902.

[wolfsonian]

Today’s #objectoftheday is this tropical catalog advertisement from 1914! Designed by Austrian artist Julius Klinger to advertise the Berlin printer Hollerbaum und Schmidt, it appeared in the catalog of the International Exhibition for the Book Trade and Graphic Arts, which opened in May 1914 in Leipzig, a city with a rich tradition for book production. The exhibition marked the 150th anniversary of the Royal Academy of Graphic Arts and Book Trades in Leipzig, and also served more generally to promote modern presses, foundries, and paper manufacturers, and their allied trades and professions. The catalog gave descriptions of the many ethnological and historical displays at the exhibition, as well as examples of the work of various private presses.

Klinger had entered a contract with Hollerbaum und Schmidt in 1897, shortly after moving to Berlin. In some of his advertisements for the printer, like this one, Klinger humorously depicts stand-ins for himself and fellows designers Lucian Bernhard, Ernst Deutsch (later Dryden), Julius Gipkens, and Paul Scheurich—possibly punning on the idea of their being exotic specimens. See this work alongside hundreds of others in Julius Klinger: Posters for a Modern Age.

Image: Page spread, International Ausstellung für Buchgewerbe und Graphik [International Exhibition for the Book Trade and Graphic Arts], Poeschel & Trepte (printer), 1914.

[wolfsonian]

Loco for the Locomobile

By Frank Luca, Wolfsonian Chief Librarian 

On this day in 1902, the Locomobile Company—named from a combination of “locomotive” and “automobile”—delivered its first gasoline-powered vehicle to a customer in New York City. Founded in 1899, the Locomobile Company of America had made its reputation building steam-boiler-powered vehicles. Recognizing that the future lay in the internal-combustion engine, in 1902 the company hired the young engineer and racecar driver Andrew Riker with the aim of creating a new line of gasoline-driven vehicles.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, T. M. Cleland Archive, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchase

Thus was the Locomobile’s Model C born—a steel-and-bronze-framed, four-cylinder, 12-horsepower, gasoline-fueled vehicle. Priced at $4,000, the Locomobile was designed for wealthy customers.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, T. M. Cleland Archive, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Unlike Henry Ford’s standardized “Model T” for the masses (which he famously boasted could be had in any color, as long as that color was black), the gas-powered Locomobiles built in the 1910s and 1920s were crafted in a wide variety of styles and colors.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, T. M. Cleland Archive, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Acquired by Durant Motors in 1922, the Locomobile brand continued to capture the high-end automobile market and was advertised as the “Best Built Car in America.” The luxurious Locomobile touring cars, limousines, sedans, roadsters, coupes, and convertibles were very popular with and lauded by their wealthy clientele.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, T. M. Cleland Archive, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

While Ford’s assembly-production churned out cars at one-thirtieth of the price of the Locomobile Model 48, the company prospered building vehicles for an elite niche market—that is, until the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which bankrupted the business.

[wolfsonian]

It’s #NationalCoffeeDay! You might recognize this colorful lithograph from Modern Dutch Design, on view at The Wolf November 18, 2016–June 11, 2017—each line item corresponds to the cost of a different brand sold by the Dutch tobacco, coffee, and tea firm Van Nelle in Rotterdam. Most of the packaging material and advertisements for Van Nelle produced between 1919 and 1940 were designed by Jac. Jongert, who borrowed from the example of German industrial designers and the De Stijl movement to create the firm’s image as a progressive enterprise. Here, you can see Jongert’s signature style of flattened shapes, sans serif lettering, and primary colors.

We also notice that coffee sure used to be a lot cheaper!

Image: Price list, Van Nelle’s pakjes koffie [Van Nelle’s Packed Coffee], Jac. Jongert (designer), c. 1932.

[wolfsonian]

#OnThisDay in 1898, Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria was inaugurated Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands—beginning a reign that ultimately lasted almost 58 years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. This majolica plate by Dutch ceramicist Theo Colenbrander celebrates Wilhelmina’s silver jubilee in 1923. The stylized natural elements alternate with letters that form the word “Oranje,” for the House of Orange dynasty, which is also symbolized by decorations in the center of the platter.

Image: Platter, Model no. 25, commemorating the 25th anniversary of Queen Wilhelmina’s reign, Theo Colenbrander (designer) & Anton Muller (decorator), 1923.

[wolfsonian]

Eureka!

By Frank Luca, Wolfsonian Chief Librarian 

Having exhausted his luck panning for gold in Alaska after its discovery in 1881, a discouraged prospector crossed the Canadian border into the Yukon territory.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Told by another prospector that gold had been found in a tributary of the Klondike River, George Carmack picked up stakes and relocated there with his brother-in-law, Skookum Jim and another First Nations companion, Tagish Charlie. On August 16, 1896, Carmack’s luck changed. While fishing for silvery-scaled salmon in a creek feeding into the Klondike, the prospector claimed to have discovered some gold nuggets glistening on the riverbed, though, according to his companions, it was Skookum Jim who first spotted the gold.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The three men immediately staked a claim to the gold-rich riverbed, and sparked another gold rush as some 50,000 prospectors descended on the area.

Among them was a twenty-one-year-old adventurer named Jack London. London would later publish short stories memorializing his experiencing in the Yukon wilderness during the “Klondike Fever” days.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

While the prospect of striking it rich attracted tens of thousands of young men like London to the frigid and inhospitable territory, it was the merchants who marketed and sold them “Yukon outfits” and other prospecting equipment that profited from the outbreak of gold fever. Life in the prospecting camps could be lonely, cold, and dangerous.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

When the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition was organized in Seattle in 1909, an image commemorating the miners of the great white north was fittingly enough struck on souvenir “gold” medallions.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

[wolfsonian]

Mandela Washington Fellows Visit The Wolf

By Frank Luca, Wolfsonian Chief Librarian 

One week ago, more than a dozen young participants in the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, hosted by Florida International University, came to The Wolfsonian during their visit to South Florida.

After taking them on a guided tour of the galleries, I brought them into the museum’s rare book and special collections library to peruse a display of some materials related to sub-Saharan Africa.

Given that The Wolfsonian’s collection is focused primarily on the period 1850 to 1950, much of what we have related to the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa derives from a colonialist context. There is, for example, a wealth of material documenting various colonial enterprises and imperial conflicts; propaganda produced for colonial expositions; and advertising brochures using representations of welcoming natives to convince European tourists to visit their colonies in Africa. From a number of these works, however, we were able to tease out some glimpses into the lives of the indigenous peoples of the African continent.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Some of the materials pulled from the library stacks included original sketchbooks, journals, and unique photograph albums created by European troops stationed in the African colonies. While many of the photographs and written records focused on the soldiers and their mission, some of the authors showed an interest in the lives of the colonial troops and the material culture of the native peoples.

Original sketch of Somaliland by C.H.P., illustrator for London Graphic, 1887 The Wolfsonian–FIU, Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection

Photograph album of British Army soldier, C.M.E. Wilson, South Africa, 1900–1901 The Wolfsonian–FIU, Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection

Original sketches of African and German soldiers from Helden in Afrika, 1901″The Wolfsonian–FIU, Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection

Propaganda glorifying the Italian Fascist government’s invasion and attempted colonization of East African are well documented in the collection, and some recently catalogued materials sparked the interest of one of the visitors hailing from Ethiopia.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchases

One rather naïvely optimistic postcard illustrated by Aurelio Bertiglia imagined a kneeling Ethiopian child watching Italian children in colonial uniform painting a map of Ethiopia in the colors of the Italian flag!

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Steve Heller

In addition to stereotypical depictions of subservient Ethiopians, a recently digitized Italian portfolio includes surprisingly culturally sensitive and positive representations of some indigenous individuals.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchase

The Mandela Washington fellows also had the opportunity to see how African natives and cultures were presented—and sometimes misrepresented—in architecture, publications, and other printed ephemeral formats produced for colonial exhibitions, or to promote colonial foods and products.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Portuguese published a number of colonial exposition catalogs showing off their “little” empire with illustrations of the peoples inhabiting their colonial possessions in Africa.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Similarly, the tiny country of Belgium projected its own importance on the world stage by producing collecting cards representing its huge colony in the heart of Africa.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of Francis Xavier Luca

The Wolfsonian–FIU Library also holds tens of thousands of printed promotional materials documenting the rise of colonial tourism and the cruise-ship industry. Steamship companies used brochures and illustrated menu covers to excite interest in the African colonies and their “exotic” inhabitants.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Laurence Miller Collection

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

[wolfsonian]

The G.I. Bill: America’s Promise to the Citizen-Soldier

By Frank Luca, Wolfsonian Chief Librarian 

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Leonard Lauder

Today’s post was inspired by an anniversary: the signing of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (or G.I. Bill) by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on this day in 1944. Witnessing the rise of Fascism and Nazism in Europe and Japanese militarism in Asia, FDR became convinced that America needed to become an “arsenal of democracy.” Consequently, as war clouds loomed in the other hemisphere, the president stepped back from New Deal reforms aimed at addressing the domestic economic ills of the Great Depression and began combating isolationist sentiment and advocating for an interventionist foreign policy. As victory in Europe became more likely in 1944, the president took action to ensure that the mistakes of the First World War were not repeated.

Washington Bonus March [mural study] / by Lewis Rubenstein The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Arguably, the Democratic challenger had been swept into office in the 1932 elections by the unpopularity of incumbent President Herbert Hoover’s inaction in the face of the Depression, but also by his shabby treatment of First World War vets. Some tens of thousands of veterans and their families—many of them having lost their homes to foreclosure—had descended on Washington, D.C. to lobby for passage of a “bonus” bill in Congress that would have compensated them for wages lost while serving their country overseas.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

Following the defeat of the bill in the Senate, President Hoover ordered General MacArthur to use the army to forcibly evict the demonstrators.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

MacArthur deployed bayoneted infantry, cavalry, tanks, and tear gas to disperse the protesters, and then crossed the river and burned down the veterans’ shantytown—all within view of the nation’s capitol.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

The heavy-handed action also ensured that President Herbert Hoover’s bid for reelection also went up in smoke.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

To head off another Bonus March in 1933, President Roosevelt offered Civilian Conservation Corps jobs to the veterans. Hundreds taking up that offer died two years later, when a devastating hurricane struck the Florida Keys before they could be evacuated.

Photograph by the author

Concerned by the cost to government coffers, Roosevelt opposed an immediate veterans’ compensation bill in 1935, though Congress overrode his veto and passed the Bonus bill the following year. As war-tensions mounted in the late 1930s, however, Roosevelt recognized that ramped-up production of war material alone would not sufficiently safeguard American interests and defend democratic allies abroad. As Fascists and Nazis relied on armies of brainwashed automatons, Roosevelt considered the citizen-soldier to be essential to the future of democracy. Once America entered the world war in December, 1941, the U.S. government spent considerable time and energy not merely propagandizing but educating the American soldier.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Steve Heller

Toward that end, the Roosevelt Administration sponsored documentary films like Frank Capra’s Why We Fight.

It also published a series of GI round table pamphlets that were designed not to tell the enlisted men what to believe, but rather to encourage thoughtful debate about our enemies and allies, about their war aims and ours, and about the world that they would help shape in the aftermath of victory.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchase

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

By signing the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (or G.I. Bill) into law in 1944, Roosevelt promised veterans post-war access to unemployment compensation, vocational and higher-education tuition waivers, and low-interest loans for business and home ownership. Millions of servicemen and their dependents benefited from the G.I. Bill. Over the next fifty years, approximately 20 million took advantage of the educational opportunities afforded by the law, while another 14 million veterans used loans to purchase houses in the suburbs.

[wolfsonian]

“Florida is a place where they say people should go to play. So there are all these amusements around to keep the northern visitors occupied. Dog races, amusement parks, the beach, vulgar postcards, and so forth. I found much of it appalling, but I’m afraid it was typical of what many people wanted.” –Berenice Abbott

Abbott may not have been head over heels for Florida during her 1954 road trip along the American East Coast, but evidence shows she found the Sunshine State photogenic! Of the 50 photographs from the Syracuse University Art Collection on display at The Wolf this summer in North and South: Berenice Abbott's U.S. Route 1, 14 are Florida shots. Here we see a stunning nighttime view of a Daytona Beach carnival, but she also photographed scenes in Miami/Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Vero Beach, Key West, and beyond.

Image: Gelatin silver print, Night at Amusement Park, Daytona Beach, Florida, 1954. Syracuse University Art Collection, Gift of Thorne Barnes Donnelly, 1981.2256.

[wolfsonian]

Much Ado about Mummies

By Rochelle Pienn, Wolfsonian Sharf Associate Librarian

This week, Universal Studios plans to release a new incarnation of the hit movie The Mummy. The concept of a resurrected man turned zombie monster has been scaring paying theater audiences through several separate film franchises since 1932. My favorite version stars Rachel Weisz, who plays a late Egyptologist’s plucky daughter working in the Cairo Museum’s archives. It’s 1926, and the lovely librarian soon encounters a great evil….

Copyright Universal Studios

In the real, present-day Wolfsonian library, The Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection contains an antique photograph album compiled by a young, vivacious New York socialite who witnesses an unprecedented mass of mummies.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

By 1901, Miss Katherine “Kate” Batcheller, daughter of New York State Assembly member Judge George Sherman Batcheller, already enjoys a privileged upper-class education and social status at the age of twenty-one years old. Kate travels with her father, whose post as American Representative in the Court of First Instance in Cairo by President McKinley is followed by President Teddy Roosevelt’s decision to appoint him to the Supreme Court of Appeals in Alexandria, Egypt in 1902.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

Earlier on her trip, Kate visits Tromsø, Norway, where she photographs polar bear skins, reindeer, and Laplanders.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

She also captures a glimpse of the S.S. America out to sea with the Baldwin-Ziegler North Pole expedition (which predates Ziegler’s later attempt by two years).

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

In July, Kate’s ship passes the German Kaiser’s yacht in the Norwegian fjords, where she opportunistically snaps some shots of the emperor on the gangway.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

While taking in Berlin sights, Kate sees a few fast cars.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

Kate arrives at the Port of Suez. In a nearby Arab village she meets Muslims on a religious pilgrimage making their way across the desert.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

Kate and her father pass through the ancient city of Philae during the construction of the Aswan Low Dam in 1902.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

Kate’s canine pal reunites with the family, per her cryptic caption. Perhaps the puppy was wary of ancient curses.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

Spearheaded by the Egyptian government, the colossal project of transporting and properly housing antiquities from the pyramids reaches an apex of activity in the spring of 1902.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

These startling snapshots capture the terrifying pile of uprooted pharaohs and their sentineling sarcophagi.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

A month later, the family finds itself at a more contemporary tomb: Admiral Sampson’s funeral in Washington includes the President of the United States as part of the procession. Sampson’s legacy features a resounding victory at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish–American War.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

At the graveyard Kate takes a photograph of this famous Augustus Saint-Gaudens statue. Colloquially known as “Grief,” the ghostly memorial guards the plot of suicide victim Marian Adams.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

After a stop at home in Sarasota Springs, Kate and her father are soon back at sea. Miss Batcheller seizes an historical moment on deck with this quintessential portrait of President Teddy Roosevelt.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf

To see more of Katherine Batcheller’s exciting tour around the world, visit The Wolfsonian–FIU Library.

[wolfsonian]

Out From The Shadows: Pulp Periodicals And Paperbacks

By Frank Luca, Wolfsonian Chief Librarian 

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Vicki Gold Levi

Earlier this month, four Florida International University undergraduate students taking my America & Movies course elected to curate a library installation, In the Shadows: American Pulp Cover Art, for their final class project. The class viewed and critically analyzed twelve films that focused on social problems in America from 1900 to the 1950s. The students were invited to search through and make selections from the library’s “pulp” magazine and paperback collection to investigate some of those same issues. These magazines, published using cheap pulp paper and glossy covers with lurid and salacious cover art, were marketed to male audiences interested in exotic adventure and “true-crime” detective stories.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

Provoked by the current controversies surrounding the “demonization” of Muslims, Joseph Perez looked for historical antecedents in pulp literature. In The Wolfsonian’s library collection, he discovered a number of young men’s adventure magazines from the 1930s with cover art stereotyping Middle Easterners and North Africans as menacing Muslims.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

Another of the students, Erica Melamed, was interested in the increasingly sexualized depictions of women used to sell periodicals and paperback novels in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of Vicki Gold Levi

Tiffany Breslawski focused her energies on periodical covers with gangsters, kidnappers, femme fatales, and damsels in distress.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

Finally, Mauriel (“Junior”) Fernandez set his sights on the pulps in which Nazi thugs and Japanese warmongers and saboteurs muscled out the criminal competition on wartime adventure and true-crime detective magazine covers.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca

This coming Tuesday, The Wolfsonian will be hosting a members-only library salon event celebrating the installation. The reception will include a tour and a lecture presentation on the interplay between pre-code and film noir movies and pulp magazine cover art. Join us for an evening of gun-wielding gangsters, hard-boiled detectives, femme fatales, and damsels in distress!

RSVP to anelson@thewolf.fiu.edu / 305.535.2656 if you’d like to attend.

[wolfsonian]

The Rolls-Royce “Art Drive” Makes a Stop at The Wolfsonian

By Frank Luca, Wolfsonian Chief Librarian

On April 22, 1933, the co-founder of the most famous British luxury automobile company, Frederick Henry Royce, passed away. It was soon after purchasing his first car in the early 1900s that Royce determined that he could design a better vehicle. Joining up with an automotive dealer named, Charles Rolls, the two men form the Rolls-Royce Limited company, with Royce serving as the engineer. In 1906, they produced the six-cylinder Silver Ghost, which was almost immediately acclaimed the “best car in the world.”

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Earlier this month, the ultimate luxury automobile brand, Rolls-Royce, and the auction house Sotheby’s organized a Miami “Art Drive” program for their exclusive clients, driving new Rolls-Royce models to some special art and real estate destinations.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Thursday before last, about twenty of their guests stopped in at The Wolfsonian for a guided tour of the galleries and a viewing of vintage luxury automotive promotional materials in our rare book and special collections library.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Wolfsonian–FIU Library has a sizable collection of printed brochures and advertisements for horseless carriages, Locomobiles, Hupmobiles, and a wide variety of automobiles dating from the 1900s.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Founded in 1899, the New England-based Locomobile Company of America was one of the earliest manufacturers of a steam-powered vehicle—the name combining “locomotive” and “automobile.” Approximately 4,000 of these “buggies” were built between 1899 and 1902; beginning in 1904, the company began shifting production over to steel-framed automobile powered by a 16-horsepower internal combustion engine.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Acquired by Durant Motors in 1922, the Locomobile continued to produce very well-made vehicles, though Henry Ford’s assembly-line production allowed their competitor to churn out a more affordable automobile at 1/30th of the price of the Locomobile Model 48. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 spelled doom for the Locomobile and its parent company.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

The Hupp Motor Car Company (1909–1939) introduced their first Hupmobile at the 1909 Detroit automobile show, and increased production tenfold, from 500 that year to 5,000 in 1910. That same year, vice president and general manager Bobby Hupp founded the Hupp-Yeats Electric Car Company; when other investors in the company bought him out, he immediately purchased and took over the RDH Motorcar Company. The Hupp Motor Car Company’s all-steel body Hupmobile successfully competed with its Ford and Chevrolet competitors until the corporation’s fortunes declined during the Great Depression.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Purchased with Faculty Development Funds

Ransom E. Olds founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in Lansing, Michigan in 1897 to build gasoline-powered Oldsmobiles. Between 1901 and 1904, the company produced the first automobiles built on an assembly line. It was purchased by General Motors in 1908 and remained a popular luxury brand.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of T. W. Pietsch III, facilitated by Frederic A. Sharf

In the 1950s, the Oldsmobile Rocket V8 engine made it one of the fastest cars on the market, and its styling reflected the country’s new obsession with rockets and jet propulsion.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of T. W. Pietsch III, facilitated by Frederic A. Sharf

Founded in 1899, Buick was one of the oldest American brand of internal combustion automobiles; in 1908, it became the basis of the General Motors Corporation.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Buick continued to dominate the market for upscale automobiles just below the Cadillac division.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

Named for the French colonial explorer and founder of Detroit, the Cadillac Motor Car was founded in 1902, but was bought out and became a division of General Motors in 1909. The Cadillac won acclaim for its fine precision engineering, luxury style, and finishes built for an upper-class customer base.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of T. W. Pietsch III, facilitated by Frederic A. Sharf

Though sales suffered during the depression years, it rebounded in 1940 and continued to do well after the Second World War.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of T. W. Pietsch III, facilitated by Frederic A. Sharf

Even the Ford Motor Company that Henry Ford was determined to produce for a mass market began selling a luxurious Lincoln brand beginning in 1917 for an elite clientele.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

In the interwar years, the Ford Motor Car Company produced a line of automobiles for the luxury market in Europe and even adopted sexually suggestive advertising geared for the French market.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection

In addition to a wealth of automotive promotional literature, The Wolfsonian’s library also holds an archive of original automobile design sketches by Theodore “Ted” Pietsch II, a donation made by his son and namesake and facilitated by long-term supporter Frederic A. Sharf.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of T. W. Pietsch III, facilitated by Frederic A. Sharf

Ted Pietsch was a prolific designer and submitted sketches for many of the major American automobile companies in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Even as domestic automobiles took a backseat to wartime production, Pietsch was sketching out some experimental designs for aerodynamic cars in anticipation of the war’s successful conclusion.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of T. W. Pietsch III, facilitated by Frederic A. Sharf

Over the course of his career, Pietsch made sketches for car exteriors, bumpers, grilles, consoles, and even submitted plans for hood ornaments.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of T. W. Pietsch III, facilitated by Frederic A. Sharf

Some of Pietsch’s futuristic designs were adapted and adopted by automotive companies; others seem more likely to appear in some sci-fi thriller or Woody Allen’s comedy Sleeper than on the roads and highways of America anytime soon.

The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gifts of T. W. Pietsch III, facilitated by Frederic A. Sharf

[wolfsonian]

#Objectoftheday >> Not all of the ceramics in Material and Meaning: Earthenware, Stoneware, and Porcelain, an installation on view on The Wolfsonian’s 5th floor, are traditional vases and dishware. Here is an instrument used for communication between a ship’s bridge and its engine room: an engine order telegraph, c. 1940. Lenox Incorporated’s pure white porcelain provides a legible and durable background for the indicator face without need for additional glaze pigments—a very modern approach, prioritizing clarity over detail and embellishment.

Image: Instrument, Indicator face for engine order telegraph, Lenox Incorporated (manufacturer), c. 1940, glazed porcelain.

[wolfsonian]

#Objectoftheday >> The angular forms of this tea set, currently on view in Modern Dutch Design, show the influence of international Art Deco, of which the Amsterdam School is often considered the Dutch branch. They were manufactured on the small island of Bangka, near Sumatra, in the Dutch East Indies. The island, whose name comes from the Sanskrit word for tin, was home to more than 200 tin mines in the middle of the 19th century.

Image: Tea set, PTKFP Bangka Tin Werk (manufacturer), c. 1930, pewter.