Ingalls Library & Museum Archives

The CMA exhibition history maintained by the Archives is new and improved. The history, which used to be a collection of 91 individual web pages arranged by year, is now a searchable database. Where staff and researchers used to have to know the year of an exhibition to find the full title and dates, they can now search by an exhibition title keyword. The searchable database also allows a way to collect all exhibitions on a certain topic, such as Picasso or bronzes, provided that the topic is in the title.

In addition to title and full start and end dates, where known, the database also includes additional information and links. These include: if there are archival records for an exhibition and the box and folder numbers; if there are installation views and their location; if there was a CMA special exhibition website and a link; and if there is an exhibition catalogue and a link to the ALEPH record.

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On our recent acquisitions shelf, we have a large, almost folio sized, book of photos by Brett Weston. The collection is vivid, though short. In only ten images, the photographer captures San Francisco from 1935-1939. A looming Golden Gate Bridge only recently opened, dusk over Ghirardeli Square with Alcatraz in the background, all beneath the ever present California sky. The afterward by Roger Aiken is insightful, relaying the relevant bits of Weston’s story. TR654 .W432 2005

With sadness we note the passing of Cleveland artist and designer Viktor Schreckengost. For years we have maintained an extensive clipping file on him spanning four folders of ephemera. A selection of Henry Adams’ papers from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s exhibition Viktor Schreckengost and 20th-Century Design is collected in the Museum Archives. As well, a documentary on him exists in our catalog, on vhs cassette, titled Success by Design. Further materials on Schreckengost are available in our collection, for a bibliography on the artist consult our resource guides list.

Newly acquired by the Library is this fascinating book on the Cuban photographer Alberto Korda, titled Cuba by Korda.  The images and accompanying text document his transition from studio fashion work to Fidel Castro’s official photographer.  As evidenced by the cover image, Korda is the photographer of the famous picture of Che Guevara, on teeshirts worldwide.  The account of how he came to take the photo is recounted here as well.  TR654 .K653 2006

Hidden in plain sight in the reference collection is George Redford’s Art Sales, N8675 .R4 V.1-2. Or if you like long full titles that tell you exactly what something is, Art sales. A history of sales of pictures and other works of art. With notices of the collections sold, names of owners, titles of pictures, prices and purchasers, arranged under the artists of the different schools in order of date. Including the purchases and prices of pictures for the National Gallery. Look for the two volume set bound in bright green cloth. The title is in brown on the spine and the cover. It is rather ironic that a book with such vivid description is so nondescript on the outside. Published in 1888, this catalog serves as a reference to early British art sales at public auction, using catalogs from the British Library, Christies, and other sources. The arrangement is quite diverse. In so much, there are listings by collector and by artist. The latter is divided into a number of categories, by country, as well as medium. The headings for collectors are quite interesting in that they include extensive documentation of the collection, as well as rather pithy description of the contents of the estate. There are also a number of essays on collectors present. The work here is expanded by Algernon Graves in a book with an equally wordy title, Art sales from early in the eighteenth century to early in the twentieth century (mostly old master and early English pictures), or simply Graves Art Sales, at N8675 .G72 v.1-3. While the Graves volumes increase the organization, it is at a cost of the descriptive passages. There are also corrections to the original text.

Anyone who frequents the Cinematheque at the CIA should be familiar with Rusell Barnett Aitken. The building’s auditorium is named for this Clevelander. Aitken was a ceramic artist who lived a fascinating life, as is evident in the two clipping file folders, located in the reference collection. For access to the clipping files in the Ingalls library, search in the catalog for your subject as an author. The holdings will list clipping file if we have maintained anything on the subject. For example, here is Barnett’s record in the catalog. The file contains a number of articles from the Plain Dealer, and other area newspapers, as well as several from national publications. A 1939 article from Esquire tells the story of the artist’s youth on the shores of Lake Erie, and how he came to be an avid hunter and sportsman. He eventually became internationally renowned as a big game hunter, while simultaneously being known as a an ardent conservationist. His career as a sculptor in Cleveland was marked by numerous entries in the Museum’s May Show, where he often won first or second prize. He is also featured in Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946, posing in jodhpurs with a polo mallet in the picture beside his biography.

Grove Art Online is the electronic version of Grove’s Dictionary of Art and the Oxford Companion to Western Art, both available in the Ingalls Reference Collection. General in scope and depth, Grove Art Online is a great first stop in art research. Accessing this resource at Ingalls Library is easy, after logging in, click search collections, and then click view online resources. Use the starts with box, to skip ahead to the databases beginning with G. There are numerous methods for searching this resource. A full text search is available. Simply enter a concept and go. This field defaults to concept mode, wherein the form assumes similar terms that also relate to your subject. There are also options for Boolean and pattern searching. The latter provides alternate spellings of a term. If you are looking up a specific artist, the biographical search is exceptionally useful. In this manner, the form provides numerous fields for searching, including birth, death, nationality, and occupation. Both print sources contain numerous illustrations. It is possible to search only the accompanying text of these images, with the caption search page.

JStor is an online journal repository covering numerous disciplines available through the Ingalls Library online research resources. Information regarding JStor is available online. Accessing this resource at Ingalls Library is easy, after logging in, click search collections, and then click view online resources. JStor is on the second page of this list, and can be jumped to by typing J in the starts with box, and clicking the arrow button. From the Basic Search screen, simply enter a term and the database will search the entire collection for that term. More nuanced results can be achieved from the Advanced Search screen. Select a Journal or Discipline from the list, then enter a term or list of terms in the fields provided. Limits are provided with pulldown menus and check boxes to define your search query further. If you are interested in images, search only in the caption. Help with the Advanced Search screen is available as well. Browsing the journal collection is also available. This list is provided by discipline or by title. To help you find your topic or title faster, it is recommended that you utilize your browsers CTRL+F, find function. If you know your citation, you can also perform a simple Article Search.

This book, titled in full Spectacular Flirtations: viewing the actress in British art and theatre, 1768-1920 examines representations of the actress in late 18th and early 19th century Britain. The text is reinforced by a myriad of images, from fine art to caricatures. Find this title in our catalog at, PN2582 .W65 P47 2007.

The new Dog Sale catalog from Bonhams has arrived, and is in the recent acquisitions area. Fans of dogs, cuteness, and 16th century German Dog Collars, take note. The catalog contains paintings, a veritable pet store worth of paraphernalia, a few curiosities, and of course, a collection of dog collars. The sale is to occur on February 12, 2008 in New York. To find this catalog at the OPAC, login and select search collections. Enter the date of the sale in the field for auction catalogs. The date format for sales in our catalog is year, month, day. In so much, the correct query for this sale would be 20080212.