Posted on by gearhart

Visual Resources Update May 2021

Visual Resources Update May 2021

SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER WORK

old hand colored photograph of children playing in front of windmills with triangular sails
From the Greek Lantern Slide Digitization Project: Mykonos, windmills outside of town (GK_PH_28.19.1)

VR received a large number of image request before the pandemic, and those increased in 2020. John Blazejewski (Senior Staff Photographer and Digital Imaging Specialist) primarily captured images from the Weitzmann/Sinai collection and the Antioch and Morgantina excavations and continued to edit images for the various digital projects VR has in process, such as the Greek Lantern Slide Digitization Project. In September of 2020, John returned to his studio in McCormick Hall for a few hours a week where he photographed, scanned, and edited original material (most from Marquand) for publications for a number of A&A faculty, other faculty and research scholars, and the VR.  He also (virtually) met with and advised graduate students regarding camera purchases, use, and software. We were unable to celebrate John’s (30 year!) work anniversary in 2020 but hopefully we can remedy that in the future.

COLLECTIONS

Piece of pottery, cream, green and yellow glazed, with handwritten numbers on the edge
One sherd from a collection of two boxes sent to Alfred R. Bellinger at Yale in 1947 for a course taught by Henry Immerwahr. Information from these collections is being integrated into the Antioch excavation database.

A recent meeting of scholars currently working and publishing Antioch explored one of the most frustrating aspects of the excavation: that the material has been ‘atomized’ (as Asa Eger, Associate Professor, UNC Greensboro describes it) across the globe. For example, Prof. Alan Stahl located a notebook by Clarence Fisher from the very beginning of the excavation, unknown to those studying Antioch, held at ASOR, Boston. From reviewing archival correspondence, Julia Gearhart has recently located teaching collections of pottery at Yale, Bryn Mawr, and the Walters Museum in Baltimore. Teaching collections have also been tracked to Wellesley College and the University of Cincinnati but these have not been located. Three gifts of sculpture to individuals are also being sought as is the provenance of an Antioch mosaic currently for sale in NYC. Most people are familiar with the mosaics in museums, but there is considerably more than that: the story of the Antioch excavation continues…

EXHIBITIONS AND FALL COURSE PREPARATION

Plans are underway for the next exhibition, which will be somewhere in Green Hall (to be determined over the summer). However, if anyone would like to consider incorporating an exhibition into their fall or spring course we would be happy to assist. Likewise, if you would like to incorporate specific images into the image viewer on your course page in Canvas we would be happy to help with that as well. Please email Julia Gearhart if interested.

INTERESTING PROJECTS AND RESOURCES:

Screenshot from a virtual museum tour; painting on left, wall label on right
Screenshot of the virtual National Gallery tour

National Gallery virtual exhibiton (‘The Director’s Choice’)

A special exhibit at the Oriental Institute: 19th century photographs of Iran by Antoin Sevruguin

An interesting copyright issue concerning public sculpture: Romanian politician gears up to sue Brancusi’s heir over longstanding copyright battle