Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

Down in the bottom level of the Bloch Building, the staff of the Spencer Art Reference Library is busy cataloging, shelving and researching the more than 155,000 volumes that live in the stacks.

One area that many public libraries don’t have is the book repair desk. This is where the books go with torn pages, broken spines or just generally need a little TLC.

Dawn Sanders is the Cataloger and Book Conservation Technician. She has worked in the Spencer Library for 14 years. She learned the trade of repairing books as an art student at Cooper Union in New York.

If you have attended the new exhibition, Magnificent Gifts for the 75th, you may have seen the rare books on explorations of Egypt given to the library on display in the last room. The museum’s Spencer Art Reference Library has an extensive collection of approximately 4,900 rare books known as the library’s Special Collections.

The Special Collections includes books that were either published before 1900 or are qualified as rare. The collections include books, auction catalogs and many other types of items. Some of the other items include a collection of 53 reproduction Asian scrolls. The scrolls are reproductions of paintings from various centuries of Chinese and Japanese painting. One of the scrolls, (call number WEN ND 1049 .W4 K8 1900z) is a reproduction of a painting in the Museum’s collection, Old Cypress and Rocks by Wen Zhengming a Chinese artist who worked in the 15th and 16th centuries. The reproduction scroll in the library’s collection includes a reproduction of the painting, along with panels of text.

In Special Collections the Library also houses Museum founder William Rockhill Nelson’s personal book collection. Known as the Oak Hall Collection, it includes 89 titles on a variety of topics including gardening, natural history, the history of art and many volumes of literature, which shows us the diverse interests that Mr. Nelson must have had.

One set that I found interesting was a multi-volume set of Shakespeare’s plays. These volumes, bound in red leather, are facsimiles of the quarto publications of Shakespeare’s plays owned by libraries and private collections in Great Britain. The quarto editions of Shakespeare’s plays were the first publications of his plays, before the better-known folio editions. These facsimiles were published in the 1880’s. The first eleven volumes were published by William Griggs, and the rest were published by Charles Praetorius.

Looking at the volumes, the text of the plays themselves is the original 17th century text, with the names of the characters in italics, and the font is a beautiful, flowing font with serifs on the ends of the letters. The spellings are original too, so some of the words appear unfamiliar to the modern reader. It makes one wonder; are these volumes like the versions of the plays the original actors would have seen?

Viewing books from Special Collections can be like a treasure hunt. To begin your own hunt, try this sample search in the Leonardo catalog to find all the titles in William Rockhill Nelson’s library. Type “Oak Hall” as a general keyword search (with the quotation marks). What is your favorite title in his collection? Any of the items in Special Collections may be requested at the Reference Desk and viewed in the Library’s Reading Room on the second floor of the Bloch Building. Enjoy the hunt!

Did you know that, in addition to being a great source of information about the Museum’s collection, the Spencer Art Reference Library puts together thematic book displays of items from their collections? The current display, Art of the First Americans: History and Forms of American Indian Art may be viewed in the Library’s Reading Room beginning October 1 until January 2010. The display includes various subjects, from general books on American Indian art to such specific topics as Plains Indian parfleches and Navajo weaving.

Library patrons are welcome to look through and read the books on display. Visiting the library and spending some time with these texts would be a wonderful way for individuals and families
to increase their knowledge of American Indian art and enhance their experiences in the American Indian galleries opening in November. Please consider visiting before or after your tours through these galleries!

The library changes the display about three times a year. Past topics have included American folk art, illuminated manuscripts, and the railroad in art. The displays are created by Library staff members: Roberta Wagener, Library Assistant, Public Services, with Marilyn Carbonell, Head, Library Services.

Do you have a topic you would like to see highlighted in a library book display? If so, let us know!

If you have questions about other works of art or any art-related reading questions, the Library reference staff is also able to create thematic lists of suggested readings on any art topic by request.

Spencer Art Reference Library Hours
Tues, By Appointment
Wed, 10 a.m.—4 p.m.
Thur, Fri, 10 a.m.—6 p.m.
Sat, Sun, 1 p.m.—4 p.m.

To visit the Library's webpage and find links to contact library staff, click here.

I am an admitted book nerd and lover of libraries. I am continually searching for new books, getting lost in shelves and uncovering something unique or unexpected. Even so, there are still moments when I am surprised at the contents of libraries.

During a recent adventure to the Nelson-Atkins’ Spencer Art Reference Library (SARL) to research an artist featured in an upcoming photography exhibition, I glanced along nearby shelves and found my attention diverted to an unusual title: Fighter :The Fighters of the UFC by Reed Krakoff. For those who may not know, UFC stands for the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization. Ultimate Fighting is a highly controlled combat sport where fighters utilize/mix various forms of martial arts, boxing, kickboxing and wrestling. Despite all of my quirky searches in other libraries, the presence of a UFC book on the shelves of an art museum library seemed odd and disconnected. Is it possible that what began as an “underground” fighting organization somehow has gained sufficient renown to be considered art-related? And is it possible that my conception of art has been too narrow, too rigidly intellectual, or too distant from the “real” world?

The author of an editorial review—and widely used summary—of the book suggests, "Depending upon your perspective, the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization, aka the UFC, is brash, beautiful, or brutal -- and as in your face as the fighters' blows. [….] In Fighter: The Fighters of the UFC, Reed Krakoff offers a unique look at these world-class athletes in a startling collection of black- and-white photographs. Krakoff, the president and executive creative director of Coach, a leading force in the fashion world, is also an accomplished photographer and a huge UFC fan. His pictures, shot with a medium-format Mamiya box camera, depict these fighters as they are rarely seen. Standing alone, without competitors or an audience, Krakoff's subjects look gentle, warm, humble, and disarmed. But with their signature tattoos and resilient bodies, it's also clear that they are built for the Octagon.”

I checked out SARL’s copy of the book and spent some time paging through it during a couple of my lunch breaks. Sam Sheridan, author of the book’s foreword, argues that “On the faces of the fighters there is confusion, trepidation, sorrow, moments of doubt. But also acceptance, and perhaps calmness. The pictures look past the savage appearance, the tattoos and scars, to find the ordinary person” (pg 9). The dominant images and minimal text seemed appropriate given both the independence and athleticism of the fighters and the photographer’s creative director occupation. To my novice eye, the quality of the photographs’ composition seems high and their content is interesting. While I am not convinced that the fighters look “gentle, warm, humble, and disarmed,” I am willing to accept that readers/viewers are presented with an opportunity in this book to look at the fighters as human—not simply blood-thirsty “modern day gladiators”—and, as Sheridan argues, “just men” (9).

To flip through some selected pages, click here.

My experience with this book is just one instance of many since I have started working at the Nelson-Atkins when my preconceived notions of art (and libraries, for that matter!) have been challenged. While I may resist these challenges, I cannot deny that my definition of art is becoming more inclusive (and complex) and that I am seeking beauty and artistry in things I might have otherwise quickly dismissed.

If you’re looking for a specific book or just interested in what SARL has to offer, click here to peruse our online catalog LEONARDO.

The LEONARDO online library system partnership is 14 years old today, October 27, 2008! Named "Leonardo" after Leonardo da Vinci in recognition of his renown in both the arts and the sciences, the Ameritech Horizon system was officially inaugurated on October 27, 1994.

This important partnership between the Spencer Art Reference Library (SARL) at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art with the Linda Hall Library of Science has resulted successfully in an online library system linking the holdings of two research libraries in Kansas City.

The partnership continues thanks to the special endowment fund established by both institutions. The online system has evolved during the 14 years through company changes, system upgrades, bibliographic network changes, and the hard work and dedication of the library staffs from both institutions, and at the Nelson-Atkins, with additional support from the IT department.

At SARL, LEONARDO provides for the public 24/7 access to bibliographic information about the 152,000 volumes in 10 languages: books holdings; journal volumes/ issues holdings; CJK character displays; auction catalog searching protocols; emailing lists; online reserve reading lists; and for staff in the building, self-checkout to offices.

Behind the public LEONARDO system, the library has a framework for acquisitions of monographs and serial publications, including payment history, and for item cataloging/metadata for each item according to national standards through the link to the international bibliographic network, OCLC (prior RLIN).

What’s next at SARL? The LEONARDO/OCLC systems will have soon a bibliographic description for the 96 unique document collections in the Museum Archives, one of the Library’s contributions to the 75th Anniversary Year of the Museum. These descriptions or collection-level records are constructed according to national standards. This opportunity opens up the Archives to discovery on the web via LEONARDO, OCLC, and Google. Researchers will still need to contact the Archivist and visit the Archives to consult the documents.

Happy Anniversary LEONARDO!

The Spencer Art Reference Library is a wonderful resource for scholars, students and visitors. The library's Reading Room on the second floor of the Bloch Building, is a lovely spot to look at beautiful art books and read the latest art-world publications. If you don't have a specific need, it is always fun to check out the library's ongoing special displays.

The current display goes hand in hand with the Museum's latest featured exhibition, Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America and the Railway, 1830-1960.

The display is called "Rails, Trains and Stations: The Railroad in Art and Architecture" and contains 27 books about different topics related to the railroad including photography, history, travel, films and literature.

I only had a few minutes to look through the display. The book that I spent the most time with was T.C. McLuhan's Dream Tracks: The Railroad and the American Indian. This book tells the story of how the great marketing machine of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway turned the great American Southwest into a tourist attraction and how that affected the American Indians of that region.

The reproductions of "railroad art" (advertising posters) is quite telling. One of the main passenger lines on the Santa Fe was called The Super Chief. The posters include slogans such as "The Chief is still Chief. Extra fast. Extra fare. Extra Fine" along with images of Native Americans and the rugged southwestern terrain. The Santa Fe was innovative in many ways providing passengers with car or bus service that would take travelers into areas that were inaccesible by the train. This was known as "The Indian Detour." Many of the posters promoting this service included the incentive of "More Indians."

The book also contains photographs of American Indians that were taken along "the detour" showing their every day life and how they lived. Two photographs that were particularly interesting show how the railroad had changed their existence.

One showed a group of men at the Grand Canyon train station dressed in native clothing. Their job was to welcome visitors coming off the trains and entice them to rent a car to travel into the Indian villages.

The other image was of Albert Einstein and his wife with Hopi Indians at the Grand Canyon. The couple are standing in the middle of a family with Mr. Einstein holding the hand of one of the Indian children. The thing that gets me is that Einstein is wearing a native headress and holding a pipe. Looking at it from the 21 century, it smacks of mockery as tourists (even well educated ones) played "dress up" with the American "savages."

Other books were just as fascinating, and I plan to spend more time with them in the future. The library display will be on view through January 18, which is also the last day for Art in the Age of Steam.

The Spencer Art Reference Library has more than just books and magazines. Part of the collection includes the Museum Archives which contains some fascinating items. Some of these items are currently on view in the old library location (the ground floor of the Nelson-Atkins Buildign).

The one object that fascinates/creeps me out a little is the death mask of Mary Atkins. It is a photographic reproduction and I'm pretty sure it is not actual size. The face is rather serene but the whole concept is wierd to me. Next to it, is a photographic reproduction of a plaster cast of the right hand of William Rockhill Nelson. (In case you are wondering whose these people are, Nelson and Atkins are the two people for whom the Museum was named. You may read about them here.)

There are three documents in the case as well. One is a handwritten letter from Frederic Remington to J.J. Benson that is dated May 6, 1901. Another one is a letter from Eugene Delacroix to a French composer named Fromental Halevy. Bring your dictionary for this one because it is en Francais. Delacroix's Christ on the Sea of Galilee is on view in Gallery P29.

The remaining document is a typed draft of the final chapter of a book by Thomas Hart Benton called An Artist in America. The chapter is titled "And Still After" and it starts off indicating it was written some 16 years after the previous chapter. Benton sounds like his well-know cantankerous self complaining about the "turn" of the art world away from regionalism to abstraction. I guess I can't blame him. Things seemed to turn out positively this time as he mentions meeting the director of the Joslyn Museum in Omaha who requested Benton compile a retrospective of his work. Benton notes that since he had many unsold paintings at the time, it was not difficult to do. The exhibition was quite a success in Omaha and later in Wichita, Kansas.

It is amazing how the times change. The text was probably written sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The Nelson-Atkins hosted a retrospective of Benton's work in the 1980s (I believe it was the centennial of his birth in 1989) and it was immensly popular. Still today, visitors come from far and wide to view the Benton murals, especially the American Historical Epic which is currently hanging in Atkins Auditorium.

The original objects are kept in the archives and may be viewed by appointment.

Yesterday was national Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. We had about 12 kids and grandkids join us for the day.

The children got to enjoy many facets of the Museum including a tour of the Spencer Art Reference Library, helping teachers in the Ford Learning Center and of course a docent-led activity in the galleries.

My daughter was old enough to come this year. Even though she has been to my office many times before and sort of understands what I do (I tell people about the Museum), it was nice for her to see that there are many different jobs here.

I think her favorite part might have been when we had lunch in the Kansas City Sculpture Park and she ran around with some of the other staff member's kids. That was fun but my favorite part was when she asked if we could go see the Japanese art. As we walked through the gallery, she took notes on the different objects including Samurai helmets, bodhisattvas and the great Amida Nyorai Buddha.

I have to admit it has been a while since I've visited the Japanese gallery. I saw many objects that I have never seen before including a beautiful glazed pot and some exquisite clam shells with scenes painted in color and gold leaf. When my daughter told me she thought it would be so cool to work somewhere like this, I had to agree.

Because the Nelson-Atkins has so much to offer in terms of libraries, we decided to extend National Library Week for a few days. The Museum Archives is not as known to the public as it should be. This is not just merely a collection of randomly stored items, no. The Archives is an amazing resource of information and collected items from past Nelson-Atkins staff or other Museum associates. Let’s take a quick look as some of the unique items one might find perusing the Archives.

I was intrigued by many of the items mentioned in the collection. The first one being Mary Atkins’ death mask from 1911. I would never have guessed that the Museum had this. The Archives have handwritten letters from Eugene Delacroix to French composer, Fromental Halevy and a handwritten letter from Frederic Remington to J.J. Benson discussing a particular drawing in 1901. There is also a typewritten draft of the last chapter of Thomas Hart Benton’s book, Artist in America. These are truly remarkable items to be able to view in person.

The Museum Archives is also a great source of information about the Museum in general. They receive – and answer – many questions regarding just about anything to do with the Museum. Did you know that the fountain in Rozzelle Court was originally one of the baths in Rome belonging to Emperor Hadrian in the Fist Century A.D.? Did you know Andrew T. Schwartz painted the murals in the Atkins Stairway? I didn’t know the answer to either of those questions, but I do now.

The Museum Archives really is a fascinating place to spend a couple of hours or an afternoon. The Archives really serves a much greater purpose than just storage for neat stuff though. The Archives documents the illustrious history and many activities of the Nelson-Atkins and its related organizations. Not only does it keep track of all the official Museum business, the Archives collects personal papers and manuscript material of all previous Museum staff.

The Archives are available by appointment only, but the librarians are more than happy to locate whatever specific item you might be in search of. If you would like to view or read any of the aforementioned items or have something specific in mind you would like to see, simply call 816.751.1354 to schedule your appointment today. The Archives is yet another great Museum library resource for the community.