Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Huntington Mansion In New York: Economics Of Architecture And Decoration In The 1890s, Isabelle Hyman

The Courier

In 1889 railroad millionaire Collis P. Huntington (1821-1900) and his wife Arabella (d. 1924) purchased a large property on the southeast comer of New York's Fifth Avenue and Fifty-seventh Street, the most fashionable residential neighborhood of the period, and undertook to build there another of the great stone piles that constituted the habitats of the very rich during the city's Gilded Age. Aspects of the history of the Fifty-seventh Street Huntington mansion have been recounted, but supplementary information about its decoration and about the artists and craftsmen who embellished it can be found in the George Arents Research Library at …

The New School Of Wood Engraving, Edward A. Gokey

The Courier

This article traces the history of modern wood engraving, including the argument in the art world that took place regarding whether wood engraving could be considered "art" in the first place. As the art form gained popularity with print publishers due to its convenience and beauty, internal debates took place about which direction the art form should take, especially within the "New School" of wood engraving that had emerged. Research for the article was aided by Syracuse University's Special Collections.

Audubon's "The Birds Of America": A Sesquicentennial Appreciation, David Frederic Tatham

The Courier

This article details the unique copy of John James Audubon's The Birds of America which now resides in Syracuse University's Special Collections. The author describes the backstory and traces the journey of this extremely rare work. Audubon's work continues to stimulate interest in diverse fields in academia, from art history and science to literature.

Audubon/Au-Du-Bon: Man And Artist, Walter Sutton

The Courier

This article highlights some of the works of the legendary work of John James Audubon, drawn from the collection located in Syracuse University's Special Collections. The author gives special attention to the 1820-21 journal of his voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi (which has been preserved intact), the English and Scottish journal of 1826 (also in its original form), and the descriptive sketches of early pioneer life in the Ornithological Biography. These early journal sources dramatically reveal, at first hand, Audubon's long struggle through many failures and obstacles to win the success and recognition he craved and also enduring status …

The Jean Cocteau Collection: How 'Astonishing'?, Paul J. Archambault

The Courier

Between 1963 and 1971, the Syracuse University Library acquired more than two hundred fifty holograph manuscripts by Jean Cocteau. These are now to be found in the George Arents Research Library for Special Collections, where they enhance an already rich assortment of French manuscripts that have been thoroughly listed in a previous article in the Courier. An abridged history of their acquisition might be told here. The story is interesting, for it includes several of those ironical twists that made so much of Cocteau's life seem like a chassé-croisé with Death, choreographed by the artist himself.

Clothing Of Wrought Gold, Raiment Of Needlework: Embroidered Chasubles In The Syracuse University Art Collections, Susan Kyser

The Courier

This article details the collection of chasubles and other liturgical vestments located in the Syracuse University Art Collections. They were collected and donated by Mr. and Mrs. George Arents, whose other collections make up a significant part of Syracuse University Special Collections. The article sheds light on the remarkable embroidery and artistic talent that the vestments required.

The Drawings And Papers Of Alan Dunn And Mary Petty At Syracuse University, Elisabeth Kaltenbrunner Melczer

The Courier

Alan Dunn and Mary Petty were cartoonists whose wit and humor enlivened the pages of The New Yorker from 1926 to 1974. Though they were man and wife as well as teacher and student, their output was distinctively separate in style, mood, and content. Their work has been recognized internationally as providing incisive commentary on the social conventions, the values, and the arts of their New York contemporaries. The bulk of their roughs and finished cartoons are held in the Syracuse University Art Collections and their papers, including correspondence and diaries, are in the George Arents Research Library at Syracuse …

Benson Lossing: His Life And Work, 1830-1860, Diane M. Casey

The Courier

Benson J. Lossing's interest in reaching a popular rather than an elite audience, his journalistic style, and the changing methods of historical research, which began to develop at the end of the nineteenth century, have all led to the current opinion of him-that he was a popularizer of history, and not a historian. However, an examination of his long and varied career suggests that his work deserves consideration in the study of antebellum American life.

William Lescaze And Hart Crane: A Bridge Between Architecture And Poetry, Lindsay Stamm Shapiro

The Courier

This article expounds upon the unique relationship between the architect William Lescaze and poet Hart Crane after Lescaze's emigration to the United States during the early twentieth century. Lescaze's knowledge of European modernism influenced Crane's poems, which sought to counteract the pessimism of modern poets (for example T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland"), and provide affirmation of the Machine Age.

William Lescaze And The Machine Age, Arthur J. Pulos

The Courier

In this article, the author talks about the history of modern architecture, and in particular William Lescaze's contributions. He gives the reader background about the Machine Age in America, and how Lescaze evolved in his art, eventually dedicating his life to Formalism and the International Style.

William Lescaze And Cbs: A Case Study In Corporate Modernism, Dennis P. Doordan

The Courier

During the period 1934 to 1949, the Columbia Broadcasting System provided William Lescaze with a series of commissions that, considered together, constitute one of the largest, most varied, and most important bodies of work in his entire career.

Lescaze was responsible for the design of a major new broadcasting facility, the interior design of studio and office spaces, the design of a variety of studio furnishings such as microphones and clocks, the design of a mobile broadcasting vehicle, and the graphic design for CBS facilities across the country. A careful review of the material indicates that Lescaze made a major …

A Brief Survey Of Architectural Holdings At The Syracuse University Libraries, Werner Seligmann

The Courier

This article gives a brief look at the various holdings regarding modern architecture located at Syracuse University. Among special note are the Lescaze papers, which the rest of this Courier issue examines in detail.

Roy Crane—Pioneer Adventure Strip Cartoonist, Ray Thompson

The Courier

The newspaper comic strip was well established in the United States by World War I. It had become a part of every American's cultural background long before the Disney cartoon films of the 1930s. The George Arents Research Library for Special Collections at Syracuse University has a large collection of original drawings for comic strips. There are cartoons from the early days of the comic strip to the work of artists still drawing strips which many Americans read every day.

Some of the comic strips have extraordinary lives, continuing past their creator's lifetimes. Buzz Sawyer and his friend Roscoe Sweeney …

Irene Sargent: Rediscovering A Lost Legend, Cleota Reed Gabriel

The Courier

Professor Irene Sargent was a distinguished teacher of the history of fine arts at Syracuse University for thirty-seven years, from 1895 to 1932. As a noted author and critic in these years, she was influential in promoting and maintaining the values of the Arts and Crafts Movement in America; yet, since her death in 1932, she has been largely forgotten. We can begin to form an image of her as an awesome pillar of knowledge and a great lady with a colorful personality through the vivid memories of her former students.

Bud Fisher—Pioneer Dean Of The Comic Artists, Ray Thompson

The Courier

The George Arents Research Library for Special Collections at Syracuse University has an extensive collection of original drawings by American cartoonists. Among the most famous of these are Bud Fisher's "Mutt and Jeff."

Bud Fisher set the pattern of a new phase of visual entertainment that has endured and blossomed to this day. Everybody knows of "Mutt and Jeff" - an American institution and a synonym for "tall and short." Fisher was one of the most copied of the early cartoonists. One can trace his influence through dozens of strips created between 1910 and 1920.

The European Diary Of Fred And Lillian Lear, Patricia Newman

The Courier

This article describes the journals and sketches of Frederick and Lillian Lear, now housed in Syracuse University Special Collections. The couple toured Europe just a few years before the dawn of World War I. Frederick, an architecture professor at Syracuse University, critiqued the style of European art and architecture of the time, while Lillian offered interesting observations of Eueopean culture.

Notes From A Cartoonist, Edward D. Kuekes

The Courier

Edward D. Kuekes, who was a Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, gives a retrospective on his career and life. Also includes reproductions of some of his cartoons, three thousand of which can be found in the Syracuse University Special Collections.

The Illumination Of An English Psalter: A Preliminary Assessment, Bruce Watson

The Courier

Several years ago the George Arents Research Library, Syracuse University, acquired a small English illuminated psalter (Uncat. MS 1), dated ca. 1300. It formerly had been in the collection of the Virtue and Cahill Library of the Cathedral Chapter of the Diocese of Portsmouth. Thus far, to the best of my knowledge, the only publication of the work has been the necessarily brief description of it by Barbara Larkin and Kenneth Pennington in the exhibition catalogue Medieval Art in Upstate New York. Placement of the style of the illumination of this psalter in the development of English Gothic manuscript painting …

Smith Ms 36: A Study In Fifteenth Century Manuscript Illumination, Gloria K. Fiero

The Courier

A Book of Hours written in Dutch was donated to the Syracuse Public Library by J. William Smith in 1908, but received little publicity until 1974, when it was included in an exhibition of medieval art at the Everson Museum, entitled "Medieval Art in Upstate New York." Briefly described in the catalog of that exhibition, and briefly loaned to the George Arents Research Library at Syracuse University, this manuscript, coded Smith 36, bears close consideration for two reasons. First, the style of the historieur, the artist who painted the miniatures, can be detected in at least three additional Books of …

Clara Sipprell: American Photographer In Memoriam, Ruth Ann Appelhof

The Courier

Clara Sipprell's photographic career spanned almost seven decades of artistic exploration in picture-making. In April 1975, she died at age 89, leaving behind a great many friends and a pictorial legacy of considerable achievement. Whether she was photographing the crown princes of Europe or Robert Frost in his back yard, Miss Sipprell's ability to capture her subject's innermost personality became the hallmark of her work.

The Significance Of The Equestrian Monument "Joan Of Arc" In The Artistic Development Of Anna Hyatt Huntington, Myrna Garvey Eden

The Courier

The manuscript collection of Anna Hyatt Huntington, sculptor, 1876-1973, left to the George Arents Research Library at Syracuse University by Mrs. Huntington is of special interest to students and scholars of American culture. Her correspondence, scrap-books, and diaries are a record of a long and successful career as a sculptor.

By drawing upon archival materials and personal interviews, the present article demonstrates the mergence of two major characteristics of Mrs. Huntington's work in this equestrian monument of Joan: technical precision and idealism.

Swinburne In Miniature, John S. Mayfield

The Courier

This article describes John Mayfield's acquisition of a rare notebook written by English poet A.C. Swinburne, which contains unpublished poetry that was later used in a miniature book publication.

Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson: A Study Based On His Journals, Elizabeth Mozley

The Courier

The revival of fine bookmaking in England during the last decades of the nineteenth century is well represented in the collection at the George Arents Research Library at Syracuse Uuiversity. The excellent work of the private presses became a major expression of the Arts and Crafts movement, led by William Morris and his Kelmscott Press. Morris's work still dominates our impressions of the period. However, the movement's basic purpose, to beautify useful everyday objects, resulted in books from one of the private presses as restrained in design as the others were exuberant.

Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson, following the same artistic tenets …

Codex Atlanticus, Carol Hanley

The Courier

The gift of the Codex Atlanticus to the George Arents Research Library by the Class of 1912 and Chester Soling is a generous gesture of scholastic importance. Publishers are the Johnson Reprint Corporation, a subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and Centro Editoriale Giuinti, of Florence.

The Codex is a collation of sections from many of Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks, compiled by Pompeo Leoni, a sixteenth century sculptor who came to acquire them through the descendants of Leonardo's devoted disciple, Francesco Melzi.

Margaret Bourke-White And Erskine Caldwell: A Personal Album, William A. Sutton

The Courier

Margaret Bourke- White presented her personal and professional papers, including hundreds of prints and negatives of her photographs, to Syracuse University before her death in 1971. Following her death, the Library received additional thousands of photographs and negatives from her estate. As a result, the Bourke- White Collection at Syracuse provides an invaluable store of research materials for photographers, journalists, and historians.

Dr. Sutton has chosen in this essay to portray Margaret herself during one seven-year period ofher life, with the addition of a few photographs from the books You Have Seen Their Faces and North of the Danube, published …

The Mayer Wetherill Collection: Music Of The Nineteenth Century, Peter Korff

The Courier

The Wetherill collection contains many reductions, adaptations, and arrangements of music by the major figures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are several bound collections of music for piano and violin based on "favorite opera melodies." There are also, of course, many works by the masters themselves. The true worth of this collection, however, is not to be found in anyone rara avis, but rather in the quality of the whole as representative of the chamber music of its time.

Frederic W. Goudy, "Type Man" Extraordinary, Edmund C. Arnold

The Courier

Edmund C. Arnold comments on the work of Frederic Goudy, America's foremost type designer. Along with Vassar and the Library of Congress, the Goudy collection at Syracuse University is one of the most complete in the world.

Four Bachrachs, Bradford Bachrach

The Courier

The art collections in the George Arents Research Library are greatly enhanced by the Louis Fabian Bachrach Sr. Papers, the gift of the Bachrach family, documenting the career of a leader in the photographic arts. In addition to manuscripts of magazine articles, speeches and interviews, correspondence and subject files, the collection includes some 200 photographs made by Mr. Bachrach and members of his family: his father, David, and his sons, Louis Fabian, Jr. and Bradford Bachrach.

With the exception of a few early scenes of the Maryland District of Columbia area, the photographs are examples of the fine portraiture for …

Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, American Sculptor, Syracuse Library

The Courier

In 1964 Harriet Frishmuth graciously presented her papers to Syracuse University for perpetual care, making them available for research by reputable scholars. The collection consists of professional correspondence, photographs of works, scrapbooks, memorabilia and plaster casts. Also in the collection is a series of tape recordings made in 1964 by Miss Frishmuth, in which she informally reminisces about he·r life and work and provides descriptions and comments relative to a few of her outstanding sculptures. Gleanings from the Syracuse tapes, with Miss Frishmuth's own comments on the pictured works, have been brought together by Miss Ruth Talcott, companion-secretary to Miss …