Smithsonian Libraries

Maxfield Parrish- An Elusive Narrative

The post below is brought to you by intern Miriam Storm. Miriam interned for the American Art/Portrait Gallery branch library. She has recently completed her Master of Letters in Art History at the University of St Andrews. Despite the time she spent there, she still does not know the first thing about golf but has become an expert on the Royal Family. Interested in our intern or fellowship opportunities? Check out the available positions on our web page!

 

The Smithsonian American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery (AA/PG) Library has a dynamic collection of over 150,000 files on artists, art institutions, and collectors. These files generally contain ephemera such as small exhibition brochures, announcements of or invitations to gallery shows, press releases, clippings, and/or reproductions.  These files feature both well-known artists as well as ones that never became famous and also include illustrators such as Maxfield Parrish.

 

Maxfield Parrish was an illustrator of the Golden Age of Illustration and provided America with fanciful images that have enthralled viewers for decades. Parrish worked on illustrations for books written by L. Frank Baum and Kenneth Grahame, for instance, and his works were always well-received. The Smithsonian Libraries has several fine examples of books illustrated by Parrish, including Poems of Childhood by Eugene Field and The Lure of the Garden by Hildegarde Hawthorne.

 

Parrish’s works  were met with such immense popularity that in 1925 copies of his painting Daybreak, “could be found in one out of every four American households.”[1] Parrish’s vertical file here at AA/PG gives testament to this—Daybreak is used on two different exhibition announcements found in the file and other works were reproduced widely. Why does Parrish’s work continue to enchant audiences?

 

Maxfield Parrish. Daybreak. 1922. Oil on panel.  67.3 x 114 cm. Private Collection. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Most of Parrish’s work was specifically created for the illustration of books and commercial use. These two categories were historically thought by academic audiences to lack any deeper intentions or significance. Art created only to amuse or to sell was not usually considered as ‘fine art.’ Parrish’s works, which were both illustrative and commercial, traditionally were of little interest to the “fine art” world. Organizations such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art wondered how to make these distinctions and Parrish’s offered up his own thoughts on the separation between “fine” art and that of illustrations:

 

“…Why should not all such things, illustrations, decorations, miniatures, etc., be looked upon as pictures? …If they are good of their kind they are good as pictures. The Museum [The Metropolitan Museum of Art] has on its walls many pictures which are purely illustrative and nothing else. …Why not judge all these things by one standard? …It seems to me the original purpose of the work has precious little to do with the subject.”[2]

 

For several decades Parrish’s work suffered from this stigma, however, galleries and museums began to display his works more consistently from the late 1960s onwards, as seen by the numerous exhibition announcements found in the vertical files. The persistent nature of his work was being recognized.

This persistence comes from other-worldly qualities of his works that provide the framework for our imaginations take flight. Parrish’s work holds back the assumed narrative of the image just enough that it demands the viewer create their own. When asked to tell the story behind Daybreak, Parrish replied, “I know full well the public wants a story …but to my mind if a picture does not tell its own story, it’s better to have the story without the picture …The picture tells all there is, there is nothing more.”[3]

Instead of providing the viewer with a story, Parrish has created an elusive narrative. The mural Parrish created for Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s North Wall of 1918, fills the viewer with many questions about an apparent narrative- where are they? Why are they assembled? However, no answers are provided. Something is happening but we are not sure what or why. The beauty of this image is sufficient but the responses it evokes are on par with that of ‘fine art.’ Surely a work that stimulates thoughts and questions in the mind of the viewer is valuable criteria for scholarship.

 

Maxfield Parrish. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s North Wall Mural.
1918. Oil on Canvas. 5 ft. x 18.5 ft.  (featured on two different exhibition announcements in the vertical files)

Parrish creates captivating and dream-like worlds. It is that elusiveness that enthralls the viewer and defies traditional scholarship as it cannot be easily dissected. Simply because Parrish used his talents for commercial illustration should not discredit him in any way. His work presented an elusive narrative that persistently placed his work in the public eye and more recently in the realm of serious scholarship and will undoubtedly continue to do so for years to come.

Are you curious to know what kind of scholarship there is on Maxfield Parrish? Check out the books in the bibliography as well as Parrish’s vertical file for articles, exhibit announcements and much more! Other artists from the Golden Age of Illustration can also be found in the AAPG vertical files including Howard Pyle, Edward Penfield, and Charles Dana Gibson (creator of the Gibson Girl).

 

The following books on Parrish can all be found in the AAPG Library:

 

Brandywine River Museum. Maxfield Parrish, Maker of Make-Believe: An Exhibition, June 1 through September 2, 1974.

 

Maxfield Parrish by Coy Ludwig.

 

America’s Great Illustrators by Susan E. Meyer.

 

Maxfield Parrish 1870-1966 by Sylvia Yount.

 

 

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[1] Sylvia Yount, Maxfield Parrish 1870-1966 (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1999), 15.

[2] “Should Museums Form Collections of Illustrations?” New York Herald, 1 December 1907 as quoted in Sylvia Yount, Maxfield Parrish 1870-1966 (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.), 59.

[3] Yount, Maxfield Parrish 1870-1966, 102.

A Fall Intern Recap from NMAI and MSC

Below, Jaqueline Baird, one of our latest interns, gives an overview of her work at the Smithsonian Libraries. Interested in interning with us? Check out our Professional Development internships. Applications are open now through March 12, 2012.

 

When I was young, and my parents took me to the library, I was amazed by the stacks filled with books.  All of this information, right at my tiny fingertips.  Worlds awaiting my young and eager imagination.  The library was a special place for me then and continues to be a special place for me now.  As an adult, I knew I wanted to be a librarian.  A person who understands the extraordinary relationship between a person and a book.  A person knows the value of information.  A person who wants to help others.  Through my journey to the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, I have only strengthened my understanding that libraries are special places and librarians are unique people.

 

Museum Service Center Library in Suitland, MD.

 

I applied for the internship in September and was accepted into the program in October.  I was ecstatic.  Here I was, a small town Pennsylvania girl becoming a part of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.  Every day since has been wonderful and exciting.  I have learned so many new skills to supplement the library science education I am receiving at The Catholic University of America.  From October to December I worked in the National Museum of the American Indian branch library under Baasil Wilder.  Baasil has been an excellent mentor and supervisor, giving advice about the career and sharing his own personal experiences.  While at the NMAI, I performed tasks such as organizing the reading room located within the library.  This was a labor intensive undertaking, but satisfying to know that it would benefit the users in the end.  The room was more clearly defined and uniform.  I also worked within the closed stacks, pulling books to ship to users and looking for missing books which helped me to gain a better understanding of what the collection contained physically.

 

National Museum of the American Indian Library.

 Another project that I worked on was entering artist information into a database available through the Smithsonian.  I would look at pieces of artwork, portfolios, and exhibition pamphlets to gather information pertinent to each author and enter that information into the system.  The final project I completed while at the NMAI was creating a collection development policy for the library in accordance with a final project for a collection development class I was taking.  The class and the internship worked well together for me because I was working so heavily with the collection that writing the policy really solidified the work I was doing and the knowledge I was gaining.  I realized how important the collection development policy is to any library and how it can really help the staff to become very familiar with their collection. Both Baasil Wilder and Bill Baxter were so helpful throughout the process, answering my questions and providing insight into not only the NMAI but the inner workings of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries as a whole.  Overall, working at the NMAI has been a beneficial and wonderful experience.  I am so happy I received an opportunity to work there and I hope to continue to be of service to the library. 

In January, I began working at the Museum Support Center branch across from the NMAI.  Though I have not been there long, I have already begun work on several projects and am excited to see where the rest of my time here takes me.  I am learning so much about libraries from a managerial perspective, working under Gil Taylor.   He shares his advice on the profession and provides suggestions for the rest of my time in school.  I knew that the Smithsonian Institution Libraries would be an amazing place to work, but it was the people who really make it exceptional.  Every person that I meet is so friendly and willing to provide help.  On the days that I go into either the NMAI or the MSC, I wake up with a smile on my face knowing that this will be an exciting day filled by doing what I love with other people who are doing what they love.

—Jacqueline Baird, Intern Fall 2011-Spring 2012

Smithsonian Libraries Accepting Professional Development Internship Applications

The Smithsonian Libraries will award up to three paid internships for graduate students interested in working in research and museum libraries for the summer of 2012. The internships cover specific areas of librarianship, including technical services, digital projects and research, and reference and reader services. Below are the available projects. Applications close March 12^th, 2012.

 

NASM Sheet Music Cataloging

Candidates interested in the Libraries’ technical services will work in the Discovery Services Department, gaining valuable cataloging and metadata skills,  particularly as they pertain to the description of sheet music held in the National Air and Space Museum branch.  Intern will catalog sheet music by upgrading existing brief records.  One of the special objectives of this project is to provide access to the graphic content of the publications, usually an illustrated title page (often referred to as a sheet music cover). 

 

The ideal candidate will possess knowledge of cataloging (music cataloging desirable) through coursework or practical experience.  The ability to read musical notation is desirable.  Bachelor’s degree in music preferred, but bachelor’s degree in any humanities field (art, literature, history, etc.) that would provide general background knowledge of American popular culture in late 19^th century and 20^th century would be acceptable.

 

 

Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) Workflow Project

Candidates interested in digital projects will assist Digital Services and Metadata Services staff in developing a workflow for the transfer of digital images from  cds to the  Smithsonian's enterprise-wide Digital Asset Management System. The intern will help to develop an efficient workflow for the ingest of files, including transferring them from their current media and  embedding metadata.

 

The ideal candidate will be a graduate student with interest in digital preservation and knowledge of IPTC metadata. Experience with Artesia a plus.

 

Artists’ Books

Candidates interested in research, reference and reader services will work in the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library where they will address advanced bibliographic searching and developing exhibition ideas featuring artists’ books.

 

For this internship, an MLS graduate student with art background is preferred; class work or experience with cataloging/metadata. Exhibition experience is a plus but not necessary.

 

 

Information for all applications:

Qualified applicants must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States, hold a 3.0 GPA in their major, demonstrate interest in the research and museological activities of the Smithsonian Institution and Libraries and show solid writing, analytical and computer skills. The internships are offered to current students and recent graduates of accredited library programs. Interns may receive up to $500 dollars per week for a maximum of six weeks. Applications for summer 2012 internships will be accepted on a rolling basis until March 12. Candidates who are not selected for the Libraries’ paid internship program may be eligible to receive non-paid internships. To view program information, requirements and additional details visit http://www.sil.si.edu/Galaxy.cfm?id=3.21.

 

 

 

 

 

Two Weeks Well Spent: Intern Mele Avery

For the past two weeks, it has been my privilege to work with the collections of the National Museum of Natural History Library here in Washington, DC.  As part of my library studies program at the University of British Columbia, I came here to do a short practicum and learn as much as I could about natural history libraries. I am fascinated by the natural world and ornithology, so I was very excited to come and see first hand the “ins and outs” of a world-class life sciences library and museum.  

During my time here I worked on two projects, one in the Fishes library and the other in Reptiles.

The Fishes collection holds more than 8,000 items, and is slated for relocation in January 2012. The NMNH Library was eager to safeguard the collection following the recent experience they had when their main collection was moved to a new location. The contractors hired to move the items were not gentle, and some items were damaged as a result. My responsibility was to go through the Fishes collection and identify items that were fragile or in poor condition. I also removed a few duplicate items and set others aside for Special Collections.

The Reptiles collection will also be moved in January. The new location will follow the Library of Congress call number system for shelving serials, rather than journal title. Reorganizing the serials was simple but not easy. The reorganization process was complicated by the fact that not all the titles appeared on the list of items to be moved. This led to a few surprises, when we came across titles that weren’t on the list. A few times, we were forced to back-track and re-shift volumes in order to correct these omissions. Other items were mislabeled, not cataloged, or did not have bar codes, and were set aside for the Technical Services department to correct.

While working with the Fishes library, these were the questions I needed to answer about each item I pulled as a candidate for preservation:

1. Is the item in reasonably good condition for transit? If no, then:
2. What method should be used to safeguard it from damage?

 

 

Items like older, unbound periodicals were usually placed in archival envelopes. Newer journals in good condition could be tied with twill tape or placed in Princeton files. Books in poor condition (missing covers, lose spines, pages falling out) were both tied and placed in envelopes. Items in fair condition were either given envelopes or tied, depending on the general characteristics of the item (e.g.: age, dimensions, paper quality, condition of the spine/binding). I learned a new tying technique from Polly Lasker (my supervisor) that reduces bulk and the likelihood of becoming untied once back on the shelf.

 

The work in the Fishes library took up the first week, and was a great lesson in the thoroughness needed for preservation work. Once the move is completed, I hope to hear from the library and find out how it went!

In the course of prepping the Fishes library, I found some very interesting items:

• Two satirical journals (Dopeia & Ichtherps) were discovered and set aside to be written up and featured by a reference librarian on the NMNH website.
• An issue of a tropical fish magazine from the 1940s that discussed the difficulty of acquiring new fish due to the wartime rationing and cuts of supply lines in Asia. I would not have expected to find commentary on WWII hardships in the Fishes library of the Smithsonian, so it came as a pleasant surprise.
• A crumbling book from 1846 that turned out to be from the personal collection of Spencer Fullerton Baird, a long-serving Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. This was given to Special Collections.

 

I’d like to sincerely thank all the librarians and staff who worked with me during my practicum. This has been a great learning experience for me, and I appreciate the time taken out of your busy schedules to try and show me the ropes. Thank you all so much!

— Mele Avery