Words on Pictures

  The Dual Legacy of Romana Javitz: Pictorial Documentation and Artistic Collaboration photograph by Trude Fleischmann. ca. 1942. Private Collection. Romana Javitz’s tenure as head of the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection marked a pivotal moment in the history of visual archives. By promoting images as tools for research and documentation, she redefined their role within public libraries, challenging the traditional view that confined them to art alone. Through her efforts, the Picture Collection became a critical resource for artists, anthropologists, designers, and writers, fostering both practical and creative uses of visual material.   Pictures as Documents Javitz’s approach to the Picture Collection was shaped by her recognition of images as cultural and historical documents. During her travels in Europe, she observed how state organizations systematically documented folk traditions and everyday life through visual media. Inspired by these practices, Javitz exp...

  Dorothea Lange's American Country Woman series and the NYPL Picture Collection  In 1964, while working on her retrospective exhibition for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Dorothea Lange contacted Javitz about placing what became three sets of photographs of her work in the Picture Collection files: A portfolio of what Lange called The American Country Woman ; another a series on the Amana Society of Iowa, made while on a 1941 Guggenheim grant; and a third group a selection of over 200 exhibition prints and working proofs presented as a gift.   Lange understood the mission of the Picture Collection and wanted her legacy of photo-documentation to be a permanent part of it. Lange wrote to Javitz in 1965 about the American Country Woman series:  “There are about sixteen personages in the box and in many cases as accompaniment to the Women is a photograph of where she lives, her habitation. I have worked on these photographs for years, on and off, and they ar...

"Identification marks on wings of army pigeon"  The New York Public Library Digital Collections . 1918. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/18f36040-c2f6-0138-c9f3-0b13222c6397 Below is an extended excerpt from Javitz's speech, entitled Words on Pictures , given at the  Massachusetts Library Association, Boston, Massachusetts, on January 28, 1943.   At the peak of her career, Javitz encapsulates her far reaching and prescient vision into the use and misuse of pictures in everyday society. Much of it still applies today. The photographs following are intended to show examples of pictures reflecting the subjects discussed.  ~~~      "The mounting flood of pictures is permeating all of our lives, and its impact leaves deep impression on our minds. This unexploited pool of power can be tapped to produce ideas, stimulate processes of thinking and provoke action...       These pictures are not art, they are not pictur...

Aelita Queen of Mars . Dir.  Yakov Protazanov 1919-1920.  Wallach Picture Collection archives. NYPL.   In 1933 the Picture Collection presented the exhibition, The Moving Picture as an Art Form.  Installed and designed by Javitz and co-curated with Jay Leyda , it was one of the first exhibits to address the idea that motion pictures were emerging as a unique art form. Over 20,000 visitors came to see the exhibit during the 3 months it was held there. It would later travel to the Hudson Library branch and to Chicago and other cities.  The Picture Collection amassed its collection of stills through direct contact with the movie producers, filmmakers and actors from the industry who used the Picture Collection for research.  The nearby Broadway theaters and movie houses also donated stills, lobby cards and posters.  Most of these holdings are now part of the Billy Rose Theater Division . See below for more about how the Picture Collection's movie "st...