"Library not art snob, picture chief says"


Romana Javitz, ca. 1950. photo: Sol Libsohn (Yampolsky Coll.)

Headline: "Library not art snob, picture chief says". 
Toronto Globe & Mail, November 30, 1946

Romana Javitz was interviewed by the Toronto Globe & Mail, November 30, 1946 while she was attending the annual conference of the Special Libraries Association where she gave a speech.

The below excerpt of the interview perfectly encapsulates her position on visual literacy as something bigger than art, broader than aesthetics, and the Picture Collection's populist approach to selection.

"Library not art snob, picture chief says"

“Since the development of the camera in 1839, we have available to us a picture of almost every aspect of the history of man”, said Romana Javitz, head of the picture service of the New York Public Library. “We can see pictures of man’s wars, his triumphs, the kind of food he likes, the women he loved, the kind of dances he did and the kinds of houses in which he lived.”

There are innumerable ways in which to use a picture library and it has only begun to be used as a teaching force, she said.

Miss Javitz said there are many more pictures in the world that aren’t art, than are esthetic, and because such a service as the one in New York does not have to deal with esthetic values, it does not become snobbish about art. The library does not select – it makes pictures available to the public and those who use the files do the choosing – “and the public has better taste than most curators.” She said. The library picture service does not use pictures alone. “Combine a picture with explanatory words, and you have a document of great force.”

 Words on Pictures: Romana and the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection. edited by Anthony T. Troncale. New York: Photo | Verso Publications, LLC, 2020.   ISBN 978-1-7346409-0-8 (hardcover)  Identifiers ISBN  978-1-7346409-1-5 (ebook)


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    #wordsonpictures, #RomanaJavitz #newyorkpubliclibrary, picture collection, #photography, #visual arts, #fphototgraphs, visual resources, #branchlibraries, #librarians, #documentaryphotography, art libraries, circulating pictures, theater, performing arts, television, New York Public Library, New York City, Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress, visual literacy, American Model: Origins of the Index of American Design, a Federal Art Project, Ruth Reeves, Holger Cahill, WPAWords on Pictures, #wordsonpictures, Romana Javitz, picture collection, #photography, #visual arts, #photographers, visual resources, #librarians, #documentation, art libraries, art history, theater, New York City, Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress, visual literacy, Sol Libsohn, illustration, advertising, Anthony Troncale, publishing, children's, art, photo, WPA, Federal Art Project, #archives, #specialcollections, #subjectsmatter, #subjective, #photohistory, #historyofphotography, #images, #visual, #visualresources, #WorthBeyondWords, #graphicarts, #posters

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