Words on Pictures: Romana Javitz and the New York Public Library's Picture Collection



The history of the use of visual mateials and photography in the arts, the sciences and in commerce cannot be told without Romana Javitz and the story of her 40-year career as the supervisor of the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection. 

The New York Public Library’s Picture Collection has been circulating photographs, clippings, prints and postcards to the public for over 105 years. It is a free picture reference service used by many important industries that need visual resources for their work. Still operating out of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at 42nd Street, the Picture Collection remains an important resource for teachers and historians, designers and illustrators, as well as artists and photographers. It is, at almost 1.5 million images, considered an encyclopedia of pictures that encapsulates the age of mechanical reproduction. 


The texts presented in Words on Pictures highlight the career of Javitz, who, as superintendent of the Picture Collection from 1928 to 1968, was the chief advocate for the organization and circulation of pictures to the public in the country. 
Words on Images presents an array of reports, speeches, and white papers written by Javitz, many published for the first time, that show her firm grasp of the dialectic of visual literacy. Also included are two interviews of Javitz and her own interview of the photographer Sol Libsohn (1914-2001), revealing Javitz's innate understanding of photography and its place in the public. It is through her written word that we can witness history best and Words on Pictures delivers.

The media companies located in New York City during these years, with all its productive exuberance, generated massive amounts of printed media on paper, much of which ended up in the Picture Collection’s stock. This picture stock became a form of visual evidence of the cultural and commercial output of any given decade. What the Picture Collection did was classify these images as subjects and allowed the public to repurposed them into new documents, new meanings, new ideas. 

The historical record of the Picture Collection is largely complete and housed at the New York Public Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division. It is a testament to the work of the Picture Collection’s administrators and staff who over the years served the visual needs of its clients: businessmen, artists, teachers, librarians and the general public. The records Javitz and her predecessors and successors preserved offer a window into the cultural use of pictures for over 100 years. It will remain an important source for historians and students for years to come.

Circulating pictures 1955. Picture Collection, New York Public Library Archives

 

Table of Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1


Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3


Chapter One. On Pictures in a Public Library. 1939  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11


Chapter Two. Annual Reports, 1929-1939 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17


Chapter Three. Origins of the Index of American Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47


Chapter Four. The Organization of Pictures as Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59


Chapter Five. Words on Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101


Chapter Six. Annual Reports, 1940-1953 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111


Chapter Seven. Romana Javitz interviews Sol Libsohn, 1958 . . . . . . . . . . . . 167


Chapter Eight. Robert Yampolsky interviews Romana Javitz, ca. 1964 . . . . . 183


Chapter Nine. Richard Doud interviews Romana Javitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Appendix I. Picture Collection online with links

to respective digital collections and a compendium

of Picture Collection holdings transferred to

the NYPL Research Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Appendix II. NYPL Staff News announcements

regarding the Picture Collection, 1915-1962;

and a chronology of newspaper and magazine

coverage of the Picture Collection, 1916-2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241


Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250


Illustration Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261


Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266


Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Available now  

Words on Pictures

edited by Anthony T. Troncale. New York: Photo | Verso Publications, LLC, 2020.   ISBN 978-1-7346409-0-8 (hardcover)  

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

Also AT THE NYPL GIFT SHOP!

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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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