Words on Pictures

     Romana Javitz (1903-1980), a visionary in the use of visual resources, led the New York Public Library's Picture Collection from 1929 to 1968. Her pioneering work laid the foundation for using pictures as factual documents rather than simply as artistic representations. Javitz’s approach emphasized the utility of images for educational, historical, and cultural documentation, distinguishing her from traditional views that regarded pictures primarily as objects of aesthetic appreciation.    Javitz inherited the Picture Collection during a time of rising demand for accessible images due to the growth in publishing, advertising, and design industries. She championed a unique cataloging approach, moving beyond artist or aesthetic categorization to organizing images by subject. This shift allowed diverse users—from artists to historians—to access visual materials tailored to their functional needs. Javitz’s inclusive and non-judgmental cataloging reflected her belief that images fr

From the Annual Report of the NYPL Picture Collection, July 1948 thru June 30, 1949 "The gamut of subjects asked for at the Picture Collection is astounding, particularly as neither idle curiosity, nor hobby spurred the requests. Pictures on widely separate subjects were necessary for a Television broadcast to materialize, for men's ties to be manufactured, for an architect to landscape a cemetery, for a surgeon to give a paper on stumps." ... "Television with its requirements for rapidly organized productions began to use this collection heavily. Several hundred changes of costume are prepared weekly, research must be done quickly and since there is no other source from which pictures on the whole history of fashion may be borrowed, these files became indispensable." Excerpt From: Anthony T. Troncale. Words on Pictures: Romana Javitz and the New York Public Library's Picture Collection. Television programs - CBS  Toast of the Town  with (front row, l to r)

Rothman's Pawn Shop, 149 Eighth Avenue. 1938. Berenice Abbott. Changing New York  #297.026   Words on Pictures: Romana Javitz and the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection , is an anthology of writings by Romana Javitz(1903-1980) that also includes three interviews in which she expounds on the use of pictures, especially photographs, as a tool for documentation. When pictures enter the Picture Collection for circulation they are analyzed for their subject content first and foremost. Subsequently, Javitz and her highly trained staff assign a subject heading that most defines the visible content that dominates or best illustrates what is in the image. With this approach, photographs to be used in the Picture Collection are often washed clean of the photographers or the publisher’s intent. Under this rubric a photograph clipped from a magazine or newspaper can have just as much impact as a fine platinum print if its content clearly defines or illustrates a subject or subjects w

 The Picture Collection began a Source Card file in 1929, soon after Romana Javitz became supervisor. It is still maintained today and is a rich resource, not just for tracing the original maker of a print or photo found in the files but also from an historical perspective .  In addition to provenance, the cards reveal many of the addresses of the contributors, some only blocks away from the Picture Collection at 42nd and Fifth Avenue.   Here is just a small sample from A to M of the variety of Source Card files documenting the Journals, Magazines and Serials that were clipped for circulation. Capitalized alpha indicators were written on the clipped images for tracing the source.   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) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~