Words on Pictures

 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) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Newsstand, 32nd Street and Third Avenue, Manhattan. (1935). Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-4f7ea3d9- e040-e00a18064a99 Image ID 482798 By 1941 Romana Javitz was at the top of her field and was known world-wide as an authority on the use of pictorial materials. Many institutions, cultural organizations and corporations began clamoring for guidelines to organize their own burgeoning collections of visual materials.  So i n 1941, NYPL director Harry M. Lydenberg approached the Carnegie  Corporation for funds to allow Javitz time off from her regular duties to craft a  manual for the classification and arrangement of picture collections. In order to  proceed, Javitz, writing to Franklin F. Hopper, who succeeded Lydenberg as director i n 1941, insisted that she would need to first write: “a comprehensive