Words on Pictures

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...

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 subje...

  Words on Pictures: Romana Javitz and the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection  won an honorable mention in the  Photography Network's annual photo book prize!  It will be announced at the PN annual convention in Washington D.C. October 13-15. Honored and gratified that Romana Javitz is getting some academic attention.  Thank you Photography Network! 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) #photography, #visual arts, #photographers, #visualresources, #librarians, #documentation, art libraries, art history, theater, #NewYorkCity, #FarmSecurityAdministration, #LibraryofCongress, #visualliteracy, Sol Libsohn, #illustration, #advertising, #Troncale, publishing, children's, art, photo, #WPA, #F...

 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 (eb...