Back to the Future: The JOCL in 2013

If you're like me, you heard that the Chrysler Museum will be closing for 14 months for renovation and thought "what about the library!?!?" Well I have some great news: the JOCL will be safe and sound during the renovation, and library staff will be available for you to contact via phone and email for all of your research needs! Unlike the museum's art collection, all 114,000 library materials will remain in the building and will continue to enjoy a cool, dry climate. Library staff will be available for you to call or email with your research questions and will send you scans of library books and vertical files. We will even do the heavy research lifting for you! The library's catalog will be available online, and college students and researchers can still request books via Interlibrary Loan.

The JOCL will also continue to offer our popular Art & Books book club! We will be hosting the book club bi-monthly in the beautiful dining room of the Moses Myers Historic House. Attendees of the book club will enjoy fun and engaging discussions, as well as tasty refreshments. Our first meeting will be Wednesday, January 30 at 6:30pm and we will be reading Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger by Ken Perenyi. Hope to see you there!

Have a safe and happy holiday!

Jessica Ritchie
Dickson Librarian

Ken Perenyi puts the 'Art' in Con-Artist

Greetings Folks!

We are very excited to present our next book for book club, Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger. Ken Perenyi started off as a delinquent with no goals, barely an education, and an apathetic attitude. But through a lucky series of events he fell in with some young, wealthy, hip artists who helped him shape his future. This book acts as a detailed confession written by the master, self-taught, art forger himself. He made a small fortune forging works by popular 18th and 19th century American Artists for nearly three decades and was thrilled by the sport of "fooling the experts." He sold his work at major auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's, but the FBI eventually caught up with him and the pressure of the authorities caused him to sell his work as reproductions, which he still does today. This is going to be a captivating story and we hope that you will read it and join us at our next book club meeting! The meeting will be held at the Moses Myers Historical House on Wednesday, January 30th, 2013, light refreshments will be served.

 

Here is his website!

And here is a short interview with him!

 

 

 

 

Gone but not forgotten! October was American Archives Month at the JOCL

Happy (belated) American Archives Month! Our Library has several archival collections containing everything from personal letters between Moses Myers and his loved ones to pictures of Walter Chrysler Jr. at his parents' estate. It is important to preserve primary sources like this to better understand our history and be able to provide first-hand facts about certain situations. Archivist Lisa Lewis provides us with a short and sweet explanation of what archivists do for a living:

"Archivists bring the past to the present. They're records collectors and protectors, keepers of memory. They organize unique, historical materials, making them available for current and future research."

Here at the JOCL we make sure the Museum's history lives on by carefully preserving our own institutional archves. Here are some fun pictures from the Walter P. Chrysler Jr. collection:

Walter Chrysler Jr. at his parent's estate

Jean in her 'basement' Library

Walter and Jean's drawing room at the North Wales Estate

Illuminating Tiffany

Greetings from the Jean Outland Chrysler Library!

This month the Library is featuring an exhibit of rare Tiffany books as an accompaniment to the museum's current exhibition The Natural Beauty of Tiffany. The exhibit includes scarce art books inscribed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Tiffany Blue Books from the turn of the century, and other miscellaneous pamphelts that go as far back as 1845! The photo shown below is the first page of the photo album that contains 100 original photographs of lamps made by Tiffany Studios in New York between 1898 and 1918. The photographs, made under the personal supervision of Louis C. Tiffany, have never been reproduced. Come to the Library to check out the rare treat!

 

New to the Archives: The Torch Bearers

Earlier this week, the Library received a great new gift from the Museum's Director Bill Hennessey for the archives. It is a picture of artist Anna Hyatt Huntington putting the final touches on her remarkable sculpture titled "The Torch Bearers." This statue graces the front entrance of the Chrysler Museum and acts as a preview to some of the extraordinary works of art inside.




Anna Hyatt Huntington was a prolific American artist who was especially known for her animal and equestrian sculptures. She was one of the very few females to work in the heroic style. In fact, her classically-inspired work usually ran counter to the developments in 20th-century American Art. Two-hundred museums in American contain her work, and she has several pieces in Spain, France, and South America.
 
"The Torch Bearers" was one of Huntington's most ambitious multi-figure works. Her wealthy, philanthropist husband, Archer Huntington, collaborated on this piece with her by writing a poem with the same title that was inscribed on it's base. The first cast of the sculpture was given to the University of Madrid in 1955. A year later, she offered another cast to the city of Norfolk, to be installed in the plaza facing the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, which is now the Chrysler Museum of Art.

The Chrysler Museum has a long history of influential and special individuals who have helped turn the Museum into what it is today. This picture may remind us of those individuals and their efforts to keep the artistic spirit of Norfolk alive and thriving.

Want to read more about Anna Hyatt Huntington?
Come to the Library!



 

Written by,

Rebecca Wilkinson

Library Assistant

Vote today for the Myers Family Bible!

The Jean Outland Chrysler Art Library is thrilled to announce the nomination of the Moses Myers Family Bible to the Virginia Association of Museums' Top Ten Endangered Artifacts Program! From now until August 29th, you can vote for the Myers Bible to make it into the prestigious "Top Ten List."  If you believe the Myers Bible tells a significant story about the Myers Family and our local history, vote today!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

What is Virginia’s Top 10 Endangered Artifacts?
The VAM's Top Ten campaign showcases the importance of Virginia’s diverse history, heritage and culture and the role that artifacts and archival materials play in telling those stories. This fun and educational project enables all citizens to take part in supporting the institutions that are entrusted with caring for our communities’ treasures. The public is encouraged to visit www.vatop10artifacts.org and cast their vote for the object that they believe should make the final list. Final nominations will be reviewed by an independent panel of collections and conservation experts, and the honorees will be announced in September 2012.

What is the Moses Myers Family Bible?
From the Jean Outland Chrysler Art Library's archives, this is an American Bible belonging to the Moses Myers Family of Norfolk, Virginia, titled: The Holy Bible, Containing The Old and New Testaments; Together with the Apocrypha Translated out of the Original Tongues And with the Former Translations, Diligently Compared and Reviled. This scarce book was published in Philadelphia in 1798 by John Thompson and Abraham Small, and would become one of the Myers Family most important possessions. Although the Myers were Jewish, they used this Christian Bible as their family bible and recorded important family information within its pages, including birthdays, obituaries and military service information. It was passed down through five generations of the Myers family who lived in the Moses Myers House from 1795 until 1931.The Myers attained a prominent position in Norfolk history, rising to become leaders in both economic and social affairs. In addition, the Myers family were the first permanent Jewish-American residents in the Norfolk area, and would compose the region’s entire Jewish population for over a decade.

As is the case with many family artifacts, the Bible fell victim to Virginia’s heat and humidity while in the Myers’ home. It is now being well cared for and preserved within the Rare Book Archives of the Jean Outland Chrysler Library. By strictly maintaining and monitoring the climate of the Rare Book Room, Chrysler Museum staff ensure that the Myers Family Bible and other unique treasures are preserved for future generations.

An Homage to John Henry

We had some fun today in the library with our book-inspired homage to John Henry's sculpture Homage to Man Ray (below). The Chrysler Museum was pleased to add the work by noted sculptor John Henry to its collection on Thursday, June 21. Even though the Museum has begun construction, its doors are still open and you can still view the sculpture between the main Museum building and the Glass Studio. You can also stop by the Jean Outland Chrysler Library to browse through several books on the renowned artist, and check out our own homage to Homage to Man Ray made of book stands! Although, we must admit they are not nearly as impressive as the original!









John Henry
Homage to Man Ray
2009
Machined aluminum, painted metallic blue.