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.

Today's Fun Find!

Hello again!

We were doing some spring cleaning and found a curious plastic lens contraption along with some instructions for using it hiding in a drawer. The instructions explained how to use the 'viewer' to look at the stereoscopic images (better known as 3-D) in the Stereo World Magazine! Orginally, I thought that Stereo World was a magazine about music or sound art, because people normally associate the word stereo with stereophonic sound. However, the word stereo actually has Greek origins relating to three-dimensionality.

So how does 3-D imaging work? It imitates our eyes! The average person's eyes project two slightly different images onto the retinas, which are then transformed in the brain into spatial representations. Using both eyes allow one to perceive spatial representations. But when we look at a regular image it is only "one-eyed" and therefore flat. When the lenses imitate a person's eyes, a pair of almost identical images are separated by the average distance between a person's eyes - the viewpoint becomes similar to the view seen by the left and right eye, thus creating a 3-D image! How cool is that? With 3-D movies, television, videogames, and art on the rise in popularity it is nice to know the basics of that technology.

Stereo World Magazine has been around since the 1970's and is quite a gem in our collection. It thoroughly keeps track of the past, present, and future of 3-D imaging. Feel free to come into the library to check out these fun magazines! We can even provide patrons with a handy-dandy pair of viewers.

-Library Assistant Rebecca Wilkinson

Parent Teacher Conference Circa 1825

Greetings from the Jean Outland Chrysler Library!
Today's blog post is brought to you by the Moses Myers Archives. We were transcribing some letters and came across a rather entertaining set of exchanges between Samuel Myers and his son's teacher, which today could be the equivalent to a parent-teacher conference. Through these letters we see that the dynamic between parents and teachers has not changed much since 1825. Consider this glance into the past of a tense moment between a parent and a teacher...

Here is the context:

Samuel Myers, son of Moses Myers, lived in Richmond, VA with his wife and his son named Moses II. When Moses turned eight-years old they sent him to the other side of town to be taught by a teacher named Jeremiah Osbourn. Mr. Osbourn's letters provide some fascinating insight into the teacher/parent dynamic of that time period.

The first letter:

In the first letter Mr. Osbourn confirms that Samuel's tuition payment has been recieved and he expresses his thanks for doing so. He writes: "Sir, I have received thirty dollars which you, this day sent me, in full compensation for the tuition of your son, Moses." Wait. Thirty bucks for a years worth of tuition!? I'll take that. But then again, this was the 1800s and thirty-dollars back then was about 600-and-something-dollars today. Jeremiah seems exceedingly grateful for the paymen: "Permit me, sir, to express my sincere thanks for this advance. It relieves me from the serious apprehension of being unable to clothe myself decently." 

The second letter:

In the second letter, things start heating up. Eight months after Moses started school, Jeremiah writes Samuel expressing his anxiety that Moses is not living up to the expecations of the school. He writes, "He was more successful in grammar than either of us had anticipated but, like the other children, his learning has sensibly evaporated in the long vacation. The peculiar difficulty attending Moses is his disinclination to study." I suppose that's a nice way of saying, "your kid finds everything else under the sun way more interesting than my grammar book." Jeremiah then offers some suggestions that might help Moses improve his education.

The third letter:

The third letter is, in my opinion, the most engaging part of the exchange, which was written five days after this previous letter. Jeremiah writes, "We agree that he has not applied himself to study as he might; but we may not perfectly agree that he has been properly instructed." Did Samuel Myers insult Jeremiah's capabilities as a teacher in his earlier reply? This part also brings up that timeless debate between parents and teachers: whoes fault is it if the child isn't learning? But, Jeremiah clearly see's the potential in Moses and knows what it would take to bring out the scholar: "If a radical change is to be effected in the distinction of a student, it can only be affected by prudent means applied for some considerable time. This is the case of your son Moses. This genius is equal to that of a good scholar, but not to that of the first order, whose orbit is very eccentric."

-Library Assistant Rebecca Wilkinson

Celebrate Opsail with the Myers Family!

As the boats of OpSail parade through our waters this weekend, it is the perfect opportunity to see tall ships  similar to those that local shipping merchants would have commissioned over two hundred years ago. The Myers family of Norfolk was one local family who attained prominence in the shipping industry in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. 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.

The patriarch of the family, Moses Myers, served briefly in the American Revolutionary War and helped to aid the cause for independence by acquiring military supplies for American forces. After marrying his wife Eliza Judah Chapman, Moses moved to Norfolk and began building his business.

By the height of his career in 1807, Moses owned his own fleet of merchant vessels, with an average of six ships at any time in the fleet. Ships with cargoes marked for Moses Myers arrived from ports all over Europe and the West Indies, carrying goods such as textiles, spices, sugar, liquor, coffee, tea, and iron. Moses Myers also traded in Smithfield hams, which had a reputation for exceptional quality.  He shipped hams to buyers as far as Great Britain, and sent them as gifts to friends and business associates.

Moses’ business suffered during the embargo of 1808-1809 and the War of 1812, rebounded, but then was devastated as a result of the crash of 1819. Despite these setbacks, Moses sat on the Common Council from 1794 to 1800, served as consul to France and the Netherlands, achieved the rank of Major in the militia, was appointed Superintendent of the Norfolk branch of the Bank of Richmond, and was a founder of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce.  His wife Eliza gave birth to twelve children, nine of whom survived to adulthood.

As you celebrate Opsail, consider stopping by the Moses Myers Historical House to learn more about the remarkable mercantile family that lived there for five generations!

The Moses Myers House has been on
Freemason Street for more than two centuries.

Moses Myers House

FREE ADMISSION
Open Friday through Sunday
Noon—4 p.m.
323 E Freemason St Norfolk, VA 23510


You can also contact the Jean Outland Chrysler Art Library to learn more about the Myers Family Papers, which contain a collection of family correspondence and business papers dating from the 18th century into the late 20th century.