Tales from the Exhibition Script

By Emma Porter, Curatorial Intern

There is a first time for everything, and I have loved every “first” during my time here at Fenimore Art Museum. As I conclude my internship at the Fenimore, I reflect on all that I have learned and what I will now "do" with my newly gained experience. I am fortunate enough to have been given this opportunity and to have worked with such outstanding professionals who greatly improve our society everyday. My mentor, Michelle Murdock works with profound intention and articulation. She inspired me to do the same with my projects and collaborations.

Bye Bye House! (I mean the Fenimore Art Museum) I will miss you!

For my concluding project I am working on the exhibition script for a 2012 exhibition featuring Kevin Gray's modern tintypes. Corresponding with Gray and sharing materials and ideas is exciting, and a true treasure, to say the least.

Kevin Gray, Devils Den (2)

Studying Gray’s work, what he has to say about it, and reading his graduate school thesis has been the ground work for constructing the exhibition script. Researching and writing about themes that correlate with Gray's artwork will deepen the viewers’ experience of the work. The sub-themes, if you will, surrounding Gray’s modern tintypes are: Civil War photography/photographers, the place of Gettysburg, the history of the panorama, and contemporary artists who use and reinterpret antiquated photographic techniques. I have learned how to organize and edit ideas into a coherent message that is both informative and appealing. As the Fenimore aims to produce more and more shows based on contemporary art, it becomes an even more dynamic institution and important contributor to our culture.

I will be returning as much as possible to the Fenimore to see the exhibitions and to catch up with the people I have met and learned from. I cannot thank Michelle enough for letting an undergraduate art history student intern at such a prestigious institution. She took much of her time and energy to teach and mentor; I am eternally grateful. A big thank you to Christine Rossi, Stephen Loughman, Eva Fognell, and Caitlin Miosek and others! Parting is such sweet sorrow. But it is comforting to know that there are people like these who make the world more beautiful each day.

Nature and The Smith-Telfer Photography Collection

By John Hart, Assistant Curator of Collections

I had a pleasant surprise during NYSHA’s Annual Meeting recently involving the work I used to do for Rights and Reproductions for Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers’ Museum. David Stradling, author of The Nature of New York: An Environmental History of the Empire State, was the keynote presenter this year and discussed the examination of the idealized landscapes of the Hudson River School artists.

It was a fascinating presentation and before he even began, he took a moment to thank me for the images I provided him from the Smith-Telfer Photography Collection for his book! I would get thank you notes once in a while, but have never been thanked, let alone acknowledged, in a university professor’s presentation before. It was certainly unexpected, greatly appreciated, and a privilege to help him with his book project.

If you have an interest in environmental history, The Nature of New York: An Environmental History of the Empire State, is certainly a book you should consider reading. And since the weather is starting to cooperate (maybe I should knock on wood now…), go out and enjoy the nature that David writes about. There’s nothing like a nice hike up a mountain to see what the great artists of the Hudson River School admired so greatly.

Early Photography, Meet 21st Century Technology

By John Hart, Assistant Curator of Collections

It seems like not a day goes by that I’m not working on something that involves a camera. When you have upwards of 150,000 objects to manage, it’s no wonder that when you work with something, you photograph it, upload the image into the collections database and add a few details about the object here and there. The image saves the next person time and acts as a record of the object's condition when the photograph was taken. But what about photographs themselves? What more can they tell us about a particular time period? The short answer is plenty, if you know what you’re looking at. Many historians will tell you that photographs provide a wealth of knowledge and always tell a story.

The first photographs are nothing like today’s photographs, and they involved far more time and patience than a simple point-and-shoot camera of today. Imagine sitting in front of a camera for several minutes while trying to hold a pose so as not to alter the final image.

The first form of commercially available photography developed around 1839 and was called a daguerreotype, after the inventor of the process, Louis Daguerre. The photograph above is a great example of an early daguerreotype (ca. 1850) and if you look closely at her ears, neck and her index finger, you can see that this image was embellished with a bit of gold to enhance the jewelry. This embellishment, common on daguerreotypes, is echoed in the image below, as well.

The embellishments didn’t stop there. Many daguerreotypes, and later tintypes and ambrotypes, were hand tinted to emulate a color image. Cheeks could be made rosy red, a Civil War soldier’s pants could be tinted blue, and the list goes on.

Since most of the processes for early photography are easily identified, researchers, curators, and historians can easily find a date range for an image. The best example I found for this is in the image below.

It’s probably hard to see, but at the base of this image, on the metal framework, there are two crossed cannons, one with a mark of “76” and the other of “61.” It seems likely these refer to 1776 and 1861, the start of the American Revolution and the beginning of the United States Civil War. At the top and bottom are the Union shield, American flags and “Union” arched over the image. This image therefore likely dates somewhere between 1861 and 1865 (give or take a few months). It may have been carried by a Union soldier to remind him of his children back home, but that’s just a guess. Because of its date, and from evidence on the image itself, this is a tintype, a photographic process that began around 1855 and was popular up until the 1930s.

Unfortunately we don’t know too much about the individuals in these images, but the photographs provide a wealth of knowledge, from dress, to jewelry, to national events.
Even today photography is used to document events and everyday life, but like the images of the 19th and early 20th centuries, they are so much more.

Images, from top to bottom:

Daguerreotype, ca. 1850, Photographer unknown. New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY. N0087.1945(01)
Daguerreotype, ca. 1850, Photographer unknown. New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY. N0149.1976(01)
Tintype, ca. 1861-1865, Photographer unknown. New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY. N0266.1976(07)

Finding Frida

By: Chris Rossi, Associate Curator of Exhibitions

It’s November, the trees are bare and the world is reduced to somber notes of ochre and burnt umber. So naturally, this curator’s thoughts turn toward warmer climates and tempestuous artists. How convenient that one of next year’s Fenimore Art Museum exhibits is Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray.

Nickolas Muray, 1892-1965, American (b. Hungary)

Frida with Nick in her Studio, Coyoacán

1941

Silver gelatin print

Friend, lover, confidant and photographer, Nickolas Muray captured Frida’s style and flash through his portraits. How to echo that in a gallery layout of Muray’s photographs with support graphics and color choices? Time for research! The book I Will Never Forget You: Frida Kahlo and Nickolas Muray explores Nick and Frida’s relationship through their passionate letters and Muray’s vibrant photos.

"Nick darling, I got my wonderful picture you sent me, I find it even more beautiful than in New York. Diego says that it is as marvelous as a Piero de la Francesca. To me it is more than that, it is a treasure, and besides, it will always remind me that morning... [when] we went to your shop to take photos. This one was one of them. And now I have it near me. You will always be inside the magenta rebozo (on the left side).” - Frida Kahlo to Nickolas Muray, 1939

Still not enough! Time to hit Netflix and watch Salma Hayek’s tour de force performance in Frida. This fabulous film brings both Frida and her work to life. It’s a bit of a steamy watch and not for those that blush easily! I wondered how Frida found time to paint with such an active and love life. . .

Finally, time to pour through Judy Chicago’s recent exploration of Frida and her work. Frida Kahlo: Face to Face brings a feminist perspective and new insight to Frida’s paintings and drawings. The book itself is sumptuous with great reproductions of Frida’s work and a beautiful layout in the style of a Mexican retalbo.

Nickolas Muray, 1892-1965, American (b. Hungary)

Frida painting The Two Fridas, Coyoacán

1939

Silver gelatin print

Research results: vibrant colors for the gallery and festive fonts to mirror the feeling of Frida’s life and work as portrayed through Nickolas Muray’s photographs.

Tour Management of Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray is by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services, Kansas City, Missouri

Motorin' Along, with the photo collection

John Hart, Assistant Curator of Collections

Driving past the Otesaga Resort Hotel, just down the street from the Fenimore Art Museum, is pretty much a daily occurrence for me since the storage facility for the museum is about two miles away from the actual Museum campus. I’m not usually surprised by what I see when I drive by, though there are a few times when my heart skips and I start to drool (not really, but close enough). Those are the times when a high-end car club will be there, probably having lunch at the Hawkeye Bar & Grill, or maybe even staying the night.

The other day there were several of what I think were Stutz Bearcats in the parking lot at the resort, though I’m not as familiar with those as I am with the more recognizable Ford of the pre-1932 vintage. Since I’m a car guy and own my grandfather’s 1929 Ford Model A Fordor, I thought maybe showing a few period photographs of historic automobiles from our Smith & Telfer Collection would be interesting.

My grandfather’s 1929 Model A

The first two show the same car at two different times in its life, but driven by the same person. In 1934, Arthur “Putt” Telfer (one half of the Smith & Telfer firm) must have thought this would be an interesting image to have - an old Model T Ford next to a probably-brand new 1934 Ford Victoria. The Victoria was Ford’s newest innovation after the Model A with a flathead V8 under the hood, a remarkable difference in speed and power compared to the Model T and A.

“Putt parked by 1934 Ford,” 1934

N0012.1975(0511). PH6820

Only a few years later the image below was taken, showing once again Putt behind the wheel of his car. In this image Louis Jones, one of the first directors of the New York State Historical Association (Fenimore Art Museum is the museum of NYSHA) in Cooperstown, is standing alongside the car talking to Putt while someone fills the front tire with air; we’re not sure who that person is unfortunately, maybe one of Putt’s grandsons?

“Lou Jones, Putt Telfer, Unidentified man,” ca. 1952

N0012.1975(0505). PH6814

The final image from the collection that I came across nearly made me fall to the floor. Not because it’s a beautiful car, though that was certainly part of it, but because this driver, Harry Davey is indirectly related to a Cooperstown family who was on the Titanic the night it sank. Davey was the driver for the Ryerson family. Arthur Ryerson and his wife Emily, their son John and their daughters, Emily and Susan, along with Emily’s maid, Victorine Chaudanson, were vacationing in Europe when they learned that their son, Arthur, Jr., had died in a car crash. The family boarded the Titanic in Liverpool. When the ship hit the iceberg and started to sink, Arthur Sr. gave up his own life-belt on the Titanic to save Victorine; he was never seen again. Despite several attempts, I could not learn anything of Davey, nor this beautiful car, even after staring at it for a long while.

“Harry Davey, Ryerson's Driver”

N0012.1975(0501). PH6810

The collection of images at the Fenimore Art Museum is pretty extensive and always growing, though my favorites by far are the historical images that you don’t always know you have.

See It Now in 3-D! Hi-tech imagery of the 1880s.

Doug Kendall, Curator of Collections

If you’ve been to the movies lately, you know that “3-D” is back in a big way. More and more movies must be viewed using plastic glasses provided by the theatre in return for a premium ticket price. I recently saw Despicable Me which was shown using “Real D 3D” TM technology. The movie was amusing, though I’m not convinced the illusion of three dimensions added much to it.

Of course, this isn’t the first wave of “3-D” image technology. 3-D goes way back—much further than Bwana Devil (1952) starring Robert Stack, considered the first color, American 3-D movie. As early as the 1860s, photographers were capturing images that could be viewed as if they were 3-dimensional. The last half of the 19th century was the first golden age of stereoscopic still images, usually known as stereographs or stereopticons.

It is necessary to take two photographs for a stereoscopic image. In the 19th century, photographers such as Cooperstown’s Washington G. Smith did this with two cameras or with one camera moved quickly to two positions.

In the Cooperstown area, Smith and his rival A. A. Cooley provided tourists with 3-D mementoes of their holidays on Otsego Lake. Cooley took this image of Kingfisher Tower, Edward Clark’s “folly” on the eastern shore of the lake, shortly after it was built in 1876. Smith recorded the journeys of the steamboat Natty Bumppo up and down the waters of the Glimmerglass.

Point Judith with Kingfisher Tower
Stereographic print on cardboard.
A. A. Cooley, Cooperstown, after 1876.
N0003.1995(PH46703)

Then again, stereoscopy also lent itself well to images of extraordinary events, such as “Professor Maillefert’s Sub-Marine Exhibition,” photographed by Smith in August 1871. Benjamin Maillefert, a Spanish-born engineer, pioneered methods of underwater blasting that helped make New York’s Hell Gate safe for shipping. Evidently he also travelled the country to demonstrate his methods. His performance on Otsego Lake was “witnessed by a large number of highly interested spectators” according to S. M. Shaw’s Chronicles of Cooperstown. Wash Smith undoubtedly believed that those spectators—as well as those who didn’t see the explosions first-hand—would want a 3-dimensional record of the event.

Professor Maillefert’s Sub-Marine Exhibition
Stereographic print on cardboard.
Washington G. Smith, 1871.
N1289.1946

Stereoscopy has faded in and out of popularity in the years since these images were created. With the reboot of cinematic 3-D and the advent of 3-D televisions and digital cameras, perhaps we are seeing its latest boom—will 3-D last this time?

Steamboat Landing-Rose Lawn
Stereographic print on cardboard.
Washington G. Smith, 1872-1898.
F0147.1959(38)

A Face to a Name

By John Hart, Assistant Curator of Collections

A while ago I wrote about Brevet Brigadier General T. Ellery Lord and the collections of objects at the museum that he once owned. Well, as luck would have it, one of his distant relatives – actually the daughter of the donor who gave us Lord’s swords – contacted us recently and sent along a copy of the Deed of Gift from 1988. I was shocked when I looked at it and saw not just the three swords, but a daguerreotype listed on the form. I had looked at this form before in our files and can’t believe I missed the photo! Needless to say it took some digging and detective work, but I found the image in storage and it’s absolutely fantastic.

[Captain] T. Ellery Lord (1841-1886), Daguerreotype, Artist Unknown. ca. March 21, 1863- June 1, 1865.

N0030.1988. New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, New York.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that we have the frock coat pictured in the daguerreotype. I examined Lord’s two frocks that we have and both show evidence of having shoulder boards but never were equipped with the catch and latch for epaulettes. The coats are correct for the rank of Captain, but they are certainly not the one he’s wearing in our image. We do have the epaulettes though, so we are still able to interpret the differences in uniforms. Sadly, too, we don’t have the shoulder boards for the rank of Captain.

Frock Coat, Maker unknown, Wool and brass. N0262.1941.

New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY

Frock Coat, Maker unknown, Wool and brass. N0263.1941.

New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, NY

The collection of T. Ellery Lord’s objects is still one of the most comprehensive of its kind at the New York State Historical Association, and it certainly provides a wonderful look into the life, ranks, and promotions he received.

A Day With a Photographer

By John Hart, Assistant Curator of Collections

As the Coordinator for Rights, Reproduction and Photo Sales at the Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers’ Museum, I often get to call upon our local museum friend and photographer, Richard Walker and his wife, Zibby. Richard has been taking photographs of objects at the museums for quite some time and I am fortunate enough to work with him to photograph newly accessioned objects, update our existing cache of images, or discuss ideas for future projects.

Bear and Pears, 1825-1835, Unknown artist, Oil on wood panel. N0044.1961. Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY. Photograph by Richard Walker.

It wasn’t until after I started working with Richard that I found out that I was already very familiar with his work. Richard has done photography for the Newport Restoration Foundation, based in Newport, RI, where I held an internship in 2007 while a student with the Cooperstown Graduate Program. Talk about small world. (Oddly enough I found out recently that Chris Rossi, our Associate Curator of Exhibitions, designed and constructed the object mounts that I had to fuss with while doing inventories at Rough Point, the home of Doris Duke that the Foundation operates.)

Indian Maiden, (Detail) 1865-1875 by Thomas V. Brooks (1825-1895), Wood and paint, N0041.1972. Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY. Photograph by Richard Walker.

I have always been interested in photography but never had a real knack for it, though after watching Richard during our sessions, I’d like to think that I’m learning something as I share stories and the history of the objects with him. It’s amazing how a slight change in lighting or angle can create a more dramatic effect on a piece or make the colors ‘pop.’ And as we phase out the use of transparencies, at least to a certain degree, having digital images created by an artist in his own right helps us not only share our images with the world, but also create a lasting record of the object for future condition issues, cataloguing, etc.

Harvesting Hops near Cooperstown, New York, 1884 by Frank Waller (1842-1923), Oil on canvas, F0077.1998. The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, NY. Photograph by Richard Walker.

Without a doubt, the Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers’ Museum will have a long lasting relationship with Richard as a photographer, but more importantly as a friend and patron, a feeling that is mutually shared.

Installing "In Our Time"

By: Michelle Murdock, Curator of Collections

I have to admit that of all the artwork we exhibit at Fenimore Art Museum, I have a soft spot for photography. Our latest photography exhibition is In Our Time: The World as Seen by Magnum Photographers. It is traveling to us from the George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, N.Y.

In Our Time is a substantial show – in terms of content, of course, but also in regard to the number of photographs included. Chris Rossi and I spent the better part of three days unpacking and laying out the photos in the Clark Gallery last week. The exhibition was not organized by section so we had to determine how we wanted to display the extremely varied images. We decided upon topic areas that include World War II, the Middle East, Africa, New York City and famous personages.

Part of laying out an exhibition also includes determining where the graphics are placed. You’ll see in this image that we use paper mock-ups of the text panels and vinyl lettering.

The final product is truly outstanding. One of our security guards dropped by to take a look at the photos as we were hanging them. He was telling us how interesting and thought-provoking the images are for him. We discussed how they make you take a step back from your present circumstances and remember the history you’ve seen throughout your life – thanks to the talented photographers that comprise Magnum Photos, Inc.

The exhibition is open through September 6th.

Caring for Photographic Negatives

By: John Hart, Assistant Curator of Collections
This blog was inspired by a wonderful friend of the museum who called me last week to ask me about caring for photographic negatives. There are probably fewer negatives out there than there was only a few years ago, thanks in part to advances in digital technology, but for many of us, myself included, we have negatives lying around the house that we’ve had for many years.

So how do you care for those negatives when you get them home? What if you’re cleaning out granny’s attic and find boxes and boxes of old negatives? And what’s the weird smell? Well, hopefully this will help explain some of the mystery behind negatives.

Caring for them is pretty easy actually. If they’re in strips, you can buy negative sleeves in a variety of sizes from online retailers like Light Impressions. You can even buy them with holes punched in the sides to load them into binders. But you have to keep in mind that you need something inert, meaning that it doesn’t react to temperature and humidity and doesn’t throw off gases which could harm your film. Make sure you’re getting protectors that are made of polyethylene or polypropylene. Both are archivally safe, inert plastics that nearly every museum uses in one way or another.

If you find negatives in an attic or in a basement, chances are they’ll have some condition issues, especially if it’s a damp or extremely warm environment. In some cases, the negatives might be too far gone to save, but if you’re lucky you can save them. First, get them to a stable environment. Usually the main floor of a house is the best place since the temperature and humidity are more or less stable. Carefully separate them and put them into the protectors, but use caution, over time they may have fused and if you pull too hard, you’re likely to ruin them. You may even want to consider scanning them like we do at the museum. We’ll scan at a high resolution once and then make sure the negative is preserved and housed safely, and only re-scanned it if it’s absolutely necessary or if better scanning technology emerges.

And finally, you’ve found a box of negatives and when you open it up, it smells like vinegar. Congratulations, you’ve just found negatives made from cellulose nitrate. There’s a lot of science behind why cellulose nitrate film smells like vinegar, but it’s bad. Very bad. If you smell vinegar, that means the film is staring to break down. Eventually it’ll completely degrade so your best bet is to scan the film at the highest resolution you can before it disintegrates or consult a conservator or film conservation company and have the negative transferred to a new film stock. The National Film Preservation Foundation can provide more information on this method, which is what they recommend.

Next time I’ll talk about the Smith-Telfer Photographic Collection which the New York State Historical Association is fortunate to have been given. You may have never seen these types of negatives before either. Think negatives on glass.

Milo Stewart, Sr.

By: Michelle L. Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions
Those of us that have lived in Cooperstown for a while undoubtedly know Milo Stewart. Milo was Director of Education at Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers’ Museum starting in the late 1950s. One of the many hats he wore was that of Curator of Photography. Makes sense since Stewart is widely recognized as one of our premier local photographers.

Stewart wasn’t always a local though. He grew up in the Buffalo area before coming here in the 1950s. “It didn’t take long for me to figure out that the village of Cooperstown and the surrounding countryside offered rich photographic opportunities,” Milo said. “Otsego Lake and the hilled vistas that frame it and the wide range of activities that take place upon it, from ice fishing to Flying Scots, were exciting. The splendid array of homes and businesses representing a variety of architectural styles were beautiful. And a host of seemingly unending creative community activities flourished, propelled by energetic, smart and friendly people.” Stewart’s other photographic projects include exhaustive surveys of New York’s courthouses, Greek Revival buildings, Route 20 and dying Main Streets – a project that was used by NYSHA for preservation efforts.

In 2006, Fenimore Art Museum had the long overdue opportunity to exhibit over 70 of Milo Stewart’s works. Both locals and friends from away enjoyed the celebration of one of Cooperstown’s favorite sons. After the exhibition, we were fortunate to be able to purchase three of those works for our collection.

Stewart’s sharp humor is reflected in this quote, which sums up his tenure at the museums - “A whole lot of serendipity put me on the road for projects that would lead me to all but six of New York’s 62 counties and use up most of my vacation time.” We were very fortunate that Milo was so dedicated and meticulous in his endeavors!

What did you do on your summer vacation?

By: Doug Kendall, Curator of Collections
It’s a gloomy late October afternoon in Cooperstown. The leaves are down, there’s word of blizzards out West and summer vacation is only a distant memory.

This past summer my family visited Prince Edward Island, Canada, as we often do—my parents first visited PEI in 1967 and now my wife , son and I continue that tradition. The drive allows us to see parts of New England and New Brunswick along the way. There’s usually some time for a busman’s holiday too and this year we stopped on the way home to visit the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John. It’s neat place with historical and art exhibits located in the historic uptown harbor area—inside an urban mall, of all places.

We took some pictures of Saint John to jog our memories on damp fall afternoons like this one. The tradition of bringing home visual reminders of vacations goes way back, though. The photography collections here at the Fenimore Art Museum include such personal mementoes.

When I was young, one of my uncles would invariably show slides of his vacations when we all got together for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Sometimes this was entertaining, sometimes not so much.

Nowadays, those have been supplanted by Powerpoint presentations, family web site and blogs. One hundred years ago, the vacation slide show was well established, but in those days the slides were made of glass and they were shown with a lantern slide projector.

A few years ago, the Museum acquired a collection of lantern slides taken about 1905 in an online auction. We were interested in them because most of the scenes were of Otsego County, our part of upstate New York. When we received them, it seemed that the set was taken on someone’s summer vacation. We don’t know who the tourists were, but they were clearly taken by Otsego Lake scenery and the lakefront in Cooperstown village. They also spent time elsewhere in the area, as there are several slides of the Major’s Inn in Gilbertsville as well as other locations. The tourist who took these lantern slides didn’t often focus on people. But this image of boys wading in the lake somehow seems much more recent than the early 20th century. The summer vacation was still a new phenomenon to most Americans at that time, so early documentation of one family’s trip to Otsego County is an intriguing addition to the Museum’s collections.
So…what did you do on your summer vacation?

From top to bottom:

Boys Wading in Otsego Lake. N0006.2004(19) Museum Purchase.

Otsego Lake with Kingfisher Tower. N0006.2004(10) Museum Purchase.

The Major’s Inn, Gilbertsville, NY. N0006.2004(26) Museum Purchase.

Lakefront Park with docks, Otsego Lake. N0006.2004(23) Museum Purchase.

Hansi Durlach’s Photographs of Sharon Springs, N.Y.

By: Michelle L. Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions

We all know the feeling. You’re driving along, maybe exploring a new route leading you to a familiar place, when you discover something new. Or you happen to notice something – really notice something – for the first time. Several years ago I had this experience driving through Sharon Springs, New York, a few miles east of Cooperstown. Most folks only know the Sharon Springs that sits right on Route 20, a major East-West thoroughfare through central New York. But just a very short way off of 20, north on Route 10, is one of the most haunted places I’ve been. Not Halloween-haunted, just resounding with the murmurs of a life (two lives, in fact) long gone. I knew there had to be more to this place.
The second of those two lives was captured on film by the photographer Hansi Durlach who was born in 1930 in Vienna, Austria. From 1968 to 1972, she shot the majority of the Sharon Springs photographs and they were eventually published in the 1980 book The Short Season of Sharon Springs: Portrait of Another New York. Stuart Blumin, professor of history at Cornell University, wrote the text of the book. In October 2001, Durlach gave the Fenimore Art Museum a collection of over 300 of her photographs and negatives of this small town. After having just fell in love with Sharon Springs, I was so excited for the museum to receive this collection.

In the 1960s while Durlach was studying photography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under Minor White, she applied for a Radcliffe Institute grant to conduct a socio-photographic documentary of Sharon Springs. Her interest in the village initially stemmed from her husband’s family, who had summered there beginning in the late 1800s, and grew based on her own ethnic heritage, the variety of people in the community, the architecture, and the natural environment of the rural village. Her goals as outlined in the grant narrative were to create a permanent visual record of the people and environment of Sharon Springs that conveyed a sense of place, and to position the unique qualities of the village into a larger context.
Sharon Springs began its history as a spa resort in 1825 when a David Eldredge set up a boardinghouse there, almost a quarter century after Saratoga Springs, 60 miles northeast of Sharon Springs, became a resort town. Eldredge’s investment was meant to attract visitors to the natural mineral springs located in the village. During the heyday of Sharon Springs’ popularity, the majority of the visiting population was Protestant. Also included, however, was a population of upper-class German Jews from Manhattan who were accepted into the Protestant society. When spa-going fell into disfavor, the Jewish population chose to continue visiting Sharon Springs and by 1900, they comprised the majority of the summer population. After World War I, less prosperous Eastern and Central European Jews from Brooklyn replaced the wealthy Manhattan Jews. More specifically, the Sharon Springs Jewish population was Hasidic Jews of the Satmar sect. In the late 1950s, a Satmar Rabbi from Brooklyn, Yoel Teitelbaum, began visiting the village and many of his followers followed suit. Even after his death in 1979, a few Satmar continued to visit the baths, sustaining Sharon Springs’ status as a resort for a few more decades. They found the new solitude of Sharon Springs a welcome change from the hectic pace of life in the city – a place where they could enjoy the health aspects of the town without the social pressures of the previous era. At the time of Durlach’s project, Sharon Springs’ visiting population was a largely older group of Hasidic Satmar Jews who had been coming since the days of Rabbi Teitelbaum. There is no question of her success in achieving her goals. Durlach’s photographs are infused with the strength, spirit and passion of a people committed to the memory of the past, the distinction of the present, and the optimism of the future.

All photography is from the collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY.

Walker Evans and Allie Mae Burroughs

By: Michelle L. Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions

The last time we talked about our new exhibition, Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver, we learned about Evans’ early artistic career and the beginning of his work for President Roosevelt’s Farm Security Administration. Today, let’s look at one of Evans’ most famous photos from his FSA work, Alabama Cotton Tenant Farmer’s Wife (Allie Mae Burroughs) (1936) and how curator John Hill has helped us to see her with a fresh perspective. Below is text by Hill and Jerry L. Thompson, Evans’ student and assistant:

Many of us recognize Allie Mae without looking closely at her. We don’t really scan the image for details, and we tend to think about her as we did the first few times, or first few dozen times, we saw her. We have seen Allie Mae, and Evans’ other FSA images, so often that we might say we recognize them rather than really look at them. However, through the process of scanning the negatives and printing the images on a large scale, details that we never noticed before became suddenly obvious, and refresh the image as if it were the first time we’ve seen it.

Alabama Cotton Tenant Farmer’s Wife is shot in Evans’s signature straightforward and dispassionate style, yet it evokes depths of emotion and character. Posed against the weathered boards of her farmhouse, her powerful gaze and enigmatic expression convey both strength and weariness. As with many subjects that Evans knew would be of extraordinary interest, he made 4 exposures of the portrait. Only the one seen in this exhibition was made with “open flash fill.”

This deceptively simple portrait is one of Evans’ best-known and most powerful works. Much of that renown is due to his cool rendering and the distance he maintained in order to make a dispassionate, yet universal, record. These are the elements that set Evans’ work apart. John Hill’s new prints reinforce those elements.

This exhibition is made possible in part by The Lisette Model Foundation and The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc.

Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver is on view through December 31, 2009.

Top: Alabama Cotton Tenant Farmer’s Wife (Allie Mae Burroughs) (1936)

Finding Walker Evans

By: Michelle L. Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions

I must’ve been in about 6th grade or so when I first learned about Walker Evans and his work for the Farm Security Administration from 1935-1936. I imagine that my classmates and I simply learned that he took pictures of people suffering during the Great Depression – or at least that’s what we had to remember for the exam! But for some reason, Walker Evans and the story of the FSA has stuck with me all these years. By the time I was in college, though, taking an introductory art history class, my classmates and I were debating whether or not Evans’ images were pure propaganda. I don’t recall a lot of discussion about the artistic merits of his FSA photographs during that class. We all agreed that Walker Evans was “important” but we all had different reasons why we thought that.

So, when an old friend of Fenimore Art Museum told us about an innovative Walker Evans exhibition a few years ago, I was very excited. A colleague of mine, Chris Rossi, went to New York to take a peek at the show and came back with nothing but praise. I remember her saying, “Michelle, I’ve seen the picture of Bud Field’s Family thousands of times, but I’ve never noticed the cat under the bed. The detail in the prints is outstanding.”

Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver is organized by John Hill, who taught with Evans at the Yale School of Art and was the executor of his Estate. Hill presents a new perspective on Evans’ work by comparing photographs printed during Evans’ lifetime with contemporary ink-jet prints made from digital files, created from scans of original negatives. The enlarged ink-jet prints reveal intricate details that are less accessible in the earlier versions of the images on view, which include vintage gelatin silver prints, books and magazines.
Next time, we’ll go into even more detail on this fascinating exhibition. Can’t wait for more? Here are a couple of essays you may want to read: John Szarkowski's essay in the Museum of Modern Art catalog of the Evans' 1971 retrospective, and Lincoln Kirstein's afterword for Walker Evans’ American Photographs.

This exhibition is made possible in part by The Lisette Model Foundation and The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc.

Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver is on view through December 31, 2009.

Top: Walker Evans, 1937

Center: Bud Field's Family, 1936

Bottom: Installing Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver at Fenimore Art Museum, July 2009

Early Photography Meets 20th-Century Sleuthing

By:John Hart, Assistant Curator of Collections

When I started working for The Farmers’ Museum and The New York State Historical Association less than 10 months ago, I knew that several projects would be coming my way and that over time I’d find more on my own. One of those projects involved a “mystery” box that had been tentatively identified as being a case for a camera. Simple enough, I thought. Then my curiosity got the better of me and as I looked at this box, I noticed little dimples and hinges in strategic locations. I already had figured out that the case probably opened somehow and an old box camera probably fit into it; never did I realize what I would find when I pushed this button and swung the hinges down.
This camera instantly became one of my favorite pieces in the NYSHA collection, not only for its sheer beauty and simplicity, but for what I learned as I researched the maker, model, and shutter. What I found was that this camera was built by the Rochester Optical Company around 1886 and that the shutter mechanism that is now attached was not the original shutter. The new owner must have had a fair bit of knowledge of photography because they married an Athlete Shutter made by the Prosch Manufacturing Company, a top-of-the-line model in its day, to the camera, allowing it to take clearer and sharper images.

For me, this camera represents not only precious craftsmanship that is rarely seen today, but something that someone in the late 19th and early 20th centuries used to preserve their memories, much like the photographers have done at the Fenimore Art Museum’s American Photography: Recent Acquisitions. NYSHA not only collects historic photographs, but contemporary ones as well, which brings the number of photographs in our collection to nearly 150,000 including a large collection from the photographers Washington G. Smith and Arthur Telfer. Technology has come a long way since this camera and Smith-Telfer’s time, but you have to admit, there’s just something about an object like this that makes you stop, slow down, and admire a somewhat simpler time.

Cooperstown Students open WPA Exhibit

By: Ansel Laurio, Cooperstown Graduate Program, Class of 2009

Exhibit panels have been printed and final preparations are well underway for the upcoming exhibition at the New York State Historical Association’s Research Library – Doubleday and the WPA: National Relief for a National Pastime – chronicaling Doubleday Field’s rise from sandlot to icon during the early part of the twentieth century. Many are aware of the legend of baseball’s invention by Abner Doubleday on the location of the famous field in 1839. Few know, however, how the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal agency formed during the Great Depression, helped to create the Doubleday Field which we know and enjoy today.
This wintry view from a nearby rooftop shows the skeletal grandstand under construction. WPA projects such as Doubleday Field’s improvements brought hope to people weathering the bleak economy. Winter 1938/1939.

Working along with my fellow Cooperstown Graduate Program classmates, Ashley Domm, Erin Andrews, and Nicholas Wood, we have created an exhibit that explores the transformation of Doubleday Field by the WPA for baseball’s centennial season in 1939. The subsequent celebration was an expression of hope and pride for a community dealing with hard economic times. The research we have done for this exhibit uncovered never before exhibited photographs from the Smith and Telfer Collection, as well as blueprints and broadsides from the NYSHA Research Library. We were fortunate to be able to work closely with and receive loaned objects from The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Crowds gathering in Cooperstown during baseball’s centennial season, 1939.

The exhibit will be open to the public on May 15th, and we hope that you will all stop by to check it out! The Research Library is open Monday through Friday, 10:00am-5:00pm.

Top: Doubleday Field Construction, 1939. NYSHA collection, PH 15,287.

Bottom: Opening Day, Doubleday Field, 1939. Smith and Telfer Collection 5-12198.

American Photography: Recent Acquisitions

By: Michelle L. Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions

Fenimore Art Museum has been actively collecting photographs by contemporary artists since 1998. Each new work enriches the Museum’s photographic collection by adding to the evolution of photographic techniques and subject matter from the dawn of photography to the present day.

The images in this upcoming exhibition are the highlights of the museum’s acquisitions of this new material. From Bruce Davidson, who was praised by John Szarkowski, former Director of the Photography Department at the Museum of Modern Art, to Milo Stewart, Sr., a renowned Cooperstown documentary photographer for 30-plus-years, each artist has contributed his or her unique perspective on the art of photography. The portraits, landscapes, genre scenes, cityscapes and abstract images harmonize with the museum’s painting collections of the same subject matter.

The photography collection at Fenimore Art Museum numbers nearly 125,000 images which range from mid-19th century daguerreotypes and tintypes to 21st century digital prints. The heart of the collection is a group of several thousand glass plate negatives from the Cooperstown photography firm of Smith & Telfer, which was in operation for over 100 years.

American Photography: Recent Acquisitions will be on view at Fenimore Art Museum from April 1 through August 2, 2009.

Left: Kaaterskill Clove, North Lake, NY, 1997. James Bleecker (born 1960). Museum Purchase, N0024.2001

Right: Jefferson County Courthouse, Watertown, NY, 1974. Milo Stewart (born 1928). Gift of the artist, N0002.2008 (3)

Sledding in Cooperstown

By: Michelle Murdock, Curator of Exhibitions

When’s the last time you went sledding? I’m fortunate to have a terrific sledding hill at my house, which my family and I use as much as possible. We especially like to sled by moonlight with our friends.

Kids in Cooperstown have sledded at today’s Bassett Hall since the late 19th century. This treasured tradition is just one of many elements that make up the community’s shared memory. Susan Fenimore Cooper, daughter of the novelist James Fenimore Cooper, founded the Orphanage in 1870. Over the years it underwent a name change, fire, and renovations, and finally closed in 1942. Since then, the building at the corner of Beaver Street and Susquehanna Avenue has been a part of the Bassett Healthcare complex, serving as a nurses’ residence, office space, and meeting place. A sledding weathervane atop the building is an all-season reminder of a continuing tradition.

Maybe there’s a park near you with a little hill you could sled down? Bundle up, gather your friends, and make a few snow angels while you’re at it!

Sledding at the Orphanage, 1913

Smith & Telfer Collection, 5-1676