The Etching and Engraving Picture File

The Etching and Engraving Picture File is one of San Francisco Public Library’s hidden gems. Originally known simply as the “picture file,” it is a collection of 19th century prints organized by subject.

The collection is vast, taking up nearly 100 linear feet of file cabinet space. Being hidden from view under lock and key, it requires a trip to 4th floor Art, Music and Recreation Center to partake of its riches.



There are folders for over 4,500 different subject headings. Some folders have only a single image while others have dozens.

There is good reason to believe that work on the Etching and Engraving Picture File was begun in the 1960s. It has undoubtedly been the work of many hands over many years.

Celeste West, librarian and editor of Synergy, the publication of BARC (the Bay Area Reference Center sponsored by SFPL), gave a very good description of this special collection in the February 1969 issue of the newsletter:

The vast picture collection now being classified and organized at SFPL is one of the most unusual to be housed in a public library. It will contain a million vintage illustrations obtained from 18th and 19th century books and periodicals. The collection is a fine resource in cultural history, providing pictorial information as well as examples of the distinctive art styles in vogue. Of special reference interest is the large section of portraits, which includes many copies noted in the ALA Portrait Index (1906). The picture file should delight historian, artist, and plain browser in its varied scope — everything from the intricate filigree of gothic engravings, through quack medicine ads, and even 1881 racetrack programs from England.

[Author, publisher and librarian Celeste West, famed for her activism and as an editor of the book The Revolting Librarians, interspersed images from the collection through the issues of Synergy.]



As you can see from the newsletter cover above, the images in the collection were created using block print technology. From the beginning of the 19th century, lithography or prints using wooden blocks revolutionized commercial publishing. The Etching and Engraving Picture makes use of imagery from the popular illustrated magazines of that time along with individual prints and engravings.

With the advent and growing availability of photography images like these became thought of as old-fashioned and anachronistic. They did find favor among collage artists like the surrealist Max Ernst or in the “paste-ups” by San Francisco artist Jess.

One of the virtues of the images of this collection is that they are entirely copyright free. In his book Five Quarts: A Personal and Natural History of Blood, author Bill Hayes credits our Etching and Engraving Picture File for this image of Leonardo da Vinci. Since there is no legal reason to credit this public domain collection, there is no way of knowing how many other books we have helped to illustrate.


Left: Picture file reproduction in Five Quarts; Right: Image from the Picture file.

These images are also provide inspiration for visual artists. Children’s book illustrator K-Fai Steele credits this collection for inspiring the artwork in his book Okapi Tale, authored by Jacob Kramer. In an interview Steele noted that:

The cover is one of my favorite drawings from the book. When I was doing research for the visual world, in particular the Okapi’s factory, I started by looking at images from mills and mill towns in New England using the Etching and Engraving Picture File Collection at the San Francisco Public Library.

from the folder ”Mills and Mill-Work”

We have had patrons use images from the Etching and Engraving Picture to help them design restaurant menus or to provide inspiration for a tattoo. We treat the images like reference items requiring collateral ID while they are being used in the Library. While the Library does have excellent scanners for patrons to use, we do circulate individual images from our reference desk to library card holders.

Keep the Etching and Engraving Picture File in mind whenever you or a patron need artistic inspiration or if you want to take a little time to disappear down a visual rabbit hole.

Re-opening The Art, Music and Recreation Center

After a long pandemic hiatus, the Art, Music and Recreation Center of the San Francisco Public is open again!  

Come back to enjoy our Etching and Engraving Picture File of 19th century engravings cataloged by subject.

"Parties" - images from the Etching and Engraving Picture File

Peruse our popular song book collections.

Page through beautifully illustrated exhibition catalogs.

Take a spin with our collection of vintage vinyl.

Visit our webpage to learn more about the resources of the Art, Music and Recreation Center.  We also have a listing of Art and Music related online databases.

If you can't visit us at the Fourth Floor at the top of the stairs in the Main Library, you can reach us by phone as 415-557-4525 or by email at artmusicrec@sfpl.org.

Nature and Its Applications - an illustration index

With the wealth of information and data available through the World Wide Web, often the dilemma for the researcher is navigating this over-whelming quantity of information and data. The job of the librarian is to understand how to both evaluate and supplement this wealth of information.

A well-made and well-conceived reference book can often open up an unknown world of possibilities. These books that we still depend upon are the product of the work of creative and assiduous librarians of years past.

Jessie Croft Ellis is the creator of four such references in the Art, Music and Recreation Center.  Ms. Ellis received a Bachelors degree from the University of Michigan in 1923.  She conducted her original work at the School of Architecture but later became a librarian in the school of Business Administration at the University.

There are many ways to search for images -- a Google image search, an online database like the New York Public Library Picture Collection or specialized files organized by subject like the Etching and Engraving Picture file that we maintain at the San Francisco Public Library.  The indexes created by Jessie Croft Ellis are also organized by subject and provide references to images in books and periodicals.

Her first work was the Nature Index of 1930 which was expanded, in 1949, to become Nature and Its Applications.  The former indexed 5,000 references and the latter indexed 200,000 references. The earlier work retains value because it is not as vast and because a larger percentage of the images are in the public domain.

These two indexes are dominated by plants and animals.  Nature-scapes like "field," "forest," "garden," "pond" or "waterfall" are also included.  There are broader categories like "feather," "dog," "wildcat," "rocks," or "seed."  But most of the categories are very specific.

Using redwood as an example there are categories for Redwood Forest, Redwood Forest Road, Redwood Tree, Redwood Tree Cone, Redwood Tree Roots, Redwood Tree Twig and Redwood Wood.

The majority of images are from popular magazines from the time like American Forestry, American Museum Journal (the predecessor of Natural History), Better Homes and Gardens, California Arts and Architecture, Country Life, House Beautiful, National Geographic Magazine, Nature Magazine, etc... Selected books, dictionaries and encyclopedias are also indexed.

One entry under Redwood Tree is the citation "Count life 35:67 Mar '19" refering to Country Life vol. 35 (March 1919), 67.  The image above (located in Google books using Ms. Ellis's index) accompanies an advertisement for the California Redwood Association.  This association existed not to conserve the redwood, but to exploit it.  They extol the conifer's "soft ... (yet firm) texture [that] makes it especially suitable for sand-blasting, hand-carving and other unusual treatments."

It's nonetheless a striking image with the primitive truck bathed in sunbeams showing the scale of the forest's grandeur and wonder.

The citation for the above image is "Fortune 3: 3 My '31" meaning Fortune vol. 3 (May 1931), 3. It is also part of an advertisement, this one by "Californians Inc." promoting our City of San Francisco "where life is better."

San Francisco is the center of the world's most varied outdoorland [sic]... Almost in an instant, whenever you choose, the stir of the city may be left behind as you drive along the ocean or through fragrant valleys.

This artistic photograph truly gives a sense of the redwood's scale.  The presence of the lone car projects a dual sense of escape and accessibility (fundamentals of advertising to this day).  But even without knowing the wider context, the photograph works on its own as a work of art.

By consulting Nature and Its Applications, the user can get more than just a beautiful or striking image but also an understanding of how nature was viewed -- as an area of study, wonder, beauty or exploitation.

Here is a bibliography of Jessie Croft Ellis' works at the Library.


General Index to Illustrations; 22000 Selected References In all fields Exclusive of Nature, compiled by Jessie Croft Ellis (The F.W. Faxon Company, 1931).

Index to Illustrations, by Jessie Croft Ellis (Boston : F. W. Faxon Co., 1966).

Nature and Its Applications; Over 200,000 Selected References to Nature Forms and Illustrations of Nature as Used in Every Way, compiled by Jessie Croft Ellis (F.W. Faxon Co., 1949).

Nature Index; 5000 Selected References to Nature Forms and Illustrations of Nature in Design, Painting and Sculpture, compiled by Jessie Croft Ellis (The F.W. Faxon Company, 1930).

Extreme Fashion: A Survey of Women's Fashion, pt. 2

Extreme Style: A Survey of Women’s Fashion continues to be on display in the Art, Music and Recreation Center on the 4th floor of the Main Library through mid-October.

Earlier blog entry: Extreme Style: A Survey of Women’s Fashion, pt. 1 (August 3, 2014)

Swimming suit 1885 - source: Etching and Engraving Picture File

19th century swimwear and tennis wear: When women first began to swim, beaches were strictly segregated between men and women. Even so, modesty was the goal with style not much of a consideration. The first swimsuits were far from practical or comfortable; ladies went as far as to sew lead weights into the hem of the "bathing gown" to prevent the dress from floating up and exposing their (stocking covered) legs. Bathing costumes were made of a heavy wool flannel that absorbed pounds of water. When women began playing tennis in the late 1800s, they basically just wore their everyday clothing. Some of the more aggressive players raised their hemlines a few inches for better mobility.

 A Perfect Health Corset Superior to all Others - source: Etching and Engraving Picture File

Corsets: Corsets were in style for centuries. The shapes changed in order to modify the body to conform to whatever idealized figure was in style. The materials changed from iron to steel to whalebone. They were worn by all economic classes and all ages. There were even special styles designed to be worn while sleeping. In the Victorian era girls as young as one year old were put in corsets. They were said to improve a girl’s posture and health, although there is no word on why a boy’s health did not require the same garment.

Panniers: 17th-18th c. The French word pannier translates as basket, and the understructures to support this style were originally made of woven wicker baskets tied to the waist. Doors were reconfigured and armless chairs were designed in response to the fashion.

Cage Crinolines or Hoop Skirts: When metal cage crinolines were patented in 1856 they were an immediate hit. Women were overjoyed with this invention because it meant they could eliminate the six heavy petticoats they had been wearing to achieve the ultra-full skirted look then in style. After the cage was adopted, skirts became even fuller, often using 20 yards of fabric. At the height of their popularity enough steel was produced in Sheffield, England to make half a million hoops in one week. The crinoline knew no class differences and was adopted simultaneously by all, with only the quality of the crinoline material changing. The inflatable rubber crinoline, an attempt to reduce the weight of steel hoops, was a short-lived fad that never really caught on.

Bustles: In the mid to late 19th century the circular hoop skirt shifted until all of the fullness was in the back. This major change in silhouette in such a short time is attributed to the influence of Charles Frederick Worth, the world’s first

Couturier. Professional fashion designers are so central to our understanding of style that it is hard to believe that they’ve only been dominant for a short time. Worth revolutionized the business of dressmaking. He opened The House of Worth in Paris in 1871, and began the custom of presenting seasonal collections of his own designs. He was also the first to put labels into the clothing he manufactured. As other couturiers appeared the desire for new styles became a demand for new styles.

Hobble skirts: During the first decade of the 1900s, just as women began demanding more freedom and equal rights, one of the most restrictive fashions of the twentieth century came into style. This was the hobble skirt, a slim, ankle-length skirt that grew narrower from the hips to the hem. Popular between 1905 and 1910, the hobble skirt was so tight at the ankles that the woman wearing it could only walk in very short steps. Horses are hobbled by tying their front legs together with a short rope to keep them from running away. The hobble skirt was named after this. Women who wore the skirt often wore a special contraption underneath it. The hobble garter was a band made of two loops of fabric attached to each leg just below the knee. The bands were connected by a short strip of cloth preventing the wearer from accidentally taking a normal stride and ripping the fashionable skirt.

Chopines: Developed in the early sixteenth century in Venice, the high-platformed shoe called the chopine had both a practical and symbolic function. It was designed to protect the foot from irregularly paved and wet or muddy streets, but the enhancement of stature also played a role. The wearer literally wanted to stand out in a crowd. The chopine's height introduced an awkwardness and instability in a woman that required her to rely on an attendant to help her walk. While most examples are between three and five inches tall, more extreme versions rose to over 18 inches.

Platform Shoes: 20th and 21st century descendants of the Chopine became fashionable in the 1940’s, 1970’s and the first decade of the 21st century. The silhouettes from each era are remarkably similar.

Xray foot in stiletto - source: Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed by Harold Koda

Stilettos & High Heels: 16th – 21st centuries at various times. High heels were first worn by men in the 16th century to help secure the foot in a stirrup for horseback riding. Women soon adopted them and high heels have cycled in and out of fashion ever since.


CURRENT EXTREMES?

How do we strive to stay stylish today? Will anything we wear be considered extreme in 100 years? Compared to the historical fashions pictured here our clothing seems so practical and simple. But maybe there are a few styles that could be questionable in a century or two? A short and highly opinionated list might include some of these.

Washed, distressed and pre-ripped pants. Tattoos. Bikinis too small to swim in. Modifying the body through implants. Logo T-shirts advertising the store that sold you the T-shirt. The idealized bodies of the past, shaped by corsets, padded shoulders, or extreme bustles do look odd. Will future generations question our ideal figure represented by fashion models who are taller than 99% of American women, with an average body mass index officially in the anorexic range?

As new fashions are continually designed our perceptions of beauty will continually adapt. Our pursuit of the next beautiful extreme is the one thing that remains constant.

Extreme Style: A Survey of Women’s Fashion

 image source: San Francisco Public Library Etching and Engraving Picture File

Extreme Style: A Survey of Women’s Fashion is a display in the Art, Music and Recreation Center on the 4th floor of the Main Library. It will be available to view through mid-October.

It was extremely stylish, now it’s just extreme. According to Oscar Wilde, “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” The perception of beauty is always subjective. What is considered the height of fashion looks ridiculous after it predictably, goes out of style.

Self-adornment is found in every culture. Evidence shows that people began wearing clothing up to 500,000 years ago. Images of people wearing clothing have been found in 20,000 year-old cave paintings. In western civilization, being fashionable in the way we now understand it began sometime in the 14th century. Increased trade and travel, technological breakthroughs in textiles, the growth of a middle class and the beginnings of disposable income all converged in this era. The result was that women began to create and follow fashion.

Towards the middle of the 19th century the rate at which the fashionable silhouette changed accelerated. The invention of the home sewing machine and the increasing popularity of paper patterns encouraged home dress-making during this time. Concurrently, periodicals, especially fashion magazines intended for women became popular. By the 20th century the pace of change in the fashionable silhouette grew ever more rapid as the expanding fashion industry, in conjunction with new forms of media, became more effective at stimulating demand for a constant flow of new styles (read more about this at "Women's fashions of the Victorian era").

In the first part of this entry we’ll focus on styles from the head to the waist. Our next entry will discuss the waist to the feet. Listing extreme styles chronologically is another approach, but as you’ll see, some styles and silhouettes cycle in and out of fashion, in some cases centuries apart. It’s also fascinating to compare the extremes of proportion within one article of dress. For example, the hoop skirt to the hobble skirt.

Working our way from top to toe, here are just some of the more extreme styles that women have chosen in their quest to be fashionable.

Hennins, Horned Headdresses and Caged Headdresses: 15th c. Europe. Sumptuary laws limited the height of the cone-shaped hats called Hennins to 24” for the aristocracy, while princesses could wear Hennins up to 36” high. Doorways were adjusted to accommodate the fashion. Eyebrows and hairlines were plucked to increase the illusion of height. Horned Headdresses were stuffed, and Caged Headdresses were wired to maintain their shapes.

image source: San Francisco Public Library Etching and Engraving Picture File

Enormous Hats: 1780’s and early 20th century. These looks coincided with two of the big hair eras. The thought was that a big hat balanced the hair style and created a pleasing proportion. Big hats provided plenty of room for decoration. Edwardian hats were often adorned with a full variety of waxed fruit, yards of ribbon and net, or full nests of stuffed birds.

Extreme Hair: 1700’s, 1800’s and 20th century (1910s, 1940s, 1960s and 1980s). For women without enough hair to achieve the look there were always other options. Padding, false hair, wire cages, hairspray, teasing and extreme chemical treatments. It’s an impressive comment on creativity that all of the different “Big Hair” eras look unique.

Ruff collars: 16th century. The more extreme versions were reserved for the aristocracy, but variations of pleated, starched or wired collars were worn by the middle class as well.

Taxidermy Fur Stoles: In the early 20th century, mink and fox stoles often included the full animal- head, tail and all four legs. One popular way to wear this style was to attach a fastener under the animal’s jaw and then clip it to the tail. This gave the appearance that the animal was biting its own tail.

Shoulder Pads: During World War II, women’s fashion took on a militaristic look. Shoulder pads helped to support this tailored, masculine style. When shoulder pads came back in the 1980’s they began as a retro reinterpretation of that 1940’s style. The 80’s pads seemed to take on a life of their own though, as they grew to truly enormous sizes. The theory was that broad shoulders made the hips look smaller.

Oversized Sleeves: Popular from about 1825 until 1840, the “gigot” sleeve was full at the top and tighter toward the wrist. By the mid-1830s the enlarged top cap was sagging with its own enormity. In order to support these massive sleeves, women resorted to filling them with stiffened buckram undersleeves, whalebone hoops or large feather-filled pads. Enormous sleeves became popular again in the Victorian era around the turn of the twentieth century. They reappeared briefly in the 1930s as a precursor to the shoulder pads of the 1940’s.

Stuffed Birds and Feathers for hats and accessories: At the height of the “Plume Boom” in the early part of the 20th century the business of killing birds for the millinery trade was practiced on a large scale, involving the deaths of hundreds of millions of birds in many parts of the world. By the turn of the 20th century, this trade had nearly eliminated egrets in the US, and populations of numerous other bird species around the globe were also approaching extinction. Reports of “murderous millinery” atrocities led to the formation of the first Audubon societies. Soon, many American women wore “Audubonnets”, the term given to the non-feathered hats.

Sentimental Jewelry: 19th and early 20th centuries. Also known as mourning jewelry, ornaments made from human hair grew out of the desire to keep a part of a loved one close to the wearer. Hair was woven and knotted to make brooches, bracelets, watch chains, earrings and necklaces. Exceptionally skillful crafters also created large landscapes from hair that were framed and displayed. The Civil War and Queen Victoria’s strict mourning customs helped popularize hair jewelry.

Bibliocraft - Craft inspired by the Library

Come join us this Thursday, April 24th, from 6:00 p.m.- 7:30 p.m. for a library inspired craft program! 

The Art, Music and Recreation Center is pleased to welcome Jessica Pigza, author of Bibliocraft: A Modern Crafter's Guide to Using Library Resources to Jumpstart Creative Projects, and librarian from New York Public Library.

At this event, Jessica will share ideas on how library sources at San Francisco Public Library and beyond can inspire hands-on creative projects.  Attendees will get the chance to try their hand at using vintage letter designs to create a stitched paper monogrammed bookmark.

The original vintage letter design used to create the bookmark came from the Etching and Engraving Picture File.

Learning From Each Other - The Reference Fair

Every year the San Francisco Public Library organizes a staff only reference fair so that Main departments and selected branches can highlight their collections and remind all staff what they do.

What treasures do big main libraries hold that even the librarians don't know about?  This fair gives all our departments the chance to share and explore.

At past Reference Fairs, the Art, Music and Recreation Center highlighted specific resources used to answer specific reference questions by patrons.  This year our goal is to illustrate a more subjective type of reference question. This is the kind of bibliographic brainstorming a visual artist might do using our collection. It could also be the kind of "forensic" reference work you need to do for the patron who doesn't know, or can't articulate, exactly what they're looking for. Our hypothetical artist needs to find images based on the elements of Color, Pattern, Graphic Lettering and Copyright Free Images.

We created four sample boards, one for each of the subjects above, filled with examples from our collection.

1. COLOR was further broken down into “theory”, “in combination”, “form and space”, “mixing pigments” and “psychological aspects”.  A few Library of Congress subject headings that can be used to find more books on this subject are: Color in art; Colors; Color guides; Color Decoration And Ornament; and Color In Art Exhibitions.

Selected sources used to create this board are:

Artist's Color Manual: The Complete Guide to Working with Color by Simon Jennings (San Francisco, CA : Chronicle Books, 2003)

Color Management: A Comprehensive Guide for Graphic Designers by John T. Drew (New York: Allworth Press, c2012.)

Color Index by Jim Krause. (Cincinnati, Ohio: HOW Books, c2010)

2. PATTERNS, PRINTS AND TEXTURES - Subject headings and keywords that can be used to find books on these topics are: Mosaics – technique; Tiles – history; Decorative arts – history; Patchwork – patterns; Repetitive patterns (Decorative arts); Symmetry (Art); Stencil work; Decoration and ornament; Design -- Themes, motives

Sources consulted for this board:

Mosaic Patterns: Step-by-step Techniques, Stunning Projects by Emma Biggs and Tessa Hunkin. (North Pomfret, Vt. : Trafalgar Square, 2006.)

Japanese Stencil Designs; one hundred outstanding examples collected and introduced by Andrew W. Tuer.(New York : Dover Publications, 1967)

Floral Design. Second series by Alan Weller designed by Juliana Trotta. (Mineola, N.Y. : Dover Publications, 2011)

3. GRAPHIC LETTERING - Use subject headings and keywords such as: Graphic Design (typography); Type and type-founding; Calligraphy; Lettering; Alphabets; Printing; Letterpress printing; Signs and signboards; Electric signs; Posters; Graffiti; Words in Art; Illumination of books and manuscripts.

A selection of books used to design this board:

Vintage Neon by Len Davidson (Atglen, Pa. : Schiffer Pub. c1999)

Helvetica and the New York City Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story by Paul Shaw (Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2011)

An A-Z of Type Designers by Neil Macmillan.(New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press, c2006)

4. COPY-RIGHT FREE IMAGES.  The main source of inspiration for this board was the library's own Etching and Engraving Picture File.  The list of subject headings can be found here and the actual etchings and engraving can be found in Art, Music and Recreation Center at the Main library.  Twelve items can be checked out at a time and there is a scanner and copy machine available at the library.  Also search the catalog with the keyword Dover Clip-Art Series.

Other books used to create this board:

Food and Drink: A Pictorial Archive from Nineteenth-Century Sources. selected by Jim Harter. (New York : Dover Publications, 1980.)

Ready-to-use Old-fashioned Music Illustrations: Copyright-free Designs, Printed One Side, Hundreds of Uses. selected and arranged by Carol Belanger Grafton. (New York : Dover, 1990.)

Ready-to-use Art Nouveau Small Frames and Borders: Copyright-free Designs, Printed One Side, Hundreds of Uses. designed by Ted Menten. (New York : Dover, c1985)

BURIED TREASURES:

Floréal Dessins & Coloris Nouveaux by E. A. Seguy (Paris: Calavas, n.d.)
Within the pages of this book you will find examples of a pochoir-illustrated book by the well known E. A. Seguy.

example of pochoir illustration

Color Papers [n.p.] 1930
sample book of Fat Shan, paper dealer, Canton, China.

example of paper for sale for 10 cents

Interaction of Color by Josef Albers

display of color silk screens housed in individual folders

Artists and People

"Mustard in a Vineyard," by Lucien Labaudt, Plate 1 from Artists and People

There is an easily-overlooked title in our collection called, humbly enough, Artists and People. Because the work documents the local art scene, and is not sufficiently indexed in our catalog, we would like to highlight it here.

Yvonne Greer Thiel’s 1959 publication discusses the life and works of approximately thirty local artists and was (as she summarizes on her book jacket) “written for the general public in the hope that people everywhere would better understand artists and their problems. It tells the true-life stories of numerous artists of many nationalities and different backgrounds who came eventually to the San Francisco Bay area to work and make their homes. Some achieved wide fame, others became known locally. The author is a native of the area, who gathered all of her data first-hand.”

The book title itself, Artists and People, is indicative of the author’s desire to present artists as normal, hard-working people and to dispel the myth of the Artist as eccentric or ‘nut.’ In both her writing and in leadership of the Art Lovers Club of Metropolitan Oakland (1930-1982), an organization that promoted local art events, schools and museums, and provided no-interest loans for the purchase of artwork, Thiel aimed to bring together artists and the general public for their mutual benefit.

Today, the book’s lengthy introduction is primarily useful as a snapshot of midcentury thinking about artists and as documentation of the author’s now-antiquated opinions. Within it she passionately explains the artists’ plight, suggests ways to improve their lot (such as taking part-time work making jewelry, Christmas cards and store displays) and informs the artists of what the general public wants to see in their artistic purchases, for example: “If we buy a picture for our walls we want something that our entire families and friends can enjoy. If we buy a portrait we do not wish the eyes to look like two knot-holes in a white-washed fence. It must look like a human…” Clearly both artists and people have a lot to learn about one another and Thiel's goal is to facilitate that happening.

The true value of the book, however, is in the short biographies of Bay Area artists, many offering local details not widely-documented elsewhere. For example, the entry for Sargent Johnson mentions his attendance at the A.W. Best School on California Street, his teaching at a Hunter’s Point housing project called Junior City, and his artworks at the California School for the Blind (the latter has its own interesting story), as well as better-known information such as his enrollment at the California School of Fine Arts and his sculptural works in Aquatic Park.

Artists and People by Yvonne Greer Thiel (Philosophical Library, 1959). - also available online through the Hathi Trust.

Below is a listing of the artists covered by this book. The Art, Music and Recreation Department maintains an Artists Vertical File containing ephemera and local news articles on the artists listed in bold.

Antonio Sotomayor
George Post
Jose Moya del Pino
Theodore Polos
Peter Blos
Sargent Johnson
Tom E. Lewis
Lucien Labaudt
Dong Kingman
Otis Oldfield
Emilie Sievert Weinberg
Raymond Puccinelli (listed as Raimondo Puccinelli)
Zygmund Sazevich
Charles Surendorf
Brents Carlton
Victor Arnautoff
Jacques Schnier
Ruth Cravath
Dorothy Puccinelli Cravath
Alexander Nepote
Hamilton Wolf
Mine’ Okubo
Eugene Ivanoff
John Mottram
Ray Boynton
Two Young Artists
Robert Watson
Misha Dolnikoff
Ray Strong

Searching for Images Class - Links

Patron listening to a record in the Music Department at the Main Library [ca. 1970] - image from the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection.

Below is a list of a number of the links discussed at the June 5, 2013 class Searching for Images presented by the Art, Music & Recreation Center of the San Francisco Public Library.

Image Resources at the Library:

The Art, Music and Recreation Dept.’s Print and Picture File: Information and File Headings [pdf format]

Images - links from the Art, Music and Recreation Center Delicious page

Camio - Catalog of Museum Images Online - a subscription database accessible in the Library, or by logging in with a library card and pin number.

San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection.

Resources From Other Libraries:

Calisphere - California-themed digital images

Library of Congress –Newspaper Photograph Morgues (a list).

Library of Congress – Prints and Photographs Online Catalog

New York Public Library Picture Collection Online

Government Websites:

Image Gallery from the United States Department of Agriculture.

United States Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library.

United States Department of Defense Multimedia.

United States Antarctic Program Photo Library.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Public Health Image Library. 

Federal Emergency Management Agency Photo Library.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Images.

United States Geological Survey Photographic Library.

Search Engines and Websites:
Google Images. Once you have search results follow the “gear” /   and select Advanced Image Search. Here you can limit by image size, aspect ratio, colors in image, type of image, region, site or domain, safesearch, file type, usage rights.

Life Photo Archive Hosted by Google (available for non-commercial use).

Digital Librarian: Images - an exhaustive list of links.

Image * After - user-uploaded free images and textures.

stock.xchng - user-uploaded free stock imagery.

morgueFile - free high resolution stock imagery.

Wikimedia Commons - the online media database of the Wikipedia.

Pop-up Cards for Mother's Day - May 4, 2013

As part of the Good Crafternoon series, the Art and Music Center is presenting a workshop on how to make pop –up cards for Mother’s Day this Saturday, May 4 at 2:00pm.

There will be a variety of engravings to use featuring mothers and children from the Etching and Engraving Picture File, card stock and an assortment of colorful papers to use for pop-up flowers. We’ll also have a selection of books on pop-up cards, if participants would like to work on their own design.

This event will be held in the Sycip Conference Room on the 4th floor of the Main Library.  All Library programs are free and open to the public.

Women's Work - Thursday Noon Videos for March

This March, the Art, Music and Recreation Department will sponsor the library’s noon film program with a series of movies exploring strong women and the idea of ‘Women’s Work.’  Half the films in this series are fictional and half are "based on a truestory."  All portray characters attempting to break from traditional gender work roles.

In The Help (March 7), a white southern college graduate in the 1960s makes her way into the field of journalism by writing an expose on the lives and aspirations of her community’s hard-working, African-American women.

Coal Miner’s Daughter (March 14) explores Loretta Lynn’s ascent from the traditional role of wife and mother in 1950s rural Kentucky to that of a hugely famous country singer.

Set in the early 1900s, The Songcatcher (March 21) follows musicologist Dr. Lily Penleric as she leaves her university post after being denied promotion and heads to Appalachia where she discovers a wealth of 17th century English ballads still being sung.

Finally, the last film in the series is set in California in the 1990s. Erin Brockovich (March 28) tells the story of a legal file clerk and working single-mother of three, who helps win a 300 million dollar direct action lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric.

Each film in the series offers a great story as well as excellent performances by their female leads, as evidenced by their Oscar award nominations. The Help’s Octavia Spencer won Oscar in 2012 for Best Supporting Actress. Other nominations for the same film include Viola Davis for Best Leading Actress, Jessica Chastain for Best Supporting Actress, and the film for Motion Picture of the Year. Both Sissy Spacek (1980) and Julia Roberts (2001) won Best Leading Actress Oscars for their respective work in the Best Picture-nominated films Coal Miner’s Daughter and Erin Brockovich.  While Songcatcher was not nominated for Oscars it was nominated for awards at Sundance and its leading actress, Janet McTeer, has been nominated for twice for Best Actress Oscars in other works.

Our Thursday noon videos are shown in the Koret Auditorium on the Lower Level of the Main Library.  All Library programs are free and open to the public.

To learn more about each film, please visit the links below. In general, books on acting, film shooting scripts and song books are located in the Art, Music and Recreation Center on the 4th floor. Audio CDs, including motion picture soundtracks, are located on the 1st floor in the AV Center.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009) - is the novel the film is based upon.

Honky Tonk Girl: My Life In Lyrics by Loretta Lynn (A.A. Knopf, 2012).

Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner's Daughter by Loretta Lynn with George Vecsey (Vintage Books, 2010) - the memoir that the film is based upon.

Still Woman Enough: A Memoir by Loretta Lynn with Patsi Bale Cox (Hyperion, 2002).

The Music Hunter, The Autobiography of a Career, by Laura Boulton (Doubleday, 1969) - a memoir by a real song catcher.

A Song Catcher In Southern Mountains; American Folk Songs of British Ancestry by Dorothy Scarborough (Columbia University press, 1937).

The Ballad Collectors of North America: How Gathering Folksongs Transformed Academic Thought and American Identity, edited by Scott B. Spencer (Scarecrow Press, 2012).

Singing Family of the Cumberlands, by Jean Ritchie, illustrated by Maurice Sendak (Oxford University Press, 1955). 

Erin Brockovich : the shooting script, screenplay and introduction written by Susannah Grant (Newmarket Press, 2000). 

Book talk and slide show: Left in the Dark: Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres

On Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 6:30 in the Koret Auditorium, the Art, Music and Recreation Center and the San Francisco History Center will present a book talk and slide show for Left in the Dark: Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres. This new book celebrates twentieth century movie theatres and movie-going through lush full-color fine art photographs and personal essays that offer both scholarly and literary appeal.

Julie Lindow, editor of Left in the Dark, will introduce the book. Authors Katherine Petrin and R.A. McBride will then present a "then-and-now" slide show with commentary. There will be a book signing following the panel discussion where Left in the Dark will be available for purchase. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. All Library programs are free and open to the public.

San Franciscans are fortunate to live in one of the world’s most vital movie-going cities and one with so many of its historic movie houses still standing. By showing a continuum from past to present, Left in the Dark offers hope that even as these landmarks crumble, the spirit of cinema thrives.

San Francisco’s film industry and movie theater tradition is a long and significant one. Between the gold rush boom of the 1850s and the advent of the moving picture in the 1880s, San Francisco’s population grew rapidly and with it, so did its reputation as an entertainment town. The City became a nexus for cultural life, known for its live theatres and other ‘palaces of amusement’ such as opera houses, dance halls and eventually, vaudeville theatres where many of the first short films were introduced as part of the variety-show programming.

San Francisco also boasts several film industry firsts. In 1878, in nearby Palo Alto, San Francisco resident Eadweard Muybridge took the first stop-motion photos which lead directly to the birth of the movies. In 1880, on Pine Street at the San Francisco Art Association, the world’s first public movie exhibition was made possible with the debut of the Zoopraxiscope movie projector. In 1902, brothers Herbert, Harry and Earl C. Miles, established the first movie “exchange” on Market Street for renting (instead of selling) prints to exhibitors--a more cost efficient practice, which enabled the new art form to spread and increase in popularity.

Since the late 1970s, The Art, Music and Recreation Center has collected newspaper articles on many topics relating to the art and musical life of San Francisco and has organized them by subject in the Newspaper Clipping Files. One such file is titled Moving Picture -- Theaters. Included within this file are hundreds of articles from our local press (including the Chronicle, Examiner, Bay Guardian, SF Weekly and other local neighborhood publications, many of which are not archived online). Within these files one can find documentation of theaters opening, such as the article “A Flashy New Theater to Open in SF” about the Galaxy on Van Ness (Chronicle 11/28/1983), and theaters closing, “City Losing another Single-Screen Theater”, lamenting the loss of the Coronet on Geary (Examiner 7/21/2000). Many articles also document the life of a theater, for example “Lumiere to Join Repertory Club (Chronicle 8/18/1998) reports that the Lumiere converted one of its screens making SF the leader in repertory cinemas.

Left in the Dark: Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres, R.A. McBride, photographer; Julie Lindow,editor (Charta, 2010).

Additional resources:

Theatres of San Francisco by Jack Tillmany (Arcadia, 2005).

Fox, The Last Word: Story of the World's Finest Theatre by Preston J. Kaufmann (Showcase Publications, 1979).
Fox Theatre, San Francisco, California: Thomas W. Lamb, Architect, Steve Levin, author and editor (Theatre Historical Society, 2003).

The Man Who Stopped Time: The Illuminating Story of Eadweard Muybridge: Pioneer Photographer, Father of the Motion Picture, Murderer by Brian Clegg (Joseph Henry Press, 2007).

San Francisco History Center Historical Photograph Collection

Can a Caterpillar Be More Than Just A Caterpillar?

"Hairy Caterpillar", from the Etching and Engraving Picture File, folder: Insects, Caterpillars (original source: Cassell's Popular Natural History)

In the Art, Music & Recreation Center we have many books that explain the cultural meaning and symbolism of all things inanimate, living or imagined.

Consider the caterpillar. Perhaps the most direct and helpful source is Merriam-Webster's Visual Dictionary which both illustrates and defines the creature (a “butterfly larva having a long body and 10 feet”). It also labels and explains about the parts of the caterpillar (simple eye, head, mandible, thorax, walking let, proleg, abdominal segment, and anal clasper).

According to the Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional Images, Icons, and Emblems, the caterpillar is said to represent the “lowly” and the “unformed.” This work correlates the caterpillar both with the Hindu belief in the transmigration of souls and with a Native American view of the creature as a “metaphor for sexual awakening.”

Symbols; Our Universal Language describes the caterpillar as symbolic of life, as “one stage of the development of a butterfly.” The Bestiary of Christ cites a 5th century pope who compared Christ with a worm because he was resurrected (“Vermis quia resurrexit”), his “broken body” transformed into a “glorious body” (the butterfly), thus the caterpillar came to represent the body of Christ and the Christian. This belief is further illustrated by a Merovingian gold ring from the 6th or 7th century with caterpillars on two sides and a fish in the center.

Source: Mémoires, Volume 4 by the Société archéologique de Montpellier

The Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art similarly notes the progression from caterpillar and chrysalis to butterfly, connecting it to allegorical Vanitas still-life paintings. In an earlier book, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, Hall writes that these paintings “signify not merely the insect life-cycle but the stages of man’s earthly life, death and resurrection.

Detail from "Vase of Flowers" [Bloemstuk met slaapbol en peulen] Jan Davidsz de Heem, source: Webmuseum (photograph by Carol Gerten-Jackson)

The discussion of "Vase of Flowers" by de Heem from the National Gallery of Art's website highlights with "the white poppy at the top, a caterpillar and butterfly evoke the idea of rebirth from a cocoon or tomb." (The small black caterpillar is visible on the stem just below the white blossom).

The meaning of the caterpillar is also considered in The Tattoo Encyclopedia: A Guide to Choosing Your Tattoo. The author also places the caterpillar within the framework of the life cycle, noting that while “crawling creatures are sometimes feared … the caterpillar offers something both visually and symbolically attractive in terms of life change.” This encyclopedia also has an entry for a “caterpillar with a hookah” -- a reference to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland that for the author symbolizes a relaxed experience, and the possibility of a hallucinatory narcotic.

Illustration by John Tenniel from Lenny’s Alice in Wonderland Site

The silkworm is perhaps the most exalted caterpillar. Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs describes the silkworm as “an emblem of industry.” The Way of the Brush; Painting Techniques of China and Japan similarly notes the diligence of this creature. Finally the Chinese artist Zhang Shuqi in Painting in the Chinese Manner compares the silkworm with the Chinese painters. As “the silkworm feeds upon mulberry leaves, and after due process of digestion changes this material into silk; in similar fashion, the artist calls from memory material absorbed through keen study of the world about him.”

From Symbols: Signs and Their Meaning and Uses in Design we learn about the Caterpillar Club - an informal organization comprising those who have escaped from a crashing airplane by parachute. The groups name is an homage to the silkworm that spun the silk that made the parachute.


Source: Wikimedia Commons

Perhaps it is in a Tin Pan Alley era song where we can finally come to know the caterpillar. Dixie Willson's lyrics imagine the caterpillar as one who dreams dreams “that magic’ly come true” - “A caterpillar dreams himself / Right out of all his fuzz / And into lovely fairy wings” ("The Caterpillar," music by Victor Young.


Bibliography

Bestiary of Christ by Louis Charbonneau-Lassay (Parabola Books, 1991).

"The Caterpillar, or, Winged Dreams," words by Dixie Willson ; music by Victor Young (Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, 1924).

Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs: An Alphabetical Compendium of Antique Legends and Beliefs, As Reflected in the Manners and Customs of the Chinese by C.A.S. Williams (C.E. Tuttle Co., 1988).

Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art by James Hall (Harper & Row, 1974).

Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional Images, Icons, and Emblems by Jack Tresidder (Chronicle Books, 1998).

Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art by James Hall (IconEditions, 1994).

Jan Davidsz de Heem en Zijn Kring by Sam Segal (SDU, 1991).

Merriam-Webster's Visual Dictionary by Jean-Claude Corbeil and Ariane Archambault (Merriam-Webster, 2006).

Painting in the Chinese Manner by Zhang Shuqi (Viking Press, 1960).

Symbols; Our Univeral Language by Eva C. Hangen (McCormick-Armstrong, 1962).

Symbols: Signs and their Meaning and Uses in Design by Arnold Whittick, 2nd edition (1971).

The Tattoo Encyclopedia: A Guide to Choosing Your Tattoo by Terisa Green (Simon & Schuster, 2003).

The Way of the Brush; Painting Techniques of China and Japan by Fritz van Briessen (C.E. Tuttle Co., 1962)

Come Up And See My Etchings Sometime...

Pont d'Espagne - High Pyrenees (from the Spain - Views folder)

The Etching and Engraving Picture File is a collection of illustrations culled from mid19th - early 20th century magazines. Some of the magazines clipped include the Illustrated London News, Harper's Monthly, the French magazine L'Illustration, and Scientific American. This collection is a wonderful resource for artists and crafters and others who can use copyright-free illustrations.

The Colossal Elephant of Coney Island (from the Amusements folder)

When you visit the Main Library, come the 4th floor to see a small display, Come Up And See My Etchings Sometime. This display, adjacent to the staircase near the Art, Music & Recreation Center reference desk, features reproductions of images from the Etching and Engraving Picture File.

The illustrations in this collection are filed in folders organized into more than 4,500 alphatbetical subject headings, from "Abbeys" to "Zoos - Philadelphia." These subject headings are listed in the Etching and Engraving Picture File Index.

See also: San Francisco Public Library Art, Music and Recreation Center blog entries using Etching and Engraving Picture File Images.

Putnam's Escape at Horse Neck (in the United States - History - Revolution (Leaders) folder)

For Those Who Love Yarn...

"Zuñi Spinning," from My Adventures in Zuni (all black and white images in this entry are taken from our department's Print and Picture File)

Handspinning is an ancient textile craft dating back thousands of years. Spinning is essentially the act of twisting together a number of fibers into a strong continuous thread. The majority of fibers used to spin are either plant based or from animals. Plant based fibers include flax, hemp, nettle, cotton, and more recently corn, soy and bamboo. Animal fibers include wool from sheep, hair and fur from camels, goats, rabbits, alpacas, and filaments produced by silkworms.

"The Romney Marsh Breed"

The earliest tool used for spinning was the spindle, which was basically a stick fitted with a disc shaped weight. Fibers were twisted by rotating the stick; the weight kept the spindle turning and the resulting thread was then wound onto the stick.

"Hindoo Woman Spinning"

The invention of the spinning wheel allowed for increased production by an individual spinner. Spinning wheels made their appearance in China and the Islamic world during the eleventh century and then moved on into Europe during the thirteenth century. This short space does not allow for an in-depth discussion of this craft’s development, but interested readers may learn more by checking out Spinning Wheels, Spinners and Spinning by Patricia Baines.

"The Old Romans At Home / Spinning"

In the last twenty years, the rise in popularity of knitting and crochet has led to a revival of the craft of spinning yarn. For some people the desire to spin may arise from an interest in spinning wheels triggered by seeing a wheel in a museum or antique store, or by inheriting one from a family member. Formerly a material exclusive to weavers, handspun yarn has much to offer today’s knitters and crocheters. Handspinning creates yarns in colors and blends that are not widely available in stores. Buying prepared fiber is cheaper than buying commercially spun yarn, so spinning one’s own yarn can produce luxurious knitwear at a fraction of the cost.

The library has many books that will appeal to both novice and seasoned handspinners. The following is just a sampling of the many titles the library has available to check out:


The Alden Amos Big Book of Handspinning by Alden Amos (Interweave Press, 2001).

Color in Spinning by Deb Menz (Interweave Press, 2005).

A Fine Fleece: Knitting With Handspun Yarns by Lisa Lloyd (Potter Craft, 2008).

The Intentional Spinner by Judith MacKenzie McCuin (Interweave Press, 2009).

Spin Control: Techniques For Spinning the Yarn You Want by Amy King (Interweave Press, 2009).

Spin It! Making Yarn From Scratch by Lee Raven (Interweave Press, 2003).

Start Spinning: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great Yarn by Maggie Casey (Interweave Press, 2008).