Many
of the images housed in the Print Room are as significant for how they were made
as for what they depict. The Charles E. Mason, Jr. collection, which specializes
in prints made by Boston firms between 1825 and 1880, contains many important
early lithographs, including William Sharp's portrait of the Rev. F. W. P. Greenwood,
thought to be the earliest example of color lithography in this country. The photograph
collection represents most of the early photographic processes, including a Samuel
Bemis daguerrotype of a New Hampshire landscape made only months after the Daguerrean
process was brought to the United States. Through its ongoing program of exhibitions
and publications, the Print Room has establish a reputation as a center for research
in the history of printmaking and photography in Boston.
The
Collections
Charles E. Mason, Jr. Print
Collection--This comprehensive collection
of nineteenth-century lithographs encompasses New England city views, portraits,
views of factories and hotels, advertising posters, sheet music covers, theatrical
prints, and trade cards. Boston was a center for lithography in the United States,
and many well-known artist began their training as apprentices in its flourishing
print shops. The development of the art is evident in the elegantly restrained
black and white prints by the Pendleton firm, the commercial work of the prolific
J. H. Bufford, and the dazzling chromolithographs of Louis Prang.
Fire
Engine on Devonshire Street, Boston
James Wallace Black (1825-1896)
Albumen photograph, 1872
Photograph
Collection--Specializing
in works by Boston-area photographic firms, this collection comprises a catalog
of early photographic processes. The important role played by Boston photographers
in the history of the medium in America can be traced through the collection,
which includes the work of Samuel Bemis, Southworth & Hawes, John Adams Whipple,
James Wallace Black, and A.H. Folsom, among others. Internationally important
photographers including Felix Nadar, Julia Margaret Cameron, Francis Frith, and
Eadweard Muybridge are also represented in the collection. Boston's changing streetscape
in this century is visible in the collections of photographs by John Murdoch and
George M. Cushing, Jr.
Civil
War Prints and Photographs--This collection contains prints made from sketches
by enlisted artists including Henry Bacon and the Confederate Conrad Wise Chapman,
the work of special artist-reporters Winslow Homer and Edwin Forbes, and battle
scenes by Currier & Ives and Kurz & Allison. It includes photographs taken in
the field by Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan, George M. Barnard,
A.J. Russell, and Henry P. Moore.
Architectural
Drawings--The Print Room houses the office archives for two important nineteenth-century
architects in Boston: George Minot Dexter and Nathaniel J. Bradlee. Also accessible
through the Print Room are drawings for proposed and realized works by Charles
Bulfinch and Alexander Parris.
Watercolors
and Drawings--These are works on paper by Edward Clarke Cabot, Ellen Day Hale,
Allan Rohan Crite, Arthur Rotch, Isaac Sprague, Thomas Edwards, Thomas Badger,
and Francesca Alexander.
Posters--Stored
in the Print Room are more than seventeen hundred posters produced during World
War I, most of them the gift of Bartlett Hayes, Jr. Housed with the Hayes collection
is a smaller group of tourist and travel posters dating from the 1920s and 1930s.
American and European
Portraits--This is an indexed collection of engraved, etched, photographic,
and lithographic portraits of prominent personages, most living prior to 1900.
The Print Room also houses a separate collection of portraits of George Washington.
Old House File--This
collection contains miscellaneous images and articles culled from newspapers,
illustrated magazines and books, and the work of professional photographers acquired
since the turn of the century. The file is indexed by street within Boston, by
town within Massachusetts, and by state for the rest of the nation.
Service
The Print Room is open to researchers by prior appointment only. The hours are
Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Appointments must be scheduled in
advance. Contact Sally Pierce,
617-720-7648, or Catharina Slautterback,
617-720-7652, for more information about the collections or to make an appointment.
Online
catalog
Since the
year 2000, all new cataloging of Print Room materials is being entered into the
Athena-Online Catalog, with a linked digital image whenever
possible. However, the entries on Athena represent only a fraction of the print
and photograph holdings. Plans are underway for a conversion of the existing card
catalog of graphic images. In the interim, researchers are advised to consult
the curatorial staff for information about use of the card catalog, special subject
collections, and research files.
Bibliography
