Dr. Stephen J. Bury

One Hundred Years at the Library: Art and Politics

May 17, 2024

In this installment of our series looking back at the past century of the Frick Art Reference Library through significant objects in its collections, Stephen J. Bury, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian, explores three items connected to the career of the Futurist poet and artist Vladimir Mayakovsky and his involvement in the turbulent politics of early twentieth-century Russia.

One Hundred Years at the Library: Monuments Men and Women

January 27, 2023

Stephen J. Bury, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian, explores one of the most fascinating eras in the Frick Art Reference Library’s hundred-year history. A photograph from the 1940s sheds light on the creation of maps at the library during World War II, which were made to prevent the destruction of at-risk cultural sites and works of art in war areas.

One Hundred Years at the Library: Surrealism in Print

October 21, 2022

As we continue celebrating the centennial of the Frick Art Reference Library, Stephen J. Bury, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian, explores an unexpected strength of the library’s collections: materials on modern art. In this post, Stephen discusses a sample of the library’s exhibition catalogs from the Surrealist movement, which began in Paris in 1924, the same year the Frick Art Reference Library opened its first dedicated building.

"Technological Revolutions and Art History": The Ethical Challenges of Digitization

February 25, 2021

The 2020–21 symposium “Technological Revolutions and Art History” explores current topics in digital art history. For a deeper dive into the major themes of access and bias, Ellen Prokop, former Digital Art History Lead, interviews Luciano Johnson, Associate Chief Librarian for Preservation, Imaging, and Creative Services, and Dr. Stephen Bury, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian.

One Hundred Years at the Library: The Plum Pudding in Danger

video still of Stephen Bury with large book with print open

Take a trip through the centuries in the latest episode of the Frick Art Reference Library’s anniversary series. In this video, Stephen J. Bury, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian, explores the most famous political cartoon by the English caricaturist James Gillray. The 1805 print satirizes the news of the day, as Emperor Napoleon and British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger carve up the world in the form of a Christmas plum pudding. The print exemplifies the range of the library’s holdings, particularly its vast works on paper collection.

One Hundred Years at the Library: The Telautograph

video still of Stephen Bury in library looking closely at telautograph

In the 1930s, how did librarians communicate across the nine stories of the Frick Art Reference Library’s building? In this episode, Stephen J. Bury, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian, introduces the telautograph, an innovative technology installed in the library’s original East 71st Street home. The machine allowed for handwritten notes to be transmitted from the reading room to the stacks and offices above. Used in tandem with dumbwaiters, the telautograph is an early example of the cutting-edge technology employed at the library since its founding.

One Hundred Years at the Library: Monuments Men and Women

video still of Stephen Bury pulling book item out of bag

Stephen J. Bury, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian, presents a group of maps, guides, photos, and other objects related to the Frick Art Reference Library’s involvement in cultural preservation during World War II. From July 1943 to January 1944, the institution closed to the public to serve as the headquarters of the Committee on the Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas, part of the so-called Monuments Men program—a rare but pivotal time the library’s century-long history intersected with major world events.

One Hundred Years at the Library: The Realm of the Surreal

video still of hands holding booklet open with photograph of man included

The avant-garde Surrealist movement began in Paris in 1924, the same year the Frick Art Reference Library’s first dedicated building opened. In this episode of One Hundred Years at the Library, join Stephen J. Bury, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian, for a look at two original Surrealist catalogs available for consultation in the reading room. The catalogs provide tantalizing evidence for the dramatic upheavals within the Surrealist movement and exemplify the rich objects added to the library’s collections over the past century.

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