Frick Art Reference Library

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: Going Once, Going Twice, Sold!

January 16, 2024

Celebrating one hundred years of the Frick Art Reference Library, Suz Massen, Associate Chief Librarian for Access, explores a selection from the library’s over 100,000 auction catalogs. These materials are invaluable for researchers piecing together the history of an object or collection.

Summer Intern Project: American Art at the Library

September 25, 2023

Discover the joint project of the Frick Art Reference Library’s summer 2023 interns. In anticipation of the library becoming the repository for the Archives of American Art’s extensive microfilm collection, the interns examined the existing presence of materials on American art in the library’s collections. In this post, they each present a fascinating aspect of their findings.

One Hundred Years at the Library: Innovation through Technology

June 22, 2023

Sumitra Duncan, Web Archiving Lead, explores technology at the Frick Art Reference Library, as part of our ongoing celebration of its hundredth anniversary. Technological innovations have been embraced since the library’s founding, a commitment that remains a vital part of its mission in the present day. In this post, we consider three examples: the telautograph, early art photography trips and a recent map charting the expeditions, and web archiving efforts.

One Hundred Years at the Library: The Art of Collecting

April 3, 2023

To continue our look back at the past one hundred years of the Frick Art Reference Library, Samantha Deutch, Digital Art History Lead, considers the library’s rich holdings of private collection catalogues—integral to our understanding of works of art and the history of collecting.

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.

One Hundred Years at the Library: From Prints to Pixels

July 15, 2022

As we continue to celebrate the Frick Art Reference Library’s one-hundredth anniversary, Kerri A. Pfister, Photoarchivist, guides us through the library’s collections of reproductions, which have enabled the widespread study of art history. From printmaking to photography to digital imagery, the library has offered cutting-edge technologies through the ages to fulfill its mission of making art resources accessible to the public. Objects featured in this post are part of the celebratory publication One Hundred Objects in the Frick Art Reference Library, available in the Frick’s shop.

One Hundred Years at the Library: A Dedicated Staff

May 16, 2022

In commemoration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the Frick Art Reference Library, Sally Brazil, Barbara G. Fleischman Associate Chief Librarian for Archives and Records Management, looks back on the lifeblood of the library through the decades—its incredible staff. Discover photographs, scrapbooks, drawings, and archival materials documenting the contributions of generations of knowledgeable staff members, who have guided the library’s mission and growth over the past century. Objects featured in the post are part of the celebratory publication One Hundred Objects in the Frick Art Reference Library, available for purchase in the Museum Shop.

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