May 22, 2011
Miscellany
Most of the material contained within the folders of the WAM archives consists of standard 8.5×11 papers documenting correspondence, notes, plans, etc. However, many of the exhibition planning files also contain a wide assortment of intriguing miscellany – photos, slides, negatives, cardboard-mounted wall labels, fabric swatches, catalogue drafts, newspaper clippings, books, etc. Here are a few of the curious items recently discovered while processing:
A red pen, possibly left in the folder for decades; A paper bag with hand-drawn design/plan…
Letters taped to a design of an exhibit structure; Tile sample? Bolt?
Rebecca Wilson is a graduate student in the Master of Liberal Studies program at the University of Minnesota, completing a minor in Museum Studies. She also serves as a Visitor Services Assistant at the Weisman Art Museum.
Typical Tuesday
On a typical shift in the archives processing room, I often sit across the room from another intern who is working on a different project sorting through handwritten letters – one type of archival material. What is interesting to me…
Paul Sample Western Landscape, 1930–38
Paul Sample Western Landscape, 1930–38 Oil on canvas, 30 ⅛ x 18 ¼ inches 1936.89 ABOUT THE ART Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, Grant Wood, and Paul Sample forged a new vision for American painting in the 1930s and 1940s. American Scene Painting (or Regionalism, as the movement was also called) sought to…
And then… there was one.
Three months after the WAM Files project staff agreed to continue processing an additional accession of 38 boxes of records transferred from WAM to the Archives, and a mere 12 days after we all celebrated the start of a new…