Georeferencing the British Library’s Map Collection
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A recent posting at at the British Library’s Maps and Views blog (25 March 2015) describes the latest phase of the project to georeference the BL’s map collection. As a crowdsourcing project, it’s fascinating. And even if you’re not interested in contributing your time, there are lots of resources already available (to search for maps previously georeferenced, use the map portal Old Maps Online, which searches across numerous online map collections, including the British Library). The video below provides an effective introduction to the basic concept of georeferencing. –CH
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From the BL’s Georeference Home:
Help! British Library needs 50,000+ maps georeferenced
You can join the latest phase of our project, which features over 50,000 more maps from the British Library collections. Help us identify accurate locations for these historic maps! Bear in mind that some places have changed significantly or disappeared completely, creating a puzzle that reveals an exciting contrast.
Your name will be credited, and your efforts will significantly improve public access to these collections. Contributors can see the results of their work, as well as the progress of the pilot and other participants, and the top contributor will be publicly announced.
Sotheby’s Institute of Art | European Decorative Arts, 1600–1900
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From Sotheby’s Institute of Art:
Summer Study in London | European Decorative Arts: From Baroque to Art Nouveau
Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, 26 May — 19 June 2015
Sotheby’s Institute of Art’s Summer Study programme offers intensive short courses in areas of art business, art history and finance. The programme is designed for undergraduates, career changers, study abroad participants and those interested in art and cultural history. This summer the Institute is offering a four-week intensive and immersive European Decorative Art course.
Beginning in the seventeenth century with the rise of the Baroque and culminating in Art Nouveau at the end of the nineteenth, this varied and exciting course provides a comprehensive understanding of key stylistic developments in Western European design and the decorative arts. The course focuses on furniture, ceramics, glass and metalwork, explored within the context of architecture and interiors and the broader historical and cultural forces that have influenced the production and consumption of decorative art objects. It seeks also to provide students with a basic knowledge of materials and techniques.
A diverse programme of lectures is complemented by visits to leading museums, galleries and historic houses. Students will make a private visit to Sotheby’s Warehouse, to see art objects consigned for sale and learn about the auction process, and will also have the opportunity to visit the Olympia International Art and Antiques Fair. The teaching approach is object-based and enables students to gain confidence in analyzing and identifying a wide range of art objects. Students are taught by a range of in-house tutors and visiting experts from the art world; the course is led by Jane Gardiner and Helena Pickup. For a single course, the fee is £2,650.
Suggested Reading
Gere, C. and M. Whiteway. Nineteenth-Century Design from Pugin to Mackintosh. 1993.
Riley, N. (ed.). The Elements of Design. 2003.
Snodin, M. and J. Styles (eds.). Design and the Decorative Arts: Georgian Britain, 1714–1837. 2004.
Thornton, Peter. Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration in England, France and Holland. 1981.
Newly Formed ANZSECS
Australian and New Zealand Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater, The Fair at Bezons, ca. 1733 (New York: Metroplitan Museum of Art)
The newly formed Australian and New Zealand Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ANZSECS) exists to promote the study of the culture and history of the long eighteenth century within Australia and New Zealand. The Society encourages research in eighteenth-century studies on a broad interdisciplinary basis—its members work in fields including art history, history, literature, philosophy, bibliography, and the history and philosophy of science. It is an affiliate of ISECS, the International Congress for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Established in December 2014, the Society draws on a distinguished history of eighteenth-century scholarship in Australia and New Zealand. It advances the exchange of information and ideas among researchers engaged in eighteenth-century studies through various activities and events, including the 3–4 yearly David Nichol Smith Seminar. For more information about the Society, membership, and related events, please visit our website.
University of Buckingham’s MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors
From The University of Buckingham:
MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors
The University of Buckingham (based in London)
This unique MA in French and British Decorative Arts and Interiors focuses on the development of interiors and decorative arts in England and France in the long eighteenth century (c.1660–c.1830) and their subsequent reinterpretation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
A key element of the course is the emphasis on the first-hand study of furniture, silver and ceramics in the context of historic interiors. Based in central London at the Society of Antiquaries, it is taught by the University of Buckingham, with contributions from leading international experts. It draws on the outstanding decorative arts collections of the Wallace Collection and the Victoria and Albert Museum with study trips to many other museum and historic house collections in and around London.
We are now recruiting for the new academic year and the course can be taken full-time or part-time.
For details of entry requirements, tuition fees, funding opportunities, detailed information about assessment English language requirements, disability, accommodation and how to apply, please consult the University webpages or contact Claire Prendergast: Claire.prendergast@buckingham.ac.uk.
Summer Seminar | Culinary Culture: The Politics of American Foodways
From the American Antiquarian Society:
2015 CHAViC Summer Seminar
Culinary Culture: The Politics of American Foodways, 1765–1900
American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts, 12–17 July 2015
Applications due by 20 March 2015
The linking of food to politics became increasingly popular from the mid-eighteenth century on as a means to communicate caution or approval of political structures and ideologies in America. Whether the colonies were referred to as a cake or a kettle of fish, the domestic language of food was easily understood and often appeared in print and visual culture. This seminar examines how and why a culinary vocabulary and food imagery developed and was employed as a widespread (though little studied) method of political/cultural/visual expression. The seminar will commence with the years surrounding the Stamp Act, to the War for Independence, through the Civil War and Gilded Age, and concludes with current implications and questions to consider.
The Center for Historic American Visual Culture (CHAViC) encourages and facilitates the use and understanding of popular images by scholars from a variety of disciplines including American studies, history, art and architectural history, English, gender studies, literature, religion, theatre, and environmental studies. The 2015 Summer Seminar, Culinary Culture: The Politics of American Foodways, 1765–1900, will be held Sunday, July 12 through Friday, July 17 at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA. The seminar is intended for college and university faculty as well as graduate students and museum professionals.
The seminar will be led by Nancy Siegel, Professor of Art History, Towson University. Guest faculty will include Tanya Sheehan, Associate Professor, Art Department, Colby College. Through workshops, lectures, field trips, and cooking demonstrations participants will learn ‘how to look’ by exploring an interdisciplinary approach to the study of American culinary culture as a means to understand the relationship among American foodways and evolving political, social, gender, public health, and economic ideologies through the 18th and 19th centuries. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from a wide variety of materials from the extraordinary collections at AAS including prints, cookbooks, political cartoons, broadsides, diaries, domestic manuals, newspapers, ceramics, ephemera of all kinds, botanical and horticultural illustrations/literature, children’s literature, and more. The syllabus will be posted by the end of February 2015.
Tuition for the seminar is $750, which includes lunch each day and two evening meals. A limited amount of financial aid will be available. Preference for assistance will be given to first-time AAS summer seminar attendees.
Working Group | Home Subjects, ca. 1750–1900
Arthur Devis, The John Bacon Family, 1742–43, 30 x 52 inches (76.2 x 131.1 cm), oil on canvas (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection).
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Thanks to Historians of British Art for sponsoring the “Home Subjects” panel at the 2015 meeting of the College Art Association last week in New York. The panel kicked off a series of activities that the organizers of Home Subjects are planning over the course of the next few years in an attempt to bring together scholars interested in the display of art in the the private or domestic interior. Our hope is to make connections across traditional period boundaries in order to encourage and facilitate research and discussion about the role art played in the decoration of the private interior and, in turn, how the display of art in the private interior shaped the direction of contemporary art. Further information about the topics Home Subjects would like to address can be found on our blog. We also encourage anyone interested in participating or sharing ideas to sign up for our email list at homesubjects@gmail.com. Stay tuned for blog posts, calls-for-papers, and more!
Melinda McCurdy, The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA
Morna O’Neill, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC
Anne Nellis Richter, Independent Scholar and part-time faculty, American University, Washington, DC
2015 Dresden Summer Academy
From Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden:
Dresden Summer Academy
Dresden, 22–29 August 2015
Applications due by 30 April 2015
During this intensive seven-day course the participants explore the city of Dresden, its great monuments, and its museums. The main theme is the study of the collections in a context that considers the princely attitudes of the Saxon rulers during the late Renaissance, the magnificent royal patronage of the arts, and flourishing of courtly display especially in the 18th-century Augustan Age, and the role of the monarchy in 19th-century bourgeois society.
These collections are presented in the beautiful royal palaces in and around Dresden where their meaning and importance can be studied in the original surroundings. With their modern and often highly innovative exhibitions and the diversity of the themes explored in them, the museums and their collections are essential features of the vibrant cultural life and lively discourse that characterise the city of Dresden today.
Scholarships are available and are intended for candidates who are unable to pay the fee personally or whose organisation / institution cannot support them in full.
NEH Summer Institute | 3D Modeling of Cultural Heritage Sites
From H-ArtHist:
Advanced Challenges in Theory and Practice in 3D Modeling of Cultural Heritage Sites
UMass Amherst, 22–28 June 2015, and UCLA, 20–23 June 2016
Applications due by 30 March 2015
Directors: Alyson A. Gill (UMass Amherst) and Lisa M. Snyder (UCLA)
Applications are currently being accepted for Advanced Challenges in Theory and Practice in 3D Modeling of Cultural Heritage Sites. This NEH Summer Institute for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities will take place over two consecutive summers. In 2015, participants will gather at UMass Amherst from June 22–28 to discuss key issues and challenges facing scholars working with 3D content with an emphasis on the end user experience, and define research questions that they will explore in the subsequent academic year. In 2016, participants will present their findings at a three-day symposium to be held at UCLA from June 20–23.
Submissions are encouraged from scholars with research or teaching projects that would benefit from advanced discussion of theoretical issues related to 3D content; in-service educators interested in pedagogical applications for 3D content across humanities disciplines and grade levels; library, museum, and publishing professionals investigating or using 3D content in installations or born-digital publications; and technologists involved with interactive 3D computer graphics, educational games, or dissemination platforms.
Applications due by March 30, 2015; applicants notified by April 13, 2015. Successful applicants receive a $1,375 stipend to defray expenses related to the 2015 Summer Institute at UMass Amherst and an additional $1,000 to defray expenses related to the 2016 Symposium at UCLA. Please visit advancedchallenges.com for details about the schedule, institute faculty, and the application process.
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And the website really is worth visiting even if you have no intentions of applying; the reading list alone is pretty exciting. –CH
Recent Launch of the Association of Print Scholars
APS envisions a future for itself as a CAA affiliate society. As noted at H-ArtHist:
Introducing the Association of Print Scholars, a new group bringing together the print community
We are excited to announce the launch of the Association of Print Scholars (APS). APS is a nonprofit members’ group for enthusiasts of printmaking that will bring together the diverse community of curators, collectors, academics, grad students, artists, paper conservators, critics, independent scholars, and dealers. APS’s goals are to encourage innovative and interdisciplinary study of printmaking and to facilitate dialogue among members.
Membership benefits will include
• Access to a searchable database of active members and their current activities
• Ability to update online membership profile with all print-related activities
• Announcements about events, exhibitions, calls for papers, and other news from the print world
• Opportunities to promote new projects to members on the APS website and listserv
• Participation in APS’s events, including lectures and scholarly conferences
• Grants for digital projects and research, and support for working/reading groups
For further information, please contact info@printscholars.org, or visit www.printscholars.org. In addition, please consider joining and donating to APS through our Indiegogo campaign. Your support will help us build our website, which will launch in early 2015.
Call for Essays | Terra Foundation for American Art Essay Prize
Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize
Submissions due by 15 January 2015
The Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize recognizes excellent scholarship by a non-U.S. scholar in the field of historical American art. Manuscripts should advance the understanding of American art, demonstrating new findings and original perspectives. The prize winner will be given the opportunity to work toward publication in American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s scholarly journal. He or she will also receive a $1,000 cash award and a travel stipend of up to $3,000 to give a presentation in Washington, D.C., and meet with museum staff and fellows. This annual prize is supported by funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Ph.D. candidates and above who have not published in American Art previously are eligible to participate in the competition. Essays may focus on any aspect of historical (pre-1980) American art and visual culture; however, architecture and film studies are not eligible. Preference will be given to submissions that address American art within a cross-cultural context and offer new ways of thinking about the material. A strong emphasis on visual analysis is encouraged.
Submissions for the 2015 prize must be sent to TerraEssayPrize@si.edu by January 15, 2015. For more information about eligibility and the format for submissions, please visit www.americanart.si.edu/research/awards/terra.
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