BPL « Digital Commonwealth News & Announcements

All of May’s contributors are return customers. The Boston Public Library has added significant holdings of prints and drawings. The Atwood House Museum of the Chatham Historical Society has contributed more nautical charts while the Wilbraham Public Library has digitized more photographs. Special mention has to be made of the Lawrence Public Library, which has added fourteen collections ranging from 1 to 68 items.

House, people Lawrence Cyclone Photo Collection — House, people, from Lawrence, Mass. Cyclone July 26, 1890 Photograph Collection

Most striking are the photographs of the aftermath of the “Great Cyclone” of 1890. Eight people died and 65 were injured. The tornado did $60,000 worth of damage. ($1.5 million in today’s money) The house on the left is just one of many that did not survive the storm.

On a happier note, Lawrence Public Library also digitized a collection of sheet music. It almost doesn’t matter how tuneful the songs are when the covers are this colorful. (See below.)

Atwood House Museum of the Chatham Historical Society
Nautical Chart Collection of the Chatham Historical Society – 40 items added to existing collection

Boston Public Library
Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910). Prints and Drawings – 115 items
George Cruikshank (1792-1878). Prints and Drawings – 86 items
Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904). Lithographs and Other Prints – 478 items
William Hogarth (1697-1764). Prints – 162 items

Lawrence Public Library

Alfred I. Earle – 1 item
Augustinian Priests Photograph Collection – 13 items
Bernard Sullivan Photographs – 3 items
Bob Dziadosz – 1 iteM
Elsie Marsden Photographs – 3 items
Father James T. O’Reilly – 2 items
Fred H. and Anna C. Sargent Photographs – 2 items
Hurricane, September 21, 1938 – 17 items
Lawrence, Mass. Before Redevelopment Photograph Collection – 58 item
Lawrence, Mass. Cyclone July 26, 1890 Photograph Collection – 68 items
Lawrence, Mass. Mayors Photograph Collection – 51 items
Lawrence, Mass. United States Post Office – 2 items
Panama Pacific International Exposition – 2 items added to existing collection
Sheet Music Collection – 27 items

Wilbraham Public Library
Wilbraham Town Archives Photographic Collection – 143 items

Avant l'assaut. Images of World War I Battlefields. Franklin Historical Museum. — Avant l’assaut, from Images of World War I Battlefields (Franklin Historical Museum)

All those April showers (rain and snow alike) brought over 3,300 new items to the Digital Commonwealth. The largest donation came from the National Archives at Boston with its Watertown Arsenal Photographs collection. The photos of bright shining new armaments contrast sharply with the Franklin Historical Museum’s riveting Images of World War I Battlefields collection. (See Avant l’assaut to left.)

On balance, the Noble & Cooley Center for Historic Preservation and Jacob Edwards Library (Southbridge) have added images of everyday life in small town Massachusetts. The Boston Public Library enhances the everyday with the artistic and, happily, the humorous. In this case, most of us might associate running and bulls with Ernest Hemingway and Pamplona. For Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, the association becomes running from bulls – and there is nothing macho about it. (See La vache enragée below.)

Boston Public Library
Emily Tennyson Letters, 1858-1873 – 83 items
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). Prints and Drawings – 351 items
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). Prints and Drawings – 8 items
Paintings and Fine Arts Collection at the Boston Public Library – 1 item added to existing collection
Walt Whitman Collection (1819-1892) – 1 item

Franklin Historical Museum

La vache enragee. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. BPL. — La vache enragée, from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). Prints and Drawings (BPL)

Images of World War I Battlefields – 48 items
Maps of Franklin, Massachusetts – 9 items

Jacob Edwards Library
New Topographical Atlas of Worcester County – 3 items

National Archives at Boston
Watertown Arsenal Photographs – 2,833 items

Noble & Cooley Center for Historic Preservation
Life in Granville, Massachusetts Collection – 11 items
NCCHP Museum Collection – 2 items added to existing collection
Noble & Cooley Business Correspondence Collection – 1 item added to existing collection
Noble & Cooley Catalog Collection – 1 item
Noble & Cooley Employee Collection – 3 items added to existing collection
Toy Manufacturing Industry – 1 item
Trade Catalog Collection – 13 items added to existing collection

Path of Life I M. C. Escher (1898-1972). Prints and Drawings (BPL)

This month, the Boston Public Library (BPL) added 36 items from its M.C. Escher prints and drawings collection. It also happens that this month the Museum of Fine Arts opened an exhibit of M.C. Escher prints. Great minds really do think alike.

In addition, the BPL added items to six existing collections as well as lithographs, etchings and drawings of James McNeill Whistler, a Commonwealth-born artist most famous for his mother’s portrait.

The Leicester Public Library has uploaded a collection of architectural drawings while the Atwood House Museum of the Chatham Historical Society and the Jamaica Plain Historical Society have added new items to existing collection.

It appears winter is not done with us yet, so let the wonders on Digital Commonwealth warm your day and inspire your spirit.

Atwood House Museum of the Chatham Historical Society
Nautical Chart Collection of the Chatham Historical Society – 49 items added to existing collection

Boston Public Library

Boston Printmakers Collection – 110 items added to existing collection

Colonial and Revolutionary Boston (Collection of Distinction) – 7 items added to existing

collection

Incunabula (Collection of Distinction) – 2 items added to existing collection

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Lithographs, Etchings, and Drawings – 239 items

M.C. Escher (1898-1972). Prints and Drawings – 87 items

Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction) – 36 items added to existing collection

Paintings and Fine Arts Collection at the Boston Public Library – 1 item added to existing collection

Stereograph Collection – 1 item added to existing collection

Jamaica Plain Historical Society

James Michael Curley Negatives – 71 items added to existing collection