Going through the Virginia Broderick papers has yet to stop impressing me. I am always pleasantly surprised to open a folder and find absolutely breath taking works of art there. She had an very unique and amazing talent and looking through her sketches and final products it becomes very apparent. I can't wait to put pictures of all of it online so people can see how amazing she is! Today I found a folder that contain her "early artwork" from 1934, and while it is of ordinary things, like a plant, they are absolutely incredible! I am having so much fun everyday just looking through her work, and reading the fan mail that she gets from people telling her how much she inspires them. It is an incredibly cool collection to work with. If there was a higher honor than being called a hip lady, she deserves it.
The most impressive part of the collection that I have gotten to so far is the number of requests for art work she gets. There are at least 30 folders, all from different churches or companies, telling her how they are inspired by her work and would love her create something for them. The incredible part of it, besides the sheer number of requests, is the amount of creative freedom they give to Virginia. They tell her the dimensions that they want, and what they would like the picture to be of, and that's it. They let her choose how to portray the picture, and in what manner, whether a painting or some other medium. It shows how much the churches and companies trusted her as an artist and her talents to portray what they wanted. It really struck me how many people wanted her to create a work of art for them, but also the kind replies that she gave them back. From her letters, it seems like she was truly honored to do the work for them and very humbled by the entire experience. And while it struck me that that many people wanted work from her, I realized those are the letters that got saved, not all of projects she took on. From the photographs of her work, and the number of covers she designed is in the hundreds. And even that does not cover all the work that she did. The number of private designs that she did for friends, or herself, is an extraordinary amount as well. On top of everything, Virginia received so many requests to have her work be a part of a gallery, exhibit, or auction. Today really proved how she may not be the biggest celebrity in the world, she was incredible sought out in her own area of expertise. And she was totally cool about everything. She was incredibly humble and cool about it. This collection has had an impact on me in a way that I never thought would happen. She is a hip lady is quickly becoming an understatement.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Why Letters are Important
The more and more I look through Virginia's boxes the more and more I realize how cool of a women she is. Her art is absolutely beautiful!! It's strange to see pictures of her working on a piece of art that I have either seen or has been the inspiration for work that I have seen in churches. There are so many pictures of her work and the different stages that they went through. I am constantly impressed by her art, and I have been finding it harder and harder to select pieces to put the digital collection. Not because there isn't enough, but because I'm beyond impressed with everything and want to include it all. I can't wait to start putting pictures online so that other people can see the absolutely amazing pieces that I have been looking through.
While the pictures are extremely cool, I have started looking through the boxes that contains her different correspondences. They are very interesting and make Virginia an actual person. Realistically I know that she used to be a living, breathing, human being, but there is some disconnect when you are looking through boxes. Its hard to describe. You can look through photos all you want, but they are just photos. You don't know anything about the person behind them by just looking through brief moments of their life. Yeah I got how much she loved her husband, and a little bit of a sense of their relationship through the pictures. Yeah I saw how absolutely beyond words talented she is through her pictures. I saw the pride she took in her work. But I didn't know anything about her. Looking through her letters I am starting to see that though. I see how much she cared for everyone around her. I see the countless letters from her friends thanking Virginia for just randomly giving them a piece of work. The number of times I saw something along the lines of "I was surprised by a large mail package on my front steps this morning, and once I opened it I found one of your paintings. That was extremely kind of you to send that to me as a surprise!" And she never asked anything in return for those pieces. I see the letters from complete strangers telling her how her work inspired them and the kind words she sent back to them. I see the letters from priests thanking her for the art work that she did for their parishes and how they have inspired it's members. I see the love letters between her and her husband. A couple actually brought tears to my eyes too. They had a love that I thought only existed in Nicholas Sparks novels. I see the letter from a class of 2nd graders thanking her for the donation of a statue she gave to their church. I see the numerous ways that she touched people's lives. These letters have humanized her in such a profound way to me. I mean, grant it, I feel extremely creepy sometimes reading them, don't get me wrong, but they have added a whole other dimension to Virginia. I think these letters will help me create the story of her life in such a unique way. As I am going through them, however, I feel as though I have to create some rules that I have to follow for which letters can go into the digital collection or not. The main one is to not put anything in that, if it was mine, I wouldn't want anyone else reading. Her letters with her husband are off limits then. They are absolutely beautiful, but I feel as though I am cheapening them in a way by putting their private thoughts and feelings on the internet. Also, any letter that speaks intimately about someone's family is out. I don't need to put letters that discuss personal events or problems of a family on the internet. I wouldn't want someone doing that to me after I'm dead, so I refuse to do it to her. Even with the letters that I take out, there is such a rich story to be told. Yet again, I cannot wait to go into work in the morning and continue exploring.
While the pictures are extremely cool, I have started looking through the boxes that contains her different correspondences. They are very interesting and make Virginia an actual person. Realistically I know that she used to be a living, breathing, human being, but there is some disconnect when you are looking through boxes. Its hard to describe. You can look through photos all you want, but they are just photos. You don't know anything about the person behind them by just looking through brief moments of their life. Yeah I got how much she loved her husband, and a little bit of a sense of their relationship through the pictures. Yeah I saw how absolutely beyond words talented she is through her pictures. I saw the pride she took in her work. But I didn't know anything about her. Looking through her letters I am starting to see that though. I see how much she cared for everyone around her. I see the countless letters from her friends thanking Virginia for just randomly giving them a piece of work. The number of times I saw something along the lines of "I was surprised by a large mail package on my front steps this morning, and once I opened it I found one of your paintings. That was extremely kind of you to send that to me as a surprise!" And she never asked anything in return for those pieces. I see the letters from complete strangers telling her how her work inspired them and the kind words she sent back to them. I see the letters from priests thanking her for the art work that she did for their parishes and how they have inspired it's members. I see the love letters between her and her husband. A couple actually brought tears to my eyes too. They had a love that I thought only existed in Nicholas Sparks novels. I see the letter from a class of 2nd graders thanking her for the donation of a statue she gave to their church. I see the numerous ways that she touched people's lives. These letters have humanized her in such a profound way to me. I mean, grant it, I feel extremely creepy sometimes reading them, don't get me wrong, but they have added a whole other dimension to Virginia. I think these letters will help me create the story of her life in such a unique way. As I am going through them, however, I feel as though I have to create some rules that I have to follow for which letters can go into the digital collection or not. The main one is to not put anything in that, if it was mine, I wouldn't want anyone else reading. Her letters with her husband are off limits then. They are absolutely beautiful, but I feel as though I am cheapening them in a way by putting their private thoughts and feelings on the internet. Also, any letter that speaks intimately about someone's family is out. I don't need to put letters that discuss personal events or problems of a family on the internet. I wouldn't want someone doing that to me after I'm dead, so I refuse to do it to her. Even with the letters that I take out, there is such a rich story to be told. Yet again, I cannot wait to go into work in the morning and continue exploring.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
She's a Hip Lady
It has been a very interesting week at the WLA! I began working on the digital exhibit for Virginia Broderick and it is super interesting! There isn't much to say about it so far, however. I began by looking through the collections that are already online, and those are really cool! If you haven't looked through them yet, you really should. I especially loved looking through the old pictures from Mundelein College! It is really cool/weird seeing the different ways that the building has changed over the years. I had no idea that it used to have dorms, a pool, and a library there as well as classrooms. I always feel like it is way to small to hold all that, but apparently not. I love looking through all the different pictures, and seeing all the different students featured in them. It kind of strange knowing that they went to school in the same classrooms that I do, but years ago, and experiencing kind of the same thing by being college students, but during a totally different time with different concerns and trends. I have always loved looking at pictures and trying to understand the context that those people were living in. It was a very interesting and fulfilling assignment.
After looking through the pictures I began looking through the Virginia Broderick collection. I am not very far along in it, but she is a real hip lady. Her art is so flipping cool!! Nothing like what I was expecting. The one thing that struck me so far was how vibrant and colorful the artwork is. Most the religious work that I have seen has been done in more dull colors, so it was pretty solid to see work done in eye catching brights. The pictures of her and her husband in the collection are the most precious things ever too. They were such an adorable couple, and you can see how much they cared for each other through the pictures. I have only gone through 1 of the 41 boxes so far so I still have so much to see and explore, but it was a great start! I really enjoy getting to see all these different things and feel as though I have an understanding of her and her life before deciding what goes into the digital collections. My aspirations of getting to show her story are starting to come together and I really really enjoy this project so far. Once again, I came home thinking about how much I love this internship. Pretty solid.
After looking through the pictures I began looking through the Virginia Broderick collection. I am not very far along in it, but she is a real hip lady. Her art is so flipping cool!! Nothing like what I was expecting. The one thing that struck me so far was how vibrant and colorful the artwork is. Most the religious work that I have seen has been done in more dull colors, so it was pretty solid to see work done in eye catching brights. The pictures of her and her husband in the collection are the most precious things ever too. They were such an adorable couple, and you can see how much they cared for each other through the pictures. I have only gone through 1 of the 41 boxes so far so I still have so much to see and explore, but it was a great start! I really enjoy getting to see all these different things and feel as though I have an understanding of her and her life before deciding what goes into the digital collections. My aspirations of getting to show her story are starting to come together and I really really enjoy this project so far. Once again, I came home thinking about how much I love this internship. Pretty solid.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
There Are No Words for this Feeling
DONE!!! I finished my first collection today!! I cannot even explain the feeling of accomplishment when I put those two boxes onto the shelves in the archives. Amazing! It was great to feel like I have made a contribution to the archives. Also, it was amazing to know that I was able to start a process and be able to complete it on my own. It was absolutely wonderful. I know that I learned a lot through processing this collection, and gained a deeper understanding of how history is made through it. I feel as though everything that I read and know about different historical events have a more complex meaning to me now. That is something that as a history nerd, I find to be the most rewarding aspect of this. Again, it's hard to describe it, and honestly I don't think I have words for it.
The completion of this project means that I get to start a new one, though. Today I began researching our digital collections, because I will be making my own exhibit for Virginia Broderick, who I can already tell is a real hip lady. I will take her art, and try to organize it on our website to tell her story. I have high aspirations for this one. I want everyone who looks through her art to see her. To see her story. To see how she came to be one of the most revered religious artists in the world. I'm sitting here writing this and getting side tracked by thinking of all the different possibilities that I have with this project, and all the new things that I am going to learn. This is one of the many times that I have been truly excited to go to work, and considering I have to wake up early for it on a regular basis, that's saying a lot. Very few people know how this feels, so it's hard to describe. Without being a huge cliché, I feel as though I am in a position where there are so many opportunities to explore, discover, and learn. Now I just have to choose a path. And it's all relating to history. I love this internship.
The completion of this project means that I get to start a new one, though. Today I began researching our digital collections, because I will be making my own exhibit for Virginia Broderick, who I can already tell is a real hip lady. I will take her art, and try to organize it on our website to tell her story. I have high aspirations for this one. I want everyone who looks through her art to see her. To see her story. To see how she came to be one of the most revered religious artists in the world. I'm sitting here writing this and getting side tracked by thinking of all the different possibilities that I have with this project, and all the new things that I am going to learn. This is one of the many times that I have been truly excited to go to work, and considering I have to wake up early for it on a regular basis, that's saying a lot. Very few people know how this feels, so it's hard to describe. Without being a huge cliché, I feel as though I am in a position where there are so many opportunities to explore, discover, and learn. Now I just have to choose a path. And it's all relating to history. I love this internship.
Monday, June 4, 2012
What in the world was I thinking?
That is what I seemed to be saying to myself throughout the day. What in the world was I thinking when I first started going through the collection? Today I finished making the pathfinder/finding aid, and all that is left to do is to go through it one more time to make sure that everything make sense. It is a great feeling of accomplishment to get one more step done and being that much closer to the final product.
But creating this pathfinder has given me an opportunity that I did not even think about. Because it is my first collection, I can see my own progress. I can see the way I went through everything, and how my decision process of what is important or not evolved. The first couple of folder just kind of had everything thrown into it, in no order, with no system, and stuff was put together that apparently made sense at the time, but now I got nothing. And I saved everything. I was/am afraid to throw out stuff, but the first couple of folders had material in there that is beyond irrelevant, aka a post-it saying "call me" stuck to a blank piece of paper. Then came the folders were I was more confident in what I was doing, but still didn't realize that I should probably put documents into any type of order. Some folders had half the documents within it in chronological order, and then the rest just... there. By the end of the day I was sure that the day I worked on that section I had a brain fart. Going through those folders again was interesting though. It gave me a second chance to go through the material, organize it, and take out material that I can now tell is irrelevant. I essentially got to process the same material twice, see what I have learned, and see how my methods and confidence have progressed. Then going through the final section, it was a lot more streamlined and made sense. That was a relief.
Today was a good learning experience. I don't know if I have accurately put into words how I felt today, however. It was helpful to get a second look through this collection and see how my skills have grown and developed. It gave me more confidence in what I am doing, and allowed me to see where I started from and where I am today. It was an interesting/weird/helpful/cool day.
But creating this pathfinder has given me an opportunity that I did not even think about. Because it is my first collection, I can see my own progress. I can see the way I went through everything, and how my decision process of what is important or not evolved. The first couple of folder just kind of had everything thrown into it, in no order, with no system, and stuff was put together that apparently made sense at the time, but now I got nothing. And I saved everything. I was/am afraid to throw out stuff, but the first couple of folders had material in there that is beyond irrelevant, aka a post-it saying "call me" stuck to a blank piece of paper. Then came the folders were I was more confident in what I was doing, but still didn't realize that I should probably put documents into any type of order. Some folders had half the documents within it in chronological order, and then the rest just... there. By the end of the day I was sure that the day I worked on that section I had a brain fart. Going through those folders again was interesting though. It gave me a second chance to go through the material, organize it, and take out material that I can now tell is irrelevant. I essentially got to process the same material twice, see what I have learned, and see how my methods and confidence have progressed. Then going through the final section, it was a lot more streamlined and made sense. That was a relief.
Today was a good learning experience. I don't know if I have accurately put into words how I felt today, however. It was helpful to get a second look through this collection and see how my skills have grown and developed. It gave me more confidence in what I am doing, and allowed me to see where I started from and where I am today. It was an interesting/weird/helpful/cool day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)