By Madalyn Rehrman, Ingalls Library Summer season on the Cuyahoga Intern
As a digitization intern on the Ingalls Library and Museum Archives this summer time, I’ve had the nice fortune to work with a number of completely different objects, starting from uncommon folios which have only recently entered the general public area to archival supplies from the Frances Prindle Taft Assortment.
Frances Prindle Taft (1921–2017) was an artwork historian with deep ties to the Cleveland space and the CMA. She graduated from Vassar School in 1942, the place she majored in zoology and minored in artwork historical past. Later that 12 months she joined the US Navy as a part of the Ladies Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Companies (WAVES) program throughout World Battle II. In 1943 she married Seth Chase Taft, grandson of President William Howard Taft. That they had 4 youngsters. She taught artwork historical past on the Cleveland Institute of Artwork from 1950 to 2012. She was a member of the CMA’s Junior Council (which later turned the Womens Council) and the board of trustees. One in all her main analysis focuses was pre-Columbian artwork. She traveled extensively, taking 19 journeys to Mesoamerica, in addition to many different locations all through her life. She documented these travels in journals, taking detailed notes and sketching numerous places she visited, typically in attractive watercolor illustrations.
Throughout my internship, I’ve been digitizing a small choice of Taft’s journals. A few of these doc journeys to Mexico (fig. 1). The websites she visited and the notes and sketches she made show her dedication to finding out pre-Columbian artwork. Whereas in Mexico, she typically visited archaeological websites and ruins, lots of which she drew and wrote about in these journals. She additionally recorded components of her travels such because the landscapes and meals she loved (or didn’t take pleasure in), native tradition and other people, agriculture, and transportation.
Included in her journals are additionally home journeys with Seth and their youngsters, in addition to journeys to Europe throughout which she visited France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, and Malta (fig. 2). Her drawings illustrate the landscapes and structure that she admired, and her journal entries give particulars about many components of her journeys — distinguished amongst them are her notes on artwork and structure.
A notable function of Taft’s journey sketchbooks is the modifying all through. Many pages comprise what could be assumed are later additions to the textual content — clarification of phrases and phrases — in the identical (although neater) handwriting initially used. These marks are sometimes in a unique pen coloration and stand out on the web page, leaving spots of coloration by the journals (even past the watercolor drawings and colourful pens she generally used for the principle content material).
The covers of the journals additionally regularly embrace detailed notes on their contents. The journal about her 1973 and 1974 journeys to Mexico, for instance, has six label stickers on its cowl (fig. 3). These labels embrace particulars about places the journal paperwork and a number of the sketches it comprises. From this scrupulous documentation and modifying, it’s clear that Taft wished her journals to be readable sooner or later — actually, it appears, as a reference or memento for herself. These clarifications additionally lend extra clear readability to her journey notes for these viewing them as we speak.
Digitizing Taft’s journals will increase their accessibility — now that they’re on-line, anybody from researchers to Taft’s household can view them without having to be within the Ingalls Library. As I’ve labored on initiatives this summer time, I’ve seen simply how necessary it’s to make supplies obtainable digitally. Taft’s journals could be considered within the Cleveland Museum of Artwork Archives Digital Collections, as soon as once more capable of journey the world, as individuals from throughout have the chance to view them.