VRA 2022 Material Objects and Special Collections session. Presenters: Allan T. Kohl and Jackie Spafford Materials-based collections represent a challenging new mode of information management in terms of subject specialization, physical description and accommodation, and institutional mission. Building upon the successful introductory meeting of this Group in Los Angeles at the 2019 Conference, the goal of this SIG is to provide a forum for open discussion of Material and Object Collections and their relationship to various library/visual resources tasks. The Material and Object Collections SIG provides an opportunity for individuals working with a variety of materials and objects collections – including those that support art and art history courses, those that support architecture and design courses, and those in cultural heritage organizations – to share ideas, issues, and potential solutions in regard to tasks similar to common library/visual resources activities (including cataloging, documentation, staffing, outreach), as well as more specialized concerns relating to the management of physical objects (security, storage and retrieval, the design of user spaces, etc.). By continuing to offer an opportunity for participants to share brief introductions and profiles of their collections, we hope to encourage networking and exchange information about sources for specialized items; to display sample items and share surplus samples with other collections; and to provide examples of successful solutions to typical problems. Our long-range goal is to maintain an ongoing support group that can be of particular benefit to those professionals who are in the beginning stages of building or organizing physical collections.

2. Print Culture
Art and Communication
in the Age of Mass Reproduction

3. Since the advent of print and the printing press,
text, image, graphic design, comics, and advertising
have played significant roles in cultural formation.
This course examines the history of mass reproduction
of printed matter from the Renaissance to the present,
including books and periodical design, along with
printed ephemera and manufactured materials.
Course description:

6. Kitagawa Utamaro: The Artist’s Studio, ca. 1798-1803
color woodblock print triptych 38.5 x 74.4 cm. overall

12. Modern illustration of a 15th-century printer’s shop, showing the printer casting movable metal type
in a hand-held mold, while behind him an apprentice sorts individual letters and punctuation marks
in a type case. The left side of this illustration shows part of a printing press.

14. Nuremberg Chronicle: detailed, but highly imaginative, view of Constantinople, created by an artist who may
have read text descriptions of the city, but had never actually visited it (1493)

25. This cover image has been
separated into a CMYK profile
Chromolithography uses color
separations

37. “The Burning of Rome” 5-color sheet music cover (1903)

38. Chromolithograph Trade Cards (1880s)

39. Tintype portrait photograph (ca. late 19th-century)

40. English, Late Victorian/Edwardian: silverplate toast tongs (ca. 1890-1910)

41. Porcupine quills

42. Carrara marble, specimen

43. Copper ore specimen, with verdigris

44. William Morris: “Chrysanthemum” wallpaper sample (orig. 1876-1877)