4/19/12 (6)

My last day!  I decided to spend some time updating my blog and reflecting on my time spent here.  I have loved every minute of my internship.  The staff is unbelievable and are so accommodating.  I have learned so much about Hearst and the importance of his archives.  I also was able to spend some time working on the WRH website, which can be found here.  But most importantly, I have made great friends!
Where do I go from here?  With the recommendation of Dr. Larkin and Dr. Ungarelli of the Digital Initiatives Department, I interviewed for a position as the Web Developer/Designer for LIU and was chosen for the position!  Today I walked over to HR and filled out the paperwork, and will begin on 5/14/12!
I am so thankful for all of the help from everyone in the DI department and look forward to keep in touch during my employment at LIU.

4/16/12 (6)

Last time I was unable to finish printing the photo files and sales records that I found because the printer ran out of ink and there were no replacement cartridges in the storage closet!  I printed out the rest and then was asked to print out some images of photo files, catalogs and sales records to be placed in a portfolio album for Dr. Larkin.  Then I had printer troubles again!!  I spent some time troubleshooting the problem (it was a software issue) and was able to continue the job, but ran out of time.

4/9/12 (6)

Mirror

Here's another photo that I was able to match with a sales record.  It's a mirror-notice the camera that actually took the picture!  How amazing is that?

4/5/12 (6)

Benjamin Franklin's glasses with case

Today I decided to continue matching photo files with their sales records.  I came across this photo, but didn't search for it's matching sales record.  It's actually Benjamin Franklin's glasses!

4/2/12 (6)

Mrs. Hearst and Mayor Hylan

Today I was asked to write a paragraph to be used in brochure by checking the facts from last year's exhibition at the Schwartz Library.  I found a few interesting articles...one which included a story about Marilyn Monroe.  She attended a premiere of her movie, "The Prince and the Showgirl" at Radio City Hall, as seen here.

3/29/12 (7)

Today I worked on the WRH website again.  I used Photoshop to edit captions and resize images for Derek to be used n a brochure explaining the Silver Jubilee, which took place in New York City.  Hearst was presented with 2 volumes of a Pictorial Review of the event, which is seen here.

3/26/12 (4)

I realized I never searched through the photo files for the Phoebe Hearst item request, so I decided to begin with that.  I still had no luck, so Dr. Larkin gave me another item to search.  She received an email requesting an item that was found in the Hearst database.  The information included the name of the item and the album that it was in, so this was an easy job.  I found the sales record and description and copied them.
Next, I again tried matching up the sales records with the photo files and found several matches.  I scanned and edited them in Photoshop and will need to finish on Thursday.

3/22/12 (6)

Today I "photoshopped" the images which I scanned on Monday and uploaded them onto the library server.  Since the computer which was connected to the book scanner was being used, I searched through the sales records for any more which matched with the photo files and scanned the sales records on the flatbed scanner.  While I was waiting for the book scanner to become available to scan the photos, Dr. Larkin asked me to find certain items owned by Phoebe Hearst.  This was a request from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in Berkeley, California.  Since there was nothing in the Hearst online database, I spent the next few hours flipping through the sales records once again!  It will be so much easier once these are recorded digitally!
P.S.  I never found the items.
Since the book scanner was available at this time, I finished scanning the photos and edited them in Photoshop and uploaded them onto the server so my work wouldn't be lost.

3/19/12 (6)

Today I was asked to locate a Roman marble sarcophagus fragment representing a figure of Eros holding a garland.  The current owner acquired the item in 1959 in California directly from the Hearst Corporation warehouses.  The email had some further description of the item and I tried locating it by searching in the sales records and online database, but was unable to find anything.

German 15th Century Saints

While I was searching through the sales records, I noticed a section called "photo file."  Since we have photo file records for 1929-1930, I decided to match up the sales records from these years with their photos.  I was able to find quite a few matches and had to scan the front and back of each photo along with their corresponding sales records.  This should keep me busy for while.

3/15/12 (6)

NYPD Glee Club and Band from the Pictorial Review

Today, I finished up the website...there's still some minor changes to make, but it looks pretty good.   Now I was able to add some more entries to my blog before the next job :)

From the Hearst Archive

 We received another email asking for an item of Hearst's: a vase.  The information given was very descriptive (including the album and page number where the item was located) and since the inquiry was previously searched on Heart's archive, no further digging was needed.  I simply found the album, scanned the pages and image, and resized them in Photoshop.

3/12/12 (6)

From the Pictorial Review

Another intern helped me match the sales records, which made the job so much easier!  By searching the database by item #, I located the corresponding album and made a list for her to follow.  She spent most of the day placing the sales records in the albums, while I began working on the site again.

3/8/12 (6)

Old style horse drawn cart and paper truck

I began working on the website again.  Since I don't know php coding very well, it's been fun learning something new!  This image is from the Pictorial Review.  I spent a few hours on the site, but then took a break and began matching "Hearst Unidentified" sales records to the album collections.  There were at least 100 matching items and they had to be placed in mylar and placed in their corresponding album.

3/5/12 (6)

More information needed to be located for the upcoming show.  I needed to find an Egyptian coffin and spent most of the day looking for it among the photo files and sales records, but had no luck.  I also needed to find some African art purchased by Hearst, but couldn't find anything.

3/1/12 (6)

I needed to find any records and images of an aztec calendar plate and aztec tea service for the upcoming show.  Searching through the photo files and sales records, I was only able to find a few similar items, which were of no use.

I began working on the website, which can be found here.  It's for an exhibit from last spring called:  Exhibition: A Pictorial Review - Greater New York's Silver Jubilee - May 26 - June 23, 1923.
I created 6 new pages on the site and added images and text to the pages, which can be seen here.

2/27/12 (6)

A local university needed some images of items purchased by Hearst, but I had no luck finding them.  Searching through the boxes of sales records is very time consuming...I only wish it could be cataloged, which would make searching so much easier!

Later I started on a web project - placing the exhibit from last year on the LIU-Hearst website.  The exhibit was based on "Greater New York's Silver Jubilee May 26-June 23, 1923."
I searched through the images and text that was used for the collection and placed them in order which would later be used for the website.

2/23/12 (6)

A 15th century Spanish Decorated Wooden Ceiling

I needed to add some images to my blog, so I used some of the ceiling images I scanned and edited them in photoshop, changing the image size to 72 pixels and decreasing the size to about 3 inches (for copyright purposes!)

2/9/12 (6)

We received an email from someone from Spain, requesting images of ceilings that were purchased by Hearst.  I was able to find a few in the archives, but a few that were mentioned were not there.  An image was included in the email, which was originally from LIU, so I knew the image was somewhere in the archives.  Thinking it may have been misplaced, I began flipping through the relevant albums but couldn't find it.  I noticed some photo file albums on the shelves, so I began searching through them page by page.  Since these haven't been cataloged yet, it was possible the images were there.  After a half hour or so, I came across them and scanned them.  The images weren't perfect - they were upside down and not straight, so I opened them in photoshop and edited them.

2/6/12 (6)

We received an email requesting information about items bought by Hearst from the Hamilton Palace.  They provided an image of a passageway which included two bronze figures which they referred to as "Atlas" and wanted to know if Hearst purchased them.  I searched through archive using "bronze", "atlas" and "Hamilton Palace" as keywords, but was unable to find anything.  The figures were sculpted by Carlo Marochetti, so I tried searching his name but still found nothing.  Searching Google, I found some information on the Hamilton Palace virtual reconstruction website which mentioned that the bronze figures were supposedly melted down.  I also found "A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851" which gave basic information about the figures, including that it was cast by Soyer and it was considered architectural sculpture.
Another interesting item I found was a Christie's catalogue for The Hamilton Palace Collection which was dated 1882.  I searched the catalogue for "Atlas", but found nothing.  Also, I searched for additional catalogues and searched through them, but none include "Atlas".
I started looking through the Hearst's photo files in the archive, but still haven't come across the items....I'll keep looking.

2/2/12 (6)

It was time to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty!  Classical music was playing softly in the background, which set the tone for the job ahead.  I was asked to wear a pair of white cotton gloves and use non-abrasive sheets to clean the catalogs.  They were filthy and some had some minor damage, so I was told to place them in mylar pockets to protect them.  We were careful to keep them in order and re-house them in new cardboard boxes, labeling them according to month.  There were about 5 boxes in all, and I'm sure it will be my job to begin cataloging them over the next few weeks.
I spent the rest of the day picking up where I left off by cataloging the remainder of the items that were left from the previous day, with the music playing of course!

1/30/12 (4)

I began my day looking through a few miscellaneous boxes of items, ranging from art catalogs from 1909 to 1959.  One interesting item included the auction of Charles Dickens' Bleak House Broadstairs.  I also came across a newspaper article from the 1920's - I'm not sure why it was there, but it was interesting to look at the articles and advertisements of the day.
I finished the remainder of the day by cataloging Hearst's auction catalogs from 1934, searching through WorldCat as a reference to copy-catalog and inputted the information into an excel file to be imported into the database.
My supervisor received an email from the two associates from the ancient art company.  They discovered that the Metropolitan Museum's Onassis Library houses the Kelekian papers, and mentioned that they will follow up on the "Alexander the Great" reference.  They promise to keep us posted and thanked us for our help.

1/26/12 (6)

Art object - Head of Alexander the Great - vendor Dikran G. Kelekian

On my first day, my internship supervisor received an email from a local ancient art company which inquired about an art object, asking if it had been purchased by Hearst.  The image of the item was attached to the email, but can't be shown for copyright purposes.  I was asked to search through several boxes of images, trying to locate something similar.  I placed a few images aside, but was unable to find what they were looking for.  In the early afternoon, two employees from from the art company stopped by to search through the archives themselves.  They brought a photo of the item - it was hanging on a wall in a bathroom! (Just think, this item has survived through thousands of historical events and ends up in such an undeserving place.)  One of them mentioned that someone had referred to the item as "Alexander the Great."  I helped them search through additional archives which contained descriptions of items from Hearst's collection and I found one which said, "Art object-Head of Alexander the Great", photo file 1923-349 dated 2/27/23, vendor DiKran Kelekian.  I photocopied the item for them and they left. (The item is shown here.)  They seemed satisfied.  I also made a copy and will try to find more information about the item this week.