For Immediate Release September 5, 2008
info@ rosspub.com
Checklist of Visual Resources from Russia and Eastern Europe
in The New York Public Library to be Published
In the realm of Russian and East European visual resources, The New
York Public Library has few peers outside of Russia. However, the rich
holdings are spread throughout the Library and not easily accessible in
toto. Fortunately, in the future access will be greatly facilitated by a
new volume being issued by Ross Publishing, 250 West 57th Street, New York,
NY 10107. The work describes nearly 900 heavily illustrated books, journals,
posters, engravings and prints, as well as original works of art on paper,
in the Library’s collections, principally from the 18th to the early 20th
centuries. In the words of art historian John E. Bowlt, the “…books, albums,
folios in The New York Public Library constitute a unique collection for the
study of Russian art, architecture, the applied arts and material culture in
the Western world."
This new volume is the first attempt to analyze the Library's
illustrated books and works on paper in detail. The Introduction explains
the significance of the illustrated Russian book and situates New York
Public Library's holdings in the context of other libraries with similar
collections. A Preface by John Bowlt provides broader context. Visual
Resources from Russia and Eastern Europe in The New York Public Library, A
Checklist was compiled by Hee-Gwone Yoo, The New York Public Library, and
edited by Kristen Regina, Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens, who also wrote
the Introduction.
Among the topics and subjects covered are art and archaeology,
militaria, travel, ethnography, cartography, depictions of historic sites
and book design. The work is enhanced by more than 120 color illustrations
drawn from those items in the core list that can be found only in The New
York Public Library. The utility of the Checklist is further enhanced by a
series of seven appendices that list approximately 3,000 individual plates
and images contained in a selected number of heavily illustrated reference
books, such as Fedor Solntsev's Drevnosti rossiisskogo gosudarstva
[Antiquities of the Russian State] (1849-1853) and Dmitrii Rovinskii's
Materialy dlia russkoi ikonografii [Materials for Russian Iconography]
(1884-1890), as well as several large groups of early Soviet posters, prints
and broadsides and Constructivist book covers. In addition to the appendices
the work also includes an exhaustive index by subject, title, publisher,
date of publication and personal names to facilitate access to the various
works.
Each entry includes an English translation of the title and a
bibliographic description. Titles originally in Cyrillic have been
transliterated. The works cataloged are mostly found in the Slavic and
Baltic Division. However, many other divisions of the Library are also
represented.
Hee-Gwone Yoo is a Librarian at The New York Public Library. Kristen
Regina is the Chief Art Librarian of the Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens
Art Research Library in Washington, D.C. Professor John E. Bowlt is at the
Institute of Modern Russian Culture, University of Southern California
The book–the culmination of three years’ efforts by Mr. Yoo and Ms.
Regina– is priced at $140, with a price of $125 until its scheduled
publication on November 1, 2008. The present work is part of “The New York
Public Library Slavic, Baltic, and Eurasian Resource Series,” from Ross
Publishing LLC.
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