----------------------------Original message----------------------------
POSTED ON BEHALF OF THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUMS:
For Immediate Release
July 11, 1996
HARVARD UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUMS ANNOUNCES NEW WEB SITE SARGENT AT HARVARD
The Harvard University Art Museums is pleased to announce that the public
may access through the World Wide Web a searchable database which makes
available images and textual information relating to works by the American
artist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) in the collections of the Fogg Art
Museum and the Harvard University Portrait Collection. Sargent at Harvard
was developed by Melinda Linderer, 1995-96 Lynn and Philip A. Straus
Intern, Drawing Department, and Lee Mandell, computer support specialist.
The database can be accessed through the Art Museums home page:
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~artmuseums (direct address:
http://www.artmuseums.harvard.edu/sargent/archive.html).
Sargent at Harvard is a structured database comprised of digitized images
and accompanying textual information for over four-hundred drawings,
paintings, sculptures and related materials. The textual material for each
object has been extracted from the Harvard University Art Museums
collections management database. The Web site is designed as an on-going
cataloguing project with the goal of making images and textual information
more accessible to scholars, students, and the general public. Many of the
drawings were catalogued by Linderer as part of her project.
"The electronic capacity of this project provides the opportunity to access
a large number of images and information on-line," stated Linderer. "It
also allows the user to respond to the information provided through a
comments form. While many of the objects in the database have been linked
to specific projects or paintings, the relationship of other objects has
yet to be determined. As an interactive scholarly tool, we hope that the
database of information and images will be strengthened by the critical
commentary and exchange provided by Sargent scholars and students of art
history."
"Before the Web site project, the Fogg's Sargent drawings had been only
partially catalogued," stated Miriam Stewart, assistant curator of
drawings. "A scholar or visitor interested in, for example, Sargent's
studies for the Boston Public Library murals, would have to look through
roughly 400 drawings in order to ensure that he had found everything.
Sargent at Harvard offers the visitor logical and efficient ways of
searching for works related to the Boston Public Library, for drawings of
Madame X, or for works in watercolor, etc. In the past ten years there has
been a tremendous surge of interest in Sargent, and this project offers an
exciting new way to explore one of the largest collections of Sargent's
works, whether by visiting the Fogg Art Museum in person or in cyberspace."
The Sargent material can be searched by keyword, full text, or by the
Harvard University Art Museums accession number. In addition to the
searchable database, Sargent at Harvard contains a short essay on the
history of the objects in Harvard's collections and a list of institutions
with related collections.
**
For general information on the Harvard University Art Museums, please call
(617) 495-9400
For press information or photographs, please contact Kate McShea at (617)
495-2397
**
The Harvard University Art Museums comprise three museums (Busch Reisinger
Museum, Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum), all located on the
Harvard University campus in Cambridge, MA, at the intersection of Quincy
Street and Broadway, adjacent to Harvard Yard. The Harvard University Art
Museums are open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., and Sunday
1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Closed holidays. Admission is $5.00; $4.00 for senior
citizens; $3.00 for students; free under 18 and on Saturday mornings.
Harvard University Art Museums facilities are wheelchair accessible. For
special tour reservations, please call (617) 496-8576.
Mary Clare Altenhofen
Fine Arts Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
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