----------------------------Original message----------------------------
The first message to the list-serv about the Morgan's collaboaration
with the
Index of Christian Art to digitize our medieval manuscripts appeared in
a mutilated form (our fault, not ARLIS-L's). Here is the complete
message. Thanks to several kind persons who alerted me to the problem.
Liz O'Keefe
***********************************
For Immediate
Release
June 26, 2000
HOMELAND FOUNDATION, INC. AWARDS $1-MILLION GRANT TO CATALOGUE AND
DIGITIZE MORGAN LIBRARY'S MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE MANUSCRIPTS
Charles E. Pierce, Jr., Director of the Morgan Library, announced today
that the Library has received a $1-million grant from the Homeland
Foundation, Inc. for a project under way with Princeton University's
Index of Christian Art to catalogue and digitize the Library's entire
collection of medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts. These
manuscripts, which represent a thousand years of Western iconography,
will be available for the first time in Internet-accessible databases.
Scholars will be able to view Morgan manuscripts on the Internet through
the Index of Christian Art while visitors to the Library's Web site will
be able to browse the same data and images in CORSAIR, the Library's
on-line catalogue.
"Digitizing and providing Internet access to these illuminated
manuscripts will greatly benefit both the Library and everyone with an
interest in medieval art and culture," said Pierce. "Access to these
rare materials will increase dramatically and in unprecedented ways. We
are grateful to the Homeland Foundation for joining the Getty Grant
Program in making this remarkable resource possible."
In May 1999 the Getty Grant Program, a part of the J. Paul Getty Trust
that funds a diverse range of projects, including research in the
history of art and related fields, awarded a $250,000 grant to the Index
of Christian Art to support the initial phase of this collaborative
project. The Homeland Foundation's generous support completes the
project's funding. The Homeland Foundation is a private, independent New
York foundation that owns and operates historic Wethersfield House,
Farm, Carriage House and Formal Gardens outside of Millbrook, New York,
sponsors cultural and religious programs, and makes grants to cultural,
educational, and religious organizations.
E. Lisk Wyckoff, Jr., President of Homeland Foundation, said, "Our grant
makes the Morgan Library's collection of medieval and Renaissance
illuminated manuscripts readily available in a significant manner to the
public generally. Our founder, Chauncey Stillman, would be most pleased
with this prospect."
The Morgan Library-an independent research library and museum with
extensive holdings of manuscripts, drawings, and rare books-houses one
of the preeminent collections of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts.
The collection spans some ten centuries of Western illumination and
includes nearly 1,300 manuscripts as well as papyri. Since it became an
educational institution in 1924, the Library has played a pioneering
role in the development and training of American scholars in medieval
studies, art history, and other fields. The new project represents an
unrivalled opportunity to disseminate images and collection information
to the widest possible audience.
The Index of Christian Art-the world's largest archive of medieval art
and the most comprehensive database for Christian iconography-is an art
historical resource that has served scholars from a wide range of fields
for the past eighty years. It focuses on Christian art in all media from
the early apostolic period to the late Middle Ages. (The term
"Christian" is broadly construed and is by no means restricted to art
that is theological in theme or produced within ecclesiastical
contexts.) The Index currently holds descriptive records of over 200,000
works of art recorded in over 500,000 entries and classified under
26,000 specially created subject terms.
The Library and the Index of Christian Art will jointly create digitized
images and detailed, descriptive records for each of the images in the
Library's collection of illuminated manuscripts dating from the fifth to
sixteenth centuries. The images and descriptions will be available
publicly in CORSAIR, which will be accessible by early 2002 at
www.morganlibrary.org.
The inclusion of the Morgan records in the context of the Index's
iconographic classification system will provide scholars with a
completely new way of studying these documents, making them available to
a much wider research community than is currently possible. "The Index
is a unique resource throughout the art world," stated Harold T.
Shapiro, President of Princeton University. "Adding searchable data and
images from the Morgan Library's holdings to the Index's database will
enable scholars to study manuscript paintings in the Library's
collections within wider contexts. The Foundation's generous support of
this project will enhance scholarship in many disciplines."
The scheduled date for completion of the project is 2005, but images and
records are made available on the Index of Christian Art database as
they are created. Currently, about 2,000 of the Morgan Library's records
and images are available in the Index database. ### For more
information, please contact Glory Jones, Director of Communications and
Marketing, the Morgan Library, at (212) 590-0310, or Colum Hourihane,
Director, Index of Christian Art, Princeton University, at (609)
258-6363.
--
Elizabeth O'Keefe
Director of Collection Information Systems
The Pierpont Morgan Library
29 East 36th Street
New York, NY 10016-3403
TEL: 212 685-0008 x366
FAX: 212 481-3484
NET: [log in to unmask]
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