Exhibition view of "Rock Style," held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from December 9, 1999 to March 19, 2000.
My project at Thomas J. Watson Library this past year required me to become familiar with The Met's digital asset management (DAM) repository, NetX. It was my task to search through this DAM by exhibition title to find previously unpublished images of special-exhibition gallery views, and link them to the Watsonline record for each exhibition. By uploading and linking these images, users are able to experience how these exhibitions looked when they were on display. I enjoyed the opportunity to discover images that haven't previously been seen by the public.
Exhibition view of "Toulouse-Lautrec in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from July 2, 1996 to September 29, 1996.
This project was a continuation of work by previous interns. Special-exhibition gallery views, exhibition banners, and permanent gallery views were captured on 2-by-2 black-and-white and 35 mm color slides for decades. The lantern slide collection contained over 1.5 million images. The Met digitized many of these slides, and during my fellowship I uploaded sixty collections of special-exhibition gallery views to the library's Digital Collections, making them publicly available for the first time. Special-exhibition gallery views are invaluable to The Met's exhibition history. These images shed light on how special exhibitions were curated in galleries and give users the opportunity to experience past exhibitions.
Below are some images I loved:
Exhibition view of "Art and Oracle: African Art and Rituals of Divination," held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from April 26, 2000 to July 30, 2000.
Exhibition view of "Roy Lichtenstein on the Roof," held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 1, 2003 to November 2, 2003.
I also had the opportunity to digitize and upload several collections of marbled papers for the Paper Legacy Project. The process began by carefully digitizing the marbled papers on a Zeutschel scanner, resizing the images, and uploading them onto ContentDM. The collections I had a chance to digitize were breathtaking, and I am thrilled that I had the chance to see these items up close.
These were a few of my favorites:
From Moth Marblers
Among the many tasks I performed at the Watson Library, contributing to the Digital Collections Pinterest board was one of my favorite experiences. I was able to explore the digital collections of The Met to discover interesting and captivating images to be shared on Pinterest. I relished the process of discovering images that are unique and eye-catching. Some of my contributions can be seen below.
"Belcher Mosaic Glass Co." (1886). Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.). Thomas J. Watson Library. Trade Catalogs
"Ōyō Sketchbook" (1903). Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.). Department of Asian Art. Japanese Illustrated Books
It has been an incredible year at Watson Library. I was able to contribute to various projects, from technical services to social media. I felt like my work had an impact on the digital collections in the library, and I am grateful for the opportunity to bring exhibitions of the past into the present once again.
