Output details

American Little Magazines of the 1890s: A Revolution in Print

The exhibition was held at the Grolier Club (47 E 60th Street, New York) from 20 February – 27 April 2013. Planning began in March 2010 when a proposal was first submitted. It was reviewed by the Committee on Public Exhibitions and then the Council and was approved in November 2010. As sole curator I had full autonomy in planning the exhibition, with administrative support from the Club’s Exhibitions Coordinator. Curation evolved over 30 months and involved producing a narrative and layout for the exhibition; identifying, contacting and making arrangements with institutional and private collectors for the loan of materials; arranging for the production of an exhibition catalogue and an audio guide; researching and writing case and item labels, the catalogue introduction, and an audio guide script; organizing events around the exhibition; overseeing installation, and dismantling of the exhibition. The exhibition included 168 items, including magazines, posters, prints, books, manuscripts and decorative objects associated with little magazines and their role in the Arts and Crafts movement and broader print culture. These were sourced from eleven collections, six institutional (Columbia, Princeton, Delaware Art Museum, University of Delaware, University of Illinois, the Grolier Club) and five private. In addition to case and item labels, audio narrative was provided for 21 of the items. The exhibition was based on my research on these little magazines and their relationship to the broader magazine revolution of the period, the small press movement and developments in book design and the graphic arts, and key literary and cultural movements in fin-de-siècle America. The exhibition was enhanced by a series of events, including a series of talks by me, my curator-led tours for public and academic groups, and an academic symposium (28 March 2013) with papers from me and many leading curators and academics in the field.