THE CARD CATALOG OF THE MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS OF THE ARCHIVES OF AMERICANART. 10 v.Review by: Jack Perry BrownARLIS/NA Newsletter, Vol. 9, No. 3 (MAY 1981), pp. 126-127Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27946524 .

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126 ARLIS/NA Newsletter, May 1981

BOOK REVIEWS Jack Perry Brown, Editor

CAVEAT BIBLIOTHECARIUS, Cont'd Frank H. Gille, President of Scholarly Press, Inc., was sentenced

on two counts of Mail Fraud by the Honorable Julian A. Cook, Jr.

Gille, sentenced on January 8, 1981, will serve a jail term of 15 months on each count, to run concurrently, and to pay a fine of

$2,000. According to a press release, issued by U.S. States Attor

ney Eastern District of Michigan, Gille was charged in a 22 count indictment for Mail Fraud and Interstate Transportation of Prop erty Obtained by Fraud on June 27, 1980. The charges outline a

complex scheme beginning on December 1, 1972, to the present, consisting of Gille advertising by mail to solicit the sale of various non-existent encyclopedias and multi-volume works to libraries and public institutions. These include the International Dictionary of Artists (translation of Thieme-Becker) and MARCcard Fine Arts -

Microfiche Format. Postal authorities estimate that libraries collectively spent over $1.4 million for Gille's various

bogus works. In a letter to Marion T. Reid, Chair, ALA RTSD-RS Book

dealer Library Relations Committee, Blondell L. Morey, Assistant States Attorney, Eastern District of Michigan, points out that Gille is not required to make restitution to persons or institutions that

purchased books from one of his companies. Persons wishing to recover any monies paid to Gille will have to resort to civil remedies for damages. (For more information on this subject, see the

ARLIS/NA Newsletter Book Review Section, February 1980, October 1980, and February 1981.

NEW REFERENCE BOOKS edited by Marcia R. Collins

THE ATLAS OF MEDIEVAL MAN/Colin Platt ?New York: St. Martin's, 1980.?256 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-312-05993-0: $22.50.

Not an atlas in the usual sense of being a collection of charts,

maps or illustrations on a particular topic, this is a worldwide

survey, arranged by century, of the artifacts of civilization from

1000 to 1500 A.D. Certainly this is an uncommon bracketing of

years to be called the Middle Ages, and the decision concerning the

time period is made all the more eccentric because this volume is

intended to be the companion to Jacquetta HawkesM/too/Early Man (1976) which covers 35,000 B.C. to 500 A.D.

Because it is a survey of world history, the contents range widely,

testing one's powers of conception and absorption. The author's

purpose is to juxtapose historical events and artistic productions,

elucidating the material culture by its own and parallel historical

contexts. Written in a popular style worthy of the TV versions of

Civilisation or Connections, the number of names, dates and pla ces per page is at an encyclopedic level, but these lack organization and are left to stand (or fall) without the buttress of background information. The resulting double-page spreads present a barrage of loosely related facts cum illustrative material which is over

whelming. One wonders who can be the intended audience, or how

useful is such an approach? The book seems to assume the exist

ence of minds with pigeonholes ready for its information, but

lacking critical faculties. As food for thought the book leaves

nothing to chew on.

The layout of the illustrations is particularly jarring. Lavish use

SECOND COMING OCCURS: REVIEW FORTHCOMING Guide to the Literature of Art History jEtta Arntzen; Rob ert Rainwater.?Chicago: American Library Association; London: Art Book Company, 1980.?616 p.?ISBN 0-8389

0263-4 (ALA); 0-905309-05-7; LC 78-31711: $75.00. NOW AVAILABLE! WATCH THIS PLACE FOR

REVIEW.

has been made of photographs and line-drawings, but to anyone who might wish for precision in the use of illustrations for purposes of comparison and contrast, the patchwork layout and the lack of a

clearly spelled-out relationship between the illustrations and text is

disconcerting. For students who have not enjoyed the benefits of

travel to see the objects discussed, the dramatic shifts in scale from

tiny architectural elevations to huge details of illuminated manus

cripts are not less than misleading.

By virtue of its format this book is not a reference work, as one

might have thought from its title. The facts within are more easily found and clearly presented elsewhere. Nor does it succeed as a

coherent historical survey. Although fascinating to browse

through, the book's lack of organization results in a blurred sense

of chronology. The most helpful feature of the volume is the

summary charts for each century comparing world developments in art, literature, technology, notable persons, religion and major events, but such compilations are available in more detail else

where. M.R.C.

THE CARD CATALOG OF THE MANUSCRIPT COLLEC TIONS OF THE ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART.? Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1981. ?10 v.?ISBN 0-8420

2174-4 (set): $595.00. Since its beginnings in Detroit in 1954, the Archives of American

Art has amassed a document collection totalling more than

6,000,000 items in original and microfilm. Through an agressive

acquisition policy, the Archives, now a bureau of the Smithsonian

Institution, has become a prime resource for the study and docu

mentation of American art. Not content merely to store material, it

has established regional offices (Boston, Detroit, New York, San

Francisco) which make available the Archive's complete holdings on microfilm. All items are available (through Detroit) for interli

brary loan. Active publication of its own holdings and sponsorship of major

undertakings such as Arts in America: A Bibliography

(A RUS I A Newsletter, Feb. 1981) are indicative of serious on

going commitment to American art studies. The Archive's collec tion of microfilmed and original exhibition catalogs was published in 1979 (G.K. Hall, $75.00). In 1972 Bowker published Archives of

American Art: A Directory of Resources, which listed and sum

marily described 555 collections held at that time. Subsequent checklists of the collections were published in 1975 and 1977. In addition, the quarterly Journal gives a descriptive listing of recent

acquisitions in each issue. Now to the work in hand. In an unsigned introduction the limits

of the Manuscript Catalog are laid out. The basic unit is the

particular collection, which may have one item or 300,000 pieces.

Description and indexing of individual items may vary from full to none. Indexing is primarily by personal name and few topical subject entries are included.

Comparison with the 1977 Checklist shows that much more

information is available. Although recorded interviews do not seem to appear in the Manuscript Catalog (they are noted in the

Checklist), the work under review supplies what might be called "added entries" and descriptions to flesh out the "main entry" oriented Checklist. Thus, for Franz Kline, we are told in the

Checklist only about Kline's own documents, their quantity and

type (letters, photos, business records, etc.). In the Manuscript Catalog there are an additional eight references to Kline in other collections in the Archive, briefly described. For Winslow Homer there are 40 added entries, and so on. If one bears in mind the

acknowledged cataloging variations and the differences between a

manuscript collection catalog, where the basic unit is the collec

tion, and a library catalog, where the basic unit is the deserete item, this is still very fruitful source.

Comments are in order, however, about the format. It is in ten

demy folio volumes averaging 470 pages each. Eight cards (repro duced 8.5 cm. 6 cm.) are laid out in two vertical columns per page,

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ARLIS/NA Newsletter, May 1981 127

with 2.5 cm. margins. The total number of cards is calculated at

37,632, somewhat fewer than the "over 40,000" advertised. Use of the standard G.K. Hall format (21 entries per page) would have

produced the Manuscript Catalog in 1,792 pages, or three 600-page volumes. Shingled, the 37,632 entries here would have fit on 1045

super royal quarto pages, or two volumes. These possibilities would have had substantial effect in reducing the price, even were

the cost per volume increased on the publisher's side. While the

present smaller volumes are sturdily bound in an excellent soil

resistant grey cloth (unlike the Winterthur catalog in white linen), the shell space and required use of multiple volumes suggest that fewer might have been better as well as less expensive.

It is also curious that an institution which has made such excel lent use of microfilm did not consider microfiche or ultrafiche

publication for an item which will be consulted, not read. This would also allow for cumulative updates rather than supplemen tary volumes. These comments on the physical makeup are really cavils, however: Buy this catalog if your library has any interest in American art; it is a required essential for all American art research.

J.P.B.

CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTS/Muriel Emanuel, ed.? New York: St. Martin's, 1980.?ix, 933 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-312-16635

4: $70.00. Contemporary Architects is the latest addition to the "five foot

shelf of architectural bio-bibliographical reference books. The result of the collective effort of numerous advisers, 170 contribu

tors, and 600 entrants, it is a large book?a "weighty tome," indeed.

Lest one be misled by the title, the editor states in her introduc tion that, although the emphasis is on living architects and those who have recently died, "we have included those architects of the modern movement of the 1920's-1950's who, in the view of the

Board, continue to exert an important influence on architecture." She also states that they have somewhat stretched the definition of

architect, including "those planners and theorists who may have few built works to show for a lifetime's career but whose thinking and imaginative visions have profoundly influenced architects

throughout the world," and goes on to say, "Likewise, we have included those landscape architects who have made an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the best utilizations of open space. Also included are the most prominent structural engineers of our era?those who have increased the possibilities for architec ture." Do not, therefore, be surprised to find Charles Rennie

Mackintosh, Brenda Colvin, and Robert Maillart among this

assemblage of "contemporary architects." The individual entries provide an outline biography; a chrono

logical listing of projects and completed works; a bibliography of works by the entrant, followed by one of works about the entrant; a

signed critical essay by one of the contributors; and a black-and white representative illustration of the entrant's work. Frequently there is a statement or essay by the entrant, describing his work or

his professional philosophy. The material is well-organized and extremely readable. So read

able, in fact, that one can easily forget that this is a reference book and plunge in at random for the succinct and well-written critical

essays. The black-and-white reproductions of drawings and photo

graphs do not, unfortunately, reach the same level of excellence as the text, ranging mostly from.gray to muddy. Although one might wish for better quality in this aspect of the book, it must be considered a minor flaw in what is otherwise a very thorough piece of work.

A very useful book, indeed, Contemporary Architects will prove a valuable addition to the standard library collection of dictionar

ies, directories, and indexes related to architectural biography. A brief checklist of these companion volumes follows:

INTERNATIONAL B. Oudin. Dictionnaire des Architectes. Paris: Seghers, 1970.

(World coverage?earliest times to 1970.) J.M. Richards. Who's Who in Architecture from 1400 to the Present. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977.

Avery Obiturary Index of Architects and Artists. Boston: G.K.

Hall, 1963. (File begun at Avery Library in 1934 and later back-indexed to 1865; it has recently been re-photographed by G.K. Hall and a second edition is available.)

H. Lasch. Architekten-Bibliographie. Deutschsprachige Ver?f fentlichungen 1920-1960. Leipzig: Seemannverlag, 1962. (Books and periodical articles on architects of all periods and countries.) Royal Institute of British Architects Library. "Index of Archi tects of Several Countries and Many Periods (Except English

Mediaeval) in Nearly Sixty Old and New Selected Indexes." London: 1956.

BRITISH John Hooper Harvey, English Mediaeval Architects. A Biogra

phical Dictionary Down to 1550. London: Batsford, 1954. Howard Colvin. A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840. London: John Murray, 1978. (Original edition of 1954 covered the years 1660-1840.)

Lawrence Wodehouse. British Architects, 1840-1976. Detroit:

Gale, 1978. Dora Ware. A Short Dictionary of British Architects. London: Allen & Unwin, 1967. Royal Institute of British Architects Directory. (Annual.)

AMERICAN Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey. Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased). Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, 1970. (Reprint of 1956 first edition, pub lished by New Age Publishing, Los Angeles.) Lawrence Wodehouse. American Architects from the Civil War to the First World War. Detroit: Gale, 1976; and American

Architects from the First World War to the Present. Detroit:

Gale, 1977. ?

American Architects Directory. New York: Bowker, 1956, 1962, and 1970. (Published under the sponsorship of the American Institute of Architects.) Profile: The Official A. i.A. Directory of Architectural Firms.

Philadelphia: Archimedia, 1978 and 1980. To the last group should be added Architects in Practice, New York City, 1840-1900, by Dennis Steadman Francis, which was

prepared for the Committee for the Preservation of Architectural Records, who issued it in 1980. It should serve as the model for similar directories to be compiled for cities and regions throughout the United States.

Arnold L. Markowitz, New York University

DICTIONARY OF TERMS AND TECHNIQUES IN ARCHAOLOGY/Sara Champion.?New York: Facts on File, 1980. ?144 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-87196-445-7: $15.95.

In recent years the crossover between science and archaeology has become almost as common as that between archaeology and the fine arts. Librarians working with research programs in

archaeology find it necessary to know how to use that high-tech witness to twentieth-century wisdom, Chem. Abstracts, Likewise, the borrowings of scientific procedures and social science metho

dologies by ancient historians, classicists and archaeologists has introduced a new language for humanists to comprehend.

Most of the dictionaries and encyclopedias of archaeology pub lished previously focus on periods, sites, industries and cultures.

Bray and Trump's Dictionary of Archaeology (1970), Palmer and

Lloyd's Archaeology A-Z (1968), and Cottrell's Concise Encyc lopedia of Archaeology (1970) are all over ten years old. While the documentary evidence of archaeology is stable, although ever

growing, both methods and interpretative techniques have

changed considerably. Champion's new compilation is most sim ilar, but complementary, to Trump's still useful Terms Used in

Archaeology (1969), which lists the chief periods, industries and sites of prehistory. Limiting her scope radically, Mrs. Champion omits the names of cultures and artifacts and includes primarily words which refer to scientific or technical aspects of

archaeology. Thus the book does not duplicate material covered in seemingly similar reference books.

The definitions are clear and illustrations are well chosen to

amplify them. Most of the longer articles have citations forfurther

reading and a "Bibliography" at the end lists most of the important books on archaeological methods in English. It also betrays the author's admittedly British bias. While the British have been quite active in the development of archaeological science, not everyone agrees with their methods or conclusions.

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