Art News

Part of Cleveland Public Library's chess material is a collection of images of chess players. This includes original photographs, photographs of book and periodical illustrations, prints, illustrations and clippings. Many of the older photographs are identified as coming from the collection of Lyman Stearns of Manchester, New Hampshire. Notations in John G. White's handwriting indicate that he acquired the Stearns collection in 1909.  There are also images from books and articles that were cut out and pasted down to cardboard mounts and labeled by John G. White. Another group of images are on postcards sent to Alain White with a message or chess problem written on the back. Notations by John G. White on the front or back of some items identify the source as other chess collectors, including Miron Hazeltine and James D. Seguin. 

 Other types of chess material available for study and research are tournament bulletins, newspaper clippings, books, letters and handwritten manuscripts. Contact the John G. White chess collection for more information at special.collections@cpl.org.

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Many people have heard of John James Audubon and his Birds of America, large (elephant folio size), beautifully detailed, brilliantly colored prints of native birds. Not so many people have heard of Mark Catesby, a British citizen who created and published a similar work over 100 years earlier, before the United States was an independent country.

The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands. Histoire Naturelle de la Caroline, la Floride, & les Iles Bahama, first published in 1731, was one of the first studies of birds, plants, fish, and other "beasts" that lived in the colonies then belonging to Great Britain and Spain.  Mark Catesby was a naturalist who spent a total of 11 years exploring, observing and recording the natural habitat of the southern areas of the continent newly occupied by Europeans. He returned to England and devoted 20 years to producing his Natural History. 

Cleveland Public Library is fortunate to own one of the approximately 80 known intact copies of this work. The exquisite, hand-colored prints are a vivid record of the natural world that existed in the early years of American history. Come visit Special Collections on the 3^rd floor of the Main Library to take a look at this beautiful book. Each page is more breath-taking than the last.

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Attached to this post is an Excel file containing recent additions to the Fine Arts Department. Once you open the file you will see links to the online catalog that will facilitate item requests. Be sure to visit our blog regularly to be the first to check out these new items!

  If you have visited the Cleveland Museum of Arts current exhibit, Artistic Luxury, you have seen the amazing work of French craftsman Rene Lalique (1860-1945). He is best known for his small-scale jewelry and glassware, but some of the greatest works of his later years were big architectural pieces, the most ambitious of all being the vast first class dining room of the SS Normandie, the finest transatlantic liner ever built. He received commissions from the great fashion leaders and patrons of his day. One of his greatest works can be found in a very ordinary looking church on the small Channel Island of Jersey, a hundred miles south of the English coast. Commissioned in 1932 by his neighbor and friend Florence Boot (1863-1952) to memorialize her husband, Lalique created many glass pieces for St. Matthew's Church, Millbrook, St Lawrence, including this altarpiece and a baptismal font. Read more in the December 2008 issue of The Magazine Antiques, available in the Fine Arts Department.

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Holiday music is available from the Fine Arts Department.  Choose from a variety of music scores and CDs ranging from carolling, traditional folk songs, popular, and classical tunes.  Place a HOLD on titles in the online catalog or call the department at 216-623-2848 -- better yet, come visit the Fine Arts Department at the Main Library!

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