General Interest
http://link.library.utoronto.ca/hollar/
Born into an upper middle class family in 1607, Wenceslaus Hollar became interested in etching and engraving at a very young age. As a young man, he left his native Prague to study in Frankfurt, and his first book of etchings was published when he was 28. Over the next thirty years he would spend time in London and Antwerp and by the time of his death he had produced some 2700 separate etchings. This extensive digital collection created by the University of Toronto offers visitors access to thousands of his works. Visitors can view an illustrated chronology of the life and work of Hollar, read the text of a lecture on his work created by art historian Anne Thackray, and read up on his impressive etching technique. Of course, the real heart of the collection is the image database, and visitors can browse through by topical headings, including "Costumes", "Portraits", "Historical Prints", and "Religious Prints". [KMG]
The Financial Times is well-respected for their forays into business journalism and their reporting on various related matters. Recently, they have entered the world of podcasting with great vigor, and this site contains a trove of podcasts and audio files. Visitors can subscribe to their podcasts via iTunes, but they may first wish to look through the drop-down menu on the homepage. Here, visitors can look over (and listen to) recent programs on digital business, long-term investing, global philanthropy, and the World Economic Forum. Further down on the site, visitors can look through the archives of the FT Money Show. The archives stretch back to April 2007, and one nice feature here is the brief synopsis that is available for the most recent show. [KMG]
The tagline for the Bata Shoe Museum is "For the Curious". It's an appropriate motto, as this provocative museum in Toronto contains over 10,000 shoes within its prodigious holdings. The museum opened in 1995, and visitors to this site can traipse through sections such as "Exhibitions" and "Collections" to learn more about their interpretive mission and their thematic areas. Most visitors will want to start by looking at the online exhibit "All About Shoes". Developed in cooperation with the Department of Canadian Heritage, the collection allows visitors to view over 500 shoe images, 200 of which are in 3D. Short of actually picking up the actual shoes themselves, this is a very effective and immersive way to examining the intricate patterns and designs on each item of footwear. Moving on, visitors can also check out the podcasts by assistant curator Sarah Beam-Borg. In recent months, Borg has offered up talks and commentary on "Dancing through the Halls of History" and "The Fate of Fashion". Finally, interested parties may also wish to check out the "Visiting" area to learn about the museum's hours of operation, special events, and so on. [KMG]
The Beazley Archive, of the Classical Art Research Centre at The University of Oxford, has a website loaded with wonderful images of the art of ancient Greece and Rome. On the homepage you will find tabs for: "Art", "Pottery", "Gems", "Sculpture", and "Antiquaria". There are also tabs for a "Dictionary", "Databases", and "Tools". Under the "Tools" tab, visitors will see a cross-reference to the "Dictionary", which can be accessed by clicking directly on the tab, or when you come across "any term the novice user might not know," which will be underlined and highlighted. Also under the "Tools" tab you'll find a link called "Albums", which conveniently allows you to keep an album of images from the databases for personal study. Also on the homepage you'll find a link to "Discovery, reception and diffusion of classical art," under the "Highlights" section. The link leads you to illuminating and accessible explanations, accompanied by images from the collection, of how classical art came to be discovered, and by whom, how it was received in society upon its discovery, and how it ultimately ended up becoming known to the world. This is a great section for those who want to learn about the relevance of the images in the archive. Visitors shouldn't miss the "Sculpture" section, where they can see examples of different styles and periods, but also to learn "How casts are made" and the "History of the cast collection" at Oxford. The detail in many of the sculptures is simply stunning. [KMG]
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/spcwhtml/spcwabt.html
The Library of Congress' collection of 120 Spanish Civil War posters dating from 1936-1939 are a good-looking group of items that portray both the Republican and Nationalist causes of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. In order to start searching or browsing all the images of this collection, click on "Search This Collection" in the middle of the page. To browse the images, click on "All the Images" section. If you would rather search, you have many modes to do so, including subjects and formats, creators and other associated names, and titles. As most of the text on the posters is in Spanish, visitors may wish to look over the English translations. Unfortunately, many of the posters can only be viewed as thumbnails, unless they are being viewed in person at the Library of Congress. Although many of the posters are in bold reds, blues and yellows, their undertones are dark. Some of the black and white prints look much like newsprint, and are more pedestrian in form. [KMG]
http://www.jewishlibraries.org/ajlweb/
This website is a comprehensive resource for those interested in Judaica librarianship, Jews, Judaism, the Jewish experience, and Israel. Visitors can click on "Awards" on the left side of the page to see the awards given for Jewish librarianship, Jewish children's books, and the publishing of Judaica reference materials. User can go to the "Accreditation" link to see the libraries that are accredited by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL), and learn about how to apply for accreditation. Under the "Resources" link, visitors can read the transcripts of the "Feinstein Lecture Series" on Judaica that the Foundation for Jewish Culture sponsors. After looking over that area, visitors may wish to click on the link to the AJL Podcast on the left side of the page. Here they will find many topics covered, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, music, and Jewish holidays. Moving on, a link to Children's and Teen's literature features prominently on the homepage of the AJL Podcast link, and visitors will find links to several podcasts of books of Jewish content. Finally, they can also click on the "Book of Life Podcast," on the left side of the page to listen to a podcast about Jewish people and the books they enjoy. [KMG]
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/tango_with_cows/
To those unfamiliar with the world of the Russian Avant-Garde, the phrase "tango with cows" might sound like the name of a new avant-garde electronic music juggernaut. In fact, the phrase is the title of a book and poem by noted Russian writer Vasily Kamensky. Kamensky's work, along with others, forms the heart of this provocative exhibit created by the Getty Center. This site is designed to complement their in situ exhibition, and it succeeds with great panache. The exhibition "explores the way Russian avant-garde poets and artists responded to crisis through their book art." The "crisis" in question here happens to be the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917 and the overall milieu of increased urbanization and technological embrace. On the site, visitors can explore some of these books in detail via a specialized interface and also view select books in their entirety. The real treat is that visitors can also listen to some of the poems in these books in Russian or English, and even download complete versions of certain works for their own edification. [KMG]
http://tibet.prm.ox.ac.uk/index.php
From 1920 to 1950, the British government enjoyed an era of better relations with Tibet, and a wide range of civil servants from Britain visited the country on a number of different diplomatic missions. During their stay, many of them took photographs documenting the various aspects of Tibetan life. Many of these photographs found their way into the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum and the British Museum. With assistance from the Arts & Humanities Research Council, these two institutions came together to create this outstanding digital collection of these photographs of Tibet. First-time visitors can browse the collection by photographer, thematic collections, places, dates, and people. After browsing around for a bit, visitors can sign in to create their own "Tibet Album" containing their own favorite images. The site is rounded out by the official dairy of the 1936-1937 Gould Mission to Lhasa, complete with accompanying photographs and related historical items. [KMG]
