The artwork was very interesting. I began working on some of the sketches and was able to see how David Paige did his research. In particular, there was a sketch that showed how he ensured proportions in penguins and time lapses in the Aurora Borealis. I did my best to rehouse all of the sketches in order to ensure their preservation, but I began to realize that a background in art history would have been incredibly beneficial. I have always thought that archives and libraries are great environments for any individual regardless of academic background and concentration because there is a place for any specialty to shine through. Focusing on all of this art makes me want to take an additional course in art preservation!
Along with the working sketches, I also found a few drawings that showed David Paige's sense of humor. In a small corner of a penguin sketch were a few sketches of Marilyn Monroe's famous pose above the street grate and an incredibly detailed drawing of penguins as New York characters, such as the Park Avenue Boys, Charlie Chaplin, and the Poor Folk (who happen to be molting). This last drawing had a caption at the bottom that reads "Tentative, rough sketches of illustrations for article 'The Original Bib-And-Tuckers' by David Abbey Paige." I could not find whether or not this was ever published.
There were a great deal of sketches of penguins, which is interesting considering that there are very few finished pastels featuring penguins. (See: Paige's "Magic of Antarctic Colours" Online Exhibit) There was also an entire sketchbook that only featured different sketches of the Aurora Borealis. It was incredibly interesting to see how Paige practiced his art prior to providing a finished product. In some cases, there were 3 different versions of the same drawing.
Due to the fragility of these sketches (most were on very thin vellum-like paper), I questioned the best approach to digitizing the images. I wanted to show the art as realistically as possible, but scanning the images on the flatbed scanner was out of the question. The book bindings would have torn and there was a high possibility that the pastels could rub off while being handled on the scanner. I chose to pick a representative sample (sometimes just one image, sometimes multiple) and photograph them with the camera. It seemed the safest way to handle the materials. In the third collection of sketches in Box 468, Folder 1, there were around 30 loose leaf sketches, which made it possible to digitally capture multiple sketches. I then created another external photo album to host the additional photos that went along with the original record.
A big success for me was finding the matching printed sketch to a working sketch. There was a professionally printed image of penguins that had no name or date that I had previously uploaded. After going through Paige's working sketches, I found the original sketch of that prints. I was able to go back and label it as being a work by David Paige and it was satisfying to know that I helped make sense of an item.
Besides the sketches, there were some other drawings that were of interest, such as a poster "certification" from King Neptune Rex as part of a Navy ritual for crossing the Antarctic Circle and two political cartoonists' visual memorial to Byrd after his death (one by Jim Dobbins and the other by Jim Knox).
Going through each of the sketches took quite a bit of time. The two artifacts at the beginning only took around 10 minutes total. The sketches and artwork took the rest of the day. Overall, I had a very successful day, completing 15 items.
In: 9:15 a.m.
Out: 5 p.m.
Out: 5 p.m.
On-site hours completed today: 7.75
On-site hours completed total: 68.5
On-site hours left: 31.5
On-site hours completed total: 68.5
On-site hours left: 31.5
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