Exhibit: Audubon’s Birds of America

Main Library
Lobby Display Case & Second Floor Display Case

John James Audubon is most well-known for his double elephant folio editions of The Birds of America, the four-volume set published between 1827 and 1838 on paper sized approximately 26 1/4 x 39 1/2 inches, the largest sheets available at the time.[1] 

Audubon produced a smaller and more affordable seven volume edition with the lithographer J. T. Bowen in 1844.[2]  After Audubon died in 1851, his family authorized several more editions in the smaller format, known as the royal octavo, including George Lockwood’s version that is on display.[3]

Lockwood printed eight volumes instead of seven and used as many as he could of the original stereotype and stone plates made for the 1840 and 1850 editions.  The Lockwood edition is the last octavo edition printed from the original stones as they were destroyed sometime after 1870 in a warehouse fire in Philadelphia. [4]

The Lockwood edition of The Birds of America is part of the Rare Book Collection of the Library’s Archives and Special Collections.

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[1] From Friends of the Audubon:  https://friendsofaudubon.org/2020/07/the-double-elephant-folio-where-did-it-come-from/

[2] From Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birds_of_America

[3] From Christie’s Auction: https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5963347 Cites Ayer/Zimmer pp.25-26; Nissen IVB 52; Wood p. 209.

[4] From Christie’s Auction: https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5963347 Cites Ayer/Zimmer pp.25-26; Nissen IVB 52; Wood p. 209.

Artist Talk with Constantia Thibaut

Artist Talk:  Hierosgamos: From Requiem to Revival
Wednesday October 18, 2023
6:30 pm
Main Library, Lecture Hall
REGISTER HERE

Join us for a reception and gallery talk by Constantia Thibaut as she discusses her latest artwork, Hierosgamos:  From Requiem to Reunion.

When Thibaut’s partner, Bill, died in 2018 after a long illness, she created a series of portraits that represent his struggle with his fatal illness during the last months of his life when he was in hospice.  Thibaut based these portraits on the many hundreds of photographs she took of Bill with her cell phone and digital camera.

“I have been through a profound experience as a witness to my partner Bill’s illness and death, and these artworks are my visual testimony,” writes Thibaut.  At the hospital, where Bill spent the last months of his life, a great drama unfolded.  I attempted to catch fleeting images of it with my camera.  Bill died with tremendous gravitas, seeming to transcend the condition of a helpless victim of a dread and fatal disease.  It was as if I, in witnessing this event, as a mere conduit, a mere medium, were transported to another and a greater, though mysterious, dimension of existence.  It was a humbling experience.  I wondered at how it could be at once so sorrowful and at the same time so beautiful.”

This exhibit complements Thibaut’s recent donation of Bill Noble’s papers.  Noble was a staunch advocate for rent control and worked tirelessly on behalf of Cambridge tenants in the 1970s and 1980s.  He was a founding member of the Cambridge Tenants Union (CTU) and its predecessor, the Cambridge Rent Control Coalition (CRCC) and was an active opponent of the expansion of Harvard, MIT and other large Cambridge institutions into city neighborhoods.  Thibaut’s tribute to Bill in this exhibition shows the deeply personal side of such a public figure so well known in Cambridge activist circles.  Both Noble’s papers and some of Thibaut’s photographs for Hierosgamos are now available at the Library’s Archives and Special Collections.

Connie Thibaut is a graphics and mixed-media artist who studied painting for five years at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, where she was exposed to the Surrealist painters whose work became a strong inspiration. Later, at Massachusetts College of Art, where she graduated with a BFA and a MSAE (Master’s of Science in Art Education), she learned about the Surrealist women painters and created a Surrealist reinterpretation of an Old French romance for her thesis show. She has studied with and been influenced by Boston area artists such as the late Conger Metcalf (Neo-Romanticism) and more recently Adria Arch (Abstract Expressionism). Although she has retired from teaching, she continues to create art that is informed by her life experiences and which reinterprets the traditions of the Renaissance, Fantastic Art, and Expressionism.

Hierosgamos: From Requiem to Revival

October 16 – 30, 2023
Main Library, L2
Gallery Hours
Monday – Thursday, 5-9 pm
Saturday, 9-5
Sunday, 1-5

When artist Connie Thibaut’s partner, Bill, died in 2018 after a long illness, she created a series of portraits that represent his struggle with his fatal illness during the last months of his life when he was in hospice.  Thibaut based these portraits on the many hundreds of photographs she took of Bill with her cell phone and digital camera.

“I have been through a profound experience as a witness to my partner Bill’s illness and death, and these artworks are my visual testimony,” writes Thibaut.  “At the hospital, where Bill spent the last months of his life, a great drama unfolded.  I attempted to catch fleeting images of it with my camera.  Bill died with tremendous gravitas, seeming to transcend the condition of a helpless victim of a dread and fatal disease.  It was as if I, in witnessing this event, as a mere conduit, a mere medium, were transported to another and a greater, though mysterious, dimension of existence.  It was a humbling experience.  I wondered at how it could be at once so sorrowful and at the same time so beautiful.”

This exhibit complements Connie’s recent donation of her partner, Bill Noble’s papers.  Noble was a staunch advocate for rent control and worked tirelessly on behalf of Cambridge tenants in the 1970s and 1980s.  He was a founding member of the Cambridge Tenants Union (CTU) and its predecessor, the Cambridge Rent Control Coalition (CRCC) and was an active opponent of the expansion of Harvard, MIT and other large Cambridge institutions into city neighborhoods.  Connie’s tribute to Bill in this exhibition shows the deeply personal side of such a public figure so well known in Cambridge activist circles.  Both Bill Noble’s papers and some of Connie’s photographs for Hierosgamos are now available at the Library’s Archives and Special Collections. 

Join us for an opening reception and gallery talk on Wednesday October 18 at 6:30 pm.

Connie Thibaut is a graphics and mixed-media artist who studied painting for five years at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, where she was exposed to the Surrealist painters whose work became a strong inspiration. Later, at Massachusetts College of Art, where she graduated with a BFA and a MSAE (Master’s of Science in Art Education), she learned about the Surrealist women painters and created a Surrealist reinterpretation of an Old French romance for her thesis show. She has studied with and been influenced by Boston area artists such as the late Conger Metcalf (Neo-Romanticism) and more recently Adria Arch (Abstract Expressionism). Although she has retired from teaching, she continues to create art that is informed by her life experiences and which reinterprets the traditions of the Renaissance, Fantastic Art, and Expressionism.

Exhibit: Cousins

Thai Tea, from Kristen Emack’s Photography series, Cousins

Exhibition:  Cousins
September 11 – October 12, 2023
Main Library, L2
Gallery Hours
Monday – Thursday, 5-9 pm
Saturday, 9-5
Sunday, 1-5

Kristen Emack has been photographing her daughter and nieces for over a decade.  “There is something sacred about the lives of girls, and their innocent, confident relationships to themselves, their world and one another is gravitational,” explains Emack.  She has captured the girls’ childhood in an unfiltered way as they move with confidence throughout Cambridge and their environment.  Her work is an undeniable celebration of Black girlhood.  “There are notable bodies of work about girlhood, but Cousins is unique.  It chronicles the lives of girls of color, which is a perspective that still remains under-embraced,” writes Emack.  “Additionally, each frame is wholly female.”  Angst or distraction does not enter the frame.  Instead it’s their connection that stays in focus, their adolescent changes are organic, subtle and unprovocative.” 

Emack is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a Mass Cultural Council Fellow. Her work has been featured in Vogue Italia and National Geographic and has been exhibited across the United States, Northern Europe and the UK. This exhibit, Emack’s first in Cambridge, features the Library’s newly acquired photographs from Cousins and celebrates Emack’s work in the community.  View these exciting new additions to the permanent collection of Library’s Archives and Special Collections on display at the Main Library on L2.

Visit kristenjoyemack.com.

Exhibition: Cousins

Exhibition:  Cousins
September 11 – October 12, 2023
Main Library, L2
Gallery Hours
Monday – Thursday, 5-9 pm
Saturday, 9-5
Sunday, 1-5

Kristen Emack has been photographing her daughter and nieces for over a decade.  “There is something sacred about the lives of girls, and their innocent, confident relationships to themselves, their world and one another is gravitational,” explains Emack.  She has captured the girls’ childhood in an unfiltered way as they move with confidence throughout Cambridge and their environment.  Her work is an undeniable celebration of Black girlhood.  “There are notable bodies of work about girlhood, but Cousins is unique.  It chronicles the lives of girls of color, which is a perspective that still remains under-embraced,” writes Emack.  “Additionally, each frame is wholly female.”  Angst or distraction does not enter the frame.  Instead it’s their connection that stays in focus, their adolescent changes are organic, subtle and unprovocative.” 

Emack is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a Mass Cultural Council Fellow. Her work has been featured in Vogue Italia and National Geographic and has been exhibited across the United States, Northern Europe and the UK. This exhibit, Emack’s first in Cambridge, features the Library’s newly acquired photographs from Cousins and celebrates Emack’s work in the community.  View these exciting new additions to the permanent collection of Library’s Archives and Special Collections on display at the Main Library on L2.

Join us for an opening reception on September 21 at 6:30 pm with a panel discussion by Kristen Emack, Dr. Alisa Victoria Prince, and cousins Apple Emack, Leyah Bernard, Kayla Bernard and Layla Bernard, as they discuss the process, inspiration, and impact of Cousins.

Visit kristenjoyemack.com.

Symbolism and Subversion: An Exhibition of Jennifer Regan’s Stitched Narratives

Symbolism and Subversion: An Exhibition of Jennifer Regan’s Stitched Narratives

May 2 – July 31, 2023
Lobby & Second Floor, Main Library

When author Jennifer Regan moved to Cambridge in the late 1980s, she had an artistic and feminist awakening.  She had recently left behind a whirlwind life as the spouse of a prominent Buffalo politician.  Newly divorced, middle aged, and in an unfamiliar city, Regan found artistic expression in poetry, painting, and most significantly quilt making or rather creating “stitched narratives,” thematic stories sewn with symbolism and subversion. 

Reworking the traditional themes of American quilts, such as a focus on biblical stories, she created narratives negotiating femininity, marriage, motherhood, and society through a feminist lens.  For some of her pieces, Cambridge became a focal point – either directly inspiring her or serving as her subject.  The Renaissance, politics, and societal inequities deeply influenced her other pieces.  Regan’s career as an artist in Cambridge flourished and she created over 100 pieces between 1989 and 2006.  Her stitched narratives can be found in the New England Quilt Museum and Burchfield Penny Art Center collections. 

This exhibit features the Library’s newly acquired Jennifer Regan Stitched Narratives and explores the ways in which Cambridge influenced her artwork and new feminist perspective.  View these exciting new additions to the Library’s Archives and Special Collections on display at the Main Library in the Lobby and the Second Floor.

Join us for an opening reception on May 11 at 6:30 pm with a talk by quilt expert Pamela Weeks and educator Jennifer Regan as they discuss the rise of arts quilts and Jennifer Regan’s role in the movement.

Exhibition: From Cambridge to Yerevan: 35 Years of Friendship

“The Missing Organ: The Democrat’s Spine,” Michael Shapiro’s Political Cartoons

The Missing Organ from the Michael Shapiro Papers.

Exhibit Location: Lobby & Second Floor of the Main Library

Artist, poet, zine producer, playwright, cartoonist, Yiddish translator, and mathematician, Michael Shapiro began creating political cartoons in the early 2000s, during the presidency of George W. Bush. 

Shapiro was born in New York City and grew up in Woodside Queens. He earned a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts at Boston in 1983, a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1988, and a M.E. in Computer Science from Cornell University in 2000.

Shapiro grew up in a leftist Jewish household and came of age during the 1960s, participating in the counterculture revolution. Shapiro self describes as a Marginal, part of the Marginal Scene.

He lived for many years in Cambridge until moving to London in 2019 to work at the Crick Institute.

Michael Shapiro’s papers now are part of the Library’s Archives and Special Collections.

Cambridge’s Experimental Music Scene: An Exhibition

Flyer announcing a show at the Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge.  From the Joe Monteiro Video Tape Collection.

Exhibition Location: 2nd Floor of the Main Library

During the 1990s, the Zeitgeist Gallery was the catalyst for Cambridge’s emerging community of improvisational musicians. Owned by Alan Nidle, the Zeitgeist was located on the corner of Broadway and Norfolk Streets. Friday night concerts called the Playground Series began in 1997. Subconscious Cafe, also held at the Zeitgeist, were curated by Cambridge resident Rob Chalfen.

The scene was thriving and gaining an international reputation.  A dedicated audience would convene weekly to listen to Cambridge-based groups, joined by musicians from all over the world, for intense boundary-pushing concerts.

On April 26, 2002, the Zeitgeist Gallery was destroyed by fire. The Playground and Subconscious Cafe Series moved to various locations in Cambridge and Boston but never regained their popularity.  By 2005, the improvisational music scene in Cambridge began to slow down. The small art galleries and venues were forced to close due to raising rents.

The flyers in this exhibition are from the Joe Monteiro Video Tape Collection.  Monteiro recorded concerts between 2000 and 2005, becoming the unofficial documentarian of the Cambridge area creative music scene.