Bard College Visual Resources Center

There was an update to the ARTstor Digital Library this week. New changes include:

• Full support for Chrome browsers.

• Folders are now nested in two upper level folders: “Private Folders” and “Institutional Folders.” “Private Folders” contains folders viewable only by you. “Institutional Folders” contains folders that are viewable by other users at your institution either as “Public” folders or as “Password-protected” folders.

Because of this update, some of you may find that you cannot see your folders or image groups; clearing the browser cache should resolve the issue. Detailed instructions on how to do this can be found here

A version of the OIV for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is now available for download through the ARTstor Digital Library.  To download this file, log into the ARTstor Digital Library using your ARTstor registered user account.  In the ARTstor navigation bar at the top of the screen, click Tools > Download offline presentation tool (OIV).  Select the radio button next to “OIV 3.1.2 for Mac (Java 6.x; Mac OSX 10.7),” and the download will commence.

The Israel Museum in Jerusalem has partnered with Google to digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls. High-resolution images of the scrolls are now available through the Israel Museum website, where browsers can “unroll” the scrolls with a slider and zoom in so closely that every fragile crease is clearly visible.   In the case of the Great Isaiah Scroll, the largest and best preserved of all the biblical scrolls, users can click on individual verses and read its translation in English.

A chart describing Hagia Sophia's orientation and "sightings of sun," drawn by Van Nice in 1958. From the Robert L. Van Nice Collection.

The Robert L. Van Nice Collection is a new blog created by the staff at the Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library in Washington, D.C.   The blog chronicles the processing of the Robert L. Van Nice collection and offers a fascinating glimpse into the daily work of museum archivists.

The Van Nice collection includes items such as notebooks, research papers, blue prints, drawings and photographs which document the large-scale architectural survey of Hagia Sophia conducted by Van Nice from 1937-1985.

The blog is interesting because it is as much about the process of going through these materials as it is about the materials themselves.  Instead of waiting for the 70+ boxes of research materials to be identified, processed and finally put into some sort of exhibition, we get to “open the boxes” so to speak, right alongside the archivists.

Many of the posts include drawings and photographs from the collection, here are some beautiful photographs of a study of light done in Hagia Sophia in 1948.