Romana Javitz (January 28, 1903–January 1980) was an American artist,
librarian
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users.
The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...
, and Superintendent of the Picture Collection at the
New York Public Library.
Biography
Early life
Romana Javitz was born in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
to Polish parents and immigrated to America in 1906. Her mother, Malvine, was a hat milliner and her father, Elias, maintained an import/export business. She grew up in the
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
and the
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. She studied painting at the
Art Student's League and began working at the New York Public Library (NYPL) in the Children's Room in 1919.
Career
Javitz was interested in how libraries and museums documented
folk art
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tr ...
and brought attention to the documentation of
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
folk art at the NYPL after viewing European cities documentation in the 1920s. In 1928, she became superintendent of the Picture Collection at the NYPL. She held the position until she retired in 1968. In the 1930s she assisted
Arthur Alfonso Schomburg
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (January 24, 1874 – June 10, 1938), was a historian, writer, collector, and activist. Schomburg was a Puerto Rican of African and German descent. He moved to the United States in 1891, where he researched and raised awa ...
, Curator of the Library's Division of Negro History, Literature and Prints, by reviewing the collection to find important prints, photographs, and plates of African-American subjects. During her tenure, she instituted important innovations including requesting pictures with drawings on a call slip to locate the material and streamlined the process of adding new materials to the library with a team of artists and catalog card index.
In 1935, Javitz worked with
Ruth Reeves
Ruth Marie Reeves (1892–1966) was an American painter, Art Deco textile designer and expert on Indian handicrafts.
Early life and education
Ruth Marie Reeves was born in Redlands, California, on July 14, 1892. She attended the Pratt Institute ...
, to create the Index of American Design that was part of the
Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project
The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...
. The project was founded in the idea that modern designers, like Reeves, were unable to find visual resources from American material culture at libraries and other institutions. Javitz and Reeves hired unemployed artists and illustrators around the county to record the decorative arts of rural and urban regions of the U.S. The collection was later moved to the
National Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
In 1936,
Roy Stryker
Roy Emerson Stryker (November 5, 1893 – September 27, 1975) was an American economist, government official, and photographer. He headed the Information Division of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Great Depression, and launc ...
, head of the
Farm Security Administration's Photographic Section, consulted Javitz about the organization of the
Resettlement Administration
The Resettlement Administration (RA) was a New Deal U.S. federal agency created May 1, 1935. It relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. On September 1, 1937, it was succeeded by the Farm S ...
files. Javitz saw the importance of the project and visited with Stryker in Washington, D.C. to work with him on all the new photographs and organize them into a cohesive collection.
Stryker also sent Javitz duplicate prints to ensure their future in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
until he got assurance they would be preserved in Washington, D.C.
After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Javitz kept acquiring work, making it the NYPL of the few institutions to take on contemporary work.
In 1944, Javitz worked with the acting Librarian of Congress,
Luther Evans
Luther Harris Evans (13 October 1902 – 23 December 1981) was an American political scientist who served as the tenth Librarian of Congress and third Director-General of UNESCO.
Early life and career
Born in Bastrop County, Texas in 1902, Evan ...
, at the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
to establish pictorial standards for the newly formed Prints and Photographs Division.
In 1967, she was awarded the
Gold Medal from the
American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).
Death and legacy
Javitz died in 1980.
In 1998, the NYPL commemorated her role at the library by creating an exhibition ''Subject Matters: Photography, Romana Javitz and the New York Public Library'', curated by Julia Van Haaften and Anthony T. Troncale, that showcases some of the notable photographs she acquired during her tenure.
In 2008, the library's curator of photography, Stephen Pinson, organized an exhibit which included some of the works Javitz helped to preserve, in a show called ''Eminent Domain: Contemporary Photography and the City''.
In 2020, Anthony T. Troncale (1958- ) published a compendium of writings by Romana Javitz as well as three interviews with her.
Words on Pictures: Romana Javitz and the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection. Anthony T. Troncale. First edition. New York: Photo , Verso Publications, LLC, 2020. , Includes bibliographical references, appendices and index. 274 p. ISBN 978-1-7346409-0-8 (hardcover)
Further reading
* Anthony T. Troncale (Ed.):
Words on pictures : Romana Javitz and the New York Public Library's picture collection'', New York : Photo Verso Publications, 2020, ISBN 978-1-73464-090-8
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Javitz, Romana
1903 births
1980 deaths
American curators
American women curators
American librarians
American women librarians
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
Art Students League of New York alumni
New York Public Library people
Photographers from New York (state)
Federal Art Project administrators
20th-century American women
AIGA medalists
Identifiers ISBN 978-1-7346409-0-8 (hardcover)