{"id":8086,"date":"2018-08-01T11:14:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T15:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/?p=8086"},"modified":"2018-08-01T14:45:12","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T18:45:12","slug":"name-that-poster-its-harder-than-it-looks-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/2018\/08\/01\/name-that-poster-its-harder-than-it-looks-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Name that Poster! It’s Harder than it Looks: Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring recently cataloged items from the <\/span><\/i>Ludlow-Santo Domingo Library<\/span><\/i><\/a>. Thanks to Rachel Parker, Archival Assistant, for contributing this post. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In my first blog post on the Ludlow-Santo Domingo Library poster collection, I demonstrated why maintaining context can help answer the questions that arise when titling posters for catalog records or finding aids. In this post I am going to present two examples from the LSD Library poster collection which demonstrate issues of complex text-image relationships, and the unique challenges of counterculture era ephemera. The examples below are all about copies, copies with different titles, copies with different visual styles, copies with different distributors, and \u201cstolen\u201d images.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

The first example is a print by the artist and illustrator Rick Griffin. The first (of which there are two versions in the LSD collection) was printed by the San Francisco artist collective Berkeley Bonaparte in 1967 and is untitled (left). The second image is a silkscreen blacklight poster printed by Royal Screen Craft Inc. and distributed by Cocorico Graphics with the caption \u201cSan Mezcalito, the patron and protector of all those souls who dig herbs created by god to enlighten the minds of men\u201d (right). To solve the problem of two different titles, I added a related materials note for all three versions of this print to the finding aid.<\/p>\n

However, the relationship between these prints is left to the researcher to suss out. Berkeley Bonaparte was famous in its own right \u2014 what relationship did they have with Cocorico Graphics? Although some websites call the 1967 printing \u201cMezcalito man\u201d there is no evidence that that was Griffin\u2019s title. Blacklight posters also had a distinct purpose. Even though both posters are clearly drug related, the blacklight poster has an implicit relationship to LSD and a popular visual movement of the \u201870s which had become independent from the psychedelic rock scene it originated from. These copies, while the same image, exist in different decades, and different cultural significance. A persistent problem with cataloging posters is capturing this visual information, often implied and emblematic of a cultural movement. The best way to capture this information, barring including an image, is by providing as much publishing data as possible and recording the printing method. Luckily, images of each poster will be added to the finding aid in this case.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

My second example of catalog\/archival description in this collection is a Family Dog print. The Family Dog were psychedelic rock promoters in San Francisco who hired \u201cThe San Francisco Five,\u201d a group of five poster artists who virtually defined the psychedelic art style in the late \u201860s and early \u201870s. The artists were Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, and Wes Wilson. This print is for a Family Dog production at the Avalon Ballroom and was printed by Mouse Studios (Kelley and Mouse). One is an artist proof signed by Mouse (left) and the other is signed by both Mouse and Kelley, printed by Mouse and hand colored by Kelley (right). All relatively simple information to convey in the description (barring any particular graphic difference); however, we\u2019re missing one key fact: Mouse and Kelley handily repurposed this image from an 1896 Alphonse Mucha advertisement for JOB cigarette rolling papers [1]<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Mucha\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mucha is also represented in the Ludlow-Santo Domingo Library poster collection elsewhere (so are JOB cigarette rolling papers) and was a pioneer Art Nouveau artist. So is the Jim Kweskin Jug band event poster actually telling a story about Kelley and Mouse as artists and about the psychedelic art movement as a whole? As it happens this disconnect between image and text was deliberate. Chet Helms, founder of the Family Dog, instructed his artists to pair images and event information that had little relation. Helms wanted the posters to convey a sense of atmosphere, often using images which tied the Psychedelic Rock posters to the peace movement. [2]<\/a><\/p>\n

It is a luxury to catalog almost 780 posters in this collection at the item level, describing every single item in the collection rather than describing groups or series of items. But perhaps it is the only way to truly give access to them. Posters can tell so many different textual and visual stories all at once. They are designed to be seen from a distance and understood by the masses at a glance, making visual cues just as important as title information. As I\u2019ve shown, a poster can tell the story of an entire movement while promoting a single band. Context is key, then, when formulating titles in catalog records.<\/p>\n

Image 1:\u00a0Untitled : Native American man, distributed by Berkeley Bonaparte, artwork by Rick Griffin : lithograph poster, 1967. MS Am 3135. http:\/\/id.lib.harvard.edu\/ead\/c\/hou02925c01304\/catalog<\/a><\/p>\n

Image 2:\u00a0San Mezcalito, the patron and protector of all those souls who dig herbs created by god to enlighten the minds of men. Silk screen by Royal Screen Craft Inc., Cocorico Graphics, artwork by Rick Griffin : blacklight poster, undated. MS Am 3135. http:\/\/id.lib.harvard.edu\/ead\/c\/hou02925c01263\/catalog<\/a><\/p>\n

Image 3:\u00a0Family dog presents Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Electric Train, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Avalon ballroom. Design by Mouse Studios : lithograph poster, undated. MS Am 3135. http:\/\/id.lib.harvard.edu\/ead\/c\/hou02925c01440\/catalog<\/a><\/p>\n

Image 4:\u00a0Family dog presents Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Electric Train, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Avalon ballroom. Design by Mouse Studios, hand colored by Kelley : lithograph poster, undated. MS Am 3135. http:\/\/id.lib.harvard.edu\/ead\/c\/hou02925c01441\/catalog<\/a><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Not part of the poster collection. Image taken from: https:\/\/www.wikiart.org\/en\/alphonse-mucha\/job-1896<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Eric King\u2019s Guide to Psychedelic Rock Posters volume 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring recently cataloged items from the Ludlow-Santo Domingo Library. Thanks to Rachel Parker, Archival Assistant, for contributing this post. In my first blog post on the Ludlow-Santo Domingo Library poster collection, I demonstrated why maintaining context can help answer the questions that arise when titling posters for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1761,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5TUly-26q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1761"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8086"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8108,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8086\/revisions\/8108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}