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Category Archives: Manuscripts

Thomas Alexander Tefft: Architect Extraordinaire

November 12, 2013 by | 3 Comments

I wear a couple of hats here at Brown University, one as staff member of Digital Production Services, aiding in the production of digitized resources for library collections and faculty projects, and another as a MA student in the Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage. Often, these professional and academic roles overlap and intersect. Increasing student and faculty engagement with library collections through use of digitized materials within the Brown Digital Repository is a rewarding aspect of the work we do in Digital Production Services. Quite often, I find myself utilizing the digital resources that I have had a hand in creating in my own scholarly research. For instance, the topic under discussion in my graduate section for AMST1250B: Graves and Burial Grounds this week has been the gravestone designs of Rhode Island architect Thomas Alexander Tefft.

receiving-tomb

Original receiving tomb designed by Tefft.
Image: Swan Point Cemetery

The Thomas Alexander Tefft architectural drawings 1844-1859 are a part of Brown Archival and Manuscript Collections Online, and the nearly four hundred Tefft drawings that constitute the collection are available in the Brown Digital Repository. I knew that Tefft was a native Rhode Islander (born in Richmond in 1826), and a graduate of Brown University (Class of 1851).[1. Mitchell, Encyclopedia Brunoniana (Brown University Library, 1993; pp. 536-537).] I also knew that Tefft designed many local private residences and public buildings, like Providence’s first Union Station and Rhode Island School of Design’s Memorial Hall. What I didn’t know was that Tefft was also a prolific designer of tombs, monuments and gravestones, many of which can be viewed in Swan Point Cemetery.

Tefft's design for Central Congregational Chuch, now RISD's Memorial Hall.

Tefft’s design for Central Congregational Chuch, now RISD’s Memorial Hall.

Tefft’s signature rundbogenstil (or rounded arch) Romanesque style[2. Curran, The Romanesque Revival: Religion, Politics, and Transnational Exchange (Penn State Press, 2003; p. 139).] can be seen both in Swan Point’s receiving tomb, which I had the opportunity to view last week as a part of our class’s walking tour of the Cemetery, and in the details of RISD’s Memorial Hall (originally Central Congregational Church) on Benefit Street. The towers of the building, seen in Tefft’s drawing, were damaged in the 1938 hurricane and subsequently removed. While Greek and Gothic revival styles were all the rage in America during the 1830s and ’40s, Tefft favored the revival styles of the Renaissance and the Romanesque. Brown’s collection of Tefft architectural drawings include designs for over 50 gravestones and tombs, in which the range of revival styles can be seen in the Classical, Egyptian, and Romanesque motifs he employed.
Remarkably, Tefft’s substantial body of work was created in just 14 years. In 1859, at the age of 33, the architect died of a fever while in Italy on a Grand Tour.[3. Curran, The Romanesque Revival: Religion, Politics, and Transnational Exchange (Penn State Press, 2003; p. 139).] Initially, Tefft was buried at Florence’s English Cemetery, but in February of 1860 his body was shipped back to Providence and re-interred in Swan Point Cemetery. Teftt is buried beside James Bucklin, another important figure in Rhode Island architecture, under a gravestone of his own design.[4. Mitchell, Encyclopedia Brunoniana (Brown University Library, 1993; pp. 536-537).]

tefft_markerjpg

The Tefft gravestone design, which now marks his own grave in Swan Point Cemetery.

In 1988, the Department of Art at Brown University collaborated with the National Building Museum on a student-curated exhibit held at Brown’s Bell Gallery. The catalog for the exhibit, Thomas Alexander Tefft: American Architecture in Transition, 1845-1860 is a wonderful resource to consult for more information on Tefft’s short but astonishingly creative career.

RISD’s Memorial Hall. Image: Wikimedia Commons

romanesque

No tannins at all, and very little fruit (part I)

September 6, 2013 by | Comments Off on No tannins at all, and very little fruit (part I)

wine-in-place

Perelman Papers, Box 11

Such was the assessment of a leaking bottle of wine from the manuscripts collection (by a library staff member who dared to take a sip). There’s more to this story, and I was lucky enough to be able to both participate in and document the first few chapters.

As preparations began for the 14-month closure of the John Hay Library (Brown’s Special Collections Library), workers readying items for transport to offsite storage noticed that a box in the S.J. Perelman Papers (part of the Archives) was leaking. Inside was a bottle of wine, which had been safely housed in the Hay’s vault for decades; at some point, however, the cork had become unstable and had begun to leak wine. It was clear that the bottle would have to be emptied and sent to our materials conservator. Before (fully) breaking the seal and removing the wine, the bottle was brought to me so that I could document it in its unaltered state. While the most crucial part of this process was to capture and preserve the hand-drawn label, we also wanted to have a record of the object in its original state.

Wine-19

Wine bottle at the ready, I set up our reprographic camera stand to use as a shooting table. Because our strobes have narrow softboxes on them (perfect for documents and books, not so perfect for three-dimensional objects), I used our portable hotlights with umbrellas. Photographing glass is tricky; it’s best to light it from behind, using bounced light to give the object its shape and prevent distracting reflections. However, in this case I needed to show the glass, the liquid inside, as well as the label on the front. I used one light to illuminate the scene, with particular attention paid to the label. I used the other light as a handheld light; I held it by the light stand, and used a variety of angles and distances from the bottle to get the lighting I wanted.

In the interest of thoroughness, I photographed the bottle from the front, back, and sides. The most difficult shot was the back of the bottle, as the label prevented me from lighting through the bottle, and made the surface of the glass highly reflective. I could get myself out of the frame, but both the camera I was using and the one mounted to the top of the repro stand were visible in the glass. I taped white paper over the top camera, which solved the problem easily. The camera directly in front of the bottle needed a bit more work. Using the lens cap, I traced a circle onto a piece of paper. I then cut that circle out, and mounted the paper on the camera (using the lens cap gives you a good approximation of the lens size). The resulting image has the expected specular highlights and reflections, but has minimized the obvious camera/room reflections.

Wine-tent

Making the camera cover to reduce reflections.

The final images give a good sense of the bottle, the wine inside, and the label. To afford users a full view of the label, I combined three different shots of the bottle into one.

Front, back, and label views.

Front, back, and label views.

Next time, we’ll look at how we approached uncorking the bottle – and what its contents had in store for us.