The Emerson Gallery's "A Century of Curiosities: Hamilton College Collects" was featured in the "Futures & Options" column titled "Beyond the Blockbuster" in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, Nov. 4. The column referenced the size of the Emerson Gallery's collection, 5,000 items, and noted the range of the collection's holdings from Greek vases to a rattle from the Tlinglit Indians of the Pacific Northwest, from a portrait of Ezra Pound to Currier & Ives lithographs.
This selection of more than 100 Hamilton College art and artifacts from the permanent collection will be on display at Hamilton's Emerson Gallery through Friday, December 30, in an exhibit titled "A Century of Curiosities: The Story of Hamilton College Collection." This exhibition, the third in a series, highlights some of the 5,000 objects included in the Hamilton College Collection, which has grown substantially since its beginning in 1873.
Some of the selected works on display in the new exhibit include European and American paintings, prints and drawings, Pre-Columbian vessels, Native American baskets and ancient vases and glass. This exhibition presents an overview of Hamilton's approach to collecting as an institution which is intended to serve as an important educational resource for students and faculty in all disciplines. The stories of many individuals whose passions and interests shaped the current Hamilton College Collection are told through this display.
A group of paintings from the 1870s opens the exhibit. They are primarily portraits of Hamilton leaders and serve as valuable historical primary sources.
The show also includes such artifacts as Native American rattles and an abalone headdress frontlet, ancient glass and vases, 19th-century prints by Nathaniel Currier and James Ives of Upstate New York and the Adirondack region, 20th-century prints by Louis Lozowick and Howard Cook, and Wanda Gag's lithograph of Root Glen under a blanket of snow.
Omar Pound, son of poet Ezra Pound, Class of 1905, and graduate of the class of 1951, contributed generously to the collection's modern British art section, as he donated works by Percy Wyndham-Lewis and over 1000 watercolors and drawings produced by his mother, Dorothy Shakespear, a founding member of the Vorticist Group, the English equivalent of Italian Futurism.
A selection of Pre-Columbian Art was recently transferred to the Emerson Gallery from the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute. Subsequent private gifts have added to these holdings including a large Teotihuancan incense burner and an exquisite Diquis gold ornament.
The goals of the "Hamilton Collects" series are to illuminate the art of collecting and affirm the value of a liberal arts education in making judgments of quality. With an outstanding selection of more than 100 objects drawn from the College's own collections, "A Century of Curiosities" demonstrates both points with conviction.
All events are free and open to the public. Docent led tours are available by reservation. The Emerson Gallery is located on the Hamilton College campus in Clinton, New York, in the Christian A. Johnson Hall, directly behind the Chapel. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 10 am to 5 pm and Saturday & Sunday from 1 to 5 pm. For further information, including information on parking and wheelchair accessibility, please contact the Emerson Gallery at 315-859-4396 or consult our website http://www.hamilton.edu/gallery.
