Eyes on America: Processing and Cataloging the LOOK Collection

FAIN: PW-259053-18

Museum of the City of New York, Inc. (New York, NY 10029-5221)
Lindsay Turley (Project Director: July 2017 to November 2022)

Processing a collection of approximately 170,000 photographic negatives from LOOK magazine, including cataloging, copyright research, evaluation, and creation of 8,500 reference scans.

This eighteen-month project is part of an ongoing endeavor to provide access to the LOOK Collection, which includes photographs for 2,242 stories from 41 different photographers made between 1938 and 1968 for LOOK magazine, and vividly documents the cultural transformation of the nation from World War II through the Cold War era. Rather than continuing to focus efforts solely on digitization, the Museum determined that the next phase of this project should be to process the collection as a unit. This project will continue our progress toward increased public access to photographs from the LOOK Collection through processing, assignment level cataloging, copyright research, and evaluation.

Associated Products

Processing and Cataloging the LOOK Magazine Collection (Blog Post)
Title: Processing and Cataloging the LOOK Magazine Collection
Author: Elise Winks
Abstract: Overview of the recently embarked upon project to catalog and describe the LOOK Magazine photo archive, written by the Project Assistant Archivist.
Date: 9/25/2018
Primary URL: http://www.mcny.org/stories
Primary URL Description: Main page for Museum of the City of New York Stories
Secondary URL: http://www.mcny.org/story/processing-and-cataloging-look-magazine-collection
Secondary URL Description: Blog post
Blog Title: Processing and Cataloging the LOOK Magazine Collection
Website: Museum of the City of New York Stories

The Bronx Zoo’s First Female Zookeeper (Blog Post)
Title: The Bronx Zoo’s First Female Zookeeper
Author: Elise Winks
Abstract: A story pulled from the LOOK Magazine photo assignments about Helen Martini, the Bronx Zoo’s first female zookeeper from 1945 to 1960. Ms. Martini established a nursery at the zoo to care for baby animals, and was known to take her needier charges home to the apartment she shared with her husband, also a Bronx Zoo zookeeper.
Date: 1/15/2019
Primary URL: http://www.mcny.org/stories
Primary URL Description: Main page for Museum of the City of New York Stories
Secondary URL: http://www.mcny.org/story/bronx-zoos-first-female-zookeeper
Secondary URL Description: Blog post
Blog Title: The Bronx Zoo’s First Female Zookeeper
Website: Museum of the City of New York Stories

Another Side to Coney Island: Hattie McKeever and Her Waxworks (Blog Post)
Title: Another Side to Coney Island: Hattie McKeever and Her Waxworks
Author: Elise Winks
Abstract: A story pulled from the LOOK Magazine photo assignments about Hattie McKeever, who had a wax works shop in Coney Island, provided wax figures to the World in Wax Musee on Surf Avenue. Ms. McKeever began her career at the Eden Musee in Manhattan, where she started out selling catalogs, before becoming a costumer and eventually a wax artist. The Eden closed in 1915, its collection transferred to Coney island, and Ms. McKeever with it.
Date: 05/06/2019
Primary URL: https://www.mcny.org/stories
Primary URL Description: Main page for Museum of the City of New York Stories
Secondary URL: https://www.mcny.org/story/another-side-coney-island-hattie-mckeever-and-her-waxworks
Secondary URL Description: Blog post
Blog Title: Another Side to Coney Island: Hattie McKeever and Her Waxworks
Website: Museum of the City of New York Stories.

The LOOK Magazine Collection Processing Project Wraps Up (Blog Post)
Title: The LOOK Magazine Collection Processing Project Wraps Up
Author: Elise Winks
Abstract: Overview of the project’s process in cataloging and describing the LOOK Magazine photo archive, written by the Project Assistant Archivist. This post served as follow-up to a blog post of September 25, 2018.
Date: 09/10/2019
Primary URL: https://www.mcny.org/stories
Primary URL Description: Main page for Museum of the City of New York Stories
Secondary URL: https://www.mcny.org/story/look-magazine-collection-processing-project-wraps
Secondary URL Description: Blog post
Blog Title: The LOOK Magazine Collection Processing Project Wraps Up
Website: Museum of the City of New York Stories.

Collection highlights, online gallery for “Eyes on America: Processing and Cataloging the LOOK Collection” (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Collection highlights, online gallery for “Eyes on America: Processing and Cataloging the LOOK Collection”
Author: Museum of the City of New York
Abstract: The LOOK Magazine collection is the single largest collection in the Museum’s holdings, consisting of over 2,000 assignments from 41 different photographers made for the magazine between 1938 and 1968. LOOK magazine was founded in 1937 and published as a bi-weekly, general interest magazine. By the 1950s, it had evolved into a popular magazine with a national circulation, and by the late 60s, it reached a peak circulation of nearly 8 million readers. LOOK was well known for its photography, with images by such prominent photographers as Stanley Kubrick, Arthur Rothstein, John Vachon, Charlotte Brooks, Frank Bauman, Jim Hansen, Paul Fusco, and Tony Vaccaro. Each published assignment usually featured no more than a dozen images, and the number of images taken for a single assignment varied from a few dozen to a few hundred.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://collections.mcny.org/
Primary URL Description: Home page of the Museum’s online Collections Portal makes the LOOK Collection accessible through the scrolling banner.
Secondary URL: https://collections.mcny.org/Explore/Featured/Eyes%20on%20America:%20Processing%20and%20Cataloging%20the%20LOOK%20Collection/
Secondary URL Description: LOOK magazine assignments cataloged and digitized as part of project activities are included in this featured online gallery.
Access Model: Digital images and object records are freely available to anyone anywhere in the world with Internet access.

Finding Aid, LOOK Magazine Collection, 1937-1962 (Web Resource)
Title: Finding Aid, LOOK Magazine Collection, 1937-1962
Author: Elise Winks
Abstract: The LOOK Magazine collection consists of 2,415 photographic assignments containing black and white negatives, contact prints, slides, and color transparencies produced by the magazine’s staff and freelance photographers. The photographs in this collection are from the magazine’s stories related to New York City, both published and unpublished.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://wordpress.com/view/mcnycatablog.org
Primary URL Description: Museum of the City of New York Archival Collections Blog
Secondary URL: https://mcnycatablog.org/2020/07/28/look-magazine-collection-1937-1962/
Secondary URL Description: Finding aid

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