The Wolfsonian's library collection, most of which was amassed by the museum's founder Mitchell Wolfson, Jr., contains approximately 45,000 items that illuminate the social, political, aesthetic, and technological issues that dominated the industrial age, and further demonstrate the vital role that design played in shaping perceptions of the modern world. Holdings include rare and reference books, periodicals, and a large collection of ephemeral items, including vintage postcards, advertisements, calendars, leaflets, labels, matchbook covers, and a variety of other formats, collected and preserved as cultural artifacts that reveal the times in which they were created.
The library collection is a rich resource for scholars interested in design, art history, material culture, and aesthetic and social movements in Europe and North America. It is particularly strong in German, Italian, English, and Dutch language materials. Rare books and artifacts from France, Switzerland, Russia/Soviet Union, the Czech Republic, and Hungary also are in evidence and are complemented by an extensive reference collection.
Library holdings are especially strong in materials relating to national
and international world’s
fairs and international expositions; political propaganda; architecture;
travel and transportation; technological and industrial design; commercial
art; book design and typography; and New Deal and various public works
programs.
Progressive and avant-garde design movements are well represented in the
areas of Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Art Moderne, Futurism, and Constructivism.
Library
Displays < Click to view
In addition to the rare library materials integrated into The
Wolfsonian-FIU's exhibition galleries on the fifth, sixth, and seventh
floors, our rare books and special collections library regularly
presents displays of its rare books, periodicals, and ephemeral
materials in the third floor loggia. Many of these displays supplement
Wolfsonian-curated or traveling exhibitions. Others highlight new
acquisitions or donations to the collection or have been created for―(or
with the participation of)—Florida International University faculty and
students.
The Wolfsonian-FIU's collection of Dutch artifacts includes extensive holdings in glass, textiles, furniture, and design drawings dating from circa 1880 to 1940, as well as an unrivaled collection of "Nieuwe Kunst" (Art Nouveau or "new art") bookbindings, and decorative and ornamental ephemera produced in the Netherlands between the 1890's and 1920's. The Dutch holdings focus on themes and subjects such as city life, industrial progress, and a variety of social issues, including the importance of socialism in the country's political life. Evidence of the motifs and techniques (such as batik) introduced by the former Dutch East Indies colonies are demonstrated particularly in the library's holdings, known as the Veeze Collection, which includes several thousand rare book covers, calendars, proofs, advertisements, and original sketches. The Wolfsonian's Modern Dutch Collection is available online in high resolution via PALMM (Publications of Archive, Library, and Museum Materials).
Since opening our doors to the public in November, 1995, The Wolfsonian has benefited from the generosity of a number of other philanthropists, resulting in gifts that include: the Geo. B. Post & Sons architectural firm's Beaux Arts reference library; the Vicki Gold Levi Collection of Cuba tourist propaganda ephemera from the period 1920 to 1950, and Robert J. Young's donation of rare periodicals and other materials dealing with the physical culture and nudist movements in America.
The Wolfsonian library holdings were collected as much for their visual as their intellectual content; the librarians are committed to making images available via the web and are pursuing a digitization initiative designed to link scanned images to their respective records. (See Online Catalog below.) One extraordinarily rare manuscript in our library collection is the unpublished block-book Scottsboro: a story in linoleum cuts / by Lin Shi Khan [and] Ralph Austin, [c. 1934]. It was produced under the auspices of the International Labor Defense, an American Communist organization that took up the cause of legally defending nine young African American boys in Alabama unjustly accused of rape. Largely as a result of the global protests and political pressure the I.L.D. brought to bear in the vociferous campaign for "Negro rights," the Scottsboro boys were accorded new trials. All charges were dropped against four of the accused; the other five ending up serving long prison sentences before finally being pardoned and released.
The Wolfsonian-FIU is a special member of the Art and Architecture Group of RLG (Research Libraries Group), and belongs to ARIAH (Association of Research Institutes in Art History) a nationwide consortium of twenty fellowship-granting organizations (www.fiu.edu/~ariah). For information on fellowships at our museum, see Research Opportunities.
The reading room is open by appointment only, Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM, and Saturday, 11:00 AM–5:30 PM. To schedule a visit, please contact the librarians at 305.535.2641/2640 or e-mail library@thewolf.fiu.edu.
Library Collection Access Policy
Rules Governing Use of Library Collection
Library Donations and Bequests
Online Catalog (please note that catalog is incomplete and data entry is ongoing)
FEATURED
OBJECT:
Cover, Scottsboro–A Story in Block Cuts, 1932
Illustrated and written by Lin Shi Khan and Ralph Austin (American, b. 1912)
USA
Ink and pencil on brown craft paper
Credit: The Wolfsonian–Florida International University, Miami Beach,
Florida, The Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection
83.3.3395
FEATURED
OBJECT:
Detail from book cover, [Declaration of Greater East Asian Cooperation[,
c. 1943
Publisher unknown. Japan
The Wolfsonian-FIU, Gift of Pamela K. Harer
2007.03.17.47
