This week Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, is joined by Sarah Weatherwax, Senior Curator of Graphic Arts at the Library Company of Philadelphia. Sarah has worked at the Library Company for nearly thirty years. From political cartoons to incredible daguerrotypes, these images are preserved for generations to come at the Library. In addition, the two discuss visual literacy and how this can be key for working with any type of image.
Related Episodes:
Episode 182: The Archive Lady, Melissa Barker
Episode 165: Reading the Clues in World War I Images
Links:
- Imperfect History
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About My Guest:
Sarah Weatherwax has worked at the Library Company of Philadelphia since 1993 and has been the Senior Curator of Graphic Arts since 2020. She is responsible for a collection of approximately 125,000 items including photographs, prints, and original works of art. She has written articles about photography for the Daguerreian Annual and Pennsylvania History, and has co-authored a book about 19th century photographic views of Center City Philadelphia from the Library’s collections. She has curated exhibitions on diverse topics including Philadelphia daguerreotypes; the work of William Rau, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s official photographer; and most recently, Imperfect History: Curating the Graphic Arts Collection at Benjamin Franklin’s Public Library, a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Graphic Arts Department at the Library Company. Her research interests include women in photography and Philadelphia’s built environment. She currently serves on the board of the Daguerreian Society and is Assistant Editor of the Daguerreian Annual.
About Maureen Taylor:
Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada. She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira). She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American Spirit, and The New York Times. Maureen was recently a spokesperson and photograph expert for MyHeritage.com, an internationally known family history website and also writes guidebooks, scholarly articles and online columns for such media as Smithsonian.com. Learn more at Maureentaylor.com