Special Collections Suite in the DAAP Library
Located past the circulation desk is the library's space for artist’s books, rare and fragile materials related to the DAAP disciplines. There are architectural drawings and archives by local mid-century architects, handmade/fragile pop up books, rare elephant folios, and Cincinnati urban planning materials.
The artists’ books collection contains several hundred one-of-kind, limited edition, rare, and hand-crafted books and objects. Interesting bindings and forms of the book are but one focus of the collection. Related to artist’s books is the entire limited-edition ten-year run of objects from “the Thing Quarterly,” a periodical in the form of objects designed by artists, writers, designers, filmmakers, and musicians. There is a collection of Mail art, art sent through the mail meant to be participatory, democratic, and meant to subvert the notion of “high art” and gallery/museum elitism. All these collections are available to students, scholars, and members of the general public.
Please contact Elizabeth Meyer: elizabeth.meyer@uc.edu or Cade Stevens: cade.stevens@uc.edu to make an appointment.
The UC Architecture Drawings and Archives is physically located in the DAAP Library. It includes drawings, papers, and photographs of Cincinnati architects: Rudy Hermes, Ray Roush, Robert Deshon, Woodie Garber, Benjamin Dombar, John Becker, David Niland, James Alexander, and John Bentley. Portions of the collection have been digitized.
The Architecture in Greater Cincinnati collection contains images of the built environment from the Cincinnati Preservation Association, professional and amateur photographers, and from students and staff at the University of Cincinnati. These images are available to the general public. The collection is growing continually.
The Archivision Research Library is comprised of 128,000 professional, high-quality images covering architecture, urban design, archaeological sites, landscapes, gardens, and works of art.
The DAAP Library’s collection includes works by many famous artists: Sol LeWitt, Edward Ruscha, Dieter Roth, Jenny Holzer, Yoko Ono and others. The collection also comprises several hundred hand-crafted books, many of which serve as excellent examples of fine binding and book illustration and reflect a focus on the artistic movements of the 1970s and 1980s. The Library Catalog lists the titles at the DAAP Library.
The physical Bonnie Cashin Collection is housed at the Digital Futures and managed by Jennifer Krivickas (contact her for access to the collection: jennifer.krivickas@uc.edu)
The collection is comprised of over 200 historical garments designed by Bonnie Cashin for Sills and Co. between 1960 and 1980. The Bonnie Cashion Collection at university has been digitized and cataloged. George Sarofeen presents a snipet of the library's collection of garments.
CYE is an image collection that is part of the CYE journal (peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary, online journal) highlighting the physical environments where children and youth live, learn, work, and play. The journal values the capacity of children and young people to meaningfully participate in the processes that shape their lives and publishes papers from distinct viewpoints, varied approaches, and diverse cultures and regions around the world.
The DAAP Library Image Collections of Art and Sculpture contains images of art work and sculpture.
Émile Mâle was chair of Medieval Art at the Sorbonne in Paris, 1912. The materials in this collection focus on French Gothic Art and Architecture and the influence Eastern European iconography had on these works. Most of the publications are written in French and reflect Mâle's significant contributions to twentieth century art history. Link to the catalog records: Émile Mâle (please note that these are in our off-site storage facility).
Collection of correspondence art, exhibition catalogues, reference books, and miscellaneous ephemera associated with the Mail Art movement.
Material ConneXion, both in database and object formats of cutting-edge materials: glass, polymers, ceramics, metals, cement, and carbon. The library of objects includes a sample board of the material with a description of its unique properties, manufacturer information, recommended use/application, and any limitations of the material, etc. The database, linked from the library webpage, is searchable by physical property (ex: glossy), processing attributes, sustainability factors, and other properties. This collection is useful to many fields of study: engineering, industrial design, interior design, fashion, sculpture, etc.
Martin designed catalogues, bulletins, invitations and impacted Cincinnati’s visual culture with his Modernist aesthetic; an aesthetic in which the idea of uncluttered simplicity reigned. He was schooled at the Cincinnati Art Academy and later taught there, as well as at UC. In 1953, he was included in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC called, “Four American Designers.” He was the Cincinnati Art Museum’s in-house graphic designer for many years. His library of books and pamphlets on logo design; graphic design; font, typeface, typography, typesetting, printing, and lithography was donated to the library in 2009.
Link to catalog records for Noel Martin.
The Terrace Plaza Hotel, (search "Terrace Plaza Hotel" in the Search Architecture in Greater Cincinnati box) located in downtown Cincinnati, was designed by Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill and was the first building to bring widespread acclaim to that firm. When it opened in 1948 it was deemed to be the most progressive American hotel of its day. SOM designed everything for the hotel including the furniture, fabrics, uniforms, matchbooks, china, and silverware. The integration of modern art in the hotel's lobby and restaurants was heralded as wildly successful. The client, John Emery, a great benefactor to the city of Cincinnati, in addition to choosing the architecture firm, also had a hand in selecting the avant-garde artists: Alexander Calder, Joan Miró, Saul Steinberg, and Jim Davis.
The Art Collection at the University of Cincinnati is an important resource for the University, local arts community, and for the region. Ranging from Greek and Roman antiquities to Local Icons and Modern Photography, the Collection spans a wide array of cultures, adding to and enhancing the educational and artistic resources at hand.
World Architecture is a collection of images taken by UC faculty and students. Highlights from the collection include the world travels of Jay Chatterjee, John Handcock, and Gerald Larson.