Varied Views for a Variety of Visitors
• December 15, 2023 • Leave a CommentPosted in 1920s, acquisitions, African American History, Art Basel, Artists, bindings, book art, children's books, Cuba, curator, dance, Disney, displays, Dr. Nicolae Harsanyi, exhibitions, Francis Xavier Luca, French consulate, gifts, graphic designers, library donors, Michelle Oka Doner, Mitchell Wolfson Jr., museums, Orientalism, prohibition, The Wolfsonian Library, Vicki Gold Levi, Wolfsonian staff, World's fairs
Tags: 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, A. Assus, Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), Al Hirschfeld, Alex Rigorard, All the World's a Stage: The Sketchbooks and Theatrical Designs of Albert Wainwright (Wolfsonian Library installation), André Suréda, Art Basel, Atomium, celebrities, Charles Laborde (1886-1941), collecting cards, Colonies, Cuba, dancers, Daniel Morris, Donald Deskey, ephemera, Expo '58 (Brussels), Exposition coloniale internationale, FIU, FIU Professor Maria Antonieta Garcia, Folies Bergere, France, France's overseas empire, Francis Xavier Luca, French Guiana, French Orientalists, Futurama, Guyane francaise, Harlem Renaissance, Josephine Baker, La Reunion, La Tunisie, LACMA, Louis Antoni, Marco Brambilla, Maurice Bouviolle, movies stars, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey (Mexico), paper toys, Paul Colin (1892-1985), pop-up books, Progressland, Prohibition, revues, Sheet music covers, singers, Sketchbooks, the Charleston (dance), tourism, Walt Disney
From Prohibition and Flappers to New Dealers and the Lunatic Fringe: Wolfsonian Library Collection Highlights
• November 21, 2023 • Leave a CommentPosted in 1920s, 1930s, Artists, bars, Blue eagle, Cuba, donations, FDR, Federal Art Project (FAP), Federal One, FIU, FIU students, Florida International University, Florida International University students, Francis Xavier Luca, gifts, graphic arts, graphic designers, History Department, leftist artists, Mitchell Wolfson Jr., museums, New Deal, New Deal (1933-1939), New Deal era, NRA, postcards, programs, prohibition, promotional materials, rare books and special collections library, The Wolfsonian Library, Wolfsonian staff
Tags: African-Americans, alcoholism, Alfred E. Neuman, beer, bootleggers, Carteles (magazine), Christopher DeNoon, Communists, Conrado Walter Massaguer, Cuba, Demagogues, Eleanor Roosevelt, fans, Father Charles Coughlin (1891-1979), Federal Art Project (FAP), Federal Music Project (FMP), Federal Theatre Project (FTP), Federal Writers' Project (FWP), flappers, Francis Townsend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, gangsters, Gibson Girls, Great Depression, Huey Pierce Long (1893-1935), Jazz Age, Mad magazine mascot, National Recovery Administration, New Deal art, new woman ideal, NRA, postcards, Prohibition (1919-1933), rum runners, sheet music, Sheet music covers, Social (magazine), Socialists, speakeasies, the New Boy, Upton Sinclair, Vicki Gold Levi, Works Progress Administration (WPA), WPA
Afro-Cuban Dance Music in Hollywood and Mexican Movies
• January 28, 2023 • 1 CommentPosted in 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, acquisitions, bars, collectors, Cuba, curator, donations, Francis Xavier Luca, gifts, graphic arts, graphic designers, museums, posters, promotional materials, Puerto Rico, slums, The Wolfsonian Library, Vicki Gold Levi, Wolfsonian staff
Tags: "Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)" (song), "El Manisero" [The Peanut Vendor] (song), "Patricia" (song), A Century of Progress International Exposition (Chicago: 1933-1934), Abakuá, actresses, Afro-Cuban jazz, Afro-Cuban polyrhythms, Andrea Queeley, Another Thin Man (film: 1939), ballroom dancing, big bands, cabaret dancing, Carole Lombard, cha cha cha, Cha-Cha-Cha Boom! (film: 1956), Chano Pozo, Chicago World's Fair (1933/34), conga drums, conga line dancing, Cuba, Cuban exiles, Cuban expatriates, Cuban Revolution of 1933, Cuban Revolution of 1959, dancers, danzón, Desi Arnaz (1917-1986), Desiderio Alberto Arnaz II, Dizzy Gillespie, Dominicans, Don Azpiazú and his Havana Casino Orchestra, El Bar de Hilda, ephemera, Eva Silot-Bravo, film-noirs, Francis Xavier Luca, George Raft, Harlem, Havana (Cuba), Havana-Madrid (nightclub), Holiday in Havana (film : 1949), Hollywood movies, I Love Lucy (television series), Jane Powell, Justo Ángel Azpiazú (1893–1943), La Dolce Vita (film : 1960), Latin jazz, Lawrence Tibbett, Lupe Velez, Luxury Liner (film : 1948), Margo, Matanzas (Cuba), melodramas, Mexican movies, Mexico, music, New York City, Nuyoricans, Pérez Prado, Perez Prado, Puerto Ricans, race, Racial prejudice, racism, Ramona Ajón, reggaeton, René and Estela, René Rivero Guillén, rhumba, Robin Moore, Rock & Roll, Rock Around the Clock (film), rumba, Rumba (film : 1935), rumba dancers, rumberas films, rumberos, salsa, Santiago de Cuba, Sheet music covers, Silvano “Chori” Shueg, singers, slums, solares, soneros, swing, The Beat Goes On (Panel discussion), The Cuban Love Song (film: 1931), Tierra Brava (film : 1938), timbalero, timbaleros, Too Many Girls (film: 1940), Turn the Beat Around (Wolfsonian exhibition : Oct. 2022-April 2023), Un Extraño en la Escalera [A Stranger on the Stairs] (film : 1955), Underwater! (film : 1954), Xavier Cugat (1900-1990)
Spotlight on Machito and the Titos–The Three Kings of Mambo By Far
• January 6, 2023 • Leave a CommentPosted in 1940s, 1950s, acquisitions, collectors, Cuba, curators, donations, exhibitions, Francis Xavier Luca, gifts, graphic arts, interns, library donors, museums, Puerto Rico, The Wolfsonian Library
Tags: "King of the Mambo", Afro-Cuban dance culture, Afro-Cuban jazz, album cover art, album covers, arrangers, Arsenio Rodríguez, Big 3 Palladium Orchestra, Birdland (Nightclub), Cab Calloway, Celia Cruz, cha cha cha, Chano Pozo, Charlie Parker, Club Cuba, Club Cuba (Nightclub), composers, concerts, Cuban bandleaders, Cuban bebop, Cubans, Cubop City (Nightclub), Dizzy Gillespie, drummers, ephemera, Fania All-Stars, Francis Xavier Luca, Frank Grillo, Harlem Renaissance, Israel ("Cachao") López Valdés (1918–2008), Jazz, jazz musicians, La Lupe, Machito, Machito and His Afro-Cubans, mambo, mambo madness, Mario Bauzá, Miguelito Valdés, New York City, Nuyoricans, Orchestra Siboney, Palladium (Dance hall), percussionists, Perez Prado, Puerto Rican bandleaders, Puerto Ricans, RCA Victor, Sheet music covers, Stan Kenton, the "Borscht Belt", the Catskills, The Peanut Vendor (song), The Three Kings, Three Kings Day, Tico Records, timbaleros, Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, Turn the Beat Around (Wolfsonian exhibition : Oct. 2022-April 2023), United Artists Records, Vicki Gold Levi, Victoria Calveira
“Seeing Sounds” and “Geo-graphic” Flash Exhibits and Swinging Latin Jazz
• December 17, 2022 • 2 CommentsPosted in 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, acquisitions, Artists, Cuba, curator, curators, dance, displays, donations, exhibit cases, exhibitions, FIU, FIU community, FIU students, Florida International University, Florida International University students, gifts, graphic arts, graphic designers, interns, library donors, museums, posters, student curators, The Wolfsonian Library, Wolfsonian staff
Tags: "El Manisero" (song), "Geo-graphic" (FIU flash installation), "Mambo Madness" (song), "Mambo No. 8" (song), "Manteca" (song), "Seeing Sounds" (FIU flash installation), Afro-Cuban jazz, Afro-Cuban music, album covers, Another Thin Man (film: 1939), cha cha cha, Cha- Cha- Cha- Boom! (film: 1956), Chano Pozo, Claudia Moltalvo, conga, FIU Latin Jazz Ensemble, Graphic design, Graphic Design III, interns, Lobby cards, mambo, Moonlight in Havana (film: 1942), music posters, Pan-Americana (film : 1945), Perez Prado, Plotting Power (Wolfsonian exhibitions), pop-up exhibitions, printmaking, Professor Michael Eckroth, Professor Printz, Professor Silvia Pease, Rhythm of the Mambo (film short: 1949), rumba, Rumba (film : 1935), Sheet music covers, Silkscreened posters, Too Many Girls (film: 1940), Turn the Beat Around (Wolfsonian exhibition), Victoria Calveira, video clips
Turning the Beat Around: Spotlight on Xavier Cugat
• November 19, 2022 • 1 CommentPosted in 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, acquisitions, collectors, Cuba, curators, dance, donations, exhibitions, Florida International University, Francis Xavier Luca, gifts, graphic arts, interns, library donors, museums, photography, rare books and special collections library, restaurants, The Wolfsonian Library, Vicki Gold Levi, Wolfsonian staff
Tags: A Date With Judy (1948), Abbe Lane (singer and actress), Afro-Cuban music, album covers, bandleaders, Bathing Beauty (1944), Cafe Trocadero (dinner club), caricatures, caricaturists, Carmen Castillo, Casa Cugat (dinner club), Catalonia, cha cha cha, Charlie Chaplin, Charo (singer), Chicago Syndicate (1955), chihuahuas, classical violin, Cocoanut Grove (nightclub), conga, conga drums, Conga-land (songbook), Conrado Walter Massaguer, Cuba, Cuban bandleaders, Cuban musicians, Desi Arnaz (1917-1986), El Grafico (magazine), Enrico Caruso, Entertainers, female musicians, Francis Xavier Luca, George Raft, Go West Young Man (film: 1936), Holiday in Mexico (1946), Hollywood, In Gay Madrid (film: 1930), Lorraine Allen, Los Angeles, Luxury Liner (1948), mambo, Margo (dancer), Miguelito Valdés, musicians, My Sister Eileen (film: 1942), Neptune's Daughter (1949), New York City, On an Island With You (1948), Orquesta Sinfónica del Teatro Nacional (Havana), photographs, Rosalind Russell, rumba, Rumba (film : 1935), Rumba Is My Life (autobiography), Sheet music covers, singers, Starlight Roof (Waldorf-Astoria Hotel), Ten Cents a Dance (film: 1931), The Gigalos (septet), The Heat's On (1943), The Xavier Cugat Show (1957), Tito Rodríguez, Turn the Beat Around (Wolfsonian exhibition : Oct. 2022-April 2023), violinists, Waldorf-Astoria, Week-End at the Waldorf (1945), wives, Xavier Cugat (1900-1990), Yma Sumac, You Were Never Lovelier (film : 1942), You Were Never Lovelier (film: 1942)
A Night for Celebrating Heroines
• October 1, 2022 • 1 CommentPosted in 1920s, acquisitions, children's books, Children's propaganda books, collectors, displays, donations, First World War (1914-1918), Francis Xavier Luca, gender, gifts, graphic designers, library donors, memorabilia, Mitchell Wolfson Jr., museums, persuasive arts, pochoirs, propaganda, propaganda arts, rare books and special collections library, Second World War (1939-1945), The Wolfsonian Library, war propaganda, Wolfsonian, Wolfsonian staff, women, World War (1914-1918), World War (1939-1945), World War I, World War II, WWI, WWII
Tags: "Revanchism", Alsace-Lorraine, Booklegger Library director, Carlton Maloney, Children's propaganda books, color chromolithographs, Comic books, coveralls, DC Comics, deluxe editions, Edouard-Garcia Benito, figurines, First World War, Francis Xavier Luca, Franco-Prussian War, French illustrators, goddesses, gothic cathedrals, Guy Arnoux, heroes, heroines, Into the Stacks (Wolfsonian public program), Joan of Arc, Legends, Life (magazine), Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel, Middle Ages, munitions factories, Musical scores, Nathaniel Sandler, Norman Rockwell, Notre-Dame de Reims, Nurses, nurses and nursing, Pochoir plates, pochoirs, portfolios, Prophet Isaiah, Red Cross nurses, Reims, Robert Burnand, Rosie the Riveter, Sandra Solis Hazim, Second World War, Sheet music covers, silhouettes, Sistine Chapel, stencilwork, tattoos, The Wolfsonian cafe and gift shop, Wikipedia, women's war work, Wonder Woman
Behind the Scenes of an Installation Examining the Cuban and American Dance Scene
• August 13, 2022 • Leave a CommentPosted in 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, collectors, Cuba, curators, dance, donations, exhibitions, FIU, FIU students, Florida International University, Florida International University students, Francis Xavier Luca, gender, gifts, graphic arts, graphic designers, interns, library donors, memorabilia, museums, persuasive arts, photography, postcards, posters, promotional materials, Puerto Rico, rare books and special collections library, The Wolfsonian Library, Vicki Gold Levi
Tags: Afro-Cuban dance culture, Afro-Cuban jazz, cha cha cha, conga, Cuba pavilion, curatorial work, Exhibition planning, Havana (Cuba), Hollywood musicals, installations, mambo, murals, New York World's Fair (1939-1940), percussion, postcards, record album covers, rumba, salsa, Sheet music covers, storyboards, tourism, Tropicana (Nightclub), Victoria Calveira
Graphic Design Visitors: A Bird’s-Eye View
• March 29, 2022 • Leave a CommentPosted in airplanes, archives, Art Deco, Artists, avant-garde aesthetics, bindings, book art, children's books, Constructivism, Cuba, dance, exhibitions, FAP, Federal One, FIU, FIU community, FIU students, Florida International University, Florida International University students, Francis Xavier Luca, Futurism, gifts, graphic arts, graphic designers, Italian design, library donors, Miami Ad School, Mitchell Wolfson Jr., museums, posters, rare books and special collections library, Russia, silk screen, skyscrapers, Soviet propaganda, Soviet Union, The Wolfsonian Library, typography, Vienna, Wiener Werkstatte, Wolfsonian staff, WPA
Tags: Aerial Vision (Wolfsonian exhibition), aeronautics, aeropittura, Afro-Cuban dance culture, airplanes, Albino Siviero Verossi, Alfredo Gauro Ambrosi, Art Deco, Art directors, aviation, Bas van Beek, bird's-eye views, Brittany Ballinger, Brochures, catalogs, Christopher Dresser, Constructivism, curators, designers, Federal Arts Project (FAP), font, Fortunato Depero, Francis Xavier Luca, Global Strategic Communication- Creative Track, graphic art, Italian Futurism, Karel Teige (1900-1951), Lea Nickless, Lobby cards, M.AD School of Ideas, Mac Harshberger (1900-1975), magazine cover art, Marlene Tosca Hunt, Mitchell Wolfson Jr. Collection, movie posters, Oscar Rieveling, Owen Jones, postcards, posters, Professor Albena Petrus Stoyanova, Promising Paradise: Cuban Allure--American Seduction (exhibition), Promising Paradise: Cuban Allure--American Seduction (Wolfsonian exhibition), Promotional materials, rack cards, Renato Di Bosso, Royal Academy in The Hague, Shameless (Wolfsonian exhibition), Sheet music covers, skyscrapers, transatlantic flights, Vicki Gold Levi Collection, Victorian art, Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops), WPA
A Musical History of U.S.-Cuba Relations, 1898-1959
• February 18, 2022 • Leave a CommentPosted in 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, Cuba, dance, displays, donations, Florida International University students, Francis Xavier Luca, Frederic A. Sharf, gifts, Great Depression, History Department, international expositions, Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf, Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection, library donors, Maine (Battleship, Mitchell Wolfson Jr., Monroe County Public Library (Key West, museums, photography, postcards, posters, prohibition, promotional materials, rare books and special collections library, Spanish-American War, The Wolfsonian Library, Vicki Gold Levi, Wolfsonian, Wolfsonian museum library, Wolfsonian staff, World's fairs
Tags: Abakuá, Afro-Cuban jazz, afrocubanismo, akpwón, Alberto Socarrás, alcohol, America and Movies: Cuba and the United States--1868-2022, American Warships, Another Thin Man (film: 1939), Anselmo Sacasas, Arthur Murray Dance Studios, Babalú Ayé, Basil Woon, Buena Vista Social Club, Carnival, Carole Lombard, Carteles (magazine), celebrities, Century of Progress Exhibition (1933-1934: Chicago), cha cha cha, Cha-Cha-Cha Boom! (film: 1956), Chano Pozo, Chico O'Farrill, CMQ radio, comparsa de congas, conga drums, conga lines, Cuban band leaders, Cuban Fire! (album : 1956), Cuban Independence Movement, Cuban National Tourist Commission, Cuban Republic, cultural appropriation, dance halls, dance music, Dance of Death, Desi Arnaz (1917-1986), Dizzy Gillespie, drinking, El Manisero (song), Estudios Afrocubanos (journal and society), ethnomusicology, Fernando Ortiz, Fidel Castro, Francis Xavier Luca, gambling, George Raft, Guys and Dolls (film : 1955), Havana (Cuba), Holiday in Havana (film : 1949), Hollywood films, I Love Lucy (television series), Jack Harris' La Conga (nightclub), Joseph K. Albertson Collection, Lobby cards, Machito, mambo, Mambo Italiano (song), Margot, Mario Bauza, Marlon Brando, Mary Hatcher, Miguelito Valdés, movie stars, mulatas, museum visits, musical collaboration, Nightclubs, Obdulio Morales, Palladium, Palo Monte, Pan-Americana (film : 1945), Papa Loves Mambo (song), percussion, percussionists, Perez Prado, Perry Como, publicity photographs, record jackets, Remember the Maine!, René and Estela, René Hernández, Ricky Ricardo, Rosemary Clooney, rumba, Rumba (film : 1935), Santería, Santiago de Cuba, Sheet music covers, singers, Sound recordings, Stan Kenton, The Peanut Vendor (song), Tito Puente, U.S. Prohibition, University of Havana, Week-End in Havana (film: 1941), When It's Cocktail Time in Cuba (travel guide :1928), Xavier Cugat (1900-1990), Yambaó (film : 1957)