Freezeframe- 20,000 Polar images searchable in an online collection

Something for a sunny day with thanks to Sarah Williams

The Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge owns a vast and much of it fragile collection of polar images dating from the earliest famous days of polar exploration to the modern day. The photographs allow searchers to  trace the history of polar exploration and also that of polar photography and include images of domestic scenes round camp, aboard the polar vessels, animals polar and expeditionary and staggering landscapes made of ice. These images are now searchable online through Freezeframe, a fully catalogued digital image database of polar exploration photographs from 1845-1982 that has been produced by the Scott Polar Research Institute to support learning, teaching and research into topics relating to the history of Arctic and Antarctic history, exploration, and science.

The  images are presented with ancillary material from the collections of the Institute, and critical essays contextualising much of the material.

Festival of Britain 60 year anniversary

The National Archives Image Library has created a little image collection to celebrate the 60 year anniversary of The Festival of Britain . The Festival of Britain took place from May 3rd-September 30th 1951 to celebrate the British contribution to civilisation, past, present and future in the fields of art, technology and science and to encourage a looking forward after the horrors, privations and losses of the Second World War.
The National Archives Image Library contains other interesting image sets  including ones for Crime, Design, Mining and Maps.

Shawn Lovell metalwork sculptor/designer

I have spotted some very gorgeous one off pieces of furniture from Californian based artist Shawn Lovell. The tree and birds nest bed and the scroll fireplace screen are my favourites.

Shawn specializes in making one-of-kind and commissioned work both commercial and residential using both traditional and modern forging techniques. Her work has ranged from large scale railings, gates, and arbors to fire screens and surrounds, lighting, furniture, hardware and much more.

If you are interested in reading about Blacksmithing in the UK then (if you are a registered UWIC staff or student member)-go to the Learning Portal>Electronic Library>Databases> select Design and Applied Arts Index and search for blacksmithing :UK. Your search results will bring up references to 8 journal articles (mostly from Crafts Magazine) . Howard Gardens has back copies of Crafts Magazine going back to 1973.

Three new electronic journals

The library has subscribed to three new E-journals

·     Design and Culture

      'Design and Culture probes design's relation to other academic disciplines, including marketing, management, cultural studies, anthropology, material culture, geography, visual culture and political economy'.  

      

·     Design Journal

      'The Design Journal is an international refereed journal covering all aspects of design'.

.    Fashion Practice

      'Fashion Practice is the first peer-reviewed academic journal to cover the full range of contemporary design and  manufacture within the context of the fashion industry'.

UWIC staff and students can access these journals from
Learning Portal>Electronic Library>Journals A-Z

New York City Graffiti & Street Art Project

From the same people at Lewis and Clark College that gave us AccessCeramics the image database of contemporary ceramics, we now have the New York City Graffitti & Street Art Project. You can search for images of graffitti and street art by location (using their Google map), by technique, by work type and by subject as well as by support (which includes vehicles).