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September 1, 2009

John Cotton Dana Portrait Comes to Rutgers Library Named in His Honor

by Carla Capizzi
Friday August 28, 2009, 10:48 AM
Library patrons know his name; now they know what he looks like.

The John Cotton Dana Library announces the installation of a portrait of John Cotton Dana in the Dana Room on the Library's fourth floor. The oil painting, by the distinguished artist, Douglas Volk, is on long-term loan from the Newark Museum. The 1923 portrait was given to the Museum by C. W. Feigenspan, a prominent Newark citizen and president of both the Feigenspan Brewing Company and the Federal Trust Company of Newark.

The portrait may be viewed during Dana Library's events or by request to the Media Services Department (973 353-5917).

John Cotton Dana served as Newark Public Library director from 1902 until 1929. His accomplishments in providing innovative services and programs to equalize and expand access to information brought him national acclaim. Newark Public Library offered books to children in the Library's Children's Room, in their schools through circulating "trunk" collections, and in their neighborhoods with bookmobiles.

The Library also offered specialized sources for members of the business community at a branch in the city's commercial district. Newark's teachers had access to a collection of practice and research materials, including a remarkable picture file. The Library made reading materials in languages other than English available to Newark's newest residents. In 1909 Dana acquired a series of Japanese prints that were displayed on the Library's fourth floor, an area set aside for the new Newark Museum. Dana began to add pieces of American art, handicrafts and utilitarian objects. The Museum was moved from the Library building to its present facility in 1926.

In addition to his work at the Public Library and the Museum, Dana was very active in city life, serving on educational and cultural committees and boards of trustees. He was a board member of the New Jersey Law School, one of Rutgers-Newark's predecessors. When the School's Pre-Legal Department became a four-year program, the new school was named Dana College. Although Dana College was quickly followed by the Newark College of Arts and Sciences, the library continues to carry his name. In honor of his contributions, John Cotton Dana was known as Newark's First Citizen.

The painter, Douglas Volk (1856-1935), was a contemporary of Dana (1856-1929). During his lifetime, he enjoyed a national reputation for his portraits, as well as his historical studies of the colonial period in New England. Born in Pittsfield, MA, and raised in Chicago, Volk studied with Jean Leon Gerome at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts (Paris) from 1873 to 1879. On his return to the United States in 1879, Volk began his lengthy career as an art educator in New York City, teaching first at Cooper Union and later at the Art Students League, the New York Society of Ethical Culture, and the National Academy of Design. Volk's paintings have been collected by the National Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery (Washington, D. C.), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), and the Carnegie Museum (Pittsburgh). His murals decorate the walls of the Court House in Des Moines, IA, and the Capitol building in St. Paul, MN.

Volk received his first medal for paintings displayed at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Many awards followed, including the Proctor Portrait Prize and the Saltus Gold Medal of the National Academy of Design in 1910, as well as the Academy's Maynard Portrait Prize in 1915. Volk was recognized by the American art world when he was elected to membership in the Society of American Artists (1880) and the National Academy of Design (1899).

For more information, please contact: Ann Watkins ann.watkins@rutgers.edu (973-353-5162).

Posted by tumulty at September 1, 2009 10:33 AM

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