Arthur W. Schultz

Well, guess I can't pass this one, since I'm first rating and review! Three stars since I'd say the best thing about this book is finding a tidbit that will whet your appetite for further research. Many of the chapters amount to lists of quick facts. That's OK though, I guess.

Good general info on collectors, auction houses, dealers, and amateurs. MANY fascinating folks involved one way or another in collecting. Also many crazy things to collect- of course. Chapters include reference to some more unusual items people collect, fakes, stolen goods.

I enjoyed the chapter on Nuveen, though we're read a few books on him already.

1997 paperback, Santa Barbara Museum of Art… (más)

This book by the National Committee to Save America's Cultural Collections states right off in its introduction its intention of focus toward private collections - not toward institutions such as museums, archives or research libraries. Those institutions of cultural "memory" already have their own departments geared toward and working on conservation and protection of cultural artifacts.

The result is a series of sections designed around types of objects such as library/archival, ethnographic materials, stone, textiles and works of art on paper. Each section covers generally issues such as relative humidity (RH) ranges for each types of object, permissive temperatures and the how to manage light so it doesn't damage anything.

This is an older book. 21 years old now. But the information contained therein is helpful for those of us who collect things and want to do whatever we are able to keep them lasting as long as possible in the best possible state.… (más)

Albert Lasker was much more than an advertising man. Let alone that he aided in revolutionizing the business and mechanics of advertising, he was also an investor (often to help companies in which he was heading their advertising campaigns), a political campaigner for Presidential candidate Warren G. Harding and other politicians, a Cubs baseball team owner, chairman of the Shipping Board, an art collector, and a philanthropist in organizations that still thrive to this day. His friends came from a variety of industries and were invariably influential. It seems as though there was nary a pie that Lasker had not dipped his fingers into by the time he died in 1952.

Reading about Lasker was incredibly fascinating. His life and his personality were a whirlwind. The only breaks he appears to have taken were his mental breakdowns, where he would spend his time in spas and resorts during long bouts of depression. When he was up, though, he was hypomanic. Despite his preoccupation with himself, however, he preferred to remain behind the scenes in his endeavors, and he was generous to a fault.

He had the kind of genius that found the kernel of the nut, and he also brought out the best in others. He cultivated some of the most talented ad men of his time, and those who worked under him often became quite successful in their own rights. He had many protégés go on to found profitable advertising agencies of their own, partly due to the fact that he was not a very good manager and had difficulty retaining talent.

Although deeply biographical, this book also tells the story of the transformation of advertising. He moved advertising from a brokerage between media outlets and products to a creative profession. Branding, packaging, and copyediting became well-thought-out mechanisms to give consumers a “reason why” to purchase products. His mark on the field of advertising is inextirpable and apparent to this day.… (más)