My name is Mia McCown, and I am a junior at Agnes Scott College majoring in classical civilizations and history. This summer, I had the opportunity to intern part-time in Woodruff Library’s Technical Services, as well as part-time at Agnes Scott’s McCain Library. While I was at Woodruff, I helped to catalog some of Sir Elton John’s donated books and add them to the collection.
Emory’s Randy Gue and Jordan K Putt, Assistant Director to the Sir Elton John Photography Collection, at Elton John’s condo reviewing his book collection.
Woodruff Library came to acquire these unique materials out of happenstance. Elton John recently sold his Atlanta condo, which he had lived in since the 1990s. He reportedly often purchased three copies of a photography book – one for each of his residences in Atlanta, London, and Los Angeles. Upon selling his Buckhead home, the artist’s curation team contacted several local libraries to inquire about donating his thousands of photography books. The email Woodruff Library received from John’s staff noted that “Elton suggested the idea of donating to the Emory library so that his books could have an impact after leaving his collection.” Art history librarian Kim Collins and Randy Gue, Rose Library’s assistant director of collection development, had a unique opportunity to visit Elton John’s condo to select approximately 2,000 items for the Emory Libraries collection.
Once the books arrived, multiple individuals were involved in managing the new acquisitions, preparing books for cataloging, and establishing the workflow. This project would not have been possible without Chris Palazzolo, head of collection management; graduate student Laura Varela Mejia, the Library Service Center and preservation staff, and many others.
Elton John’s love of photography
Photographer Tabitha Soren thanking Elton John for his contributions to photography on the autographed page of the Woodruff Library copy of her book Surface Tension.
Elton John is a British musician primarily known for his prolific career, critical acclaim, and impact on the music and performative scenes since the 1970s. Less recognized are his contributions to the world of contemporary photography. He is an avid photography collector and pieces from his collection have been publicly exhibited on several occasions at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Modern in London. In 1993, John bought an original Man Ray print for over £100,000, setting an auction record at the time for the price of a single photograph. In addition to his vast collection of photographs, he also boasts an impressive library of photography art books. Just among those that Emory acquired from his condo, there are an estimated 2,000 or more books that will be added to the library’s collection.
The collection
Many of the books are limited editions and difficult to acquire. Beyond their rare nature they were also filled with fascinating details. Some books had their own custom clamshell cases, sticky notes left on certain pages, or letters from publishers about Elton John himself. These books are not only collections of photographers’ works, but works of art themselves, with beautiful dust jackets, handmade paper, or hand-sewn bindings. Items such as To the Past or 60 Feet Road, with their custom box and viewbook respectively, make the process of unfolding an art in itself.
Cataloging the collection
Sheila Metzner: Color. Altadena, California: Twin Palms Publishers, 1991.
These books were unique and often a challenge to catalog in one way or another. Many were signed by authors or photographers to Elton John. As part of my process, the first thing I checked for was if the book was autographed. The Woodruff Library kept every signed copy, and, in those cases, a special note was added to the records indicating who signed the book.
Protecting and accessing the collection
These books will be stored at the Library Service Center (LSC). Many of the books need to be housed on special shelves due to their size, and some are delicate, requiring extra care such as special cases and other forms of protection.
All the SEJ books will be part of Emory’s requestable circulating collection and will be eligible for interlibrary loan. The eclectic collection of books included in the gift covers a broad range of subject matters and geographic territories and will be useful for researchers and photography enthusiasts alike. Elton John’s donation includes the works by photojournalists such as Steve McCurry and Don McCullin, renowned artists like Man Ray, Thomas Ruff and Robert Mapplethorpe, a plethora of unique items, such as Mizutani Yoshinori’s charming Des Oiseaux, Vincent Yu’s Our home, Shek Kip Mei, 1954-2006, the experimental printing of Visionaire. 56, Solar, and more. We are excited to see what books people will be checking out and what subjects researchers will gravitate towards!
Final thoughts
I learned a great deal about the library and information field during my time at Emory. I am interested in academic librarianship; as a student from a much smaller institution, I know firsthand that librarians at those institutions wear many hats and acquire many different skills in their work. At Woodruff, the departments are much larger than at McCain, where the number of librarians is in the single digits. Having these contrasting experiences in both the work environments and the skills I acquired was enriching and furthered my interest in librarianship as a whole.
Next steps
This project is ongoing, as there are hundreds of books that need to be sorted through and added to the Emory Libraries catalog. More books will become available for checkout as they are cataloged; all of the Elton John books currently in the collection can be found with the search query “gift of Sir Elton John.” In the fall semester, the library is planning to host an art-making event showcasing Elton John books added to the Emory Libraries collection. Students will be able to create mini books or other handcrafts with the dust jackets as a break from midterm preparations. We hope you can join us at the Woodruff Library on Wednesday, Oct. 9, from 4-6 p.m.!
—by Mia McCown, summer undergraduate intern from Agnes Scott College.