First Digital Edition of the Journal of the Walters Art Museum Released

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Gabriella Souza, Communications Manager
[email protected], 410-547-9000, ext. 277

Baltimore, MD— The Walters Art Museum is delighted to announce the launch of the first fully digital volume of the Journal of the Walters Art Museum, the oldest continuously published scholarly art museum journal in the United States.

With volume 74, the Journal joins the relatively small but growing number of art journals that are published online, freely and openly accessible, without fees, subscriptions, or passwords.

“The digital Journal allows us to make research on the Walters’ collections as accessible as possible to ever wider audiences,” said Eleanor Hughes, Deputy Director of Art and Program. “The format will also allow readers to engage with information about the collection in new, interactive ways such as before-and-after views of paintings that have undergone conservation.”

Articles and notes in this edition include essays on the multi-year investigation and treatment of three 15th-century panel paintings depicting the abduction of Helen of Troy, the astonishing use of Pressbrokat, or applied brocade, to create sumptuous surfaces, and an exploration of the recipes used by Venetian women to achieve the blond hair that contributed to Helen of Troy’s fabled beauty. Other notes provide first looks at new acquisitions, explore the Walters’ fascinating portrait mummies, and describe the innovative restoration of the decorative plaster walls in the library of Hackerman House at 1 West Mount Vernon Place.

“The Walters’ Journal is historic and truly a testament to the scholarship of our incredible curators, conservators, and educators, and to researchers from outside the museum who bring their expertise to bear on the Walters’ collections” said Julia Marciari-Alexander, Andrea B. and John H. Laporte Director. “By making their important work more accessible in this new fully digital format, we aim to enrich the experience of viewing the incredible works in our collections for an even broader audience.”

The first volume of the Journal appeared in 1938, only four years after the museum opened as a public institution. Over the next eighty years and seventy-three volumes, the Journal has continued to publish research on or related to the Walters’ collections, written by distinguished scholars on staff and from around the world.

Find the Journal at journal.thewalters.org.

Special grants from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation supported scholarship and made possible the redesign and digitization of the Journal. Publication was made possible through the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Research and Publications, the Sara Finnegan Lycett Publishing Endowment, and the Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr., Fund for Scholarly Publications.

ABOUT THE WALTERS ART MUSEUM
The Walters Art Museum is a cultural hub in the heart of Baltimore, located in the city’s Mount Vernon neighborhood. The museum’s collection spans more than seven millennia, from 5000 BCE to the 21st century, and encompasses 36,000 objects from around the world. Walking through the museum’s historic buildings, visitors encounter a stunning panorama of thousands of years of art, from romantic 19th-century images of French gardens to mesmerizing Ethiopian icons, richly illuminated Qur’ans and Gospel books, ancient roman sarcophagi, and serene images of the Buddha. Since its founding, the Walters’ mission has been to bring art and people together to create a place where people of every background can be touched by art. As part of this commitment, admission to the museum and special exhibitions is always free.

Visitor Information

Admission to the museum is free. The Walters Art Museum is located at 600 N. Charles St., north of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. For general museum information, call 410-547-9000 or visit https://thewalters.org.

Free admission to the Walters Art Museum is made possible through the combined generosity of individual members and donors, foundations, corporations, and grants from the City of Baltimore, Maryland State Arts Council, Citizens of Baltimore County, and Howard County Government and Howard County Arts Council.

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