In the context of The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door, explore the The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door: A Portal to Bohemia, 1920–1925 of the History.
The Harry Ransom Center mounted The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door: A Portal to Bohemia, 1920–1925 exhibition from September 6, 2011, until January 22, 2012. The exhibition marked the first and thus far only public show to include the bookshop door, with curation headed by Molly Schwartzburg. For the duration of the exhibition The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door was installed in the middle of a gallery, on a custom blue base that exactly matched the color of the door. It was encased in plexiglas and anchored to the ceiling with steel wires for added security.Historians at the Harry Ransom Center were able to use online photograph databases and collections in 2010 to prepare for the exhibition, relying on technology that was not available when the university first acquired the door in 1960. Curators educated themselves on twentieth-century penmanship techniques to correctly match signatures on the door to those found on original manuscripts, novels, poems, letters, drawings and more. Their diligence resulted in the identification of more than one hundred and fifty additional signatures.The physical exhibition ran concurrently with a more in-depth online, virtual exhibit that was still accessible as of 2022. This online exhibit allowed viewers to learn more about each of the identified signatories and their connections to one another. The Harry Ransom Center continues to operate a website highlighting the door's yet unidentified signatures in hopes of using the public's assistance to eventually identify every signature on the door.In 2012, the Harry Ransom Center was nominated for an Austin Critics' Table award for "Best Museum Exhibition" for their work on The Greenwich Valley Bookshop Door: A Portal to Bohemia exhibition. The Austin Critics' Table awards are a series of longstanding Austin awards that seek to honor those involved in all aspects of the local art scene.
Greenwich Village art scene online exhibit signatories Harry Ransom Center virtual university penmanship Austin plexiglas collections