George Platt Lynes scrapbooks

The George Platt Lynes Scrapbooks consist of two volumes along with several loose leaves. Though they have been largely dismantled for preservation and storage reasons, the materials have been cataloged to reflect their original organization. The scrapbooks are stored in three oversize boxes which contain the original leaves and two standard archival boxes, which hold items that were removed. The material, though mostly undated, spans the years 1900-1955, and is arranged into two series, I. Scrapbooks, and II. Separated Items: Photographs and Colored Images.

The scrapbooks present a view of images that influenced Lynes as a photographer, coupled with examples of his own work, culled mostly from fashion magazines. They also include along with articles and images documenting the work of his friends, such as Pavel Tchelitchew and Cecil Beaton. As well, many items were pasted in the scrapbooks for their humorous and cultural appeal. High fashion models appear side-by-side with monkeys, elephants, and decapitated heads. European royalty coexist with movie stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Johnny Weismuller. Other recurring subjects include examples of extravagant interior decoration, postcards featuring scenes of native peoples of North Africa, and photographs of famous writers, musicians and singers.

Lynes' interest in the nude is quite evident in these volumes. Along with a number of clippings of nude men and women in various demuere poses are a group of photographic prints of young men and girls, and sheets with multiple shots of muscular men and women striking artistic attitudes. These include one sheet featuring the Ritter brothers.

Several of the postcards removed from the scrapbook pages revealed messages on the reverse sides, including cards from Tonio Selwart and Max Ewing. Other photographic images include: dancers of the Folies Bergères; Johnny Weismuller posing as Tarzan; a group of shots of men playing water polo; a large group of set and costume illustrations most likely by Pavel Tchelitchew; a portrait of Ambrose Vollard by Brassai; a portrait of a woman wearing a costume made of sealife, possibly after Dali; and one print that is annotated as being by Lynes,

The loose scrapbook leaves contain ten leaves of contact prints made by Lynes and/or PAJAMA (the name given to the collective of Paul Cadmus, Jared French and Margaret French). Most of these pages are labeled and seem to have been taken during the summer of 1941. They feature: Mrs. Lawrence Lowman and Lynes; Paul Cadmus, Lynes and Margaret French on Fire Island; Katharine Anne Porter in Saratoga Springs; Barbara and Lloyd Wescott; Jared French and Monroe Wheeler; Glenway Wescott; Adelaide Sparkman Lynes (Lynes' mother); and Somerset Maugham. The remaining loose pages feature a hodge-podge of images similar to the first two volumes. However, one other page was covered with photographic prints. This group has been identified as friends of Max Ewing posing in his apartment in front of his backdrop of Venice. [This "Carnival of Venice" motif is apparent in Ewing's own photograph albums which are also held by the Beinecke Library]. Among the noted names in this group are: Muriel Draper, Paul Robeson, and Lincoln Kirstein.

Series I, Scrapbooks , contains original leaves. Series II, Separated Items , contains items removed from deteriorating leaves for treatment and deacidification. The listing contains information, following the description, which records the original placement of each item in the volumes. SI indicates Scrapbook Volume I; SII - Scrapbook Volume II; SIII - Scrapbook Volume III. For example, the designation "SII-13" means the item originally was attached to page 13 of Scrapbook Volume II. In cases where multiple items were removed from the same page, they have been further annotated with letters to indicate their placement on the original page (e.g. 13a, 13b, 13c, etc.)

Pagination in all three volumes was recorded using different methods due to inconsistent practice on the part of conservators, which was not discovered until all leaves had been deacidified and encapsulated. Volume I is numbered with a single number for each scrapbook leaf - the two sides referred to as "r" for recto and "v" for verso. Volume II is numbered with a single number for each discrete page, as in a printed book. The loose scrapbook leaves were not numbered at all, so page numbers were assigned by the archivist. Pages that were completely blank (with no evidence of having been used) were discarded, though they were counted in the original enumeration of the pages.