A Budding Friendship

By Dr. Colleen Yarger, George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. Curator of Library Collections Currently on view until September 13, in the Library’s Forrest E. Mars, Sr. Exhibit Hall, is Drawn to Nature: 300 Years of Natural History Illustration. This exhibit provides a primer on the advancements in Natural History—the study of nature—and how that information was […]

Maria Martin: Illustrator Extraordinaire

To absolutely toot our own horn, Intrepid Audubon: The Birds of America, in partnership with the Oak Spring Garden Foundation (OSGF), and its complementary exhibition in the Forrest E. Mars, Sr. Exhibit Hall, Drawn to Nature: 300 Years of Natural History Illustration, is pretty darn good. Decorating the colorful walls of the Museum’s Gallery 1 […]

A Starting Point

By Dr. Colleen Yarger, George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. Curator of Library Collections This coming Sunday, March 23, 2025, the curtain closes on the National Sporting Library & Museum’s (NSLM) popular exhibition, Honoring the Point: The Gwynne McDevitt Sporting Dog Collection. Gwynne Garbisch McDevitt’s (1931–2022) transformative bequest of 86 works of art turned much of the […]

Can You Name Five Women Artists?

In 2016, the National Museum of Women in the Arts first launched its #5womenartists social media campaign to ask followers, “Can you name five women artists?” It was posted to bring attention to the under-representation of women in the arts. Since then, the National Sporting Library & Museum has continued to grow its fine art […]

The Elusive Danny McAuliffe

I am still knee-deep in the Judith & Jo Tartt, Jr. Photography Collection: sorting, organizing, unmatting, cataloguing, etc. Alas, a Collections Manager’s job is never done. It means, though, I have become very familiar with the photographs, and I have my favorites. This is one of them: The fellow is caked in mud and looks […]

Lovebirds: The Taxidermist and the Illustrator

By Dr. Colleen Yarger, George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. Curator of Library Collections As we countdown to Valentine’s Day, it seems timely to spotlight John and Elizabeth Gould, a pair of lovebirds, who left an indelible mark in 19th century ornithology (the science of birds). John, born in 1804, parlayed his youthful interest in the natural […]

Timeless: Jack Boul (1927–2024)

Washington, DC, artist Jack Boul, perhaps, will be most remembered for his pastoral landscape paintings of cows, but his subject matter was much more diverse over his long career. He was born in Brooklyn in 1927, grew up in the South Bronx, and met his wife Vivian of 72 years while working at the Jewish […]

A Tribute to Rodney Jenkins

by Dr. Colleen Yarger, George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. Curator of Library Collections The National Sporting Library & Museum (NSLM) was saddened to learn of the death of American show jumper and racehorse trainer Rodney Jenkins on December 5, 2024. Hailing from a Virginian equestrian family, Jenkins honed an innate talent for riding to become a […]

Pursuit! with Georgina Preston

By Dr. Colleen Yarger, George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. Curator of Library Collections This past Tuesday, October 15th, the National Sporting Library & Museum (NSLM) hosted a sold-out program featuring English fashion and documentary photographer Georgina Preston. The evening’s events revolved around Preston’s premier book, Pursuit! Having an author explain how and why a book comes […]

Hi-Yo, Silver!

At the end of my last blog, I teased more highlights from the Judith and Jo Tartt, Jr. Photography Collection. Whilst it is still my intention, something else grabbed my attention, and I went down a different rabbit hole. In Hollywood is for the Horses, I highlighted Silver from “The Lone Ranger” canon; the duo […]