Tony Bannon's 16 years: Part 2

We are celebrating Tony Bannon's final weeks as director with a look at 16 successes over his 16 years. Today we share three more ... 4) Library Collection Rachel Stuhlman, Librarian and Curator of Rare Books for The Richard and Ronay Menschel Library:

There’s never been a dull moment since Tony arrived. He is so full of vitality and ideas. Combine the concepts “pragmatic” with “Utopian” and there you have Tony. Under Tony’s leadership the library collection has grown by several thousand volumes. All healthy growing libraries eventually outgrow their space, and our biggest challenge has been realizing a major vault expansion, now under construction. In 2007, the Eastman House and Steidl co-published a critically acclaimed book about the library collection from the pre-history of photography to the advent of Modernism, entitled Imagining Paradise,which is now a standard reference book on the photographic literature of the 19th century.

5) Motion Picture Acquisitions and Preservation Ed Stratmann, associate curator of motion pictures Significant collections have been acquired into the motion picture collection in the last 16 years, including the Technicolor corporate archive, the archive of Merchant Ivory Productions, and continued deposits by filmmakers such Martin Scorsese, Ken Burns, Spike Lee, and Kathryn Bigelow. Key restoration projects during Tony's tenure include the films Lost World, Big Parade, Ten Commandments, Sherlock Holmes, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, and Huckleberry Finn. Eastman House continues to be a world-leader in preservation and a respected leader and partner in the field.   6) Digitization of Collections Roger Bruce, Director of Interpretation (retired) Together Tony and I introduced a digital awareness among trustees and staff, to share our collection with the world. To date Eastman House has digitized close to half of its collection of photographs and was at the forefront of this effort among museums. Today Eastman House partners with Orange Logic to license collection images, has a strong presence on Flickr’s “The Commons” and is building a solid platform for the management of the Museum’s digital assets. In the early days these initiatives were often foundational, requiring a vision for the long-game and a constancy for which I will always be grateful.   Yesterday we kicked off our week-long block with a look at our graduate programs, all started under Tony's leadership: http://blog.eastmanhouse.org/2012/04/23/to-celebrate-tony-bannons-tenure-we-share-16-museum-successes-over-his-16-years/ Learn more about Tony's farewell gala: http://shop.eastmanhouse.org/technicolor-philanthrophist.html