Romana Javitz papers

1923-1980

Romana Javitz was born in Russia in 1903. She immigrated with her parents, Elias and Malvine, to the United States in 1906. The family settled in New York City, where her mother worked as a hat milliner, and her father as an importer of fine and rare woods.

While studying painting at the Art Student's League, Javitz began working part-time at the New York Public Library. She worked first in the Children's Room (1919) and later in the Picture Collection (1924). During 1925-1926, Javitz traveled throughout Europe to study the organization and content of documentary pictorial collections. Upon her return to the United States, Javitz resumed work at the NYPL Picture Collection. In 1929 the first chief of this department, Ellen Perkins, retired, and Javitz was appointed her successor.

Javitz was very concerned with access to the collection, and she introduced important innovations in its arrangement and description. In 1931, she overcame the language barrier by instituting a policy requiring the public to record their requests for pictures by describing, or drawing, them on a call slip. In 1934, Javitz devised an improved system of subject access. During the 1930s-1940s, Javitz hired artists who identified, clipped and prepared new images for the collection, and streamlined circulation procedures. Also during Javitz's tenure several major acquisitions helped to build the Picture Collection into a world-class image resource.

Her achievements outside of the NYPL included her work on the Index of American Design, the first comprehensive documentation of American decorative arts. For this she was awarded in 1967 the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Javitz took her mandatory retirement from The New York Public Library in 1968. Until her death in 1980, she continued to contribute ideas to the staff of the Picture Collection.