The research of the prints first began when Heather Carroll MLIS ‘18 approached Christina M. Spiker about a series of prints that she discovered while working in St. Catherine University’s Archives & Special Collections. While not much is known about the provenance of the prints, they coincided with Dr. Spiker’s interest and training in Japanese art and visual culture of the Meiji period.  After some preliminary investigation from 2016 - 2018, undergraduate student MaryJane (MJ) Eischen was brought on board in Fall 2018 through the Assistant Mentorship Program (AMP) at St. Kate's to assist with the initial research and archiving of the print collection. MJ has a unique set of skills as a Studio Art major with double concentrations in Photography and Graphic Design and double minors in Art History and Digital Humanities. In 2018 -2019, Dr. Spiker was awarded an Arts & Humanities Creative Project Grant through the Academic Professional Development Committee at St. Catherine University to create an exhibition showcasing the print collection. Through the grant, undergraduate student Nicole Wallin, a strong writer with an English major and Studio Art and TESOL minors joined the team in Spring 2019. The exhibition Nostalgic Femininity: Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Special Collections & Archives opened in the Catherine G. Murphy Galley on April 13th, 2019 alongside a complimentary show, From Flowers to Warriors, in the St. Catherine University Library.

This digital project led by MaryJane Eischen began in Fall 2018, and consisted of 3 phases. The first phase was digitizing the prints. MJ photographed them using a Canon 50D, while using the lighting facilities in the Art and Art History Department. The next phase of the project was creating an accession sheet and creating metadata for the prints. Dr. Spiker conducted most of the research and identified the metadata in this phase. Lastly, The prints and their data were uploaded to Scalar by MJ, biographies were written by Nicole, and site construction began. The result of this effort is what you see before you

If you wish to view our entire print collection, please click here. Otherwise, you can continue through our digital book by clicking the blue button below.