NMSU Library Announces Mechanic Arts Photo Exhibit
Date: October 11, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The New Mexico State University Library announces a new photographic exhibit, “The Mechanic Arts.” The free public exhibit will run from October 24 to February 15 in the Milton Gallery on the fourth floor of NMSU’s Branson Library.
Man at Forge
The exhibit, organized by University Archivist Martha Shipman Andrews, commemorates the 2012 sesquicentennial of the passage of the first Morrill Act, creating the land-grant institutions of higher education.
Andrews said that the bill, introduced by Representative Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont, called for the creation of agricultural colleges that taught military tactics and the “Mechanic Arts,” an archaic term for engineering that was incorporated into the names of many of the institutions it made possible, including the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (later New Mexico State University). In honor of the Morrill Act, sixteen fine examples of these “Mechanic Arts” will be on display.
During the Industrial Revolution, photographers first discovered the almost accidental beauty of mechanical forms frozen in time—what could be called the art of mechanics. The engineering photograph collection held by the Hobson-Huntsinger University Archives contains many early twentieth century photographs unexpectedly capturing this beauty of form and structure.
For more information, contact Andrews at (575) 646-5028 or email mandrews@lib.nmsu.edu.
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