Images and Image Collections

Virginia Thoren Collection Online

Virgnia Thoren graduated from Pratt Institute in 1942 with a degree in Advertising and Design.  She went on to work as a couture photographer for such magazines as Vogue and Town and Country.  The Virginia Thoren Collection was curated Thoren's close friend by Betty Guernsey and donated to the Pratt Institute Libraries in 2007. It consists of professional and personal shots of top models, photographs of friends and society people, landscape photographs, scrapbooks, and other personal items.

The collection is housed in the Brooklyn Campus of the Pratt Institute Libraries and managed by the Digital and Special Collections Department.  For more information about the collection, please contact image.library@pratt.edu.

Image Credit: Virginia on Assignment with Camera,c. 1955. © Virginia Thoren Collection, Pratt Institute Libraries

Industrial Design Department Student Work Collection

Pratt's Industrial Design Department and the Pratt Institute Libraries are collaborating on making available outstanding examples of student work for the research and study purposes of Pratt faculty, staff, and students through Artstor.  

Fashion Plate Collection Online

The Fashion Plate Collection consists of hand-colored fashion plates from the French periodical La Gazette du Bon Ton (considered the most influential fashion magazine during its existence from 1912 to 1925) and its American edition, La Gazette du Bon Genre. The plates in Pratt's collection date from 1914 to 1922, were created by such prominent French artists as George Barbier, Pierre Brissaud, and Georges Lepape, and anticipate the Art Deco movement of the mid-1920s. 

For inquiries regarding permissions and use fees, please contact: rightsandrepro.library@pratt.edu.

Image Credit:  Indoor dress in white and grey: Planche III (3) in Gazette du Bon Ton, No. 12. Signed in lower left, "Strimpl - 1912. Pratt Institute Libraries, Special Collections.

Ex Libris Collection Online

The Ex Libris Collection consists of nineteenth- and twentieth-century bookplates from private and institutional libraries.  Little is known about the history of the collection, but according to an entry in the Report of the Pratt Institute Free Library from June 30, 1918, the decision to being collecting and exchanging bookplates began in 1918 and likely continued through the 1930s, though there is no record of when the library ceased building the collection. The plates feature finely detailed engraving and etching, and serve as outstanding examples of period book art and typography. Represented in the collection are prominent American bookplate artists such as William Fowler Hopson and Joseph Winfred Spenceley, as well as important Dutch, English, German, Hungarian, Swedish, and Spanish artists.

The physical collection is currently housed in the library's Special Collections and may be viewed by contacting speccoll.library@pratt.edu to make an appointment.

For inquiries regarding permissions and use fees, please contact: rightsandrepro.library@pratt.edu:.

Image Credit: Bookplate of Esto Vigilans by F. Francini, 1935. Pratt Institute Libraries, Special Collections.

Naomi Leff graduated from Pratt Institute in 1973 with a degree in Enivornmental and Interior Design.  She launched her own company in 1980 and had her major career-making moment in 1982 when she began working with Ralph Lauren on his Ralph Lauren Home Collection.  Her office was very successful, and she worked on numerous retail, residential, and office projects, often for celebrities and other notable figures.  The collection is comprised of the image records created in the day-to-day operation of her office and consists of over 9,000 images in a variety of formats.  The collection is housed in the Brooklyn Campus of the Pratt Insistute Libraries and managed by the Visual Resources Center.  For more information about the collection, please contact image.library@pratt.edu.

Image Credit: Concept Board for Armani Jeans. Naomi Leff Collection, Pratt Institute Libraries. © Pratt Institute Libraries