Published 17/02/2022
Today North Wind Picture Archives is proud to be added to Bridgeman's distinguished array of image libraries, ensuring that the artwork will continue to have a place in publications, museums, broadcasts, and new media yet to be created.
North Wind Picture Archives began in 1985 as a collection of old books full of illustrations in the form of black-and-white woodcuts and engravings. Leaving her job as a Boston book editor in favour of raising her newborn daughter, Nancy Carter felt that publishers needed a source of historical pictures that didn't charge a research fee. She began her new venture by organizing the antique images into subject files. After mailing an announcement of services to all US publishers, requests for topics poured in.
It was soon clear that the core market for historical images was schoolbook publishing, especially elementary school texts--and kids like colour. Luckily, Nancy met a retired print colourist, a woman who had learned hand-colouring in her father's Boston print shop. She was brilliant, and she was happy to pass along the dying art of hand-colouring to Nancy.
The hand-coloured print became North Wind's signature image. Nancy Carter's degree in history was earned when the subject was almost exclusively about famous men engaged in military or political events: lists of kings, tsars, presidents; dates of wars. Since third- graders aren't greatly engaged by formal paintings of white-wigged worthies, North Wind expanded the historical subjects available in colour--pioneers shivering in the cold, women cradling children while stirring a kettle over a fire, slaves cutting sugarcane, refugees fleeing armies, serfs pulling thatch from their homes to feed their starving horse and cow, the joy of a soldier reuniting with his family after surviving a war. In this way North Wind became known not only for adding colour, but for adding topics.
In addition to hand-coloring over 10,000 pictures, Nancy took up photography and documented what can still be found of the past--archaeological ruins, restored blockhouses and forts, wild foods, tall-grass prairies, reenactments. She followed Lewis and Clark's expedition with a published copy of Clark's diary in hand to find the rivers they named, mountains they first recorded. Traveling also added information useful in colouring--what colour the soil is in the US South (usually red), or what traditional Native American dwellings were made of (such as buffalo hide or adobe brick).
"I love telling the story of ordinary people," Nancy says. "It is important to convey the dignity of everyone, no matter their circumstances, as well as to show that people have always felt discouraged, proud, devout, or worried; they've protected their homes from threats, loved their children, nursed their elders, argued with neighbours. The past has featured injustice and justice, cruelty and kindness, resistance to change and inventiveness."
Historical accuracy is also important. True to her academic background, Nancy kept a record of the source of every picture. The colours used are also subject to scrutiny. "We try to track down military uniform colours, and I have an encyclopedia of national flags reaching back to the Middle Ages. But we also want to show that ordinary people were not fashionistas--women in log cabins or slave quarters probably didn't wear matching outfits."
Sometimes the illustration is inaccurate, but the picture itself is a record of how history was seen at the time--so there are stereotypical portrayals of ethnic groups, for instance. "Captioning is important, and we mostly stick with information in the original caption rather than editorialise. However, language changes, and we substitute 'African- American' or 'Black' for 'coloured' and other alterations to avoid disrespect or misunderstanding." Geography is a problem, as many modern countries had different names and borders in the past. "Africa was largely divided by colonial powers in our historical record," says Nancy, "and it sometimes is impossible to determine the location of a scene, so I don't speculate beyond the original caption, which may read 'Congo village.'
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