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CCNY is delighted to officially welcome Dr. James Wechsler to the CCNY Libraries team! James joins us as a Reference and Inter-Library Loan Librarian. Through these positions he will be helping students develop research skills as well as facilitating broad access to information among cooperating institutions. Additionally, he is excited to share with the college community his expertise on early 20th-century art and revolutionary political activism.
James comes to us with a fascinating background in Art and Art History. His academic interests are in early 20th century political "revolutionary" art made outside of Soviet Russia, specifically art that was intended to instigate revolution. After years of primary research with archives, special collections, government documents, and sources from across traditional disciplines, he began contributing to an ever-growing body of literature that fills the gaps and addresses the Cold War’s effect on the discipline of history. James has recently published an essay for the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945 exhibition catalog (learn more about the exhibit here). It is his first publication since completing his Master of Library and Information Science degree and joining CCNY.
James’ biggest interest is making art (painting, drawing, printmaking), and he made a series based on censored documents from the FBI's cold war era files on artists, writers, performers. His work was featured on the cover of William Maxwell's recent book on FBI surveillance of black writers, F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover's Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature.
CCNY will benefit from his knowledge of art and his plans to manage the school's art collection, including his favorite piece, Charles Henry Alston's Our Constitution, which is on view in the Aronow Theatre Lobby in the NAC building.
If you’d like to get in touch with James with research questions, you can contact him at jwechsler1@ccny.cuny.edu.
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