As a receptionist in a dentist's office I know that people are often anxious when they come in for a visit, so during the holidays I go all out to decorate the waiting room. I love to see the expression on their faces when they check out our Christmas tree., from the series "Working"

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Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. For…
As a receptionist in a dentist's office I know that people are often anxious when they come in for a visit, so during the holidays I go all out to decorate the waiting room. I love to see the expression on their faces when they check out our Christmas tree., from the series "Working"
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. For educational purposes only.
Artist/Maker (American, born 1938)
Date1975 (printed later)
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 6 1/4 × 7 15/16 in. (15.9 × 20.2 cm) Sheet: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of Thomas J. Wilson and Jill M. Garling, P2016
Object number2019.18.63
Not on view

Additional Details

Provenance 2019: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by gift of Thomas J. Wilson and Jill M. Garling.
Markings Stamp: "© BILL OWENS / EXTRA BOOK PRIN[T]" on verso at lower right corner in black ink.
Published References Illustrated in Bill Owens, Working (New York: fotofolio, 2008), 35.
Signature Signed on verso in pencil.
Inscribed "1008M" on verso upper left corner in pencil;
"2000" on verso upper left corner in pencil;
"W151" on verso lower right corner in pencil.

White piece of paper included with image (typed, black ink): "As a receptionist in a dentist's office I know that people are often anxious when they / come in for a visit, so during the holidays I go all out and decorate the waiting room. I love / to see the expression on their faces when they chack out our Christmas tree. 1975 / Frome the "Working" series"
Police check out reported crooks in office building at night, New York City
Police check out reported crooks in office building at night, New York City
Leonard Freed
Date: 1978
Medium: Vintage gelatin silver print
Object number: 2023.12.153
'Out, Damned Spot! Out, I Say!': Shakespeare, from "Harper's Weekly"
'Out, Damned Spot! Out, I Say!': Shakespeare, from "Harper's Weekly"
Thomas Nast
Date: published November 9, 1872
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.211
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Photo by B…
The last thing I did before leaving for San Francisco after my dad died was watch fireworks explode over the St. Louis arch on the Fourth of July. Two days later I crested a hill on Route 80 and saw the expanse of San Francisco Bay for the first time. It was so beautiful I cried. St. Louis, Missouri, from the series "Leisure"
Bill Owens
Date: 1976 (printed later)
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2018.12.93
The Eagle Squares is one of 100 clubs in the Northern California Square Dancing Association. We called our group Eagle Squares because we used to dance in the Eagles Hall. My wife and I started when some neighbors talked us into taking a beginning square dance class. We found dancing to be good clean fun, something we could do together with little expense involved. Livermore, California.
The Eagle Squares is one of 100 clubs in the Northern California Square Dancing Association. We called our group Eagle Squares because we used to dance in the Eagles Hall. My wife and I started when some neighbors talked us into taking a beginning square dance class. We found dancing to be good clean fun, something we could do together with little expense involved. Livermore, California.
Bill Owens
Date: 1974
Medium: Gelatin silver print, printed later
Object number: 2023.12.66
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Photo by B…
As long as I can work here I will. It's better than housework. Cauliflower packing is hard work but I don't even think about it. My hands go through the motions, my mind's somewhere else. The season lasts six months, then I pack tomatoes and collect unemployment for the rest of the year., from the series "Working"
Bill Owens
Date: 1975 (printed later)
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2018.12.84
I've taught several of the Red Cross Child Education courses. They are open to the general public and they are free. It takes courage for people to say I don't know how to take care of a new born infant. In six lessons, I teach them about pregnancy, labor, delivery, nutrition of the mother and newborn, the first week of life, and growth and development in the first year. Most people leave the course with confidence to become effective parents. Tri-Valley Area, Northern California,
I've taught several of the Red Cross Child Education courses. They are open to the general public and they are free. It takes courage for people to say I don't know how to take care of a new born infant. In six lessons, I teach them about pregnancy, labor, delivery, nutrition of the mother and newborn, the first week of life, and growth and development in the first year. Most people leave the course with confidence to become effective parents. Tri-Valley Area, Northern California,
Bill Owens
Date: 1969-75
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2018.12.88
"Alas Poor Roerich - I Know Him Well"
"Alas Poor Roerich - I Know Him Well"
Howard Warshaw
Date: 1961
Medium: Ink and watercolor on paper
Object number: 1996.15.23
The Modern Mazeppa: 'What I Know about the Road from Cincinnati To...', from "Harper's Weekly"
The Modern Mazeppa: 'What I Know about the Road from Cincinnati To...', from "Harper's Weekly"
Thomas Nast
Date: published June 1, 1872
Medium: Wood engraving on newsprint
Object number: 2019.13.187
Photo from inside ante-room of Mayor Richard J. Daley's office shows entrance of Congress of Racial Equality demonstrators being barred by police. Garrick Madison (white shirt) 18, spokesman for the group, talks with Col. Jack Reilly (white hair), the mayor's director of special events, who eventually allowed Madison and four other representatives of CORE to enter the suite for an interview with Daley. Daley later told reporters: "They asked for my co-operation with regarding the Board of Education, and I told them it is not my policy to interfere with the Board of Education." Reporters and city hall workers are amidst CORE group outside office, Chicago.
Photo from inside ante-room of Mayor Richard J. Daley's office shows entrance of Congress of Racial Equality demonstrators being barred by police. Garrick Madison (white shirt) 18, spokesman for the group, talks with Col. Jack Reilly (white hair), the mayor's director of special events, who eventually allowed Madison and four other representatives of CORE to enter the suite for an interview with Daley. Daley later told reporters: "They asked for my co-operation with regarding the Board of Education, and I told them it is not my policy to interfere with the Board of Education." Reporters and city hall workers are amidst CORE group outside office, Chicago.
Date: July 22, 1963
Medium: Vintage Associated Press wirephoto
Object number: 2022.15.282
Meals are Good Medicine: man raises himself up on his bed in "Home for the Dying Destitute" in downtown Calcutta, India. Food is so rare in famine-struck India that some patients recover just through regular eating and leave the home, started 5 years ago when government gave Catholic nun an old Hindu pilgrim's hostel
Meals are Good Medicine: man raises himself up on his bed in "Home for the Dying Destitute" in downtown Calcutta, India. Food is so rare in famine-struck India that some patients recover just through regular eating and leave the home, started 5 years ago when government gave Catholic nun an old Hindu pilgrim's hostel
Horst Faas
Date: 1967
Medium: Vintage Associated Press wirephoto
Object number: 2023.12.198
Antonio Ordóñez getting ready to go out to fight a bullfight, Pamplona, Spain
Antonio Ordóñez getting ready to go out to fight a bullfight, Pamplona, Spain
Inge Morath
Date: 1954
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Object number: 2021.12.229
The parish priest Ramonet: "I left for the Ile de Sein with a book on Gurdjieff that was supposed to get me back into shape. I barely looked at it. Thanks to Felix Guilcher, a real, lyrical and discreet hero, a rare friend discovered over there, to a Parish Priest, and to all the islanders, more islander than Breton, I soon felt quite at home, something quite unexpected, indeed inconceivable. Happy and calm, I was protected from the distant continent by a superb and pitiless sea. On Sein, I finally told myself "they'll never get me!". I'll never be able to repay my debt to the Sein Islanders for what they gave me
The parish priest Ramonet: "I left for the Ile de Sein with a book on Gurdjieff that was supposed to get me back into shape. I barely looked at it. Thanks to Felix Guilcher, a real, lyrical and discreet hero, a rare friend discovered over there, to a Parish Priest, and to all the islanders, more islander than Breton, I soon felt quite at home, something quite unexpected, indeed inconceivable. Happy and calm, I was protected from the distant continent by a superb and pitiless sea. On Sein, I finally told myself "they'll never get me!". I'll never be able to repay my debt to the Sein Islanders for what they gave me
Jean-Philippe Charbonnier
Date: 1956
Medium: Vintage gelatin silver print
Object number: 2022.15.197