Credit Line, Please
Menzies' Many Stamps
. . . here is a Betty Menzies photograph, which, like the legendary speaker, needs no introduction.
The source of this exhibit's title is one of the stamps Menzies used to credit her prints, as many photographers have. Above are images of some of the stamps Menzies used over time. While a credit line might seem like a basic acknowledgement, the Princeton Alumni Weekly did not always print photo credits in the late 1930s, when Menzies' work started to appear there. Beginning in the late 1940s, the stamps on the back of her photographs note that a credit line would be "appreciated." Menzies' stamps slowly progressed from a polite demand in the early 1950s ("Credit Line, Please") to a firm expectation by the mid-1960s ("This Photo is Sold for One-Time Use WITH CREDIT LINE"). To this exhibition's curators, the stamps indicate that Menzies was able to advocate increasingly for herself and her work.