Quite some time ago–years, in fact–I came across an image in a folder called “Temporary Sculpture.” Pretty striking, isn’t it?

The reverse side gives us the titles of the sculptures. From foreground to back they are Spitball, Marriage, and The Snake is Out. This is plenty to go on and it was easy to figure out that they were the work of an artist named Tony Smith. Dating it proved harder. In fact, I quickly got bored and stopped trying. (I’m busy!)

Then today I noticed that a patron was working with the papers of art professor Bill Camfield and it occurred to me that it might not be a total waste of time to have a look there myself. First I asked one of  my colleagues to send off to the Library Service Center for a couple of likely boxes — but it turned out that the Camfield Papers are on-site in Fondren! (As they should be, I’d like to point out.) Sometimes you just get lucky and when you do, roll with it. I wasn’t even surprised when the first thing I put my hand on was this card:

And on the back, my answer. It was 49 years ago:

Bonus: Thank you! I am truly humbled.