2015, We Hardly Knew Ye

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"Les Voila," from our Costume Institute Fashion Plates collection

«Like the women in the fashion plate above, it's time to say goodbye (in our case, to 2015). But before we move on entirely, let us first look back on some of the highlights from the past year. Watson's online presence has continued to grow, and the "best of" lists below bring out some of our many successes of the year past.»

Top Instagram Posts

One exciting moment in 2015 was the launch of our Instagram account, which nearly 7,200 people have started following already (here's a blog post about @metlibrary). We try to highlight fun aspects of everything happening in Watson—from special collections to readers services, and from digitization to staff fashion. Below are the three posts our fans liked the most:

The most popular, which received 1,285 likes.

The second most popular, with 733 likes.

The third most popular, with 535 likes.

Top Blog Posts

From "The Fragility of Joints and Hinges," by Andrijana Sajic and Sophia Kramer

Last year we were able to publish one blog post a week for the entire year. Some proved more popular than others, but all were written and edited with equal thought and care. Here's a list of the five posts that generated the most traffic in 2015:

1. "The Fragility of Headcaps and the Safe Handling of Books," by Andrijana Sajic and Sophia Kramer (May 27)
2. "Cabinet Fever," by Dana Hart (November 18)
3. "Satyr Calisthenics and Other Oddities," by William Blueher (November 4)
4. "The Fragility of Joints and Hinges," by Andrijana Sajic and Sophia Kramer (August 12)
5. "A Winter Wonderland in Watson," by Andrea Puccio (December 23)

These were the most popular posts, but popularity isn't everything. We'd also like to recommend these three outstanding posts, all of which warrant a (re)read: Katharine J. Wright's "Art Everywhere: The Met's Little-Known Collection of Advertising Art"; Andrea Puccio's "Come See, Come Sew: Vintage Books on Handicrafts"; and Deborah Vincelli's "A Decorated City Restitched in Time."

Top MetPublications

Cover of Bridge of Dreams: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection of Japanese Art (2000)

Our Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications is always the most heavily used collection in our Digital Collections. In it, you can find (almost) every publication put out by the Met from its founding, in 1870, to the present. It is an invaluable resource, and we are thrilled that so many people are accessing it (there were nearly four hundred thousand pageviews last year alone). The five most viewed titles were:

1. Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomical Drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle (1983)
2. Prints and People: A Social History of Printed Pictures (1971)
3. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century (1979)
4. Vermeer and the Delft School (2001)
5. Bridge of Dreams: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection of Japanese Art (2000)

Top Fashion Plates

The Costume Institute Fashion Plates collection also receives a lot of traffic. Unlike the MetPublications collection, however, people aren't engaging as much with individual plates in the collection, but instead are browsing the collection by category. Here are the three most popular sets of plates from 2015:

The most popular: "Clans of the Scottish Highlanders."

The second most popular: "Children's Fashion."

The third most popular: "1920s Fashion."

Each passing year provides greater opportunities for online engagement, and we're excited to see what new digital realms we'll get to explore in the coming year.