In its 59 years, TIME has made no secret of the care and attention it gives to the cover art that announces each issue. And to share the genuine pride it feels about the quality of its covers, the magazine has made these original works of art available for loan or exhibit. Judging by their responses. TIME's readers have been appreciative of the astonishing variety of styles and mediums--painting, drawing, sculpture, print, collage, needlepoint, photography--used by the artists who have contributed to the magazine's 3,092 issues. Last week the curtain went up on a new show of 104 TIME covers at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, on the distinguished occasion of the city's tercentenary. Developed by TIME's promotion department, under the direction of Nancy Megan, the show honors newsmakers who have lived and worked in Pennsylvania. The job of assembling, measuring, framing, cataloguing, shipping and overseeing the mounting of all this art went to the acknowledged curator of TIME's art collection, Covers Researcher Rosemary L. Frank. "This was an especially difficult job," says Frank, "because the show ranged over such a span of years. In the old days, TIME often gave the cover portrait to the subject, or let the artist keep it. We had to locate and borrow back many covers, such as Roy Campanella's and Shirley Booth's. It added up to quite a search mission."

Frank's encyclopedic knowledge of covers and cover artists derives from 35 years of experience. She started at TIME as a picture researcher and in 1965 began helping the editors commission cover art. She also assisted in selecting and updating the collection of covers exhibited between 1964 and 1972 at art museums around the country. In 1976, when the U.S. Information Agency requested TIME covers for an exhibition tour, she provided them.

Frank's biggest challenge came in 1978, when TIME agreed to donate its collection of cover art--nearly 900 works--to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. "It fell to me to inventory everything," says Frank. "Some early covers turned up in the archives, some in our picture collection. Many were decorating office walls, and some 'owners' were reluctant to part with them." Says Megan: "Exhibits of TIME art reach the public in the best possible way. It is precisely the perfectionism of Rosemary Frank that makes our exhibits so effective."

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