Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Poetry

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Poetry
Creators:
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
Dates:
circa 1787-1938
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.55 Cubic feet
consisting of 1 box, 2 folders, 3 oversize folders.
Repository:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Poetry forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This subject category- Poetry consists of poems in various forms. The poems are handwritten, typed, and published and are in volumes and single sheets. The poems cover a diverse range of topics and are dated between the eighteenth and the twentieth century, with many undated. The poems in this category are by amateurs and other lesser known authors; poems by well known authors are located in the Poets subject category.
Individual Poems contains individual poems written on sheets of paper and not located in volumes. The poems are handwritten, typed, and published; some of the published poems appear to have been removed from books. A number of poems in this collection were published by the San Francisco News Company and Bell & Company on individual sheets. A few of the poems are illustrated, particularly those under the category humor. Of particular note in the humor category are two poems written in a dialect meant to mimic southern African Americans on the topics of Dixieland and an escaped slave, both of which are illustrated in color. Other manuscript poems are less well polished but reflect the author's feelings, such as an undated poem written on the death of a daughter. Most of the poems do not have any location attached to them though some are signed. The poems are arranged by subject.
Volumes of Poetry consist of poems that have been gathered together in volumes both published and handwritten. Three of the volumes are autograph books and contain a collection of poems written by the owner's friends to her. Other volumes of note are Family Guide which contains poems mixed with advertisements for various products, and the untitled manuscript volume which contains a collection of poems by various authors mostly on the topic of death. The volumes are arranged chronologically with undated volumes in the back arranged by author name.
Newspaper Poems and Clippings consists of poems and other newspaper articles. The items are all undated, and most have no geographical location attached to them. The items are arranged in the collector's original order in oversized plastic sheets.

Administration

Author
Vanessa Broussard-Simmons and Nicole Blechynden
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Poetry is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Processing Information
In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections. A large portion of stored material from the original acquisition received minimal level processing, which resulted in additions to this Subject category. This effort included basic arrangement and replacement of non-archival housing for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed. Revisions to the encoded finding aid were made to reflect the added content in context to the previously processed material.
Minimal level processing and enhancement of the machine-readable finding aid completed by Nicole Blechynden, September 2017.

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation note
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Poetry, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Conditions Governing Access note
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Conditions Governing Use note
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Materials in the Archives Center

Materials in the Archives Center
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)

Forms Part Of


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Business ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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