The Smithsonian Videohistory Program, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation from 1986 until 1992, used video in historical research. Additional collections have been added since the grant project ended. Videohistory uses the video camera as a historical research tool to record moving visual information. Video works best in historical r...

Shopping bags from a variety of businesses, including department stores, museums, book stores, libraries, hotels, banks, and specialty shops. Additional material will be added to this collection periodically.

Major General Frank Purdy Lahm (1877-1963) was the first balloon pilot, the first airship pilot, and the first airplane pilot in the US Army. Like his father, Frank Samuel Lahm, his early interest was in ballooning, and in 1906 he won the James Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race. In 1909 Lahm and Lt. Frederick E. Humphreys were trained by Orville and Wilbur Wright to fly the first plane the US Army purchased from the Wrights. In 1912 he was made commanding officer of the US Army Flying School in the Philippines, and during World War I he was commander of the Second Army Air Service. Following the war Lahm founded the Air Corps Training Center at Randolph Field, a source of great pride to him, but was reassigned in 1931 as air attaché and later military attaché to France and Belgium. When Lahm retired from the military in 1941 he had distinguished himself as recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal and the French Legion of Honor. This collection consists of photographs and news clippings detailing Lahm's military career and his personal life.

This record unit consists of project files documenting the repairs, improvement, and renovation of existing Smithsonian buildings. The records include memoranda with Smithsonian offices, correspondence with contractors, blueprints, cost analyses, specifications, and photographs. Buildings and museums documented in this collection include: the...

These records document the conceptualization, development, design, and execution of several exhibitions held by the Cooper-Hewitt Museum from 1973 through 1992, and of exhibitions rejected or cancelled by the museum. Exhibition files include proposals; research files; correspondence with object lenders, scholars, and exhibition designers; ...

The collection measures 10.3 linear feet, dates from 1890 to 1959, and documents the career of early twentieth century sculptor Adolph A. Weinman. Found within the papers are scattered biographical materials; project files for Weinman's sculpture and commissions; correspondence with colleagues, friends and family, and letterpress books containing copies of letters concerning specific sculpture commissions; files concerning Weinman's membership in the National Sculpture Society and the National Academy of Design; records concerning works of art held by dealers and in exhibitions and other miscellaneous financial materials; notes and a notebook; writings and speeches by Weinman; sketches and sketchbooks; printed materials; photographs and glass negatives. This material not only reflects the diversity of projects executed by this prolific sculptor, but illustrates the process of creation for many of his more important works.

Photographs made by Herman J. Viola, depicting the 1973 Institute of American Indian Art meeting, Wolf Robe Hunt and his Acoma pottery, the transfer of Blue Eagle collection from Mae Abbott home to National Anthropological archives, and the 1974 Star Hawk Pow Wow in Watonga, Oklahoma. Additionally, there are photographs of NAA staff and the 1974 A...

The Archival collections of the National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni (NACCCA) donated in 2006. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), created as part of the New Deal legislation initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, was a public work relief program for unemployed men designed to reduce high unemployment during the Great Depression. The CCC carried out a broad natural resource conservation program on national, state, and municipal lands from 1933 to 1942. This collection contains papers, photographs, and ephemera collected and created by alumni of the CCC and donated to the NACCCA archives.

The scattered papers of African-American and Harlem Renaissance painter, muralist, illustrator, sculptor, and educator Charles Henry Alston measure 0.9 linear feet and date from 1924-1980. Included are biographical materials, correspondence, commission and teaching files, writings and notes, printed materials, and photographs. Notable correspondents include Romare Bearden, Byron Browne, Jacob Lawrence, and Hale Woodruff.

The collection consists of printed materials, including programs, press kits, prints, slides and posters from various award presentations given by the syndicated television program Soul Train from 1987 to 2004. These include the Soul Train Music Awards, Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, Soul Train Comedy Awards, and Soul Train Divas and Kings.