The papers of Boston and New Hampshire painter Joseph Lindon Smith date from 1647-1965, with the bulk of papers dating from 1873-1965, and measure 8.8 linear feet. Found within the papers are biographical materials; letters from family members, artists, museums, and art patrons; seven diaries by Smith and two by his wife Corinna, personal business records, notes and writings, files concerning charitable theatrical productions, one sketchbook and other art work, a scrapbook, printed material, photographs, and sound recordings of radio interviews and a radio program on Smith.

This accession consists of publications published by the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and written by its staff. Publications include "Mr. Whistler's Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition," by Kenneth Myers; "ARS Orientalis;" "Sevruguin and the Persian Image: Photographs of Iran, 1870-1930," edited by Frederick Nathaniel...

Postcards of Lower and Upper Egypt published in the first decade of the 20th century. The majority of the postcards are unused, but some of them had been posted between 1900 and 1906.

Photographs and film taken by Edwin Converse Higbee during his trip from Capetown to Cairo in 1929 aboard the S.S. Corinthia. The trip was sponsored by the Raymond & Whitcomb Co., a travel service based in Boston, Massachusetts, and promoted as a Round Africa Cruise. Images reflect a variety of people, countryside and architecture.

Photographs taken and lantern slides collected by Andrew and Martha Ruch to document their experiences as missionaries in Africa during the 1920s. The photographs document Andrew and Martha Ruch's missionary work and their activities among the Kikuyu people. Places shown include Cairo, Egypt; the Mediterranean Sea; a beach in Mombasa, Kenya; Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania; Port Said, Egypt and the Suez Canal. Activities depicted include building houses, carrying loads such as grass (for thatching), luggage, water and wood; cooking; drying skins; grinding millet; pounding sugar cane and selling items from boats to ship passagers. Ceremonies included are baptisms and church ceremonies. Portraits of people include Christian converts; chiefs, children; families; Muhia, Ruchs' assistant; the Ruches; and warriors. Many of the portraits document African clothing, ornaments, scarification and weapons. Architectural images include building materials, grain bins, houses (including Ruch's home), mosques, museums in Cairo, pyramids, railroads, temples in Egypt and villages. Boats, motorcycles and ships are also pictured. Nature scenes of landscapes and animals vary greatly and include mountains, trails, rivers, vegetation, waterfalls as well as birds, camels, cattle, donkeys, lizards and a lion.

The photographs are cityscapes and landscapes taken by Burton E. Ashley in Egypt, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia during the early 1930s and early 1950s. The images include views of Cape Town, South Africa; Cairo, Egypt; Port Said, Egypt, and Mozambique. Architecture depicted includes buildings in Tanzania, a mission in Zambia and the Mohammed Ali Mosque in Cairo. Additionally, there are images of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and rivers and waterfalls including the Luangwa, Nile, Zambezi and Victoria Falls. The collection also includes photos of animals, geological features and vegetation.

Postcards collected by Leo Frobenius (1873-1938), who was an eminent German ethnographer, scholar and writer. He founded the Frobenius-Institut in Frankfurt, which exists to this day. It is likely that he collected them during his 1926 expedition to explore rock painting in the Nubian desert, which took him to Upper Egypt and to the Sudan. Another possibility is that he collected the cards on one of his later expeditions to North Africa or even purchased them in Europe. Eleven postcards belong to a series published by G.N. Morhig, the English Pharmacy in Khartoum, a town Frobenius must have visited during his 1926 expedition. They depict peoples in the Sudan (Nubians, Arab, Shilluk, Tonga, Bari and Jur) and their various dress and adornment. Two photographic postcards by M. Venieris depict a dance, and, Ab del gadir-Wad Halomia, "the rebel of April 1908," clearly is republished from an earlier image. The remaining postcards are part of the typical Orientalist depictions of women and children. J. Geiser of Aligiers is one of the publishers.

Photographs taken by Frank and Georgette Ballance during their travels through Tanzania, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco during the early 1970s.

Photographs taken by Guy Ederheimer from 1930 to 1931 in Egypt and South Africa. Images taken in South Africa are portraits and include a Zulu wedding dance. Pictured are the best man, the bride, dancers, mothers with their children. The Egyptian images show Cairo and the Nile River.

Picture postcards collected by Stephen Grant, Education Official, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), while serving in Africa.