This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.

The papers of painter and illustrator W. Langdon Kihn measure approximately 8.5 linear feet and date from 1904-1990, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1904-1957. Papers document Kihn's career and travels associated with his interests in documenting the native American tribal nations of the United States and Canada in portraiture and writings. Found here are biographical materials, voluminous correspondence, memoirs and writings, one travel diary, printed material, financial records, three sketchbooks, sketches, and photographs.

Photographs from various museums assembled by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) for use in the traveling exhibition entitled, "Art of Cameroon" (on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History from February 1, 1984-June 17, 1984). The exhibition was described on the Smithsonian website in these words: "On view are 153 objects, including figural sculptures, thrones, stools, elephant masks, bowls, baskets, calabashes (gourds), drinking horns, textiles, and more. Many objects are on loan from museums and collectors in the U.S., Europe, and Africa. "A crossroads for the migrations of many peoples, the diversity of Cameroon's population is reflected in the great variety and richness of art forms. Objects from the steppes and the forest are shown, but the primary focus of the exhibition is the art of the West African kingdoms of the Cameroon grassfields."

The collection comprises 2.3 feet of papers concerning George Catlin's creation and promotion of his famed "Indian Gallery" of paintings, drawings, and artifacts of North American Indians. Dating from 1821 through 1904, with one item dated 1946, the papers include letters, notebooks and journals, receipt books and loose receipts, printed materials, and other documentation. The bulk of the collection focuses on Catlin's efforts to promote the sale of his gallery to the United States government through tours, including London and Paris, and petitions to various governments to purchase the Gallery. Among the rare printed catalogs and petitions in the collection are exhibition catalogs for the U.S., London, and Paris tours, the earliest dating from 1837. Letters and other documents include letters dating from the 1830s from Henry Clay, Thomas Sully, and William Henry Seward commending Catlin's work, as well as Catlin family correspondence and papers dating from 1821 through the 1870s.

This accession consists of records related to the exhibition, Retratos: 2000 Years of Latin American Portraits. These materials were created and maintained by Carolyn Kinder Carr, Deputy Director and co-curator for the exhibition. Among Carr's co-curators were Marion Oettinger, Director and Senior Curator, San Antonio Museum of Art; Fatim...

The collected papers of Everett Shinn measure 3.1 linear feet and date from 1877 to 1958. Found within the papers are biographical material; correspondence with friends and colleagues; personal business records; art work, including two sketchbooks of designs for Belasco's Stuyvesant Theatre; notes and writings; eight scrapbooks; printed material; and numerous photographs of Shinn, his colleagues, and his work.

This small collection of scattered papers of painter and illustrator Charles E. Waltensperger measures 1.2 linear feet and dates from 1893-1931. Papers include biographical material, scattered correspondence between family members, sales records, engagement diaries, notes, sketches of the human form, printed material, and photographs of Waltensperger, his family, colleagues, and travel scenes.

The collection measures 45.7 linear feet and and documents the life of American abstract artist, writer, poet, and illustrator Charles Green Shaw. The papers date from 1833-1979 with the bulk of the material spanning 1909-1974 and a single item of ephemera dating from 1686. Records include biographical information and correspondence with family, colleagues and several artists and writers. The papers also contain writings and extensive diaries, sketchbooks and scrapbooks spanning Shaw's entire career, scattered financial records and other printed material.

The Richard J. Powell papers date from 1971 through 1992 and mostly concern Powell's research and writings on painter William H. Johnson. Found is correspondence with curators, scholors, arts administrators, and U.S., Danish, and Scandinavian museums and associations. The papers also include two of Powell's illustrated research and travel journals from 1984 and 1985, printed materials concerning the exhibition Powell curated in 1991 at the National Museum of American Art Homecoming: William H. Johnson and Afro-America, 1938-1946, research files that contain photocopies of original Johnson archival documents from various research repositories, and photographs (copy prints) of Johnson and his artwork.

The papers of southwest painter and illustrator Ernest Blumenschein measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1873-1964. The collection documents Blumenschein's artistic career, his relationship with his wife and daughter, his love of the American southwest, and his involvement in the art community of Taos, New Mexico. Found are biographical materials, personal and professional correspondence, scattered personal business records, writings, a large amount of juvenilia artwork, and photographs of artwork.