Gordon Davis Gibson papers
This collection is comprised of the professional papers of Gordon D. Gibson. The collection contains his correspondence, field notes, research files, museum records, writings, photographs, sound recordings, and maps.The bulk of the collection consists of Gibson's southwestern Africa research. This includes his field notes, film scripts, photographs, sound recordings, and grant proposals he wrote in support of his fieldwork in Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. In addition, the collection contains his research notes, maps, drafts, publications, and papers presented at conferences. While most of his research focused on the Herero and Himba, the collection also contains his research on the Ovambo and Okavango and other southwestern African groups. In the collection is a great deal of photocopies and microfilms of literature on southwestern African ethnic groups, many of which are in Portuguese and German and which he had translated for his files. He was also interested in African material culture, especially Central African headgear. His research on African caps is well-represented in the collection, and includes photos of caps at various museums, source materials, research notes, and textile samples of knots and loop work. Gibson's files as the curator of African ethnology at the National Museum of Natural History also make up a significant portion of the collection. Among these records are his files for the museum's Hall of African Cultures and other African exhibits; his files on the museum's African collections, early donors and collectors of the collections; his personnel files; documents relating to his committee work; department and museum memos; meeting minutes; and his records as head of the Old World Division and acting chair of the department. The collection also documents the efforts to establish the Smithsonian's National Anthropological Film Center, now the Human Studies Film Archives, as well as his work on the planning committee to establish the Museum of Man at the Smithsonian. Memos and minutes relating to the Smithsonian's Center for the Study of Man are also present in the collection. In addition to Gibson's field photos, the collection also contains African photos taken by others. Among these are Herbert Friedmann's photos of Kenya; Hausmann's Libya photos; photos by Ralph Kepler Lewis during the Morden Africa Expedition in Kenya; and photos by Lawrence Marshall, Volkmar Wentzel, Alfred Martin Duggan Cronin, and Father Carlos Estermann. There are also photos of the exhibit cases from the Hall of African Cultures; photos of Smithsonian and non-Smithsonian African artifacts; and copies of photographs he obtained from different archives, including the National Anthropological Archives. Other materials in the collection include his files as film reviews editor for the American Anthropologist during the 1960s and 70s and his activities in different organizations.
Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art records
bulk 1885-1962
The records of the Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art measure 265.8 linear feet and date from 1883-1962, with the bulk of the material dating from 1885-1940. The collection includes extensive correspondence between the museum's founding director, John Beatty, and his successor, Homer Saint-Gaudens, with artists, dealers, galleries, collectors, museum directors, representatives abroad, shipping and insurance agents, and museum trustees. The collection also includes Department of Fine Arts interoffice memoranda and reports; loan exhibition files; Carnegie International planning, jury, shipping, and sale records; Department of Fine Arts letterpress copy books, and a copy of the original card catalog index to these records.
Division of Ethnology photograph collection 1
Consists of photographs collected by the United States National Museum (USNM) Division of Ethnology and later by the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology (SOA). Coverage is worldwide outside North America. Most of the items are photographic prints, some in albums. There are also negatives, photomechanical prints, artwork, and newsclippings. For the …
Computer World Smithsonian Awards
Computerworld Magazine.
Collection documents an awards program established in 1989 as a partnership between Computerworld Magazine and the Smithsonian Institution. The Computer World Smithsonian Awards (CWSA) brought together the Chairmen of Chief Executive Officers of the world's foremost information technology companies with the world's leading universities, libraries and research institutions to document a revolution in progress—the global information technology revolution. The program identified men, women, organizations and institutions leading the technology revolution and asked them to contribute case studies. Collection consists of case studies which include questionnaires, essays, oral histories, conference proceedings, publications, video tapes, photographs, slides, software, and product samples about each project.
Records
This record unit traces the operation of the Smithsonian from 1925 to 1949. It contains records from the last years of Secretary Charles D. Walcott's administration, perhaps most notably the ambitious but abortive fund raising campaign to add $10,000,000.00 to the Smithsonian's endowment. The Depression and consequent cut-backs in government support are also …
Institut Für Den Wissenschaftlichen Filmen (IWF) Encyclopaedia Cinematographica film collection
Linear feet
Titles from IWF's Encyclopaedia Cinematographica of ethographic films ranging in dates from 1926 to 1973. Collection includes German language study guides for each film. Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical …
Records
The records contain proposals and drafts of contracts and grants, correspondence concerning their acceptance and implementation, budget information, reports about grant-sponsored activities, and information concerning the administration of the Office and the authority of the Contracting Officer. Entries include the following information if available: fund number ("N/A" if not …
Jacques Seligmann & Co. records
bulk 1913-1974
The records of Jacques Seligmann & Co. measure approximately 203.1 linear feet and date from 1904 to 1978, with bulk dates from 1913 to 1974. The collection includes extensive correspondence files, reference material on American and European collectors and their collections, inventory and stock records, financial records, exhibition files, auction files, and the records of subsidiary companies. The collection is an invaluable resource in tracing the provenance of particular works of art and provides a comprehensive view of the activities of collectors and art dealers in the years leading up to and following World War II.
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1983 Festival of American Folklife
The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Richard York Gallery records
bulk 1981-2004
The records of the Richard York Gallery, a New York gallery specializing in American art from early 1800s to 1950, measure 79.3 linear feet and date from circa 1865-2005, with the bulk of the material dating from 1981 to 2004. Three-fourths of the records are artists' artwork files, documenting the sale and consignment of nearly 6,500 works of art. The gallery's activities are also recorded through correspondence, client files, gallery invoices, inventories, business and financial records, printed materials, scrapbooks, photographic materials of artwork, and estate records for the John Marin estate and Sergio Stella estate (Joseph Stella). An addition of 10.2 linear feet, dated circa 1865 to 2005, includes artists' files arranged alphabetically containing printed material, clippings, exhibition announcements, and scattered correspondence and financial documents.