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.

These records consist of correspondence, photographs, and slides which document the design and installation of exhibitions at the National Collection of Fine Arts (NCFA) and the Renwick Gallery. Of special interest are records concerning the Patent Office Building (POB) Opening, 1968 and the exhibition America as Art, 1976. The records al...

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.

This record unit documents the tenure of Charles Blitzer as assistant secretary for History and Art from 1973 to 1979. There are also records pertaining to the Office of Education and Training, 1965-1968, which Blitzer had directed. The celebration of the bicentennial of the American Revolution was a major Smithsonian project from 1972 to 197...

The records of the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art measure 18 linear feet, date from 1973 to 1988, and document the brief thirteen-year history of LAICA's activities as a Southern California visual arts organization and exhibition space for contemporary art. Records detail the founding of the organization, operations and administration, exhibitions, events, and publications. More than half of the collection is comprised of exhibition, program, and event files that include correspondence with artists, curators, and others; printed materials; and photographs, negatives, and slides.

To a considerable degree, the James H. Howard papers consist of manuscript copies of articles, book, speeches, and reviews that document his professional work in anthropology, ethnology, ethnohistory, archeology, linguistics, musicology, and folklore between 1950 and 1982. Among these are a few unpublished items. Notes are relatively scant, there being somewhat appreciable materials for the Chippewa, Choctaw, Creek, Dakota, Omaha, Ponca, Seminole, and Shawnee. The chief field materials represented in the collection are sound recordings and photographs, but many of the latter are yet to be unidentified. A series of color photographs of Indian artifacts in folders are mostly identified and represent the extensive American Indian Cultural collection of costumes and artifacts that Howard acquired and created. Other documents include copies of papers and other research materials of colleagues. There is very little original material related to archeological work in the collection and that which is present concerns contract work for the Lone State Steel Company.

These records document the operations of OAS. They also contain records from an organizational predecessor, the Department of American Studies, Museum of History and Technology, which had been chaired by Washburn. OAS records deal with the work of the Office and its involvement with other Smithsonian offices and bureaus; its work with num...

These records chiefly document the operations of the Division of Transportation from its creation in 1957, and the operations of the Section of Land Transportation, 1946-1957. Lesser amounts of records relate to the administration of the land transportation collections prior to 1946 and to the marine transportation collections before 1957...

Maps, prints, posters, religious articles, publications and photographs, relating to the history and culture of Puerto Rico. Mr. Vidal's family and personal papers are also included.

The collection documents the customs and culture of black gospel song and its performance in 19th- and 20th-century America. Dr. Reagon collected photographs, sheet music, and other primary and secondary sources chronicling the development and legacy of this medium, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement, from blues to Gospel to classical to jazz. Among the subjects included in this collection are trailblazers such as Charles Tindley, Thomas A. Dorsey, Rosetta Tharpe, Duke Ellington, and Nathaniel Dett. Noted performers are the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the Harmonizing Four, the Hampton University Choir, and the Chick Webb Orchestra.