This accession consists of records that document the activities which the Office of Quincentenary Programs coordinated or organized to mark the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first landfall in the Americas on October 12, 1492. The Quincentenary programs began in 1985 under the coordination of Smithsonian's Directorate of Inte...

These records concern the operation of the Office of the Secretary from 1972 to the end of S. Dillon Ripley's tenure as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The records document the Smithsonian's on-going operations -- internal, with other government Offices and departments, and with foundations, universities, and other outside organizat...

Robert Moody Laughlin was an American ethnologist specializing in the study of Mayan language, history, customs, and folklore. He spent the majority of his career working for the Smithsonian Institution, first with the Bureau of American Ethnology, then with the Department of Anthropology. He was a curator emeritus with the department from his retirement in 2006 until his death in 2020. The Robert Moody Laughlin papers (1899-2016, bulk 1954-2016) document his research and professional activities and primarily deal with language and folktales he recorded and studied, as well as the culture and history of the Tzotzil and other Mayan groups in the Chiapas region. His involvement in language education and training, advocacy for the Tzotzil and language and cultural revitalization, and administrative matters at the Smithsonian are also represented. The collection consists of materials created for books and other publications, field notes, research materials, correspondence, administrative files, sound recordings, video recordings, photographs, and electronic records.

Frank Spencer was a historian of biological anthropology who began his career as a medical laboratory technician. His papers include correspondence, manuscripts, notes, research files, teaching materials, photographs, and audiotapes. Spencer's research on the Piltdown hoax as well as the Piltdown research of Ian Langham, whose work Spencer continued after his death in 1984, and Spencer's research on the life and career of Aleš Hrdlička for his dissertation are both represented in the collection.

The papers of performance artist and educator Roberto Sifuentes measure 4.3 linear feet and date from circa 1988 to 2006. The collection documents Sifuentes' work as a professional artist and educator through biographical material and interviews; correspondence including emails; project files including project descriptions, documentation of individual productions, audio and video recordings, and components of works for multimedia projects; conference files documenting symposia and conference participation; articles, versions of performance scripts, and other writings; printed material including press clippings, promotional press packets, and source material; as well as photographic material documenting performances and social events.

The collection consists of correspondence, invoices, drawings, photographs, and negatives and other printed literature documenting the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from its inception in 1827 to its merger with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in the 1960s.

The collection consists of approximately 28,000 photographic negatives, slides, prints and other materials documenting Bethlehem Steel Corporation's iron ore mining operations. The photographs were taken by Richard "Jay" Angelo, a Bethlehem Steel Corporation photographer. The majority of the photographs depict Bethlehem's mining operations at its Cornwall and Morgantown, Pennsylvania mines. A smaller number of negatives document operations in western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Michigan and Ontario. The negatives depict aerial views, blasting operations, tunneling, equipment and infrastructure, machinery, employees working, company personnel, and company-built community facilities. The collection documents the complete operations of a major, historic mining operation over four decades.

Collection consists of lantern slides and stereographs produced by several companies: Keystone View Company, Better America Lecture Service, Incorporated, American Press Association, J. Stanley-Brown, William H. Rau, and J. F. Maertz Department Store. The lantern slides were primarily intended to be used for educational presentations about the United States, other countries, history, and society. Many of the slides and stereographs are accompanied by descriptive text and in some instances by small cards--one card for each slide--and in other instances directly on the back of a stereoview. The majority of images were taken from 1900 to 1930.

The Richard Murray research material regarding mural painting in the United States measures 20.5 linear feet and dates from 1896 to 2006 with the bulk of the material dating from 1970 to 2006. The collection is comprised of Murray's extensive research files, scattered writings, and photographic materials for his life-long research on mural painting in the United States.

The collection documents Emile Bachelet, inventor of electro-magnetic therapeutic devices for the treatment of rheumatism.