This accession consists of videotapes created during the production of the exhibition video "African Art: Personal Objects." This video, produced in 1992, is part of the permanent National Museum of African Art exhibition, "The Art of the Personal Object." Both the video and the exhibition exemplify the integration of aesthetics into daily ...

Jean Borgatti's collection dates from 1971 to 2003 and was created in Nigeria and Ghana. Much of the collection documents masquerades, shrines, festivals, market scenes, and ceremonies, and includes images of Urhobo, Uzairue, Ishan (Esan), Etsako, and Otuo peoples.

The records of the New York City-based Cinque Gallery, a nonprofit organization, measure 1.1 linear feet and date from 1959 to 2010, with the bulk of materials dating from 1976 to 2004. The gallery's mission was to exhibit African American artists, to educate the public about their work, and to offer art programs to the community. This is documented by administrative records, artists' files, financial and legal records, printed material, and photographs. Materials dated before and after the gallery's years of operation relate to African American community organizations and were compiled by former Cinque Gallery Executive Director, Ruth Jett.

The papers of art historian and Monuments Man S. Lane Faison measure 5.1 linear feet and date from 1922 to 1981, bulk from 1950-1976. Faison was an art history professor at Williams College, Massachusetts and, during World War II, he was a member of the Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services. The collection includes scattered correspondence; writings; teaching files; subject files on exhibitions and projects; artists files; and printed materials. There are two folders of documents and photographs related to Faison's World War II work in the U.S. Art Looting Intelligence Unit.

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.

Memorabilia from the International Exhibition of Modern Art in 1913, commonly known as the Armory Show, measures 0.02 linear feet and includes one button, two invitations, and 54 postcards primarily from the New York installation and also a few from the installations in Boston, Massachusetts and Chicago, Illinois.

The Kenneth and Emma-Stina Prescott research material on artists measures 9.4 linear feet and dates from 1919 to 2001, with the bulk of the material dating from 1973 to 1991. Kenneth Prescott, an art historian and educator, and his wife Emma-Stina, also an art historian, maintained extensive files concerning artists James Chapin, Burgoyne Diller, Dorothea S. Greenbaum, Jack Levine, and Elizabeth Olds. These files typically include correspondence, artwork inventories, exhibition catalogs and other printed materials, notes, interviews, photographs, and slides. A small amount of material also documents the works of Richard Anuszkiewicz, Byron Browne, Jose de Creeft, Lorrie Goulet, Richard Hunt, Sam Maitin, and Hunt Slonem.

These records include Division of Graphic Arts records dating from its establishment, including the work of curators Sylvester Rosa Koehler, Jacob Kainen, and Peter C. Marzio. Also included are lecture notes and papers of curators Ruel P. Tolman, Kainen, and Marzio; inventory lists of Graphic Arts objects; working outline for The Steam En...

Audiovisual materials created for an exhibition on the rich tradition of African American storytelling, which is celebrated through videotaped interviews with professional writers telling compelling stories drawn from their own experiences and revealing how the world in which they live impacts their writing. A portion of the exhibition is devoted t...

The papers of the artist Robert Kushner measure 4.6 linear feet and date from 1967 to 2011. The collection documents primarily the early career of Robert Kushner through performance videos and other media artworks, correspondence, notes, lab records, inventories, an exhibition proposal, and subject files regarding critic Amy Goldin.