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 collection is comprised of digital surrogates previously available on the 38 rolls of microfilm described in the NARA publication M843. These digital surrogates reproduced the previously un–filmed records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of North Carolina, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–70. The records consist of 32 volumes and approximately 20 linear feet of unbound records. The volumes include letters and endorsements sent; registers of letters received; telegrams sent and received; special orders, general orders, and circulars; register of persons recommended as inspectors of elections; a register of apprentices indentured; and index books. The unbound series consist mainly of letters received, orders, reports, and freedmen's labor contracts. These documents were created or received by the Assistant Commissioner, the Acting Assistant Commissioner, or either of two staff officers who acted for the Assistant Commissioner.

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.

Papers documenting the life and career of bass player Leonard Gaskin, as well as documenting the numerous other musicians he was associated with in his long career. Gaskin's career encompasses a wide range of musical genres, including gospel, rock, folk, and Caribbean music. The papers include photographs, newspaper clippings, diaries, music manusc...

The papers of Aleš Hrdlička, curator in the Division of Physical Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, United States National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, offer considerable insight into the development of physical anthropology in the first half of this century. The papers include honors bestowed on Hrdlička, autobiographical notes, correspondence with many of the leading anthropologists of the day, anthropometric and osteometric measurements and observations (forming most of the collection), extensive photographs of Hrdlička's field work, manuscripts, research materials, and "My Journeys" (essentially a diary Hrdlička kept of his field work). In addition, there is material of a personal nature. The papers date from 1875 to 1966, but the bulk of the materials date from 1903 to 1943, the time of Hrdlička's career at the USNM.

The papers of conservator and museum director George Leslie Stout measure 6 linear feet and date from 1855, 1897-1978. Stout was head of the conservation department at Harvard University's Fogg Art Museum, director of the Worcester Art Museum and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Massachusetts, and a member of the Monuments, Fine Art and Archives (MFAA) Section of the U.S. Army during World War II. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence with family, friends, colleagues and professional associations. There are letters from fellow Monuments Men who served in the MFAA section such as Thomas Carr Howe, Ardelia Hall, Lamont Moore, Theodore Sizer, Langdon Warner and several other prominent arts administrators. The papers also contain biographical materials, writings, sketches and one sketchbook, military records, printed materials, and photographs.

This accession consists of the exhibition files of the Exhibition Coordinator at the National Museum of American Art (NMAA). The files correspond with previously accessioned exhibition files from the Registrar's Office (please see the folder list for cross references). Also includes Registrar correspondence, 1974, 1977-1978; files on the Explo...

The collection documents Duke Ellington's career primarily through orchestrations (scores and parts), music manuscripts, lead sheets, transcriptions, and sheet music. It also includes concert posters, concert programs, television, radio, motion picture and musical theater scripts, business records, correspondence, awards, as well as audiotapes, audiodiscs, photographs, tour itineraries, newspaper clippings, magazines, caricatures, paintings, and scrapbooks.

Nathaniel Mathis is a Washington, D.C., hairstylist, inventor, motivational speaker, and entrepreneur. His papers document his business life and community involvement.

This accession consists of records that document the exhibition projects of Jeffrey K. Stine, Curator of Engineering and Environmental History. The records consist of correspondence and memoranda; photographs and slides of exhibitions and objects; exhibition scripts, design drawings, and brochures; newspaper clippings and articles pertaining ...