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.

The bulk of the collection is music for the five-string banjo, often with piano and/or second banjo accompaniments. Almost no sheets have cover illustrations. Many editions are British and rarely have copyright dates.

This collection documents the activities of Joe Glazer's record label Collector Records. Materials include the label's original commercial recordings, paper records related to day-to-day business operations and production, field recordings made by Joe Glazer, and Glazer's personal music collection.

The papers of social realist painter, photographer, printmaker, and teacher Ben Shahn (1898-1969) measure 25.1 linear feet and date from 1879-1990, with the bulk of the material dating from 1933-1970. The bulk of the collection consists of over 14 linear feet of incoming letters from artists, writers, colleagues, publishers, art organizations, galleries, and universities and colleges. Also found are biographical materials, project and source files, printed material, artwork by Shahn and others, photographs taken of and by Shahn, interview transcripts, sound recordings of interviews and a motion picture film.

Collection documents the business activities of the Palmer Paint Sales Company creators and manufacturers of Craft Master Paint by Number kits. Materials Include mail order forms, photographs, advertisements, product information, newspaper and magazine articles, invoices, original artwork, trade literature, and scrapbooks.

The papers of New York multimedia artist and educator Paul Ramírez Jonas, measure 6.3 linear feet and 19.73 GB and date from circa 1989-2014. The collection documents the work of this social practice artist through correspondence, exhibition and project files, and professional files, and provides relatively thorough coverage of Ramírez Jonas's work and development to late mid-career.

The collection primarily documents the activities of the National Museum of American History's Program in African American Culture (PAAC) dating from 1979 through 2004. The Program in African American Culture (PAAC) created public programs documenting the black experience in the United States, as well as, other countries. Archival materials include photographs, programs, administrative files, magnetic tape, audiocassettes, U-matic and VHS video cassettes.

The collection documents the life and musical career of Robert "Bobby" Tucker. The collection particularly emphasizes Tucker's close collaboration with Billy Eckstine over a forty-year period from approximately 1949-1990, and includes original orchestrations of arrangements by Tucker and other arrangers, a complete set of commercial recordings by Eckstine for which Tucker served as arranger, and ephemeral material including photographs, concert programs and news clippings.

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.

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.