This collection consists of negatives and photographic prints taken in 1936 and 1937 by Eva L.R. Meyerowitz in Nigeria, Benin and Ghana. Peoples depicted include the Akan, Fon, Konkomba, and Tallensi and subjects include artisans, blacksmiths, dancing, markets, artwork and objects that were originally displyed in King Bezu's palace in Abomey, potters, shrines, and vernacular architeture.

The personal papers of Charles Lang Freer, the industrialist and art collector who founded the Freer Gallery of Art. The papers include correspondence, diaries, art inventories, scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeil Whistler and other press clippings, and photographs.

Photographs taken by Judge Emile E.O. Gorlia during five journeys through the Belgian Congo and two vacation leaves, one in Belgium and one in the Canaries Islands, 1909-1928 and at the World Exposition in Brussels (1958). The collection dates from 1909-1958. His first mission was from January 1910 to January 1912; the second, from February 1915 to March 1917; the third, from December 1917 to April 1920; the fourth, from November 1920 to February 1923 and, the fifth, from March 1926 to December 1928. For his first four missions at Lusambo in the Kasai province, district of Sankuru, Emile Gorlia was acting as an alternate to the public officer at one of the seven tribunals of first instance. During his fifth and final mission, he was promoted as president of the Court at Albertville in the ditrict of Katanga. Judge E.O. Gorlia was a keen amateur photographer with the advantage of not only traveling extensively around the state but also with the privilege of being able to afford the time and money to produce a prolific number of images. His images illustrate with great detail the full experience of a government official in mission in the Belgian Congo, starting in Antwerp at the pier of this Belgian harbor and taking up his duties at Lusambo, an administrative town in the hearth of th Belgian congo. The majority of images are of the following Belgian Congo districts, Lower Congo, Kassai, Sankuru, and Katanga. They include the cities of Banana, Boma, Matadi, Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), Lusambo, Luebo, Dilolo, Albertville (now Kalemie) in the Belgian Congo, Brazzaville in the French Equatorial africa, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Tabora and Kigoma in tanganyika, Dakar in Senegal, Conakry in Guinea, Freetown in Sierra Leone, Port Said in Egypt and finally Casablanca in Morocco. There are also images of villages scenes and portraits of the Tetela, Songye, Luba, Kanioka, Lunda, Chokwe, Pende, Bangala and Kuba. Also included are images of the natural environment as the Congo river, the Kasai and Sankuru rivers, the banks of Lake Tanganyika and the savanna-woodland of the western part of the Katanga district as well as as the south part of the Sankuru region.

These records document the administration, under David Challinor, of the science bureaus of the Smithsonian Institution, c. 1975-1985. Also included are a few records from 1971-1974 and 1986. Series 1 consists of records of the offices reporting to the Assistant Secretary for Science, including the Center for the Study of Man and the National...

The papers of Ad Reinhardt measure 3.8 linear feet and date from circa 1927 to 1968. The collection documents Reinhardt's career as an abstract painter, cartoonist, and writer through biographical material, correspondence, writings, printed material, scrapbooks, and artwork.

The Smithsonian Institution Archives began its Oral History Program in 1973. The purpose of the program is to supplement the written documentation of the Archives' record and manuscript collections with an Oral History Collection, focusing on the history of the Institution, research by its scholars, and contributions of its staff. Program ...

The collection consists of 6,567 color slides taken by Dr. Marilyn Houlberg during various field studies among the Yoruba in southwest Nigeria between 1961 and circa 2005. The images depict Yoruba art and culture with a special focus on artisans, art objects, body arts, costume, festivals, hairstyles, indigenous photography, weaving and textiles. Cultural events depicted include Balufon festivals, Egungun and Gelede masquerades, social events (weddings, christenings, funerals), and religious ceremonies (initiation and animal sacrifice). Also included are various scenes of daily life, architecture, food preparation, markets, portraits and landscapes. Houlberg extensively documented Yoruba artists in the process of creating their art, including carvers Yesufu Ejigboye, Runshewe, and Lamidi Fakeye, as well as the final pieces themselves. Houlberg documentated art in situ, such as Yoruba house posts, shrines, wall art and wood doors and art objects, including Gelede masks, Ibeji (twin) and Eshu figures, Osanyin staffs, and Ogboni and Shango shrines. Manuscript and printed materials, including Houlberg's resume, thesis, and numerous published articles are also available in this collection.

The papers of painter and muralist Harry Siddons Mowbray (1858-1928) and the Mowbray family measure 7.5 linear feet and date from 1872 to 1976. The papers document Mowbray's career as a painter and decorative muralist as well as his activities with the Commission of Fine Arts, the American Academy in Rome, and the Sculpture Commission of Connecticut. The papers include biographical materials, scattered correspondence, nineteen diaries, personal business records, commission files, organization files, writings and notes, printed materials, three scrapbooks, photographs, and artworks. There are scattered family papers of Helen Mowbray, Florence Mowbray, George Mowbray, and George Siddons Mowbray.

These records were created by Kenneth Victor Young during his tenure in the Office of Exhibits Central (OEC) as a designer and Design Supervisor and Editor. The records consist of Young's exhibition script outlines and designs, mostly for the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES); memoranda and correspondence to and fro...

These files include grant proposals and awards, project status reports and official correspondence. Arrangement is alphabetic by name of the principal investigator. See also Record Unit 91.