Ethel Cutler Freeman was an amateur Seminole specialist and research associate with the American Museum of Natural History. Her papers also reflect field work among the Arapaho, Shoshoni, Navaho, Pueblo, Hopi, Kickapoo, and people of the Virgin Islands, the Bahama Islands, and Haiti, and the music and chants of Africa, including those of the Maasai, Zulu, and Pygmies. A small amount of material relates to the Hoover Commission on Indian Affairs, of which Freeman was a member. Correspondents include several Seminole Indians and government officials, personal acquaintances, organizations, and associates of the American Museum of Natural History.

The papers of social realist painter, photographer, illustrator, 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.

The Department of Anthropology records contain administrative and research materials produced by the department and its members from the time of the Smithsonian Institution's foundation until today.

The papers document the life and work of William R. Hutton, a civil engineer during the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Materials include diaries, notebooks, correspondence, letterpress copy book, printed materials, publications, specifications, photographs, drawings, and maps that document the construction of several architectural and engineering projects during this period. Most notable are the records containing information related to the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Hudson River Tunnel, the Washington Aqueduct, the Kanawha River Canal, and the Washington/Harlem River Bridge. There are also several records about railroads in the state of Maryland, the District of Columbia and elsewhere, including the Western Maryland Railroad, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Colorado Midlands Railway, Baltimore and Drum Point Railroad, the Northern Adirondack Railroad, and the Pittsfield and Williamstown Railroad. The records can be used to track the progression of these projects, and engineering innovation during the late 1800s to the early 1900s.

This collection is comprised of the professional papers of Ted Allan Rathbun. The collection documents his career as a forensic anthropologist and educator through correspondence, publications and teaching materials. The collection includes the publications resulting from his research in South Carolina, Egypt, and Glorieta, New Mexico, as well as a small portion of his research data. His other writings that can be found in the collection include his monographs, journal articles, papers presented at conferences, and reviews he wrote for various journals and publications. The collection also includes materials relating to his consulting activities for law enforcement agencies, and military and historical organizations. Additionally, the collection contains materials related to organizations that he was a member of and his syllabi and lecture notes as a professor at the University of South Carolina. The collection also includes Rathbun's course notes when, as a student at the University of Kansas, he studied under William Bass, Ellis Kerley and other notable anthropologists. Among his correspondents were J. Lawrence Angel, Eve Cockburn, Henry Dobyns, Henry Field, T. Dale Stewart, and T. Cuyler Young.

The records of Midtown Galleries measure 86.82 linear feet and date from 1904 to 1997. The collection documents the operation and general administration of the business and includes artist records, exhibition material, inventories, financial records, photographs, and printed material.

These records document the governance and programmatic activities of the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation (MAI) from its inception in 1904 until its sublimation by the Smithsonian Institution in 1990. The types of materials present in this collection include personal and institutional correspondence, individual subject files, minutes and annual reports, financial ledgers, legal records, expedition field notes, research notes, catalog and object lists, publications, clippings, flyers, maps, photographs, negatives and audio-visual materials. These materials span a varied range of subjects relating to the activities of the museum which are more fully described on the series level.

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 Archival collections of the National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni (NACCCA) donated in 2006. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), created as part of the New Deal legislation initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, was a public work relief program for unemployed men designed to reduce high unemployment during the Great Depression. The CCC carried out a broad natural resource conservation program on national, state, and municipal lands from 1933 to 1942. This collection contains papers, photographs, and ephemera collected and created by alumni of the CCC and donated to the NACCCA archives.

The National Museum Building Construction Records, 1894 - 1919 (bulk 1903 - 1911), document the process and methods used to construct the National Museum Building that is now known as the National Museum of Natural History. These records primarily refer to the management of the construction aspects of the project, documenting specifications ...