This collection contains silver gelatin prints and black and white photographic negatives shot by photographer Abigail Adler throughout the Navajo Nation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah between 1975 and 1980.
Scope and Contents:
The A. Adler photographic collection includes gelatin silver prints, 35mm and 120mm film negatives, and contact sheets. Series 1: Diné (Navajo) Portraits, Families, and Community Events, 1976-1979, includes 11 gelatin silver prints that were shot by photographer Abigail Adler throughout the Navajo Nation, including modern-day Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The photographs depict Diné (Navajo) individuals and family portraits; ceremonial scenes, such as a Kinaaldá (girl's puberty ceremony), portrait of woman and mother on wedding day, and a Medicine Man with sand painting; and daily activities such as planting corn, outdoor cooking, and traveling by horse-drawn wagon. Series 2: Diné (Navajo) Community and Events Photographs, 1975-1980 includes 4295 35mm film and 460 120mm film black and white photographic negatives and 8 associated contact sheets. . The photographs depict scenes with Diné (Navajo) community members, both at their homes and hogans as well as at community events such as at protests, art shows, contests, in court, and ceremonies like weddings. Adler's photographic negatives exhibit the range of her documentary and personal work throughout the Navajo Nation and the breadth of her connectedness to the greater Diné (Navajo) community. There may be content within this collection that is considered culturally sensitive.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in two series. Series 1: Diné (Navajo) Portraits, Families, and Community Events [Photographic Prints], 1976-1979, and Series 2: Diné (Navajo) Community and Events Photographs [photographic negatives], 1975-1980. Series 2 is divided into 15 subseries based on Abigail Adler's original order.
Biographical / Historical:
Abigail Adler was an American professional photographer with a degree in Anthropology from Barnard College in New York City. Adler lived on the Navajo Reservation for five years and began her career as a reporter and photographer, using Leica M3's and a Rolleiflex cameras, while working for the Navajo Times. She received funding through the Navajo Nation and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for her project titled Navajo Matriarchs, which illustrated the complex, modern lives of Navajo Women of all ages and traditions.
Provenance:
Series 1 was a Gift of Gail Adler Hughes (Abigail Adler), 1979. Series 2 was a gift of the Estate of Abigail Adler, 2023.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Native American Church of North America Search this
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Abigail Adler Diné (Navajo) photographs, NMAI.AC.373 catalog #; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Along Navajo trails : recollections of a trader, 1898-1948 / by Will Evans ; edited by Susan E. Woods and Robert S. McPherson ; foreword by Charles S. Peterson
American Indian textiles : 2,000 artist biographies, c. 1800-present : with value/price guide featuring over 20 years of auction records / by Gregory Schaaf, with assistance by Angie Yan Schaaf
Barney McCabe (Navajo) presents video interviews with Navajo Weavers; Tapes 1 (TRT: 1:35) and 2 (TRT: 0:15); 12/20/1996; New York, New York (2 DAT audiotapes)
Collection Creator::
National Museum of the American Indian. Exhibits Media Office Search this
Container:
Box 2 of 2
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 09-242, National Museum of the American Indian. Exhibits Media Office, Project Files
Photograph depicting Brenda Spencer, Diné (Navajo) weaver, holding one of her Wide Ruins rugs at Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in Arizona. She wears a t-shirt with text that reads, "Hubbell Trading Post." Photograph by Susan Makov in 1993.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Susan Makov and Patrick Eddington photographs of Southwest artists, image #, NMAI.AC.335; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Festival Recordings: Basketry Narrative Stage: Access to Resources in Alaska (June Pardue, Teri Rofkar, Evelyn Douglas, Kurt Dewhurst- presenter); A Family Tradition: Navajo Weavers (Mary Black, Sally Black, Kayla Black, Lorraine Black, Carol Edison- p...
Collection Creator:
Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Search this
Extent:
1 Sound recording (compact audio cassette)
Type:
Archival materials
Sound recordings
Date:
2006 July 2
Collection Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2006 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
The papers of New York tapestry éditeur Gloria Ross measure 14.5 linear feet and date from circa 1924-1998. The bulk of the papers consist of project files that document her collaborations with artists to make tapestries of their paintings and collages. Also found are scattered biographical material, professional correspondence, exhibition files, professional activity files, personal business records, printed material, photographs, and artwork.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York tapestry éditeur Gloria Ross measure 14.5 linear feet and date from circa 1924-1998. The bulk of the papers consist of project files that document her collaborations with artists to make tapestries of their paintings and collages. Also found are scattered biographical material, professional correspondence, exhibition files, professional activity files, personal business records, printed material, photographs, and artwork.
Biographical material includes resumes and career summaries, as well as an interview of Ross on one videocassette, and a few Frankenthaler family documents. Correspondence is with artists, weavers, workshops, publications, and galleries and is of a professional nature.
Project files document Ross's collaborations with prominent artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell, Romare Bearden, Louise Nevelson, Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, and others. Project files may include correspondence, contracts, invoices, notes, photographs, yarn samples, and a few maquettes and cartoons. Also of note are extensive files regarding her collaborations with Navajo weavers to create tapestries based on geometric paintings by Kenneth Noland. Other project files include a commissioned tapestry for Temple Emanu-El in New York.
Exhibition files document various solo and group exhibitions of Gloria Ross tapestries and includes one videocassette from a 1978 exhibition. Records of her professional activities include her participation in symposia, lectures, and public events. Files may include correspondence, draft lectures, programs, and event publicity. Two short documentaries found on two videocassettes were produced for the Denver Art Museum. Personal business records document Ross's business relationships with weaving workshops and art galleries, most notably Atelier Raymond Picaud, Pinton atelier, Edinburgh Tapestry Company (Dovecot Studios), and Pace Editions, the major sales agent of Gloria Ross tapestries.
Printed material consists of catalogs, announcements, press releases, and other publications regarding exhibitions of Gloria Ross tapestries and Navajo tapestries. Photographs depict Ross, the Frankenthaler family, Ross's tapestries, weaving studios, and Navajo weavers. Artwork includes one painting by Paul Jenkins and unidentified textile and yarn samples.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 9 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1926-1998 (5 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1965-1998 (0.7 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Project Files, 1960-1998 (7.3 linear feet; Boxes 1-7, 14-15, 17-19, OVs 20, 22-24, Artifact)
Series 4: Exhibition Files, 1967-1994 (0.8 linear feet; Boxes 7-8, 17)
Series 5: Professional Activities, 1955-1997 (0.7 linear feet; Box 8)
Series 6: Personal Business Records, 1964-1998 (1.8 linear feet; Boxes 8-10, OV 21)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1970s-1990s (0.8 linear feet; Boxes 10-11, 14)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1924-1990s (1.1 linear feet; Boxes 11, 16)
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1970s-1990s (1.1 linear feet; Boxes 11-14, 17, 19)
Biographical / Historical:
Gloria F. Ross (1923-1998) was a tapestry éditeur in New York, New York.
Ross was born Gloria Frankenthaler in New York in 1923. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1943 and married Alfred Ross. They had three children: Alfred, Beverly, and Clifford. In 1954, Gloria Ross made her first needlepoint work from a design by her sister, abstract painter Helen Frankenthaler, and by the mid-1960s, she was exhibiting her tapestries and hooked rugs in New York. She established Gloria F. Ross Studio in 1966 and began regularly collaborating with artists such as Robert Motherwell, Louise Nevelson, Jack Youngerman, and Jean Dubuffet to make their works into tapestries. She created business partnerships with weaving workshops in Scotland and France to produce the works. In 1973 she had her first exhibition at Pace Editions, Inc., beginning a long relationship with the gallery as her main sales agent.
In 1979, Ross first traveled to the Navajo Nation to find weavers for a collaborative project with artist Kenneth Noland. She continued to visit the Southwest at least once a year until 1994, and she donated her collection of Navajo rugs and other textiles to the Denver Art Museum. Throughout the 1980s Ross traveled extensively for projects, exhibitions, and symposia. Her final commissioned project, completed in 1997, was a tapestry designed by artist Mark Podwol for Temple Emanu-El in New York. That same year she established the Gloria F. Ross Center for Tapestry Studies in Tucson, Arizona.
Provenance:
Donated in 2013 by the Gloria Ross estate via Michael I. Katz, executor, with assistance from the Gloria F. Ross Tapestry Program, University of Arizona, via Ann Lane Hedlund, director.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Collection Director:
Heye, George G. (George Gustav), 1874-1957 Search this
Container:
Box 262A, Folder 3
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1928 - 1968
Restrictions:
Image number 011 "Holiday Handcraft" has been removed from the slideshow due to culutral sensitivity.
Collection Rights:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation Records, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
