Patterson, Frederick D. (Frederick Douglass), 1901-1988 Search this
Extent:
18.66 Linear feet (21 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Diplomas
Notebooks
Articles
Manuscripts
Photographic prints
Ephemera
Scrapbooks
Newsletters
Awards
Photographs
Invitations
Legal documents
Programs
Correspondence
Clippings
Date:
1882 - 1988
Summary:
President of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (later Tukegee Institute; now Tuskegee University) from 1935 - 1953 and founder of the United Negro College Fund (1944). Patterson was born on October 10, 1901. Orphaned at age two, he was raised by his eldest sister, Wilhelmina (Bess), a school teacher in Texas. He studied at Iowa State College, where he received a doctorate in veterinary medicine in 1923 and a master of science degree in 1927. Five years later, he was awarded a second doctorate degree from Cornell University. Patterson taught veterinary science for four years at Virginia State College, where he was also Director of Agriculture. His tenure at Tuskegee University started in 1928 and spanned almost 25 years, first as head of the veterinary division, then as the director of the School of Agriculture and finally as Tuskegee's third president. He married Catherine Elizabeth Moton, daughter of Tuskegee University's second president, Dr. Robert R. Moton. Patterson also founded the School of Veterinary Medicine at Tuskegee in 1944, the same year he founded the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). The UNCF continues today as a critical source of annual income for a consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tuskegee University among them.
Scope and Content note:
The Frederick Douglass Patterson Collection comprises 18.66 linear feet of correspondence, manuscripts, research material, published writings, photographs, audiovisual material, scrapbooks, diplomas, awards, and other materials chronicling the personal life and professional career of Frederick D. Patterson.
The collection is comprised of glimpses into the life of Dr. Patterson. The little correspondece that survived is located in Series 2: Career, Series 3: Correspondence, and Series 4: Organizations. Some of the correspondence takes the form of congratulatory notes from 1953 during Patterson's transfer from Tuskegee Institute to the Phelps-Stokes Fund, located in Series 2. There is also a personal note sent to Patterson's wife, Catherine Patterson, from George Washington Carver in which he describes peanut oil as a good massage oil.
Arrangement note:
The collection is arranged by series and chronologically therein:
1. Biography: This series provides insight into Patterson's family life through primary documents. It is comprised of family wills, insurance policies, and his autobiography. Sub-series are arranged alphabetically by title.
2. Career: This series contains materials from Patterson's long professional career in the field of higher education, including his tenure as present of both the Tuskegee Institute and the Phelps-Stokes Fund. Sub-series are arranged chronologically.
3. Correspondence: This series contains letters sent to Patterson (and his wife) of a personal and professional nature. Several letters relate to Patterson's personal business "Signs and Services," which was a small billboard advertising company. There are also letters from George Washington Carver. The series is arranged chronologically.
4. Organizations: This series contains material from the various foundations Patterson founded and to which he belonged, including the R.R. Moton Fund and the College Endowment Funding Plan. He is especially noted for developing the United Negro College Fund. The series is organized alphabetically by sub-series title.
5. Honors: This series contains the awards, citations, and resolutions Patterson received during his lifetime. Folders are organized chronologically.
6. Subject Files: This series comprises articles, employee vitas, and other documents collected and organized by Patterson. Among the subjects in the files are higher education, Negroes, segregation, civil rights, and employee records. There is no key to this system.
7. Photographs: The Photograph series mostly documents Patterson's tenure at Tuskegee University. The series includes images of Patterson and various other notable figures during formal functions at the university. Noteworthy personalities include George Washington Carver, Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.
8. Printed Materials: This series contains books, programs, and other documents from Patterson's personal collection. The series is organized alphabetically by author's last name.
Biographical note:
Frederick Douglass Patterson was born on October 10, 1901 to parents William and Mamie Brooks Patterson, in the Buena Vista Heights area of Anacostia in Washington, D.C. The youngest of six children, Patterson's parents died of tuberculosis before he reached the age of two years, his mother when he was eleven months old and his father a year later. Following his parents' death, the Patterson children were split up and sent to live in the homes of family and friends as stipulated in his father's last will and testament until he was seven years old, Patterson lived in the Anacostia area with a family friend he called "Aunt Julia."
When he was seven years old, Patterson's older sister Bess (a recent graduate of the Washington Conservatory of Music) decided to seek employment in Texas and took him with her. Many of their parents' family still lived in the state, which allowed Patterson the opportunity to spend months with various aunts and uncles, while his sister taught music throughout the South. After completing eighth grade, Patterson joined his sister at the Prairie View Normal School, where she taught music and directed the choir. Patterson attended the school for four years, during which time he developed an interest in veterinary medicine.
In 1920, Patterson enrolled at Iowa State College as a veterinary student. He graduated in 1923 and moved to Columbus, Ohio, to join his brother John. While there, he took the Ohio State Board exam for Veterinary Medicine. Although he became certified, a lack of money prevented him from practicing. Four years later he received a teaching offer from Virginia State College (VSC) in Petersburg, Virginia, which afforded him the opportunity to work within his profession. While at VSC Patterson took a leave of absence and returned to Iowa, in 1926, to pursue a Master's degree in veterinary medicine.
After five years at VSC, the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute offered Patterson a position running the veterinarian hospital and teaching veterinary science. He moved to Tuskegee, Alabama in 1928. While at Tuskegee, Patterson decided to pursue a Ph.D. in bacteriology at Cornell University. During his year and a half leave from Tuskegee, Patterson completed his coursework and wrote his dissertation. After he returned to Tuskegee, a serial killer murdered three people, including the head of the Department of Agriculture. Confronted with this tragedy, school officials quickly offered Patterson the vacant position, which he accepted in 1934.
Robert R. Moton, second president of Tuskegee, retired in 1935 and a search was soon commenced to find the next president for the school. Patterson, in the meantime, pursued more personal matters when he met and married Catherine Moton (with whom he would have a son) in June 1935. By then he was already hired to take his now, father-in-law's, position as President of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.
As president of Tuskegee, Patterson made several changes and many additions to the institution. He increased faculty housing for professors; integrated the Board of Trustees' meeting meals and eventually arranged for both balck and white members to eat at one table; shortened the name to Tuskegee Institute; and established the Department of Commercial Dietetics in 1935, the veterinary medicine program in 1942, and the engineering program in 1948. While many considered Patterson's changes important achievements, it was his development of the Commercial/Military Aviation Program that would bring the school distinction and fame.
Patterson first attempted to develop the aviation program in 1939. The government fostered the development of such programs by subsiding the expenses. All a university had to do was present able-bodied instructors and willing pupils. Tuskegee had both. By 1940 the United States Air Force was interested in integrating its forces. In order to do this they needed trained black pilots. Tuskegee was the perfect place to provide the needed pilots since the school was situated in an all-black environment where students could concentrate on learning to fly without having to worry about racist reactions from their fellow classmates. To accommodate this program, the Tuskegee Army Air Base was created. Tuskegee pilots flew missions throughout World War II and would later be recognized for their bravery.
An important part of Patterson's duties as president was fund-raising. By 1943 he found it increasingly difficult to find ample sources of funds to run the Institute. He came to realize Tuskegee and similar black colleges would benefit if they pooled their funding resources and asked for larger amounts of money from philanthropic individuals and organizations as a collective. Working together would cut fund-raising expenses; this in turn would leave more money for the colleges to use as they wished. Patterson named his new creation the United Negro College Fund (UNCF); it would go on to raise millions of dollars for the nation's historically black colleges. He served as the first president of the organization.
During the fifteen years Patterson served as president of Tuskegee, he hosted many famous personalities, including W.E.B. DuBois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt, Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson, Pearl Buck, and Andre Segovia. He developed a lasting relationship with George Washington Carver, who had been a professor with Tuskegee since the days of Booker T. Washington.
Patterson served on many organizational boards in addition to his educational work. His involvement with the Phelps-Stokes Fund would ultimately lead Patterson to leave his beloved Tuskegee Institute to apply his educational philosophies on a broader scale. In 1953 the Fund approached Patterson and offered him the presidency of the organization. Patterson, feeling he needed a change, accepted the offer. He resigned from Tuskegee that same year and moved to New York to begin a new life.
Organized in 1911, the Phelps-Stokes Fund supported African, African American, and Native American education and worked on solving housing problems in New York City. Patterson's interest in African education began before he joined Phelps-Stokes. In 1950 the World Bank/International Bank Commission to Nigeria hired him to "evaluate the resources of Nigeria and…to study the educational programs and the organizational structure of advanced education." Through his work with the Fund he continued his efforts to improve the educational opportunities for Africans and help them move beyond colonialism. Patterson traveled extensively throughout the west coast of Africa in support of these goals.
In addition to forming the UNCF, Patterson created two other organizations (the Robert R. Moton Institute and the College Endowment Funding Plan), during the mid 1960s and 1970s. Each was designed to improve funding efforts for historically black colleges. The Robert R. Moton institute began as an off-shoot of the Phelps-Stokes as a site for conferences to address the Fund's primary concerns. Patterson's idea for the Institute came from a desire to put to use a piece of property inherited after Moton's death. Empathy with the frustrations of college presidents regarding the restricted funding for institutional expenses led Patterson to create the College Endowment Funding Plan. The Endowment was designed to alleviate this situation by providing matching funds to eligible colleges. The Endowment made its first payment in 1978. Unfortunately, by the 1980s, the Moton Institute lost most of its government funding due to federal cutbacks. This resulted in reductions to the Institute's programming.
It was not until Patterson was well into his eighties that he began to retire from his life of public service. On June 23, 1987, President Ronald Reagan presented Dr. Patterson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest possible honor that can be bestowed upon a civilian, for his service in higher education and his role in creating funding sources for the nation's historically black colleges. A year later Frederick Douglass Patterson died at the age of eighty-seven.
Honorary Degrees
undated -- Xavier University
1941 -- Virginia State College
1941 -- Wilberforce University
1953 -- Morehouse College
1956 -- Tuskegee Institute
1961 -- New York University
1966 -- Edward Waters College
1967 -- Atlanta University
1969 -- Franklin and Marshall College
1970 -- Virginia Union University
1975 -- Bishop College
1977 -- St. Augustine's College
1982 -- Brooklyn College of the City University of New York
1984 -- Stillman College
1985 -- Payne College
Distinctions
undated -- Association for the Study of Negro Life and History Carter
undated -- The Southern Education Foundation, Inc. Distinguished Service Citation
undated -- The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and Texas Association of Developing Colleges Annual Leadership Awards
1950 -- Christian Education department, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Inc. Citation for Distinguished Service
1953 -- Bethune-Cookman College, the Mary McLeod Bethune Medallion
1953 -- John A. Andrew Clinical Society at Tuskegee Institute, Citation for Distinguished Service in the Cause of Humanity
1953 -- Tuskegee Institute, Certificate of Appreciation for 25 Years of Service
1957 -- Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Beta Lamda Sigma Chapter, Bigger and Better Business Award
1960 -- National Alumni Council of the UNCF, Inc. Award
1963 -- National Business League, Booker T. Washington Award
1965 -- Booker T. Washington Business Association, Certificate of Acknowledgement
1970 -- Moton Conference Center Award
1970 -- Tuskegee National Alumni Association, R.R. Moton Award
1972 -- American College Public Relations Association, 1972 Award for Distinguished Service to Higher Education
1972 -- UNCF F.D. Patterson 71st Birthday Award
1975 -- National Business League, Booker T. Washington Symbol of Service Award
1976 -- Phelps-Stokes Fund, Continuous Creative and Courageous Leadership in the Cause of Higher Education for Blacks
1977 -- Yale Alumni Associates of Afro-America, Distinguished Service Award
1979 -- Alpha Phi Alpha Education Foundation Inc., Distinguished Educator Award
1979 -- Tuskegee Institute Alumni Association Philadelphia Charter Award
1980 -- The Iowa State University Alumni Association, Distinguished Achievement Citation
1980 -- Gary Branch NAACP Life Membership Fight for Freedom Dinner 1980, Roy Wilkins Award
1980 -- State of Alabama Certificate of Appreciation
1982 -- St. Luke's United Methodist Church Achievement Award
1983 -- Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., Distinguished Service Award
1984 -- Booker T. Washington Foundation, Booker T. Washington Distinguished Service Award
1984 -- The Ohio State University Office of Minority Affairs, Distinguished Humanitarian and Service Award
1985 -- Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc, Eta Zeta Lamda Chapter Civic Award
1985 -- United States, Private Sector Initiative Commendation
1987 -- Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc of New York State, Founders Day Award
1987 -- Presidential Medal of Freedom
1987 -- Brag Business Achievement Award
1987 -- Phelps-Stokes Fund, Aggrey Medal
Public Service
1941-1971 -- Southern Educational Foundation, Inc., Board Member
1943-1988 -- United Negro College Fund, Founder, President, and Member
1960s-1988 -- Robert R. Moton Memorial Institute, Founder
1970s-1988 -- The College Endowment Funding Plan, Founder
undated -- American National Red Cross, Board of Governors Member
undated -- Boys Scouts of America, National Council Member
undated -- Citizens Committee for the Hoover Report on Reorganization of Federal Government, Board Member
undated -- Institute of International Education, Advisory committee Member
undated -- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Life Member
undated -- National Business League, President and Board Member
undated -- National Urban League, National Committee Member
undated -- Phelps-Stokes Fund, Board of Trustees Member
undated -- President's Commission on Higher Education for Negroes
undated -- Southern Regional Education, Board of Control Member
Related Materials:
Additional biographical materials in the Dale/Patterson Collection of the Anacostia Community Museum Archives.
This collection contains artifacts catalogued in the ACM Objects Collection.
Provenance:
The Frederick Douglass Patterson papers were donated to the Anacostia Community Museum in 2001 by Frederick Douglass Patterson, Jr.
Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Rights:
The Frederick Douglass Patterson papers are the physical property of the Anacostia Community Museum. Literary and copyright belong to the author/creator or their legal heirs and assigns. Rights to work produced during the normal course of Museum business resides with the Anacostia Community Museum. For further information, and to obtain permission to publish or reproduce, contact the Museum Archives.
Topic:
Universities and colleges -- Administration Search this
African Americans -- Education (Higher) Search this
African American universities and colleges Search this
Genre/Form:
Diplomas
Notebooks
Articles
Manuscripts
Photographic prints
Ephemera
Scrapbooks
Newsletters
Awards
Photographs
Invitations
Legal documents
Programs
Correspondence
Clippings
Citation:
Frederick Douglass Patterson papers, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Frederick Douglass Patterson, Jr.
circa 1920–2000, With Information Dating Back to 1481
Summary:
The Knez papers include material concerning many aspects of his career up to the time he retired from the Smithsonian. Of particular strength is the documentation of Asian exhibits, both temporary and permanent ones installed during his time at the Institution. There is also considerable material concerning specimens and collections acquired earlier. Material concerning Knez's work as a field researcher, bibliographer, and editor are also among the papers. After his retirement, Knez became involved in a study of Buddhism among the Tibetans living in India. Copies of film made for this study have been deposited in the Human Studies Film Archives. It should be noted that the papers represent only a portion of the Knez papers, for he has retained some of them.
Scope and Contents:
Knez was not a prolific writer. Though his research encompassed East and Southeast Asia, his field expeditions for collections and his charge to establish the first permanent Asian halls while at the Smithsonian limited his scientific writings to documentation required for Smithsonian exhibitions and his ongoing interest in the material culture of Sam Jong Dong and The Three Ministries, located in the Kimhae region of southeast Korea. To overcome Asian language barriers, Knez had to utilize informants, Korean scholars, and translators in order to carry out his research. The materials that he collected or were forwarded to him about Asia, however, represent an impressive body of information that researchers of Southeast Asia would want to review for general studies. Of special importance would be the information about culture around the South China Sea, and especially studies about Korean and Japanese ethnology and anthropology, the pre-colonial and colonial period, the period right after World War II, the Korean War, and changes in Korean agricultural farming life, from the early 1900s through the 1980s. A knowledge of Chinese calligraphy, Korean Hangul, and pre-World War Two Japanese (Taisho and Showa Periods) are required to understand the complete record documenting Korean history.
These papers contain detailed correspondence and memoranda, documenting Knez's professional life as a curator of anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution. Visual images, photographs, slides, videotapes, film, and sound recording as well as research information and correspondence provide a complete record of the exhibitions that Knez established at the Smithsonian. Correspondence, memoranda, and photographs provide a less complete picture of Knez's activities before his appointment as curator. There is a very strong and complete record of his activities while stationed in Korea after World War II and during the Korean War. This material includes correspondence, photographs and film footage. Knez also brought out of Korea photographs that were taken by the Japanese during the colonial period. There is also film footage taken around 1946 on Cheju Island. In addition, there are postcards and photo cards that contain a rich visual image of Korea dating back before the 1920s.
The largest series within these papers contains Knez's material culture research on Korea. This series includes field notes, interviews, transcriptions, correspondence, photographs, publications and translations about Korean history dating back to 1481, Japanese publications and translations regarding anthropomorphic and agricultural studies of Koreans and Korean agricultural life, and Knez's draft publications. There is a large series of photographs and slides documenting Asian art collections as well as Asian cultures. The Knez Papers also includes a phonograph record collection which is not dated and contains Korean and Japanese opera and folk songs. In addition, there is a collection of Confucius teachings, school books, and genealogy written in Chinese calligraphy and Hangul.
The arrangement of these papers and the file folders within the series are not always well ordered. Multiple accessions were transferred to the National Anthropological Archives. Where subject information was the same, folders were filed into existing series developed in the 1970s and 1980s. In similar fashion, individual items that were not within folders were interfiled in existing folders that contained the same information.
The research series (series six), which primarily documents Knez's research activities and information he received or collected on Korea has some provenance. The material was reboxed several times, but there remains segments of information that are completely related. At other times, there is no logical relationship between one group of files and the next. Most of the folders were never dated. Therefore, it is difficult to understand the different periods in Knez's life when he worked on his Korean studies, without going through the entire series. Photographs are not always dated. Only a very small number were used in Knez's 1997 publication (where they are dated), The Modernization of Three Korean villages, 1951-1981 (Smithsonian Institution Press).
Most of the series within these papers contain different aspects of Knez's interest in Asia, and in particular, his focus on Korea. For example, correspondence regarding Knez's activities during his stay in Korea after World War II and during the Korean War will be found in series two, Subject File; photographs documenting the same time period will be found in series six, Research Projects, and series thirteen, Biographical and Autobiographical Material. And, series ten, Motion Picture Film and Sound Recordings, contain visual images of Knez's activities in Korea during 1946, 1950-1951.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into fourteen (14) series:
SERIES 1.Accession Correspondence and Information and Examination and Reports of Collections, 1959-1977 and undated, with information dating back to 1893, boxes 1-4
SERIES 2.Subject File, 1937-1999 and undated, with information dating back to 1852, boxes 4-32
SERIES 3.Professional and Non-Professional Association Material, 1955-1980, with information dating back to 1896, boxes 33-36
SERIES 4.Exhibitions, 1960-1977 and undated, with information dating back to 1876, boxes 36-43
SERIES 5.Research Grants, 1963-1981 and undated, with information dating back to 1884, boxes 43-46
SERIES 6.Research Projects, 1909, 1929-2000 and undated, with information dating back to 1481, boxes 47-115
SERIES 7.Geographical and Publications Files, 1929-1977 and undated, boxes 116-139
SERIES 8.Korean and Chinese Writings, boxes 140-141
SERIES 9.Collection and Research Photographs, 1946-1977 and undated, boxes 142-161
SERIES 10.Motion Picture Film and Sound Recordings, 1946-1978 and undated, boxes 162-164
SERIES 11.Phonograph Recordings, 1959- and undated, with recordings possibly dating back to the 1940s, boxes 165-170
SERIES 12.Invitations and Greetings, box 171
SERIES 13.Biographical and Autobiographical Material, Family Photographs, and Notes, circa 1920s-1997 and undated, boxes 172-174
SERIES 14.Oversize, 1952-1971 and undated, box 175 and oversize map case drawers
Biographical / Historical:
Eugene I. Knez was born Eugene Irving Knezevich on May 12, 1916, in Clinton, Indiana, where he graduated from high school in 1935. His mother and father, Ida and Sam Knezevich, were divorced in 1932, and in 1936, his mother married Edward P. Pearson. The family moved to California where Knez enrolled in pre-medical studies at Los Angeles City College. Knez transferred to the University of New Mexico (UNM), but before completing his studies, returned to Indiana to be with his father, who was ill. There, Knez enrolled at Indiana University. Since Indiana University did not offer courses in anthropology, Knez took classes in sociology and psychology so that he could fulfill the requirements of UNM. Upon completion of his course work at Indiana University, UNM awarded Knez a B.A. in 1941.
While attending the University of New Mexico, Knez was primarily interested in the Native American Indian. During the summer of 1939 he was appointed Park Ranger-Historian in the National Park Service at Coolidge, Arizona. When he returned to Indiana to be with his father, Knez found a summer job as an assistant to a psychologist, who was testing inmates at the Indiana State Farm.
Knez was drafted as a private in the United States Army in 1941. He was promoted to sergeant in 1942 and during that same year was selected for Officer's Candidate School. Knez graduated OCS as a second lieutenant. Knez was trained and later moved into personnel classification and assignment sections in various divisions before and during World War II. In 1945, he was promoted to captain while in a combat support unit on Saipan.
At the end of the war Knez was assigned to Korea. This assignment began a pivotal sequence of events in his life. With his background in anthropology, Knez was placed in charge of the Army's Bureau of Culture, National Department of Education, United States Military Government in Korea headquartered in Seoul. His responsibilities included the restoration of cultural and religious activities, including museums. At the Bureau, Knez developed a sensitivity towards Korea and her people in the aftermath of Japanese colonialism. Knez undertook the restoration of Admiral Yi's large inscribed boulder and a Buddhist pagoda that had been partially dismantled by the Japanese. He established The National Museum of Anthropology (which became the National Folk Museum). In 1946 Knez sponsored an expedition to Cheju Island to collect ethnographic artifacts and record music for the Museum. During that year he also received permission to excavate two royal Silla Tombs at Kyonju with staff from the National Museum of Korea (NMK). This was the beginning of an endearing association with Korea and her people, which culminated in Knez receiving the award of The Order of Cultural Merit (gold medal) in 1995 from the Republic of Korea.
Knez was discharged from the United States Army in 1946. From 1947 to 1948, he attended Yale University as a research assistant in anthropology and worked at the Peabody Museum. He then joined the federal government and from 1949 to 1953 Knez served as a Cultural Affairs and Public Affairs officer at the American embassies in Korea and Japan. From 1949 to 1951, Knez was chief of Branch Operations, United States Information Agency, first headquartered in Seoul and then moving from Seoul to Pusan with the invasion by North Korea.
During his assignment in Korea, Knez undertook several major activities that had a profound effect on his life. With the approaching North Korean forces getting ready to invade Seoul for the second time, Kim, Chewon, director of the National Museum of Korea, approached Knez and made a personal request to help save the Museum's treasures. Though Knez was a war time member of the American Embassy he undertook the task without receiving official permission. He coordinated the movement of the Museum and Yi dynasty collections and some of the Museum staff by having them shipped by railroad boxcar from Seoul to Pusan.
During the fighting Knez began his ethnographic material culture research at Sam Jong Dong in the Kimhae region north of Pusan. When it appeared in 1951 that the United Nations was losing the war, Knez received permission to spend two months of his home leave to stay in Korea to continue his research. This study was to continue into the 1990s.
While in Pusan, Knez recommended that two dinners be held to help the morale of Korea's cultural leaders, those who were refugees from Seoul. One dinner was to be for the older generation and the second for younger Korean scholars and members of the cultural community. At the second dinner, Knez met his future bride, Choi, Jiae, a highly regarded Korean actress.
During 1951, Knez was transferred to Tokyo as Policy and Program officer for the United States Information Agency. In 1952 he was assigned as the USIA regional Public Affairs officer in Fukuoka.
In 1953, Knez left the USIA and joined the staff at Hunter College, located in the Bronx, New York, first as a lecturer and then as an instructor. While teaching at Hunter, Knez attended graduate school at Syracuse University. In 1959, he received a Doctor of Social Science Degree in anthropology from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Knez's thesis was Sam Jong Dong: A South Korean Village. During the school year 1968-1969, the Maxwell School went from awarding the D.S.Sc. degree to the Ph.D. In 1970, Knez successfully petitioned the School to have his degree changed.
In 1959, Knez was appointed Associate Curator of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution. He was given the responsibility for Asian ethnology and was assigned the task of establishing the first permanent Asian exhibitions in two halls at the United States National Museum (later, the National Museum of Natural History). At the time, the Asian collections available for the halls were poor or non-existent. Knez began his first of several field expeditions to augment the Museum's artifact and cultural collections. Almost all of the Asian exhibitions that he planned had to have collections taken directly from the field.
The first permanent exhibition was opened in 1961 and contained information on the South Asian World in Miniature, India and Pakistan. During the year two more exhibitions were completed, documenting India, Pakistan, and Thailand. In 1962, Knez completed fifteen more exhibitions; he completed eight in 1963 and 1964; one in 1965; and one in 1967. The themes for the exhibitions included China, Japan, Iran, Korea, Tibet, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Pakistan, India, East Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, Islam, and Buddhism.
From 1963 through 1973, Knez put together additional temporary exhibitions, which included themes on Korea, China, India, Japan, Bhutan, and acquisitions of Hindu and Buddhist sculpture. In 1967, Knez provided the objects and created the documentation for the United States Department of State exhibition honoring the visit of the King and Queen of Thailand. Knez developed an exhibition about Korea, which went on display between 1977 and 1979 and was coordinated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.
Knez retired from the Smithsonian in November 1978 and was appointed Anthropologist Emeritus in 1979. Knez moved to Hawaii and developed ties with the University of Hawaii as a visiting scholar at the Center for Korean Studies. Knez continued his research on the Kimhae region, and in 1993, published his revised, The Modernization of Three Korean Villages, 1951-81: an Illustrated study of a people and their material culture.
May 12, 1916 -- Born
1935 -- Graduated High School
1941 -- Drafted, Private, United States Army B.A., University of New Mexico
1942 -- Officer's Candidate School, 2nd Lieutenant, United States Army
1945 -- Promoted to Captain, United States Army
1945-1946 -- United States Army, In charge, Bureau of Culture, National Department of Education, Seoul, Korea
1946 -- Excavation, National Museum of Korea, Royal Silla Tomb, Kyongju Ethnographic and Geographic Survey, National Folk Museum of Anthropology, Korea, Cheju Island
August 1946 -- Honorable Discharge, United States Army
1947-1948 -- Yale University, Peabody Museum, Research Assistant in Anthropology
1947 -- Study of American Indian Shaker cult, Washington State Museum, Seattle
1949 -- Changed Name from Knezevich to Knez
1949-1951 -- Wartime Center Director, United States Information Service, Pusan, Korea
1951 -- Shipment of National Museum of Korea Collections and Staff from Seoul to Pusan
1951-1952 -- Ethnographic Study of Kimhae Area, Korea, towards a dissertation
1952-1976 -- United States Army Reserve (retired as Full Colonel)
1953-1959 -- Lecturer and Instructor, Hunter College, New York
1959 -- Fellow, American Anthropological Association D.S.S.C. (later, Ph.D.) Syracuse University Anthropologist, Smithsonian Institution
1961-1962 -- Overseas Collecting Trips to Asia
1961 -- First Asian Exhibition Installation
1962 -- Letter of Appreciation, Republic of Korea
1965 -- Smithsonian Special Act (Development of Asian Collections) Award
1966 -- Member of the United States Museums Advisory Delegation Planning Meeting for the Establishment of a Korean National Science Museum Center, Seoul
1970 -- Award, Korean Village Study, Smithsonian Institution, Secretary's Fund
1971 -- Exhibition, A Korean Village: Its Changing Culture, which was later adapted as a traveling exhibition in the United States and Canada
1974 -- Exhibition, Bhutan: The Land of Dragons
1975 -- Invited Participant, Pakistan-Sind Government International Seminar
1977 -- Exhibition, Arms and Armor of Japan
1978 -- Retired, Smithsonian Institution Fellow, The Explorers Club, New York
1979 -- Anthropologist Emeritus, Smithsonian Institution Award, Himalayan Project, Tibetan Buddhism and Its Role in Society and State, National Endowment for the Humanities, which led to a publication by Knez with Franz Michael
1981 -- Award, Fulbright Senior Scholar, Korea, Council for International Exchange of Scholars
1995 -- Presentation of The Order of Culture Merit (Gold Medal), Republic of Korea
Related Materials:
The National Anthropological Archives holds Franz H. Michael and Eugene I. Knez photographs and sound recordings relating to Tibetan Buddhism in northeastern India (NAA.PhotoLot.80-13).
Separated Materials:
The motion picture film was transferred to the Human Studies Film Archives in 2002 (HSFA.2002.09).
Provenance:
Most of the papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Dr. Knez in 1978. There have been additional accretions since then.
Restrictions:
The Eugene Irving Knez papers are open for research.
Access to the Eugene Irving Knez papers requires an appointment.
Knez, Eugene I. (Eugene Irving), 1916-2010 Search this
Container:
Box 19
Type:
Archival materials
Scope and Contents note:
Includes histories from the Foreign Service Institute; list of Korean potteries on exhibition at Hunter College; and United States Naval Academy description and photograph of a Korean standard.
Collection Restrictions:
The Eugene Irving Knez papers are open for research.
Access to the Eugene Irving Knez papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Eugene Irving Knez papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Knez, Eugene I. (Eugene Irving), 1916-2010 Search this
Container:
Box 19
Type:
Archival materials
Scope and Contents note:
Includes correspondence from Knez on the shipment of National Museum and Yi Collections from Seoul to Pusan during the Korean War, the role of President Rhee and National Museum director Kim, Chewon; the criticism Kim received from government officials, and the difficulty transferring the collections to Hawaii for safe-keeping, 1951; letter from Paik, L. G., Minister, Ministry of Education, thanking Knez for the transfer of the art collections to Pusan and the possibility of transferring eight crates to the Korean Embassy in Washington, D. C., December 24, 1950; letter from United States Representative Hugh D. Scott, Jr., thanking Knez for the Korean art objects he sent him and arrangements for future shipments, 1950; letter from Woodbridge Bingham, University of California, Berkeley, to Secretary of State Dean Acheson about the Department of State getting involved in transferring the Korean collections to either Japan or the United States during the Korean War; newspaper article about Knez's Korean art collection and his role in transferring the National Collection to Pusan; newspaper article about the Korean art exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a photograph of Jiae Choi [Knez], 1958; newspaper photograph of Kim, Chewon; newspaper article on the opening of the first Korean Trade Center, New York City, with photograph of Jiae Choi, 1958; newspaper articles on the Hunter College Korean art exhibition arranged by Knez with photographs of him and Jiae Choi, 1956.
Collection Restrictions:
The Eugene Irving Knez papers are open for research.
Access to the Eugene Irving Knez papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Eugene Irving Knez papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Correspondence and Data - Hall 7/8, II, 1962-1971.
Collection Creator:
Knez, Eugene I. (Eugene Irving), 1916-2010 Search this
Container:
Box 39
Type:
Archival materials
Scope and Contents note:
Includes internal memoranda regarding the exhibition displays; a letter to the Cultural Counselor, Taiwan, 1960; a letter from Knez to Saul Risenberg while Knez was still teaching at Hunter College, 1959, recommending themes for the Asian exhibitions, and what to avoid and eliminate when discussing the various cultures of Asia; a draft exhibition brochure for Hall 7; an exhibition brochure, Cultures of Africa and Asia, MNH, 1967; and a photograph of Dr. and Mrs. Knez at a receiving line, Hall 7, circa 1967. Also contains a review of the anthropological exhibition halls at the National Museum of Natural History written by Knez for Current Anthropology, December 1963; a newspaper clipping in The Washington Post, July 13, 1962, regarding the Asian exhibitions; and an article in the Potomac section of The Washington Post, October 28, 1962, about the exhibitions.
Collection Restrictions:
The Eugene Irving Knez papers are open for research.
Access to the Eugene Irving Knez papers requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Eugene Irving Knez papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The papers of sculptor and educator Richard Lippold measure 1.3 linear feet and date from 1940s to 1977. The collection provides documentation on Lippold's career through correspondence, writing files, project files, printed materials, and several motion picture films.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of sculptor and educator Richard Lippold measure 1.3 linear feet and date from 1940s to 1977. The collection documents Lippold's career through correspondence, writing files, project files, printed materials, and several motion picture films.
Correspondence includes letters to and from museums and galleries, architects, clients, friends, teaching colleagues, and other artists discussing various professional and non-professional topics. Writing files include drafts and transcripts of speeches on art, society, and sculpture given by Lippold; personal writings and notes; statements on his own art and the art of other artists; and teaching materials such as drafts of syllabi, course schedules, and lectures. Project files mostly relate to public commissions and contain correspondence, status reports, work schedules, financial information, sketches and preliminary drawings, agreements, as well as some writings. Printed materials include newspaper clippings; seven issues of the publication, "Dance Observer," for which Lippold served among its editors and contributors; and some exhibition material. Film footage includes the dedication of Lippold's "Orpheus and Apollo" at the Lincoln Center in 1962; a documentary made about Lippold's sculpture, "The Sun," at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and scenes of Lippold's "World Tree" at Harvard University.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as five series.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1945-1977 (Box 1; .5 linear feet)
Series 2: Writing Files, 1940s-1970s (Box 1; 10 folders)
Series 3: Project Files, 1950-1972 (Box 1-2; .5 linear feet)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1943-1973 (Box 1; 6 folders)
Series 5: Motion Picture Film, circa 1960s (FC 2-4; .3 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Richard Lippold (1915-2002) was a sculptor and educator in New York, NY. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he studied at the University of Chicago and received training in industrial design at the Art Institute of Chicago. He also studied dance and piano. After graduating, Lippold started his own industrial design studio, but soon ended this endeavor to teach design and engineer drawing and mechanics at the University of Michigan in 1941. After moving to New York in 1944, Lippold began his career as a professional artist, exhibiting his work and creating public art installations. His art was known for metal, gold, and silver wire, rods, and bars used to create geometric sculptures that often incorporated a component of suspension. His installations can be found in museums, building lobbies, and universities across America including Flight found in the Pan Am (now the Met Life) Building, The Sun in the Museum of Modern Art, Baldacchino in St. Mary's Cathedral, California, and Ad Astra in front of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. Notable group exhibitions featuring Lippold's work include Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America (1951) and Fifteen Americans(1952) both at the Museum of Modern Art, Venice Biennale (1988), and Sculpture: American Directions, 1945-75 (1975) at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Marquette University's Haggerty Museum of Art held a retrospective exhibition for Lippold in 1990. His work is found in collections at the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and more. In addition to the University of Michigan, Lippold also taught at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, Trenton Junior College in New Jersey, and Hunter College in New York where he taught for over a decade.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm (reel N69-24) of material loaned for microfilming including correspondence; catalogs; clippings; writings; and papers relating to the Conference on Government Participation in the Arts and Humanities. Loaned materials were returned to the donor after microfilming and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in several installments by Richard Lippold between 1968-1977. Materials found on reel N69-24 were lent for microfilming 1968-1969.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
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.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Richard Lippold papers, 1940s-1977. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
Contains articles from nationally and internationally published newspapers and magazines documenting the tours, performances, and television appearances of Duke Ellington and the Duke Ellington Orchestra between 1931 and 1973. The clippings were compiled for Duke Ellington by clipping services Burelles, Incorporated, Livingston, New Jersey; Vital Information Press, Brooklyn, New York; Luce International of New York, New York; and Associated Press Clippings, London, England.
The newspaper clippings document Ellington's activities in the United States. The clippings are also an extension of the scrapbooks which document Ellington's international tours and some early American performances between 1933 and 1958 that were reported by international news services. Newspaper clippings for the years 1960-1961 can be found in volume twenty two in the scrapbook series. The clippings are arranged in chronological order. Samples of the mailing envelopes from the newspaper clipping service and other materials found among the clippings are at the end of the series. Of particular interest are clippings with caricatures of Ellington and other African-American performers such as Harry Belafonte and Diahann Carroll; the 1959 premiere performance at Hunter College of Ellington's Queen Suite, written for England's Queen Elizabeth II; and an Ellington concert following a Detroit Pistons and St. Louis Hawks professional basketball game in 1960.
Some of the newspaper clippings were discarded due condition of the materials.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the original and master audiovisual materials are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Copyright restrictions. Consult the Archives Center at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Paul Ellington, executor, is represented by:
Richard J.J. Scarola, Scarola Ellis LLP, 888 Seventh Avenue, 45th Floor, New York, New York 10106. Telephone (212) 757-0007 x 235; Fax (212) 757-0469; email: rjjs@selaw.com; www.selaw.com; www.ourlawfirm.com.
Collection Citation:
Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Sponsor:
Processing and encoding partially funded by a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.
New York, Hunter College Assembly Hall, New York; Friday, December 9, 1966.
Quarter sized. 18 ¼ x 14. 2c. Rust on lavender; rust color lettering and print of Duke Ellington.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but the original and master audiovisual materials are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Copyright restrictions. Consult the Archives Center at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Paul Ellington, executor, is represented by:
Richard J.J. Scarola, Scarola Ellis LLP, 888 Seventh Avenue, 45th Floor, New York, New York 10106. Telephone (212) 757-0007 x 235; Fax (212) 757-0469; email: rjjs@selaw.com; www.selaw.com; www.ourlawfirm.com.
Collection Citation:
Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Sponsor:
Processing and encoding partially funded by a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Betty Parsons Gallery records and personal papers, 1916-1991. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Walton Family Foundation.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Betty Parsons Gallery records and personal papers, 1916-1991. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Walton Family Foundation.
The papers of art critic Emily Genauer measure 11.4 linear feet and date from circa 1920 to 1990. Found within the papers are correspondence with artists, gallery owners, and friends; extensive writings; research and reference files; personal business records; and photographs. Notable correspondents include David Aronson, Mrs. Max Beckman, Isabel Bishop, Dorothy Carnegie, Marc Chagall, Salvatore Dali, Stuart Davis, Martha Graham, Harry F. Guggenheim, Irene Rice Pereira, Clyfford Still, Rufino Tamayo, and Frank Lloyd Wright, among many others.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art critic Emily Genauer measure 11.4 linear feet and date from circa 1920 to 1990. Found within the papers are correspondence with artists, gallery owners, and friends; extensive writings; research and reference files; personal business records; and photographs.
Notable correspondents include David Aronson, Mrs. Max Beckman, Isabel Bishop, Dorothy Carnegie, Marc Chagall, Salvatore Dali, Stuart Davis, Martha Graham, Harry F. Guggenheim, Irene Rice Pereira, Clyfford Still, Rufino Tamayo, and Frank Lloyd Wright, among numerous others. Extensive writings consist largely of drafts of columns written by Genauer and supporting research notes, as well as essays, speeches, lectures, book manuscripts, and memoirs. Research and reference files include source material for columns and essays. Personal business records document Genauer's work on committees and arts organizations, juries, awards, honors and also include interview transcripts and other personal scattered files. There is material regarding her leaving the New York World-Telegram. Printed material includes two of Genauer's books, magazines, newspaper clippings, and exhibition catalogs. Photographs are portraits of Genauer and of artwork.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 6 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence and Letters, 1938-1991 (Box 1, 12, 0.8 linear feet)
Series 2: Writings, circa 1930s-1990s (Box 1-3, 2.5 linear feet)
Series 3: Research and Reference Files, circa 1920s-1990s (Box 4-6, 2.6 linear feet)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, 1933-1992 (Box 6-7, 0.8 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Materials, circa 1920s-1990s (Box 7-9, 12, 1.6 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1930s-1970s (Box 9-11, 12, 1.8 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Emily Genauer (1911-2002) was a modern art critic and columinst working in New York City from 1932 until well into the 1980s. In 1974, she won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished art criticism.
Genauer was born in 1911 in Staten Island. She attended Hunter College and Columbia University, majoring in Journalism. She began her writing career in 1929 with the New York World, which later became the New York World-Telegram. She became a strong advocate for modern art and sculpture and introduced modern artists like Marc Chagall and Diego Rivera to the newspaper audience. She also followed lesser known artists and often visited their studios, and they, in return, regularly read her articles and reviews of their shows.
Genauer left the New York World-Telegram in 1949 after a dispute with the owner who accused her writing as overly sympathetic to "Communists and left-wingers" and told her she could no longer write about Picasso. She immediately went to work as the art critic for the New York Herald Tribune, where she worked until 1967, when it folded. She then wrote a regular column for the Newsday Syndicate until the mid-1970s. She also worked for Harper's and in television and served on the council for the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1966 to 1970. Genauer was the author of a number of books, including The Best of Art, Chagall at the Met, and Rufino Tamayo.
Genauer passed away in 2002 in New York City at the age of 91.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reel NG1) including 300 letters, photographs, and printed material. Loaned materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Emily Genauer lent letters on reel NG1 for microfilming 1959. Constance Roche, daughter of Emily Genauer, donated additional papers in 2000 and 2003.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
Occupation:
Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Gallery owners -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Estelle Ellis is a pioneer in publishing, advertising, and marketing. She was among the first to focus on the American female demographic, especially teens and working-class women. Condé Nast Publications, Incorporated, Carter Hawley Hale-owned department stores, Phillips-Van Heusen, Dow Chemical, and the Kimberly-Clark Corporation were among her clients. The Papers include business correspondence and proposals, marketing materials, advertisements, and oral history interviews with Ellis.
Scope and Contents:
The Estelle Ellis Papers include material dating from the 1940s to 2004, with the majority of materials dating from the 1960s to the 1980s. Client files (including correspondence, presentations, proposals, and marketing materials) comprise the bulk of the collection. Photographic negatives, slides, and photographs from advertising campaigns and interviews with Ellis on audio and VHS cassette are also present. Ellis's personal research files on advertising and marketing, including magazine and newspaper tear sheets, are included.
The collection documents Ellis's career in publishing and as owner of Business Image, Inc. Ellis's innovative marketing and design sense is evident throughout these materials. Clients include: Carter Hawley Hale and its subsidiaries The Broadway, John Wanamaker, and Weinstock's; Condé Nast Publications and its subsidiaries Vogue, House & Garden, Charm, Glamour, and Bride's; the Kimberly-Clark Corporation; and East/West Network, Incorporated.
Of note to researchers with interest in teen magazines will be Ellis's early work on Design for Living, a short-lived publication and precursor to Seventeen, produced by Popular Science Publishing Corporation.
Among the distinctive materials in the collection are promotional items developed for Seventeen and Charm magazines. Designed to be informative and eye-catching, these materials used creative techniques to highlight the uniquely female qualities and concerns of the magazines' readers. In one instance, price guides were "handwritten" in the form of a shopping list on a paper bag. In another example, press releases were tied in ribbons like a bundle of love letters. For students of marketing and design, as well as for historians interested in women's history and consumer culture, materials such as these will be a valuable resource.
The Estelle Ellis Papers are arranged in three series: Client Files, 1941-1994, Business Materials, 1953-2004, undated and Research Files, 1950s-2004. The original order of the materials has been retained where possible, although some reorganization has been conducted within aggregates to facilitate research.
Series 1, Client Files, 1941-1994, are arranged alphabetically by business name. Subsidiaries are listed separately from their owner. For instance, work completed for The Broadway, a Carter Hawley Hale-owned department store, is listed separately from its parent company. Where needed, sub-groups have been created and are organized by type of material or project. Materials are further organized by date. Some of the client materials were originally organized by Ellis and her late husband into seventeen oversized scrapbooks. These have been disassembled for ease of organization and access. A photocopy of each scrapbook was made to preserve a record of the original arrangement of the materials and for ready reference.
Series 2, Business Materials, 1953-2004, undated, is divided into five sub-series: Business Image, Incorporated Slides; Speeches and Articles; Greeting Cards; Awards; and Audio-Visual Materials. The slides were kept in their original order when transferred from the slide boxes to the sleeves. Of note are slides of Helmut Newton's photographs for the Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche advertising campaign. (The work of prominent photographers Robert Frank and Duane Michals are represented in the materials for American Girl and Sportempos.) Speeches and articles written by Estelle Ellis span 1953 to 1994. Materials are included in this subseries based upon the original order of the collection, scope of the project, or content of the speech. Time topical greeting cards that were sent by Business Image, Inc., to clients comprise subseries 2.3. A single award from 1962 comprises Subseries 2.4. Audiovisual materials, including recorded interviews and research material, is the final subseries and is arranged by format and then date. The 1994 oral history interview by Tom Wiener on behalf of the Archives Center deals primarily with Ellis's early publishing career. The 2007 interview by historian Lu Ann Jones covers that period and later developments, including Ellis's family life. Jones's transcript of that interview is appended to this finding aid.
Series 3, Research Files, 1950s-2004, include Ellis's compilation of newspaper and magazine articles, advertisements, and marketing publications. Sub-groups exist for Absolut vodka advertisements, Condé Nast Publications, and The New Yorker magazine. Of special note within this series is a short autobiographical note written by Ellis for her alma mater Hunter College.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into three series.
Series 1: Client Files, 1942-1994
Series 2: Business materials, 1953-1994
Series 3: Research Files
Series 4: Audiovisual, 1979-2004
Biographical / Historical:
For more than fifty years, Estelle Ellis has advised American businesses about the changing face of American society: its demographics, its social structures, its values. She has helped these institutions understand social change and address the needs and interests of their diverse customers, audiences, and constituencies. Her work has spanned a period of significant social and economic change affecting women's lives and expectations. These shifts are apparent in her pioneering work for Seventeen, Charm, Glamour, and House & Garden magazines and with corporate clients including the Kimberley-Clark Corporation, Evan-Picone, and the Carter Hawley Hale group of department stores.
Ellis was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 12, 1919. She graduated from Hunter College in 1940, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a minor in Journalism. Her publishing career began at Popular Science magazine, which published three issues of Design for Living in 1942, before abandoning the new venture due to war-time paper shortages. Design for Living was aimed at "high school girls and the home economics teacher," and signaled the direction of Ellis' future career. Ellis also worked for Walter Annenberg's Click magazine (Triangle Publications), assembling an impressive portfolio of articles.
In 1943, Editor-in-Chief Helen Valentine hired Ellis to help launch a new publication that she had conceived. Seventeen was the first magazine to identify young girls as an economically viable market. Ellis combined her strong sense of design and advertising with emerging techniques in marketing to awaken her advertisers to this viable consumer demographic. To personalize the research data, she created "Teena," a fictional character who spoke for her age group and symbolized the typical Seventeenreader.
Helen Valentine and Art Director Cipe Pineles became mentors in Ellis's life and work. Following the success of Seventeen, the trio was asked by its publisher, Street and Smith, to revitalize Charm and to gear it towards a new segment of female consumers. This decision re-established the focus of the magazine on the growing working woman market. To persuade advertisers to address this group, Ellis distilled market research into a series of publications titled "Interview." The "Interview" and "Teena" reports commissioned by Ellis were among the first market research studies to establish teenage girls and working women as distinct and economically powerful markets. During the period from 1950 to 1957, Charm increased in circulation and importance to the business and advertising communities. After a business merger with Newhouse Magazines, Charm was incorporated into Glamour magazine, and Ellis resigned to create her own firm, Business Image, Incorporated.
Starting in 1958, Business Image, Incorporated, offered creative marketing solutions to a diverse array of clients. Ellis was among the first to identify the importance of market and product positioning, a key aspect of what today is called "branding." According to Ellis, Business Image, Inc. was dedicated "to helping business understand the impact of social change on business trends." Ellis continued to work with publishing and magazines, and she counted Glamour, House & Garden, and their parent company, Condé Nast Publications, as clients. Ellis worked closely with editors to keep them abreast of "shifting consumer markets, values, and lifestyles." She also advised them on how to convey the relevance of their publications and the consuming power of their readers to magazine advertisers. Ellis took on smaller projects for other Condé Nast publications such as Bride's (late 1960s) and Vogue (early 1970s). Publishing industry clients also included the Girl Scouts of America's American Girl magazine (early 1960s), Better Homes and Gardens (primarily 1980s), Elle (late 1980s), and East West Network (1980s), publishers of airlines magazines.
The list of Ellis's clients outside of publishing is equally long and impressive. Ellis's work for the Kimberly-Clark Corporation in the late 1960s and early 1970s is of particular note. In addition to recommending new products for the firm, she guided the development of its Life Cycle Center, a resource for women of all ages-from menstruation to menopause-headed by a professional education director. Ellis joined the Board of Phillips-Van Heusen and produced its innovative publication, We the People of PVH. Evan-Picone, Yves Saint-Laurent Fragrances, Scoville, AT&T, and the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company also were Business Image, Inc. clients.
For some thirty years, beginning in the mid-1960s, Ellis provided a wide range of professional services for New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). She created the successful FIT fundraising campaign/event "One Person Makes a Difference," which raised money for student scholarships. She created programs to build the school's enrollment and its financial support. Ellis's work also promoted awareness of the global fashion influence of New York and FIT.
Beginning in the 1990s Ellis concentrated on writing. She combined her experience in publishing with her personal interests to co-author three books: At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live With and Care for Their Libraries (Southern Books, 1995), At Home with Art: How Art Lovers Live With and Care for Their Treasures (Potter, 1999), and The Booklover's Repair Kit: First Aid for Home Libraries (Alfred A. Knopf, 2000). Most recently, Ellis co-authored Cipe Pineles: Two Remembrances (RIT, Cary Graphic Arts Press, 2005), about her mentor and friend.
Ellis was married for fifty years to Samuel I. Rubenstein, now deceased. Rubenstein was critical in the development of Business Image, Incorporated, and partnered with her in the firm for twenty-five of its forty-five years. She has two children, Ellis Marc Rubenstein, currently President and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences, and Nora Jane Rubenstein, Ph.D., a writer, ethnographer, and president of her Vermont-based Place/Space Associates. Ellis died on July 12, 2012.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Estelle Ellis in 1991, 2000, and 2004.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but negatives in Box 62 are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Genre/Form:
Advertising
Citation:
Estelle Ellis Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
