This accession consists of the primary website for the National Museum of American History as it existed on October 3, 2014, shortly before it was redesigned. The website
includes information about visiting, exhibitions, departments, staff, donating, internships, fellowships, and volunteering. It also includes online exhibitions. Materials
are in electronic format.
This accession consists of the Department of Anthropology website. It was crawled twice on November 28, 2018, shortly before the website was taken offline and its contents
incorporated into the National Museum of Natural History website. The Department of Anthropology website includes information about collections, staff, staff publications,
research, and training programs as well as online exhibitions. This accession also includes server files. Materials are in electronic format.
This accession consists of the Department of Paleobiology website. It was crawled twice on November 27, 2018, and again on November 29, 2018, shortly before the website
was taken offline and its contents incorporated into the National Museum of Natural History website. The Department of Paleobiology website includes information about the
department and its history, staff, research, and collections. This accession also includes server files. Materials are in electronic format.
1.5 cu. ft. (1 record storage box) (1 document box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Black-and-white photographs
Date:
1922-1958, 1963-1966
Descriptive Entry:
These records consist primarily of photographs taken at various luncheons, ceremonies, and presentations, 1963-1966, and copies of letters and memoranda relating to
the development of the National Air Museum and the U.S. Air Force Museum.
29.5 cu. ft. (29 record storage boxes) (1 document box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Place:
United States -- History
Date:
circa 1955-1988
Descriptive Entry:
Records include correspondence and memoranda with NMAH curators, government agencies, collections committee for NMAH, professional associations, and academicians; information
pertaining to the Doubleday Lectures; staff appointments; accounting ledgers; congressional budget submission reports and hearing files; five year funding prospectus; federal
and trust fund appropriation requests, allocations, and distribution summary logs; inventory lists; building management; lectures and financial contracts; operation reviews
for NMAH; travel allotments and balance sheets; and purchase agreements.
Historical Note:
The Assistant Director for Administration is responsible for overseeing budget and financial planning, personnel, contracting, procurement, special exhibition projects,
and building management of the National Museum of American History.
The activities of this office date back to 1958, when William E. Boyle was appointed Administrative Assistant in what was then called the National Museum of History and
Technology (NMHT). Boyle became Administrative Officer for the Museum in 1963, retaining that post until 1965. In 1963, Virginia Beets joined Boyle as an Administrative Officer,
and succeeded him as head of the office in 1966.
Robert G. Tillotson joined the staff in 1967 as Administrative Officer, with the same responsibilities as Beets. In December 1969, Tillotson became Assistant Director for
Administration. Despite the difference in title, Beets continued in a similar capacity to that of Tillotson until she resigned her position in 1973 to become Museum Registrar.
Tillotson chose Jean J. Middleton as his Administrative Officer in 1976. In 1979, Tillotson left the office to accept the position of Executive Director of the National Philatelic
Collections, and Middleton resigned her post to join Tillotson as assistant.
Throughout 1980, the duties of the Assistant Director for Administration were temporarily handled by Luis del Rio, Executive Officer. During that year, NMHT had its name
changed to the National Museum of American History (NMAH). In 1981, Ronald E. Becker was appointed Assistant Director for Administration. Becker selected Richard E. Nicastro
to become his Assistant Administrator from 1983 to 1984, and, Administrative Officer in 1985. Elizabeth E. Greene replaced Nicastro as Administrative Officer in 1986, when
Nicastro became Deputy Assistant Director for Exhibits, NMAH.
56 cu. ft. (56 record storage boxes) (1 oversize folder)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Black-and-white photographs
Date:
1881, 1895-1976
Introduction:
This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.
Descriptive Entry:
These records document the administration of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum from its establishment until its reopening in 1976 in the Carnegie Mansion. Although there is
some material concerning the activities of Eleanor Garnier Hewitt and Sarah Cooper Hewitt, the majority of the records deal with the management of the Museum following Sarah
Cooper Hewitt's death in 1930. Records of Mary S. M. Gibson, curator, 1904-1945; Calvin S. Hathaway, curator, 1946-1951, and director, 1951-1963; H. Christian Rohlfing, acting
administrator, 1963-1968; Richard P. Wunder, director, 1968-1969; and Lisa Taylor, director, 1969- , are included.
The records include correspondence, memoranda, reports, publications, notes, photographs, and forms concerning the administrative operation of the Museum, including financial,
personnel, buildings and equipment, and fund-raising activities; the acquisition, care, and use of the Museum's collections; exhibits, programs, and activities sponsored by
the Museum; research activities of the staff and outside researchers; and Museum publications. Correspondents include staff of the parent organizations, the Cooper Union and
the Smithsonian Institution; museums; art historians; donors; contributors; and the general public. A small amount of material documents the activities and history of the
Cooper and Hewitt families, and of the Cooper Union. Some materials date to when the Museum was part of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
Historical Note:
The Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design was established in 1896 as the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration. Its parent organization, the Cooper
Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, was founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper as a free school for the working classes of New York City. In his original plans for Cooper
Union, Peter Cooper made provisions for a museum, but these plans were not immediately carried out.
In 1895, Peter Cooper's granddaughters, Eleanor Garnier Hewitt, Sarah Cooper Hewitt, and Amy Hewitt Green, asked the trustees of the Cooper Union for room in which to install
a Museum for Arts of Decoration, modeled after the Musee des Arts Decoratifs of Paris. The purpose of the museum was to provide the art students of Cooper Union, students
of design, and working designers with study collections of the decorative arts. The trustees assigned the fourth floor of the Cooper Union's Foundation Building to the sisters,
and the Museum was opened to the public in 1897.
Until the death of Sarah Cooper Hewitt, the management of the Museum was essentially in the hands of the Hewitt sisters as directors. Following Sarah's death in 1930, the
trustees of the Cooper Union appointed a board of four directors, with Constance P. Hare as chairman, to administer the Museum. When Edwin S. Burdell became director of the
Cooper Union in 1938, the Museum was made part of his administrative responsibility, the Board of Directors was abolished, and an Advisory Council on the Museum, responsible
for matters relating to the Museum's collections, was set up. Curators and custodians of the Museum included Mary A. Peoli, 1898-1904; Mary S. M. Gibson, 1904-1945; and Calvin
S. Hathaway, 1946-1963 (curator, 1946-1951, and director, 1951-1963).
In 1963, the Cooper Union began consideration of plans to discontinue the Museum because of the financial demands of the other divisions of the Union and the absence of
a close relationship between the programs of the Museum and the Art School. The announcement of the plans led to a considerable public outcry, and a Committee to Save the
Cooper Union Museum, headed by Henry F. duPont, was established. Negotiations among the Committee, the Cooper Union, and the Smithsonian Institution led to the Museum's transfer
to the Smithsonian on July 1, 1968. The Museum was renamed the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design and in 1969 acquired its present name. In 1970, the Museum moved into its present
home, the Carnegie Mansion, which was renovated and reopened to the public in 1976. Heads of the Museum since 1963 have been H. Christian Rohlfing, acting administrator, 1963-1968;
Richard P. Wunder, director 1968-1969; and Lisa Taylor, director, 1969- .
These records are the official incoming correspondence of the Division of Insects (outgoing correspondence for part of the period is included in record unit 139). Included
is correspondence from entomologists and others requesting determinations, loans of specimens, or regarding purchase or gift of specimens for the museum; and correspondence
between entomologists regarding determinations or other scientific matters, and publications of findings.
Fairly extensive correspondence exists for the following entomologists: Charles Fuller Baker, Elmer Darwin Ball, William Beutenmuller, Frederick Blanchard, J. Chester Bradley,
Frank Hurlburt Chittenden, John Henry Comstock, Charles Dury, Harrison Gray Dyer, Henry Edwards, Ephraim Porter Felt, Charles Henry Fernald, Henry Torsey Fernald, James Fletcher,
William Hague Harrison, Charles A. Hart, Samuel Henshaw, William W. Hill, William Jacob Holland, Leland Ossian Howard, Henry Herbert Lyman, Alexander Dyar MacGillivray, James
Abram Garfield Rehn, Charles Valentine Riley, Samuel H. Scudder, David Sharp, Henry Skinner, Annie Trumball Slosson, John Bernhard Smith, W. N. Tallant, and Lucien M. Underwood.
Important items are indicated by a asterisk. Some letters are filed by the name of the person referred to rather than by correspondent.
Information regarding administration of the Division of Insects is found in the folders of W. V. Cox, R. I. Geare, George Brown Goode. F. W. Hodge, Richard Rathbun, William
de C. Ravenel, Charles Valentine Riley, John Bernhard Smith, and Frederick William True. Riley's reports for 1886-1888 are filed under "Reports."
Historical Note:
The Division of Insects of the United States National Museum, reorganized in 1963 as the Department of Entomology, had its origin in the deposit of personal collections
in 1881 by Charles Valentine Riley, entomologist of the Department of Agriculture. The Museum became the depository for the national collection of insects. The chief entomologist
of the Department of Agriculture became honorary curator of insects in the National Museum, aided by an assistant curator on the museum staff. Many staff members of the Department
of Agriculture served as custodians, and thus the national collection of insects has become a joint enterprise of the Department and the Museum. Honorary curators were as
follows: Charles Valentine Riley, 1881-1894; Leland Ossian Howard, 1895-1927. Assistant curators (museum employees) were as follows: John Bernhard Smith, 1886-1889; Martin
L. Linell (aid), 1889-1896; William Harris Ashmeade, 1897-1908.
These records include receipts for specimens, annual and monthly reports of the Division, and correspondence regarding acquisition, distribution, and loan of specimens.
Historical Note:
The Division of Insects of the United States National Museum, reorganized in 1963 as the Department of Entomology, had its origin in the deposit of personal collections
in 1881 by Charles Valentine Riley, entomologist of the Department of Agriculture. The Museum became the depository for the national collection of insects. The chief entomologist
of the Department of Agriculture became honorary curator of insects in the national museum, aided by an assistant curator on the museum staff. Many staff members of the Department
of Agriculture served as custodians, and thus the national collection of insects has become a joint enterprise of the Department and the Museum. Honorary curators were as
follows: Charles Valentine Riley, 1881-1894; Leland Ossian Howard, 1895-1927. Assistant curators (museum employees) were as follows: John Bernhard Smith, 1886-1889; Martin
L. Linell (aid), 1889-1896; William Harris Ashmead, 1897-1908; James Chamberlain Crawford, Assistant and Associate Curator, 1908-1919.
This collection consists of forms and circulars of the Secretary, 1846-1888; forms and circulars of the National Museum, Exchanges, Ethnology, Correspondence Clerk,
Disbursing Clerk, International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, Library, and National Zoological Park; forms ordered, 1860-1933; lists of Smithsonian Institution employees,
1846-1910, with salaries; and invitations to Smithsonian events, circa 1915-1925.
These records are the official minutes of the Board. They are compiled at the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian, who is also secretary to the Board, after
approval by the Regents' Executive Committee and by the Regents themselves. The minutes are edited, not a verbatim account of proceedings. For reasons unknown, there are no
manuscript minutes for the period from 1857 through 1890; and researchers must rely on printed minutes published in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution instead.
Minutes are transferred regularly from the Secretary's Office to the Archives. Minutes less than 15 years old are closed to researchers. Indexes exist for the period from
1907 to 1946 and can be useful.
Historical Note:
The Smithsonian Institution was created by authority of an Act of Congress approved August 10, 1846. The Act entrusted direction of the Smithsonian to a body called
the Establishment, composed of the President; the Vice President; the Chief Justice of the United States; the secretaries of State, War, Navy, Interior, and Agriculture; the
Attorney General; and the Postmaster General. In fact, however, the Establishment last met in 1877, and control of the Smithsonian has always been exercised by its Board of
Regents. The membership of the Regents consists of the Vice President and the Chief Justice of the United States; three members each of the Senate and House of Representatives;
two citizens of the District of Columbia; and seven citizens of the several states, no two from the same state. (Prior to 1970 the category of Citizen Regents not residents
of Washington consisted of four members). By custom the Chief Justice is Chancellor. The office was at first held by the Vice President. However, when Millard Fillmore succeeded
to the presidency on the death of Zachary Taylor in 1851, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney was chosen in his stead. The office has always been filled by the Chief Justice
since that time.
The Regents of the Smithsonian have included distinguished Americans from many walks of life. Ex officio members (Vice President) have been: Spiro T. Agnew, Chester A.
Arthur, Allen W. Barkley, John C. Breckenridge, George Bush, Schuyler Colfax, Calvin Coolidge, Charles Curtis, George M. Dallas, Charles G. Dawes, Charles W. Fairbanks, Millard
Fillmore, Gerald R. Ford, John N. Garner, Hannibal Hamlin, Thomas A. Hendricks, Garret A. Hobart, Hubert H. Humphrey, Andrew Johnson, Lyndon B. Johnson, William R. King, Thomas
R. Marshall, Walter F. Mondale, Levi P. Morton, Richard M. Nixon, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, James S. Sherman, Adlai E. Stevenson, Harry S. Truman, Henry A.
Wallace, William A. Wheeler, Henry Wilson.
Ex officio members (Chief Justice) have been: Roger B. Taney, Salmon P. Chase, Nathan Clifford, Morrison R. Waite, Samuel F. Miller, Melville W. Fuller, Edward D. White,
William Howard Taft, Charles Evans Hughes, Harlan F. Stone, Fred M. Vinson, Earl Warren, Warren E. Burger.
Regents on the part of the Senate have been: Clinton P. Anderson, Newton Booth, Sidney Breese, Lewis Cass, Robert Milledge Charlton, Bennet Champ Clark, Francis M. Cockrell,
Shelby Moore Cullom, Garrett Davis, Jefferson Davis, George Franklin Edmunds, George Evans, Edwin J. Garn, Walter F. George, Barry Goldwater, George Gray, Hannibal Hamlin,
Nathaniel Peter Hill, George Frisbie Hoar, Henry French Hollis, Henry M. Jackson, William Lindsay, Henry Cabot Lodge, Medill McCormick, James Murray Mason, Samuel Bell Maxey,
Robert B. Morgan, Frank E. Moss, Claiborne Pell, George Wharton Pepper, David A. Reed, Leverett Saltonstall, Hugh Scott, Alexander H. Smith, Robert A. Taft, Lyman Trumbull,
Wallace H. White, Jr., Robert Enoch Withers.
Regents on the part of the House of Representatives have included: Edward P. Boland, Frank T. Bow, William Campbell Breckenridge, Overton Brooks, Benjamin Butterworth,
Clarence Cannon, Lucius Cartrell, Hiester Clymer, William Colcock, William P. Cole, Jr., Maurice Connolly, Silvio O. Conte, Edward E. Cox, Edward H. Crump, John Dalzell, Nathaniel
Deering, Hugh A. Dinsmore, William English, John Farnsworth, Scott Ferris, Graham Fitch, James Garfield, Charles L. Gifford, T. Alan Goldsborough, Frank L. Greene, Gerry Hazleton,
Benjamin Hill, Henry Hilliard, Ebenezer Hoar, William Hough, William M. Howard, Albert Johnson, Leroy Johnson, Joseph Johnston, Michael Kirwan, James T. Lloyd, Robert Luce,
Robert McClelland, Samuel K. McConnell, Jr., George H. Mahon, George McCrary, Edward McPherson, James R. Mann, George Perkins Marsh, Norman Y. Mineta, A. J. Monteague, R.
Walton Moore, Walter H. Newton, Robert Dale Owen, James Patterson, William Phelps, Luke Poland, John Van Schaick Lansing Pruyn, B. Carroll Reece, Ernest W. Roberts, Otho Robards
Singleton, Frank Thompson, Jr., John M. Vorys, Hiram Warner, Joseph Wheeler.
Citizen Regents have been: David C. Acheson, Louis Agassiz, James B. Angell, Anne L. Armstrong, William Backhouse Astor, J. Paul Austin, Alexander Dallas Bache, George
Edmund Badger, George Bancroft, Alexander Graham Bell, James Gabriel Berrett, John McPherson Berrien, Robert W. Bingham, Sayles Jenks Bowen, William G. Bowen, Robert S. Brookings,
John Nicholas Brown, William A. M. Burden, Vannevar Bush, Charles F. Choate, Jr., Rufus Choate, Arthur H. Compton, Henry David Cooke, Henry Coppee, Samuel Sullivan Cox, Edward
H. Crump, James Dwight Dana, Harvey N. Davis, William Lewis Dayton, Everette Lee Degolyer, Richard Delafield, Frederic A. Delano, Charles Devens, Matthew Gault Emery, Cornelius
Conway Felton, Robert V. Fleming, Murray Gell-Mann, Robert F. Goheen, Asa Gray, George Gray, Crawford Hallock Greenwalt, Nancy Hanks, Caryl Parker Haskins, Gideon Hawley,
John B. Henderson, John B. Henderson, Jr., A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Gardner Greene Hubbard, Charles Evans Hughes, Carlisle H. Humelsine, Jerome C. Hunsaker, William Preston
Johnston, Irwin B. Laughlin, Walter Lenox, Augustus P. Loring, John Maclean, William Beans Magruder, John Walker Maury, Montgomery Cunningham Meigs, John C. Merriam, R. Walton
Moore, Roland S. Morris, Dwight W. Morrow, Richard Olney, Peter Parker, Noah Porter, William Campbell Preston, Owen Josephus Roberts, Richard Rush, William Winston Seaton,
Alexander Roby Shepherd, William Tecumseh Sherman, Otho Robards Singleton, Joseph Gilbert Totten, John Thomas Towers, Frederic C. Walcott, Richard Wallach, Thomas J. Watson,
Jr., James E. Webb, James Clarke Welling, Andrew Dickson White, Henry White, Theodore Dwight Woolsey.
This accession consists of the working files of Elizabeth E. Greene, which she created and/or maintained during her tenure as Assistant Director for Administration
at the National Museum of American History (NMAH). Materials include NMAH budget information pertaining to program expenses, congressional appropriations, grant proposals,
and Trust Fund issues. Records also include some of Greene's memoranda.
6.5 cu. ft. (6 record storage boxes) (1 document box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Date:
circa 1981-1991
Descriptive Entry:
These records document Office of the Director budgetary activities for the National Museum of American History (NMAH) during the tenure of Roger G. Kennedy. Materials
include outgoing and incoming correspondence and memoranda pertaining to Federal and Trust Fund budget submissions, allocations, year-end requests, and final account balances;
private gifts and grants; NMAH renovation and restoration; and Congressional hearings. These records also consist of Trust budget worksheets; quarterly budget reports; information
on the Afro-American Artifacts Project, Vietnam Generation Project, and the M*A*S*H Traveling Exhibition; minutes of meetings; financial records concerning major NMAH exhibitions,
such as "Field to Factory," "Life in America," and "Year of India;" and personnel files.
This accession consists of records documenting the concerns of the Director of the Office of Plant Services (OPlantS). Records pertain to a variety of topics including
repairs, renovations, restorations, safety, and general staffing issues. Materials include memoranda, reports, floor plans, clippings, black and white photographs, and related
materials.
Museums, buildings and events documented in this collection include: the National Collection of Fine Arts, the National Portrait Gallery, the Renwick Gallery, the Smithsonian
Institution Building, the Arts and Industries Building, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of History and Technology, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture
Garden, the Barney Studio House, the National Air and Space Museum, the Freer Gallery of Art, L'Enfant Plaza offices, the Smithsonian Institution Service Center, the National
Mall (for the Folklife Festival), the Silver Hill Facility, the Museum Support Center, the National Museum of African Art, the Anacostia Museum, the Belmont Conference Center,
the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Hillwood, the Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies, and miscellaneous locations.
This accession consists of the Department of Invertebrate Zoology website. It was crawled twice on November 28, 2018, shortly before the website was taken offline and
its contents incorporated into the National Museum of Natural History website. The Department of Invertebrate Zoology website includes information about the department and
its staff, research, and collections. This accession also includes server files. Materials are in electronic format.
This accession consists of the Department of Mineral Sciences website. It was crawled twice on November 27, 2018, shortly before the website was taken offline and its
contents incorporated into the National Museum of Natural History website. The Department of Mineral Sciences website includes information about research, collections, exhibitions,
seminars, facilities, and staff. In addition, it includes references to standards and the newsletter, "NMNH Geosciences." This accession also includes server files. Materials
are in electronic format.
This accession consists of the Department of Entomology website. It was crawled twice on November 28, 2018, shortly before the website was taken offline and its contents
incorporated into the National Museum of Natural History website. The Department of Entomology website includes information about staff, collections, research, and the history
of the department. This accession also includes server files. Materials are in electronic format.
This accession consists of the Department of Botany website as it existed on November 16, 2018, and again on November 27, 2018, shortly before the website was taken
offline and its content incorporated into the National Museum of Natural History website. The Department of Botany website includes information about research, collections,
staff, and seminars as well as the monthly "Biological Conservation Newsletter." Detailed collection information is not included in this accession. The server files for this
website are also included in this accession. Materials are in electronic format.
