The Joseph Henry Collection documents Henry's personal, professional, and official life as well as some activities of his family members. Included are records from
his time teaching and doing research at the Albany Academy (1826-1832) and at the College of New Jersey now Princeton University (1832-1846). There are likewise many materials
from his years as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1846-1878). Henry's records and materials from his time with various organizations are also included
in the collection. The three main organizations with materials to document his involvement are the Philosophical Society of Washington (1871-1878), the National Academy of
Science (1863-1878), and the Light-House Board (1852-1878). Some of the collection postdates Henry's life, including condolences to his family, memorial materials, newspaper
clippings, as well as letters of relatives.
Series 4 is the first that contains original Henry materials, letterpress books, which postdate the Smithsonian Institution fire of 1865. Correspondence, both incoming
and outgoing, is in the following two divisions. Many of the letters are science and academic related. Science correspondence is often concerned with the telegraph, electricity,
meteorology, light, and surveying. A portion of the letters are related to repairs of the Castle following the 1865 fire, to preparing to build what would be the Arts and
Industries Building, as well as to Smithsonian activities. The volume of letters drops off considerably for the years 1854-1864, most likely due to the Smithsonian fire of
1865.
There is a good deal of materials related to Henry's scientific papers; both his notes and published materials as well as experimental data and science records. Copies
of his lectures and lecture notes from his years at the Albany Academy and the College of New Jersey are also in the collection, as well as several student notebooks from
his Princeton classes. There are also many addresses and reports and a copy of volume one of Scientific Writings of Joseph Henry (1824-1846). In various places throughout
the collection are copies of Henry's memorials in the forms of eulogies and memoirs. One series contains many invitations and notices in addition to honors and awards received
by Henry. The invitations and notices are ordered alphabetically by sender. The honors and awards are in chronological order; none exist for the years 1853-1864.
Documenting Henry's scientific thoughts and ideas between the years 1835 and 1877 are his pocket notebooks, Series 7. The "Records of Experiments" (1834-1862) is the single
longest sustained account of his experimentation. Henry kept desk diaries during his Smithsonian years, although not all survived; those that are available are listed in the
contents of boxes 14 and 15. There is a three-volume set of notebooks documenting his 1837 trip to Europe; there is not such an extensive set of documentation for the 1870
European voyage. In two locations in the collection are extracts from the Locked Book, similar to a personal diary, for the years 1850-1876.
There are many papers and materials that postdate Henry's life, including copies of memorials from clubs and organizations to which he belonged, and one given during a
session of the House of Representatives. There is a set of two bound scrapbooks titled Henry Memorial. The collection contains letters of condolence to the Henry family
and materials related to the erection of a memorial statue and the naming of the standard unit of induction as the 'henry.'
In the same category as the postdated materials are those having to do with Joseph Henry's daughter Mary and are contained in Series 18 and 19. The "Mary A. Henry Memoir"
division contains copies of letters, notes, and other Henry materials as well as her work at composing a memoir of her father. The last series of the collection is called
"Family Papers" and contains the letters between Joseph and his wife Harriet, other family members and letters between family members after Henry's death.
Historical Note:
Joseph Henry (1797-1878), educator, investigator in physics, and first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was born in Albany, New York, on December 17, 1797,
to William and Ann Alexander Henry. He obtained a minimal education in Galway, where he lived for a time with his mother's brother, and in Albany. While in Galway Henry discovered
the joy of reading and thus began his love of learning. After his father's death in 1811, Joseph returned to Albany and was apprenticed to John F. Doty, watchmaker and silversmith,
where he worked until his master's business went under. During this time Henry also developed a strong interest in the theater and joined a group of young people who felt
a similar calling. Until his chance encounter with Popular Lectures on Experimental Philosophy, Astronomy, and Chemistry by George Gregory turned him to science, Henry
had planned a career in the theater.
As a result of his newly found interest in science, Henry set out to prepare himself for admittance into the advanced curriculum at the Albany Academy, an academic high
school. He attended the Academy from 1819 until 1822, first passing the examination of the Academy with honors after seven months of preparation and then continuing on to
more advanced studies. He took one year off during this time to teach in a rural school to earn money. This position was the only one for which he ever applied; thereafter
employers would come to him.
For the ten years after Henry completed his education at the Albany Academy he was employed there in a variety of capacities ranging from lab assistant to teacher. During
this time he was also a tutor of Henry James and of the children of General Stephen van Rensselaer. In 1825, Henry headed a leveling party that was engaged by New York State
to assist in the preparation of new road sites from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. In the spring of 1826 he was elected to the professorship of mathematics and natural philosophy
at the Academy. While in this position he began research in a comparatively new field dealing with the relation of electric currents to magnetism. His first notable scientific
accomplishment was his improvement of William Sturgeon's electromagnet, which he achieved by both insulating individual coils and developing multi-layer coils. During this
time he also developed an electromagnet with the capacity to lift 750 pounds.
In 1830 Henry married his cousin, Harriet Alexander, a daughter of his mother's brother. All told they had six children. Four lived through infancy, although the only son,
William Alexander, died in 1862. Their three surviving daughters were Helen, Mary, and Caroline.
In 1831 Henry developed the "little machine," or the electromagnetic engine. During this year he constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph. He was also responsible
for the completion of an electromagnet for Yale University with the capacity to lift 2,300 pounds. The following year Henry published the results from his experiments that
proved magnetism could produce electricity. The article was published in the American Journal of Science and was titled "On the Production of Currents and Sparks of
Electricity and Magnetism." His article also described his discovery of electromagnetic self-induction.
Henry received an appointment to the chair of natural philosophy at the College of New Jersey, (Princeton University) in October of 1832. That same year he constructed
for Princeton a magnet with the capacity to lift 3,500 pounds. At Princeton Henry continued his scientific experiments in electricity and magnetism as well as conducting research
in terrestrial magnetism, meteorology, and other geophysical topics. Henry continued to be interested in these fields the rest of his life. He was elected to the American
Philosophical Society in 1835, and often served as an officer.
In 1837 Henry took his first voyage to Europe. While on his six-month trip he visited England, France, Scotland, and Belgium and had the opportunity to meet a number of
scientists including Michael Faraday. It was this experience that caused Henry to resume his former level of scientific research, which had significantly diminished between
1832 and 1837. Between the years 1838 and 1842 Henry did a good deal of research into the induction of one current by another. He also participated in the investigation of
solar radiation and the heat of sunspots as well as becoming interested in the cohesion of liquids and capillarity. On November 2, 1838, Henry made a presentation before the
Philosophical Society in which he delivered a paper that described his discoveries of inducing currents of the third, fourth, and fifth orders.
On December 3, 1846, Henry's appointment from the Board of Regents to the office of Secretary of the new Smithsonian Institution was announced. He left Princeton for Washington
on December 14, 1846, to assume his position as first Secretary of the Smithsonian. Henry intended to follow the letter of James Smithson's will, which had left the funds
to the United States to establish the Smithsonian Institution for "the increase and diffusion of knowledge." To Henry that meant supporting knowledgeable and skilled persons
doing original research and providing for the dissemination of the findings from those and other experiments through periodical publications. To encourage this Henry established
a system for the exchange of publications between nations. This plan was presented to the Board of Regents on December 8, 1847, with his first report as Secretary and was
titled Programme of Organization of the Smithsonian Institution.
The first major scientific undertaking of the Institution was the Smithsonian Meteorological Project, which directed the systematic collection of data from all over the
United States. It was proposed with Henry's Programme of Organization, built into the budget in 1848, and begun in 1849. Between the years 1853 and 1855 Henry consolidated
his position by dismissing assistant secretary Charles Jewett, the Institution's librarian. Initially the Regents had worked out a division of the Institution's funds between
research and collection. Jewett had become the Institution's advocate for development of a national library. Henry believed as much of the funds as possible should be used
for research, and that the library should be only for support. Henry was able to maintain control.
In 1858 the Institution began accepting the national collections from the United States government. Until this time Henry had resisted the assumption of the collections
because he was concerned about the Institution becoming too much a part of the government and because of the cost of their maintenance. The acceptance of these materials brought
with it the beginning of direct federal funding. Under Henry the Smithsonian gained its reputation as the nation's attic.
The cornerstone for the Smithsonian Castle was laid on May 1, 1847. The building was completed in 1858, although the Henry family began to inhabit the east wing in 1855.
A fire on January 24, 1865, destroyed the Upper Main Hall and primary towers including Henry's offices in the south tower, taking with it many of Henry's papers, both personal
and official.
The telegraph was a major point of contention in Henry's life. Samuel Morse was not the only individual who made discoveries along the lines of the electromagnetic telegraph;
Henry was also a contributor. However, Morse patented the electromagnetic telegraph in 1840. Henry did not oppose Morse by applying for his own patent because he believed
that patents prevented the sharing of scientific information. The telegraph controversy was finally settled in 1857 when an investigative board stated that Morse's claims
against Henry were "positively disproved." In 1849 Henry was elected to the post of president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an organization he
helped to found. Henry received an appointment to the Light-House Board at the time of its establishment in 1852. During the course of his capacities as a Light-House Board
member Henry devoted himself to research and experimentation in the fields of sound, light, fog, fog signals, and illuminating oils. In recognition of his efforts Henry was
appointed the board's chairman in 1871, a position he held to his death.
Henry was also an original member of the National Academy of Sciences, formed in 1863. In 1866 he became its vice-president and in 1868 its president. The Philosophical
Society of Washington was founded in 1871. Henry was involved in its establishment and served as its president. He held both these positions until his death in 1878.
Henry's second trip to Europe was in 1870. While on this four-and-one-half month voyage he visited England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, France, and Germany.
The main purpose of this expedition was to attend an international conference on the metric standard in Paris and to testify on the administration of science in London.
In 1871 the Institution supervised Professor John Wesley Powell's federal expedition of the Colorado River. The expedition not only surveyed the area but also collected
specimens of various kinds. The Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876 also had a substantial impact on Henry's Institution. The display of specimens at the International
Exposition was the major activity of the Institution in 1876. Items from the Exhibition became permanent parts of the Smithsonian's holdings. These items so expanded the collections
that a new Material Museum Building was planned, which opened in 1879.
In December 1877 Joseph Henry became ill with nephritis, and on May 13, 1878 he
succumbed to his illness. Congress approved the erection of a memorial statue on June 1, 1880.
William W. Story's bronze likeness of Henry was unveiled on April 19, 1883. At the
International Congress of Electricians held in Chicago during the 1893 World's Fair the standard
unit of inductance was named the 'henry' in honor of Joseph Henry.
For more extensive information on Joseph Henry's life, see Joseph Henry--His Life and Work by Thomas Coulson, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1950; Notes
on the Life and Character of Joseph Henry by James C. Welling, Collins Printer, Philadelphia, 1878; A Memorial of Joseph Henry, Government Printing Office, Washington,
1880; Joseph Henry's Lectures on Natural Philosophy: Teaching and Research in Physics, 1832-1847 by Charles I. Weiner, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, 1965; A
Scientist in American Life: Essays and Lectures of Joseph Henry, edited by Arthur P. Molella, et.al., Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C., 1980; and The
Papers of Joseph Henry, edited by Nathan Reingold, Maaet.al., eleven volumes, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C., and Science History Publications, Sagamore
Beach, MA, 1972-2006. For more detailed bibliographical information consult the articles on Joseph Henry by William F. Magie in the Dictionary of American Biography,
Volume 4, pages 550-553, and by Nathan Reingold in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 6, pages 277-281.
Chronology:
December 17, 1797 -- Born in Albany, New York to William and Ann Alexander Henry
circa 1806 -- By this time residing in Galway, New York with relatives
circa 1811 -- Encounter with Fool of Quality by Henry Brooke
October 1811 -- William Henry dies
circa 1812 -- Returns to Albany
circa 1813 -- Apprenticed to John F. Doty, a watchmaker and silversmith
circa 1813-1816 -- Involved in the Green Street Theater of Albany
circa 1815 -- Encounter with Popular Lectures on Experimental Philosophy, Astronomy, and Chemistry by George Gregory, shifts interest to science
1819-1822 -- Attends the Albany Academy
1825 -- Heads a surveying party in New York State from the Hudson River to Lake Erie
1826 -- Elected to the professorship of mathematics and natural philosophy at the Albany Academy 28 April; inauguration to the professorship position, 11 September
September 1827 -- Starts work in electricity and magnetism
May 3, 1830 -- Married to Harriet Alexander
1831 -- Develops the "little machine," an electromagnetic engine; an electromagnetic telegraph; and an electromagnet with a 2,300 pound capacity
1832 -- "On the Production of Currents and Sparks of Electricity and Magnetism," published in the American Journal of Science
October 1832 -- Receives an appointment to the chair of natural philosophy at the College of New Jersey (Princeton University)
1835 -- Selected for membership in the America Philosophical Society
May 14-August 10, 1837 -- in Europe; Faraday and Henry meet
1838 -- Delivers paper on inducing currents of the third, fourth, and fifth orders before the Philosophical Society
1838-1842 -- Research done into the induction of a current by another current; solar radiation; heat of sunspots; cohesion of liquids and capillarity
December 3, 1846 -- Receives appointment from the Board of Regents to the position of Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
December 14, 1846 -- Leaves Princeton for Washington, D.C.
May 1, 1847 -- Cornerstone of Castle laid
December 8, 1847 -- Presentation of Programme of Organization of the Smithsonian Institution before the Board of Regents
1849 -- Smithsonian Meteorological Project begins
1849 -- Elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
1852 -- Receives appointment to Light House Board
1853-1855 -- Dispute with Charles Jewett over the nature of the Institution
1855 -- Castle building completed
1855 -- Henry family begins inhabiting the east wing of the Castle
1858 -- The Institution begins accepting the national collections from the United States Government
1863 -- An original member of the National Academy of Sciences
1866-1868 -- Vice-president of the National Academy of Sciences
1868-1878 -- President of the National Academy of Sciences
June 1-October, 1870 -- Voyage to Europe
1871 -- Becomes the first president of the Philosophical Society of Washington
1871 -- Appointed Light-House Board's chairman
1876 -- Institution displays specimens at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition
December 1877 -- Henry becomes ill with Nephritis
May 13, 1878 -- Joseph Henry dies
1880 -- Congress approves the erection of a memorial statue of Joseph Henry
April 19, 1883 -- Memorial statue by William W. Story unveiled
1893 -- Standard unit of inductance named the 'henry' in honor of Joseph Henry
National Museum of American History. Department of Public Programs Search this
Extent:
1 cu. ft. (1 record storage box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Clippings
Brochures
Manuscripts
Black-and-white photographs
Color transparencies
Audiotapes
Videotapes
Date:
1975-1999
Descriptive Entry:
This accession consists of the records of Harold A. Closter and document his work in the Department of Public Programs developing, creating, and putting on public programs
at the National Museum of American History (NMAH) and other sites around the Smithsonian Institution. Included are records from when the department was known as the Office
of Public and Academic Programs as well as when the department was the independent Division of Performing Arts. Among the positions that Closter held were the Associate Director
for Public Service, Department of Public Programs, NMAH and Country Music Program Coordinator, Division of Performing Arts. Materials include correspondence, memoranda, programs,
news releases, brochures, flyers, mailings, clippings, images, video recordings, and audio recordings.
Kulik, Gary B.: "Dams, Fish, and Farmers - The Defense of Public Rights in 18th Century Rhode Island"
Container:
Box 3 of 8
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 94-092, National Museum of American History. Office of the Assistant Director for Academic Programs, Program Records
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 94-092, National Museum of American History. Office of the Assistant Director for Academic Programs, Program Records
The Public Historian (A Journal of Public History): "Imitations of the Past-A Review Essay," 1989
Container:
Box 6 of 8
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 94-092, National Museum of American History. Office of the Assistant Director for Academic Programs, Program Records
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 94-092, National Museum of American History. Office of the Assistant Director for Academic Programs, Program Records
7.50 cu. ft. (7 record storage boxes) (1 document box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Books
Brochures
Clippings
Manuscripts
Drawings
Black-and-white photographs
Place:
United States -- History
Date:
circa 1964-1969, 1978-1994
Descriptive Entry:
This accession consists of the records of Gary Kulik, Assistant Director for Academic Programs, National Museum of American History (NMAH), from 1987 to 1994. Some
records date back to when Kulik was Assistant Curator for the Division of Textiles, 1978-1982; Vice-Chairman of the Department of Social and Cultural History, 1980-1982, and
Chairman, 1983-1986; and Editor of the "American Quarterly," circa 1988-1994. Materials include incoming and outgoing correspondence with professional organizations, universities,
museums, private corporations, historical societies, federal agencies, and the general public; reports, minutes of meetings, and other information pertaining to symposiums
and conferences attended; personal research papers, such as "Designing the Past History: Museum Exhibitions from Peale to the Present" and "Textile-Mill Labor in the Blackstone
Valley: Work and protest in the Nineteenth Century;" memoranda concerning administrative agendas for NMAH, as well as planning for the Hall of Textiles; academic program proposals;
fellowship program information; and conference papers written by scholars of social and cultural history.
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 94-092, National Museum of American History. Office of the Assistant Director for Academic Programs, Program Records
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival. These Festival records include administrative papers and the audiovisual documentation of annual Festivals (1967-ongoing). Finding aids are available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Materials include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. In earlier years these materials were all created as paper records or analog media; ongoing retrospective digitization efforts aim to preserve those and make them more widely accessible. Increasingly, the Festival records are now born as digital media or electronic documents.
Staff and contractors of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage collaborate with Smithsonian staff photographers to document the Festival in images. The Center's videographer, contract crews, volunteers, and interns video-record Festival performances and demonstrations. Volunteers trained by the Center's archivists record and log audiotapes at every Festival stage and discussion area. In recent years, the average documentation of a Festival may consist of some 10,000 images, several hundred audio recordings, and 5+ terabytes of video; this audiovisual documentation is complemented by thousands of pages of administrative and planning documents. In addition to the documentation of the Festival on the National Mall, the collection includes field research conducted by Smithsonian researchers or, increasingly, by researchers drawn from the community, state, or nation featured.
Festival papers
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival papers include the correspondence, memoranda, notes, planning documents, and various other records associated with the Festival as a whole or with one or more of its years or programs. This includes, among others, administrative records such as planning documents, contracts, agreements, and memoranda of understanding, correspondence, meeting materials, etc.; programmatic records pertaining to the development and curation of the Festival or one of its programs such as correspondence, reports, proposals, concepts, notes, other planning documents, etc.; participant records such as participant handbooks, participant invitation and contract letters, release/voucher forms, participant questionnaires, staffing and payment schedules, and related materials; and artwork and graphic design files used in publications, signage, and other media as well as associated release forms. It does not such categories of papers as finance and administration records, personnel records, development records, publicity files, or technical project files.
For any given Festival, materials within the collection typically include:
Program books, publications, and ephemera
Program books were published from 1968 through 2011 and again in 2013, and typically included introductory essays and keynote essays on each program, as well as a list of Festival participants, schedule of activities, site map, and staff list. Occasionally, the schedule and lists were published separately from the essays. Beginning in 2012, a shorter guide provided an overview of each program, its participants, and schedule. Beginning in 2014, an annual review reported on the activities of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, including the Festival. Digital versions of these materials, as well as site maps for each Festival except the first, are found as the first series within each annual collection. In addition, the Rinzler Archives houses one or more copies of the original printed versions of each publication. In later years, web resources were often published to enhance the Festival experience. Digitally archived copies of these resources are accessible through this finding aid.
For many Festivals, one or more posters were published. Cookbooks were occasionally published in connection with a Festival program, particularly in the case of a foreign country's participation. Materials aimed toward children or families, typically suggesting activities they could engage in during the Festival or before and after their visit, were published for many Festivals or programs. Original printed copies of such publications and ephemera are housed within the Rinzler Archives; as these are digitized over time they will be made available through this finding aid.
Fieldwork
Fieldwork may take the form of photographs, audio or video recordings, notes, transcripts, reports, correspondence, and other documents. Where these are clearly associated with a single Festival program, they are identified as such, housed discretely within the Rinzler Archive, and inventoried as part of that program. In some cases, fieldwork notes and reports may also be found among the Smithsonian Folklife Festival Papers, so the inventories within each program here may not always be comprehensive. As materials are processed over time, these inventories will be updated and enhanced.
Photographs
Photographs may include digital photographs, photographic prints, negatives, and slides, both black-and-white and color. These depict events and activities on the National Mall during the Festival, as well as informal activities of Festival participants at the hotel or while visiting Washington. Ongoing digitization efforts aim to preserve earlier analog photographs and make them more readily accessible. The Smithsonian's Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) stores all of the digital images, whether born digital (19XX-present) or digitized from analog originals. The present finding aid seeks to provide direct access to a sample of such photographs, although in most cases numerous other photographs also exist in the Rinzler Archives.
Audio
Throughout its history, the Festival has endeavored to create a comprehensive audio record of the performances, discussions, and other activities on all of its stages and performance venues, typically by taking a feed from that stage's sound reinforcement system. Occasionally, audio recordings also included interviews with craftspeople or Festival visitors who were not on stage, as well as evening rehearsals and informal interactions at the Festival hotel. Given the nature of the Festival as an outdoor event and the inevitable interference of airplanes flying overhead and traffic noises from adjacent streets, and given that the requirements of live sound reinforcement are not identical with those of audio recording, the resulting recordings are sometimes subject to interruption and technical shortcomings. In certain years, special arrangements were made for high-quality, multi-track recording, even if the vast majority of recordings are done at lower quality. At the time of recording, volunteers create logs or track sheets describing the content of each recording; in some cases these have been revised and corrected and in other cases the simultaneous logs have not been verified or revised. Retrospective digitization efforts aim to preserve older recordings and make them more widely accessible.
Video
Motion picture films and video recordings of Festival activities were created beginning in 1968 (for film) and 1973 (for video). In contrast with the audio recordings that sought to document primarily the activities on stage, the film and video efforts were typically both more inclusive (by covering crafts, occupational demonstrations, foodways, rehearsals, and non-stage events) and more selective (focusing on a sampling of each day's activities or on a single program, rather than beginning-to-end coverage of the entire Festival). As with the audio recordings, simultaneous written logs note what was recorded. Digital video is stored on the Smithsonian DAMS, with ongoing efforts to digitize older analog materials, whether born as motion picture film or as video.
Arrangement note:
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival records include one collection of papers and administrative documents and annual collections of the audiovisual documentation associated with each year's Festival.
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. It is produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and by its predecessors: the Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Office of Folklife Programs (1979-1991), Folklife Program of the Office of American and Folklife Studies (1977-1979), and Division of Performing Arts (1967-1976). Beginning with the 1973 Festival, the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior became cosponsor of the Festival.
The Festival is organized to increase and diffuse knowledge about grassroots culture. It is a research-based, curated event, drawing on the efforts of Smithsonian staff, academic and lay scholars from the featured cultures, and people who know a great deal about their own cultures. The most distinctive feature of the Festival is its attempt to foreground the voices of tradition bearers as they demonstrate, discuss, and present their folklife and cultural heritage. Since its founding the Festival has always navigated between the various axes of art (as entertainment), cultural rights (as advocacy), education (as public service), and knowledge (as scholarship).
Since its founding, the Festival has featured exemplary tradition bearers from more than 50 nations, every region of the United States, scores of ethnic communities, more than 100 American Indian groups, and some 50 occupations. Each year's Festival typically includes several programs, each focusing on a state or region of the United States, a foreign country, an occupation, or a theme.
The Festival was born in 1967 during the tenure of Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley, part of a larger effort to make the National Mall more accessible to the American public and to make the Smithsonian's programs more exciting and engaging. James Morris, director of Museum Services and then of the Division of Performing Arts, proposed that the Smithsonian host a folk festival as the centerpiece of the outdoors activities on the National Mall. Ralph C. Rinzler, then-director of field programs for the Newport Folk Festival, was engaged to help plan the 1967 Festival, serving as Festival Director from 1968-1982.
The Festival's growth and evolution over subsequent decades can be traced through introductory notes for each annual Festival. Those notes seek to provide an overview of that year's Festival and of each of its programs, as they were conceived by their organizers at the time. In certain cases, geographic names or other terms are retained that may not reflect current usage. Those notes also include detailed information on the institutional arrangements, key personnel, and major donors and partners for each annual Festival.
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access by appointment only. Contact the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at 202-633-7322 for additional information.
Access by appointment only. Where a listening copy or viewing copy has been created, this is indicated in the respective inventory; additional materials may be accessible with sufficient advance notice and, in some cases, payment of a processing fee. Older papers are housed at a remote location and may require a minimum of three weeks' advance notice and payment of a retrieval fee. Certain formats such as multi-track audio recordings and EIAJ-1 videoreels (1/2 inch) may not be accessible. Contact the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at 202-633-7322 or rinzlerarchives@si.edu for additional information.
Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for information.
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives; please submit this form. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
1.5 cu. ft. (1 record storage box) (1 document box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Clippings
Place:
United States -- History -- Study and teaching
Date:
1987-1994
Descriptive Entry:
This accession consists of subject files created and maintained by Douglas E. Evelyn, Deputy Director, National Museum of American History (NMAH), 1980-1991. These
records primarily document Evelyn's involvement with "The Common Agenda for History Museums," an initiative of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH)
and NMAH that explored issues shared by all history museums across the United States. The focus of the program's efforts was on methods of identifying and maintaining vast
collections of objects; investigating means to share information about them for research and exhibition purposes; strengthening the ties between academics interested in material
culture and museums; and encouraging scholarship as an activity fundamental to museum practices. Also documented is Evelyn's work with AASLH on annual meetings, task forces,
and seminars. Some materials date from after Evelyn was no longer Deputy Director. Materials include correspondence; memoranda; meeting agendas and minutes; reports; surveys;
and clippings.
