The records of the Washington, D.C. arts and educational organization, Institute of Contemporary Arts, measure 36 linear feet and date from 1927-circa 1985, with the bulk of the material spanning the organization's active years, 1947-1967. The collection documents the arts and cultural programming organized by the ICA through correspondence, artists' files, program and exhibition files, administrative and financial records, printed materials and photographs. Also found are administrative, student, and teacher records of the ICA school; records of the Fine Arts Committee of the People-to-People Project; and some personal papers of the ICA's founder, Robert Richman.
Scope and Contents:
The records of the Washington, D.C. arts and educational organization, Institute of Contemporary Arts, measure 36 linear feet and date from 1927-circa 1985, with the bulk of the material spanning the organization's active years, 1947-1967. The collection documents the arts and cultural programming organized by the ICA through correspondence, artists' files, program and exhibition files, administrative and financial records, printed materials and photographs. Also found are administrative, student, and teacher records of the ICA school; records of the Fine Arts Committee of the People-to-People Project; and some personal papers of the ICA's founder, Robert Richman.
Robert Richman's professional and personal relationships with numerous artists and writers which the ICA hosted in D.C. are documented in Correspondence and Artists' Files. Correspondence files include letters from Joseph and Anni Albers, Alfred Barr, e.e. cummings, Alexander Giampietro, Naum Gabo, Walter Gropius, Erick Hawkins, Duncan Phillips, Hans Richter, Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy, and William Carlos Williams. Also found is correspondence with benefactors, board members, and arts organizations regarding exhibitions and administrative details; and with teachers and the Veteran's Administration regarding school issues.
Artists' Files contains mostly incoming and outgoing correspondence, but also found are biographies, exhibition printed materials, handwritten notes, newspaper clippings and scattered portrait photographs. Of interest are files on Aaron Copland, e.e. cummings, T.S. Eliot, Wojciech Fangor, Nadine Gordimer, Robert Graves, Aldous Huxley, Janheinz Jahn, Kathleen Raine, and Sir Herbert Read.
In addition to Correspondence and Artists' Files, materials regarding ICA's programming, such as correspondence with artists and galleries, press releases, shipping records, financial records, printed materials, photographs, inventory and price lists, are found in ICA Program Files.
The ICA and Robert Richman collaborated with numerous arts and international exchange organizations to organize exhibitions, performances, symposium, and to host visiting artists. Materials regarding such collaborations are found in Organizations and includes correspondence, scattered financial records, notes, and printed materials such as bulletins, brochures, schedules, reports, and press releases. This series also includes substantial material related to the Fine Arts Committee of the People-to-People Program, an international exchange initiative of President Dwight D. Eisenhower begun in 1956.
The school's records include correspondence, notebooks (attendance books), teacher files documenting classes and grades, extensive student files and student enrollment cards, mailing lists, class cards, and notes for classes taught by Robert Richman.
Administrative and Financial Files include accounting and banking records, budgets, founding documents, fundraising records, grants records, mailing lists, membership lists, and Meridian House Foundation records.
ICA's programs are also documented by comprehensive printed materials arranged by ICA seasons, 1947-1967. Printed materials include program calendars, exhibition announcements, invitations, membership forms, and press releases. Also found are newspaper clippings and three oversized clippings scrapbooks.
Photographs include black and white photographs and negatives of people, most of whom are unidentified. Robert Richman's personal papers includes personal correspondence, correspondence related to "New Republic," handwritten and typed writings, some bills, and his curriculum vitae.
Unrepresented in this collection are records of ICA's ICONART Collection (Contemporary Arts Archives), an archive of films and tapes of artists' performances, lectures and events held by ICA.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1937, 1944-1980 (2.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-3)
Series 2: Artists' Files, 1943-1967, 1970-1979 (4.9 linear feet; Boxes 3-8)
Series 3: ICA Program Files, circa 1947-1968 (5.2 linear feet; Boxes 8-13, 27)
Series 4: Organizations, 1927, 1940s-1967 (7.3 linear feet; Boxes 13-20, OV 39)
Series 5: ICA School Files, 1945-1953 (7.0 linear feet; Boxes 21-27)
Series 6: Administrative and Financial Files, 1945-1979, 1983 (5.2 linear feet; Boxes 28-33, 38)
Series 7: Printed Materials, 1945-1970 (2.9 linear feet; Boxes 33-35, 38)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1930s-1960s, circa 1985 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 35-36)
Series 9: Personal Papers of Robert Richman, 1940s-1980 (0.4 linear feet; Boxes 36-37)
Biographical / Historical:
The Washington, D.C. arts and educational organization, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), was founded by poet Robert Richman in 1947 to bring arts and culture to the nation's capital. The school, originally named the King-Smith School of Creative Arts, was redesigned and renamed Institute of Contemporary Arts by Richman in 1948. The school's philosophy was based on Sir Herbert Read's Education Through Art, and provided professional training in painting, sculpture, literature, music, and theater. In addition, the ICA operated an evening school and brought prominent artists and literary figures to the nation's capital for exhibitions, concerts, workshops, lectures, readings, and performances. Teachers at the school included potter Alexander Giampietro, sculptor David Aaron, designers Beatrice Takeuchi and Hubert Leckie, and painter Kenneth Noland.
The school closed in August 1951, but the ICA continued to provide an impressive roster of programs and performances held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and other D.C. institutions, such as exhibitions by Naum Gabo, Bernard Leach, Isamu Noguchi, and Hans Richter; readings by W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, Katherine Anne Porter, and Dylan Thomas; lectures by Charles Eames, Aldous Huxley, Octavio Paz, and Frank Lloyd Wright; and performances by Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, José Limón Dance Company, and Ravi Shankar. The organization also sponsored visiting professorships for international artists and writers, such as Nadine Gordimer, and hosted an annual Congress of Artists and Writers from 1959-1964.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the ICA was successful in securing some large grants to continue and expand its programming and to secure permanent space at the Meridian House Foundation. However, by the late 1960s the organization's programming declined.
ICA founder Robert Richman was a poet and literary editor at New Republic magazine in the early 1950s. He was active in the arts community in D.C. and in international exchange organizations, including the Fine Arts Committee of the People-to-People Project, an initiative started by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the late 1950s. Robert Richman passed away in 1987.
Provenance:
The Institute of Contemporary Arts records were donated by Maida Richman, the wife of the ICA's founder, Robert Richman, in 1986.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Institute of Contemporary Arts records are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Topic:
Art -- Societies, etc. -- Washington (D.C.) Search this
Genre/Form:
Scrapbooks
Photographs
School records
Citation:
Institute of Contemporary Arts records, 1927-circa 1985, bulk 1947-1967. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collection Care Preservation Fund.
Duke Ellington and trumpeter Cat Anderson join JET switchboard operator Geneva Patch to determine who bats first in softball game between Duke's men and JET staff [reproduction black and white photograph]
Unrestricted research use on site by appointment. Photographs must be handled with cotton gloves unless protected by sleeves.
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 status of items varies. Signed copies of releases on file.
This collection, which dates from circa 1932-1999, documents the personal and professional life of Frank R. Jackson, as well as daily life in Anacostia. Materials include color and black-and-white photographs, negatives, clippings, programs, certificates, scrapbooks, programs, and crossword puzzles. Many of the photographs depict the dismantling of the Frederick Douglass housing project and the construction of Henson Ridge.
Biographical/Historical note:
Frank Roscoe Jackson was born in Washington, D.C. in 1908. He was a 1925 graduate of Dunbar High School and went on to attend Miner Normal School (Miner Teacher's College) and taught for two years in Crisfield, MD. In 1933, he married Florence Thomas and the family moved to Anacostia, where Jackson would live for the rest of his life. In addition to working for the U.S. Printing Office for 40 years, Jackson became a professional photographer in the 1950s, operating a studio on Benning Road. In the late 1990s, Jackson was included in a Washington Times article about oral histories compiled by the D.C. Historical Society. Jackson also constructed crossword puzzles for the Washington Post for over 25 years. He died in 2007 at the age of 99.
Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
Smithsonian Institution. Office of Symposia and Seminars Search this
Extent:
9 cu. ft. (9 record storage boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Black-and-white photographs
Manuscripts
Audiotapes
Date:
1973-1979
Descriptive Entry:
The records, kept by Wilton S. Dillon, consist of correspondence, memoranda, background research material, invitations, brochures, resumes, photographs, grant information,
publication contracts, symposia schedules, and other administrative records for the following events: the Nature of Scientific Discovery symposium celebrating the 500th anniversary
of the birth of Copernicus, the Outlook for Space symposium, the United States in the World symposium, the Kin and Community: the Peopling of America symposium, and a number
of activities celebrating the centennial of the birth of Albert Einstein.
Historical Note:
During the period 1973 to 1979, Wilton S. Dillon was director of the Office of Symposia and Seminars.
Topic:
Interdisciplinary approach in education Search this
Smithsonian Institution. Office of Symposia and Seminars Search this
Extent:
6 cu. ft. (6 record storage boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Audiotapes
Videotapes
Manuscripts
Black-and-white photographs
Date:
circa 1971-1984
Descriptive Entry:
This collection includes correspondence, memoranda, brochures, announcements, background materials, audiotapes, videotapes, grant contracts, program reports, reading
files, schedules, photographs, and expense reports concerning the following symposia: Kin and Communities: The Peopling of America; Family Policy Forum; Festival of India;
Man and Beast Revisited; Road after 1984: High Technology and Human Freedom, and The Nature of Scientific Discovery. This record unit also contains information about the High
School Scholars at the Smithsonian program.
Topic:
Interdisciplinary approach in education Search this
This collection consists of 125 black and white photographs that Cecil Tucker collected during his tenure at the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. The photographs include the following Curtiss-Wright aircraft: the Curtiss-Wright Robin, including "Wrong-Way" Corrigan's aircraft; the Curtiss-Wright Kingbird, built for the Marine Corps; the Curtiss-Wright Condor, including images of the Condor T-32 built for the Byrd Antarctic Expedition, the two Condors modified for the Navy for use by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as the Condors sold to Eastern Airlines, Switzerland, and Argentina; and the Curtiss-Wright AT-9, CW-19R, and CW-22B. Famous individuals pictured include: Amelia Earhart, Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Lowell Thomas, the famous radio broadcaster. Also of interest are severala few images of aircraft with Latin and South American insignia.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 125 black and white photographs that Tucker collected during his tenure at Curtiss-Wright. The photographs include the following Curtiss-Wright aircraft: the Curtiss-Wright Robin, including "Wrong-Way" Corrigan's aircraft; the Curtiss-Wright Kingbird, built for the Marine Corps; the Curtiss-Wright Condor, including images of the Condor T-32 built for the Byrd Antarctic Expedition, the two Condors modified for the Navy for use by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as the Condors sold to Eastern Airlines, Switzerland, and Argentina; and the Curtiss-Wright AT-9, CW-19R, and CW-22B. Famous individuals pictured include: Amelia Earhart, Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Lowell Thomas, the famous radio broadcaster. Also of interest are a few images of aircraft with Latin and South American insignia.
Note: The digital images in this finding aid were repurposed from scans made by an outside contractor for a commercial product and may show irregular cropping and orientation in addition to color variations resulting from damage to and deterioration of the original objects.
Arrangement:
The Curtiss-Wright Photography [Tucker] Collection is arranged by subject.
Biographical / Historical:
Cecil Tucker worked for Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri,from 1928 until 1945. Tucker started as a wire man and worked his way up to the Assistant Superintendent of Factory Administration for the St. Louis plant.
Provenance:
Paul B. Tucker, gift, 2000, 2000-0033
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
