182 Items (typed unbound pages with solid wood covers)
Container:
Box 1, Folder 9
Type:
Archival materials
Diaries
Place:
China
Beijing (China)
China -- Description and Travel
Date:
1925-1926
Scope and Contents note:
Binding removed, 9 ½" x 6". 182 pages. First entry, 30 June 1925. Last entry, 13 March 1926. Inscribed, "The Memoirs of MA". Wood cover. In the introduction, March wrote, "Chronicles of Benjamin" had, for three years, served as a journal, notebook, and record for himself of places he visited. Said that since he's now not alone that it is fitting to rename his notes, "Memoirs of MA." (Chinese name of his family). ["Chronicles of Benjamin" may be found in Series V, subseries B, photo albums.]
Scope and Contents:
A diary typed by the young Chinese art scholar Benjamin March from June 1925 to March 1926 describing his life in China. Events include March's marriage to the author Dorothy Rowe (1898-1969) in Nanjing, their honeymoon in Hangzhou and Suzhou, and their subsequent life in Beijing. March describes hikes through scenic areas in Hangzhou and Beijing; his acquaintance with scholars such as John Calvin Ferguson and Alan Priest; attending performances by Ruth St. Denis and Mei Lanfang, and his work at Yenching University.
The Memoirs of Ma
Biographical / Historical:
East Asian art historian, curator and lecturer, Benjamin Franklin March Jr., was born in Chicago on July 4, 1899 to Benjamin and Isabel March. He studied, lectured, and wrote in the United States and China and through his works gained respect as one of the foremost authorities on Chinese art during the 1920s and 1930s. March was East Asian art lecturer at the University of Michigan, and curator of Asian art at the Detroit Institute of Art. Although he lived only thirty-five years, Benjamin March was a respected and influential scholar of Asian art.
Benjamin March Papers, FSA.A.1995.10. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Judith March Davis, 1995
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Engineering forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana
Scope and Contents:
General materials consist of items related to engineering, covering topics such as professional associations, building plans, caricatures of famous engineers, and a sample engineer's celluloid protractor. Under associations, there is a list of membership candidates for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1897. There is also a preliminary list and a final ballot list of applications to be considered for the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1894. The material is arranged alphabetically by subject.
Publications contain published matter related to engineering, including articles, directories, pamphlets and periodicals. Articles include "On the Loss of Head Resulting from the Passage of Water Through a 24-inch Stop Valve" from the American Society of Civil Engineering (1892) and an 1890 sheet from Engineering News. There are three editions of "The Engineer" directory, 1908, 1914, and undated as well as an undated directory of the latest engineering books supplied by The Engineering News Publishing Company Pamphlets include "Power and the Engineer" (no date), "Engineers' License Law" (circa 1891), "Earthwork and its Cost" (1903), "Tables of Circles and Other Specimen Pages from Trautwine's Civil Engineers' Pocket-Book" (1893), "The Mechanical Engineer: His Preparation and His Work" (1875), "The Investigation of Engineering Education and Related Activities (1934), "Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers" (1893), and "Engineers of America: an Encyclopedia" (1913). Under periodicals, there is a 1962 and 1963 magazine "Reproduction Engineer", "Third Meeting of the Michigan Association of Surveyors and Civil Engineers" (1882), and the "Journal of the Western Society of Engineers" (1910). The bulk of the materials are from the late 19th century and early 20th century. Materials are arranged alphabetically by subject.
Materials in the Archives Center:
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)
Forms Part Of:
Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.
Missing Title
Series 1: Business Ephemera
Series 2: Other Collection Divisions
Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers
Series 4: Photographic Reference Material
Provenance:
Engineering is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
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.
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Engineering, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
