5 Microfilm reels (770 items on 5 microfilm reels)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Microfilm reels
Date:
1919-1971
Scope and Contents:
This microfilm collection of the papers of African American painter Norman Lewis consits of correspondence, a scrapbook, sketches, photographs, personal documents, and printed material including exhibition catalogs, exhibition announcements, and clippings.
REELS 52-53: Eight sketchbooks, 1935-1957; several pages from the diary of Lewis' wife, Joan, ca. 1948, commenting on their marriage; and an undated postcard from Ad Reinhardt.
REELS 91-92: Correspondence with author Millen Brand and artist Jim Yeargans; unidentified authors and actors; and museums, many arranging exhibits by Black artists and political action organizations. Also includes a scrapbook of catalogs, clippings, photographs, letters, and announcements, 1934-1968, concerning African American art exhibits, the training of African American artists, particularly during the Depression, WPA-New York projects, and Lewis' World War II work as a shipyard employee and poster artist.
REEL N69-47: Personal documents, correspondence, catalogs, announcements, photographs, articles, and clippings.
Biographical / Historical:
Norman Lewis (1909-1979) was an African American painter in New York, New York. He began his career painting mostly figurative work, but is now associated with abstract expressionism as his work became more abstract in the late 1940s. Lewis was a founding member of Spiral, one of the groups of artists and writers who protested the controversial Harlem on My Mind exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1968.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1969-1971 by Norman Lewis.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
This scrapbook includes articles, newspaper clippings, letters and photographs from various events and marches Grace participated in regarding the fight for returning surplus lands to Native peoples. These events and materials include--Fishing Rights March (1970) in Yelm, Washington with the McCloud family; Fort Lawton "Surplus" March (1970) in Seattle, Washington; Pit River versus P.G..E. (1970) in Big Bend, California; DQU, Deganawidah Quetzalcoatl University founding (1971) in Davis, California; and documentation as National Commitee Director for the "Return Surplus Lands to Indian People".
Separated Materials:
The cover and back of the scrapbook binder are in Box 12 since they are oversized.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Grace F. Thorpe Collection, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
0.75 cu. ft. (1 document box) (1 half document box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Field notes
Manuscripts
Place:
Alaska
Date:
1865-1867
Descriptive Entry:
This collection includes correspondence, mostly to Spencer F. Baird, from members of the Scientific Corps of the Western Union Telegraph Expedition, including Kennicott,
Dall, Bannister, and Elliott; copies of reports submitted to divisional chiefs from expedition staff members; newspaper clippings concerning the expedition; copies of notes
on natural history taken by Robert Kennicott; and a journal containing meteorological data recorded by Henry M. Bannister from March to August, 1866.
Historical Note:
The Western Union Telegraph Expedition, 1865-1867, also known as the Russian-American Telegraph Expedition, was undertaken to study the possibility of setting up a
communications system with Europe by way of Alaska, the Bering Straits, and Asia. The expedition was organized in three divisions, working in Canada, Russian-America (Alaska),
and Asia. Robert Kennicott, the veteran Alaskan explorer, was placed in charge of the Russian-American division. Under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution and the
Chicago Academy of Sciences, a Scientific Corps was established, with Kennicott in command, to accompany the Russian-American division and make collections in natural history.
Naturalists William H. Dall, Henry M. Bannister, and Henry W. Elliott served as members of the Scientific Corps. On the death of Kennicott on May 13, 1866, Dall became chief
of the Scientific Corps until the expedition was terminated in July 1867 due to the successful laying of the Atlantic Cable.
Restrictions:
It appears that some of the material in this collection was removed from the official correspondence files of the Smithsonian.
This record unit consists of files documenting the operation of the Smithsonian Office of Ecology (SOE), 1965-1970, and its successor, the Ecology Program of the Office
of Environmental Sciences (OES), 1970-1973. The records were created primarily by administrators Buechner, 1965-1968; Wallen, 1969; and Jenkins, 1970-1973. They include organizational
files, 1965-1973; administrative records, 1965-1973, including material concerning the development of the Chesapeake Bay Center for Field Biology (after 1970, the Chesapeake
Bay Center for Environmental Studies) and the Smithsonian-Peace Corps Environmental Program; project files, 1965-1973, including records documenting projects conducted as
part of the International Program in Ecology; and files of Lee Merriam Talbot, 1965-1971.
Historical Note:
The history of the Ecology Program of the Office of Environmental Sciences can be traced to July 1, 1965, when the Smithsonian Office of Ecology (SOE) was created to
assist in expanding the research opportunities of Smithsonian scientists and to aid in the coordination of ecological activities with other government agencies. From its creation
until 1966, the SOE was an administrative unit of the National Museum of Natural History. In 1966, administrative responsibility for the SOE was transferred to the Assistant
Secretary for Science. The Smithsonian's environmental sciences programs were reorganized under the Office of Environmental Sciences (OES) in 1970. At that time, the SOE became
the Ecology Program of the newly created OES. In 1973, OES was merged with the Office of International Activities to form the Office of International and Environmental Programs
(OIEP). The Ecology Program came under the administrative control of OIEP. The Ecology Program was abolished in 1974.
Administrators of the Ecology Program of OES and its predecessor the SOE included Helmut K. Buechner, assistant director for ecology, 1965-1966, head, 1966-1968 (he also
served as senior scientist, 1968-1971); Irvin Eugene Wallen, acting head, 1969; and Dale W. Jenkins, director, 1970-1973. Other staff included Lee Merriam Talbot, research
biologist, 1965-1966, field representative, Ecology and Conservation, 1966-1967, deputy head and international field representative, 1968, resident ecologist, 1969-1971, and
deputy director, 1972-1973; and Francis Raymond Fosberg, special assistant for tropical biology, 1965-1966.
Programs and bureaus under the administration of the Ecology Program of OES and its predecessor the SOE included the Chesapeake Bay Center for Field Biology (after 1970
the Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies), 1965-1969; the Center for Natural Areas, 1972-1974; and the Peace Corps Environmental Program, 1972-1974.
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.
Freedmen's Bureau Digital Collection, 1865–1872, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright for digital images is retained by the donor, FamilySearch International; permission for commercial use of the digital images may be requested from FamilySearch International, Intellectual Property Office, at: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.org.
Collection Citation:
Courtesy of the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration, FamilySearch International, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
A detailed account of uncertain authorship recalling travel to and from Urga (presently known as Ulaanbataar, Mongolia) in Outer Mongolia. The author is perhaps Georg Soderbom; a member of Sven Hedin's expedition who often worked under Frans Larson Soderbom is pictured in many of the collection's silver plates. The account is replete with descriptions of travel conditions and methods, ethnographic notes, an encounter with "the Andrews expedition" (likely the Central Asiatic Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History led by Roy Chapman Andrews from 1922-1925), and the natural ecosystem. 79 silver prints adorn the text, depicting Soderbom, peoples encountered, vehicles, buildings, and so forth. For the purpose of this collection, all relevant silver prints are numbered as attachments to the appropriate page of the transcript; i.e., the second print affixed to page 32 of the transcript becomes 32b.
While exact provenance of the collection is unclear, it is believed the collection was owned by the Asian art dealer Abel William Bahr (1877-1959). Bahr was born to a German father and a Chinese mother in Shanghai, and became an avid collector of Chinese paintings, jades, and porcelains. He would become a prominent collector and, in 1908, helped to host the first exhibition of Chinese art under the auspices of the Royal Asiatic Society in Shanghai.
Arrangement:
Organized in the original manner by the creator.
Local Numbers:
FSA A1996.02
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Genre/Form:
Travel diaries
Travel diaries
Prints
Identifier:
FSA.A1996.02
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist at ACMarchives@si.edu
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist at ACMarchives@si.edu
Collection Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
![View Three Roads to Urga [typescript] digital asset: Finding aid](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=120&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/findingaid.gif "Finding aid")
