This collection contains a variety of periodicals, photographs, correspondence, business and advertising ephemera (corporate and non-profit, personal), organizational records and ephemera, created by, for, and in reaction to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community.
Scope and Contents:
The Archives Center Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Collection contains periodicals, ephemera, posters, postcards, advertisements, photographs, organizational records, publications, correspondence, and other materials related to all aspects of the LGBT community and the civil rights issues pertaining thereto. The collection was created by the Archives Center to bring together materials specifically pertaining to the LGBT community. This collection contains material from communities and individuals throughout the United States. The collection is currently strongest in periodicals, newspapers and ephemera and very strong in material from California and New York. The collection continues to add new items and the researcher would be wise to take a broad view in targeting their research topics in the collection.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into twenty-eight series.
Series 1: Periodicals, 1937-2023
Series 2: Agencies, Associations, and Organizations, 1965-2023, undated
Series 3: Community Life and Subject Files, 1825-2023, undated
Subseries 3.1: Photographs and Slides, 1870-2009, undated
Subseries 3.2: Ephemera and Buttons, 1969-2022, undated
Subseries 3.3: Posters and Prints, 1825-2018, undated
Subseries 3.4: Subject Files, 1958-2023, undated
Subseries 3.5: Pride, 1976-2023, undated
Subseries 3.6: HIV and AIDS, 1987-2020, undated
Subseries 3.7: Gay Games, 1982-2018
Series 4: Advertising, Business, and Publications, 1912-2023, undated
Subseries 4.1: Advertising, 1970-2018, undated
Subseries 4.2: Business, 1986-2021, undated
Subseries 4.3: Television, Theater, and Motion Pictures, 1978-2023, undated
Subseries 4.4: Bar ephemera and advertisement, 1979-2018, undated
Subseries 4.5: Publications, 1912-2023, undated
Series 5: Biren, Joan E. (JEB), 195-2018, undated
Subseries 5.1: Xerographic Copies of Photoprints, 1971-1995, undated.
Subseries 5.2: Posters and Oversize Advertisement, 1973-2018, undated
Series 6: Dietrich, Joseph A., 1992-2010
Series 7: Mattachine Society Records, 1942-1996, undated
Subseries 7.1: Correspondence, 1952-1991, undated
Subseries 7.2: Board of Directors Minutes, 1954-1974, undated
Subseries 7.4: Councils, Chapters, and Committees, 1953-1965, undated
Subseries 7.5: Conventions, 1953-1960, undated
Subseries 7.6: Publications, 1944-1996, undated
Series 8: Rainbow History Community Pioneers, 2003-2012, undated
Series 9: Strub, Sean O., addendum, 1987-2011, undated
Series 10: Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore (GLCCB, 1990-2014, undated
Series 11: Ros, Silvia, 2009-2011
Series 12: Huebner, David, 2009-2014
Series 13: St. George, Philip, 1945-1955, undated
Series 14: Will & Grace, 1995-2006
Series 15: Barna, Joseph T. and Heritage of Pride (HOP), New York, New York, 1910-2014, undated
Subseries 15.1: Photographs, Photographic Negatives, and Slides, 1985-2010, undated
Subseries 15.2: Heritage of Pride (HOP), 1984-2014, undated
Subseries 15.3: Barna, Joseph T., 1910-2013, undated,
Series 16: Becker, John M., 1999-2014, undated
Series 17: Rohrbaugh, Richard, 1972-1986, undated
Series 18: Guest, Michael E., 2001-2009
Series 19: The Fosters, 2013
Series 20: Pride at Work, 1990-2015
Series 21: Sabatino, Michael and Voorheis, Robert, 1980-2016, undated
Subseries 21.1: Archilla, Gustavo A. and Lokkins, Elmer T., 1916-2014, undated
Series 22: Gay Officers Action League (GOAL), 1982-2016, undated
Series 23: Brown, Adele "Del" and Herizon's Bar, 1985-1991, undated
Subseries 1: Changing Herizons, and Herizons Newsletter, 1983-1991
Series 24: Universal Fellowship Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC), 1957-2019, undated
Series 25: The Christmas House, Crown Media Family Networks, 2020-2021
Series 26: Cones, Myra L. and Harris, G. Yvonne, 1979-2001, undated
Series 27: Atlantic States Gay Rodeo Association (ASGRA), 1993-2004, undated
Series 28: Hooker, Meryl, 1989-1996, undated
Historical Note:
While the quest for equal rights has been pursued by generations, it is generally acknowledged that the modern day Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) civil rights movement began in New York City in June 1969 with the Stonewall Riots. Prior to this time a number of activists, individuals, and organizations such as The Mattachine Society, Daughters of Bilitis and others, fought to bring recognition of LGBT civil rights to the forefront of American society. While the movement was primarily, and most visably, centered in New York City and San Francisco, periodicals, guide books, and ephemeral material interconnected the larger LGBT community throughout the United States. The increased visibility of the LGBT movement inspired affinity groups at odds with the LGBT community's new found visibility and quest for broader civil rights. The challenge to what was termed "traditional" values encouraged these counter-LGBT groups to define and solidfy their constituency and also become more pro-active. This collection comprises material that is generated by individuals and organizations promoting both points of view.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
Michio and Aveline Kushi Macro-Biotics Collection (AC0619)
The Shamrock Bar: Photographs and Interviews (AC0857)
Archives Center Wedding Documentation Collection (AC1131 )
Division of Science, Medicine, and Society HIV/AIDS Reference Collection (AC1134)
John-Manuel Andriote Hot Stuff: A Brief History of Disco Collection (AC1184)
Joan E. Biren (JEB) Queer Film Museum Collection (AC1216)
World AIDS Institute (WAI) Collection (AC1266)
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) Records (AC1282)
Helping Persons with AIDS (HPA) Records (AC1283)
DC Cowboys Dance Company Records (AC1312)
Bil Browning and Jerame Davis Papers (AC1334)
David Hadley Rockwell New York Disco Ephemera Collection (AC1342)
Leonard P. Hirsch Federal Globe Records (AC1357)
Corbett Reynolds Papers (AC1390)
Mark Segal Papers (AC1422)
The Mattachine Society of Washington "Love in Action" Collection (AC1428)
Academy of Washington Records (AC1458)
Matthew Shepard Papers (AC1463)
I'm From Driftwood Records (AC1503)
The Division of Political History holds artifacts related to gay activist Franklin Kameny and a variety of political buttons. They also hold LGBT related artifacts from Joan E. Biren (JEB).
The Division of Medical and Science holds objects donated from Dr. Renee Richards, Sean O. Strub, and Leonard Hirsch.
The Division of Entertainment and the Arts holds objects donated by The Fosters, Will & Grace, and The Christmas House.
Provenance:
This collection was assembled by the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian, beginning in 2004.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audio-visual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.
Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.
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.
Archives Center Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Continental Div. ; Lincoln Motor Co. ; Lincoln Motor Car Div. ; Fordson Div. ; Mercury Div. ; Lincoln-Mercury Div. ; Henry Ford & Son, Inc. ; C.E. Johansson, Inc. ; Dearborn Village ; Ford Tractor Operations (Troy, MI) ; Ford Motor Co. Ltd. (Dagenham, Essex, United Kingdom) ; Upholstery Leather Group, Inc. (New York, NY) Search this
Notes content:
twenty five envelopes OVERSIZE ; Organized by divisions and subject categories
Includes:
Trade catalog, price lists, manual, photographs and histories
Three handcolored albumen prints, one of Kamata Yashiki Garden in Tokyo; and two depicting Japanese women: one attributed to Baron Raimond Von Stillfired of Austria (1839-1911), circa 1879, depicting Japanese women in an architectural setting, and the other attributed to Kusakabe Kimbei (active 1880's), circa 1878, showing two seated Japanese women playing go in an architectural interior.
蒲田梅屋敷
Arrangement:
1.5 linear feet
Biographical / Historical:
Diane Vogt O'Conner is an established archivist who has worked at a number of places, including the Smithsonian Institution Archives, the Society of American Archivists, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the National Park Service. She works as an archival consultant for both private and public institutions throughout the world. Conner has published a number of books and guides relating to specific collections, museology, and the archival field.
Local Numbers:
FSA A1991.03
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Genre/Form:
Albumen prints
Citation:
Diane Vogt O'Connor Photograph Collection. FSA.A1991.03. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A1991.03
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
The papers of abstract expressionist painter and playwright Paul Jenkins measure 11.1 linear feet and date from circa 1915 to 2010. Jenkins's career in New York and Paris is documented through biographical material, family papers, correspondence, writings, personal business records, printed material, photographs of Jenkins in his studio and at various events, and original artwork by Jenkins and others.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of abstract expressionist painter and playwright Paul Jenkins measure 11.1 linear feet and date from circa 1915 to 2010. Jenkins's career in New York and Paris is documented through biographical material, family papers, correspondence, writings, personal business records, printed material, photographs of Jenkins in his studio and at various events, and original artwork by Jenkins and others.
Biographical material and family papers consist of awards and certificates, calendars, marriage, divorce, and estate papers, and military service records. Also included are family papers and a scrapbook belonging to Jenkins's aunt, Louise Jenkins.
Correspondence, which makes up the bulk of the collection, is with family, friends, and fellow artists, including Alice Baber, Norman Bluhm, Willem de Kooning, and Lee Krasner Pollock, as well as art organizations, schools, museums, galleries, and gallery owners, such as the Art Students League of New York, New York University, Museum of Modern Art, Martha Jackson Gallery, Zoe Dusanne, and Peggy Guggenheim.
Writings includes scattered writings by Paul Jenkins, two of his travel diaries, and the guest book for an exhibition in Tokyo. Also found are a copy of Lili Krahmer Verame's China travel diary and the writings and research materials of others.
Personal business records consist of financial records, lease documents, price lists, travel documents, and papers regarding Jenkins's rental property. Also included are a file on the New York University medal designed by Jenkins and a file concerning a Karl Prantl statue.
Printed material consists of event programs, newsletters, bulletins, member reports, press releases, art exhibition announcements and catalogs, concert and theater announcements and programs, news and magazine clippings, and obituaries and memorial announcements.
Artwork contains miscellaneous sketches and collages by Paul Jenkins. Additional artworks include sketches, watercolors, and prints by other artists, as well as 8 oversize mixed media sketches by Frank Prince of Jenkins's Meditation Mandala Sundial sculptures.
Photographs of Paul Jenkins depict him in his studio, with family and friends, and at events. Photographs of family and friends include Esther Ebenhoe Jenkins, Alice Baber Jenkins, Norman Bluhm, Thomas Erma, Françoise Gilot, Matsumi "Mike," Carole, and Bunshi Paul Kanemitsu, and Frank Prince.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1915-1997 (Box 1; 9 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1930-2010 (Box 1-9, 13; 9 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1950-2003 (Box 9-10; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, circa 1944-1990 (Box 10; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, circa 1952-2010 (Box 10-11; 0.6 linear feet)
Aeries 6: Artwork, circa 1935-2007 (Box 11-12, OV 14; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 7: Photography, circa 1940-1998 (Box 12; 0.4 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Paul Jenkins (1923-2012) was an abstract expressionist painter and playwright in New York, New York, and Paris, France. Jenkins was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1923, and moved to Youngstown, Ohio as a teenager. After serving in the U.S. Maritime Service and the U.S. Naval Air Corps, Jenkins studied playwriting with George McCalmon at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). In 1948, he moved to New York City, where he studied with Yasuo Kuniyoshi at the Art Students League of New York.
Over the course of his career, Jenkins experimented with multiple techniques, including oil on primed canvas, flowing paints, acrylics, watercolor, and mixed media collages. After traveling extensively and meeting many artists, Jenkins ultimately became associated with the Abstract Expressionists. His work gained the attention of other members of the art world and he held solo exhibitions at venues such as the Zoe Dusanne Gallery in Seattle and the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York. Jenkins' paintings were purchased by both museums and private collectors, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Peggy Guggenheim.
In addition to his painting, Jenkins continued to explore other creative endeavors. He experimented with sculpture, producing works for events and permanent displays, including the Sculptors' Symposium at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum and the Sculpture Garden of the Hofstra Museum. His plays, such as Strike the Puma, were published and performed off Broadway in New York City. Jenkins's art served as the backdrop for multiple stage productions, and in 1978, his paintings were featured in the Academy Award nominated movie An Unmarried Woman. Jenkins also collaborated on a number of book projects, including Anatomy of a Cloud, a collection of autobiographical collages and texts.
Throughout his adult life, Jenkins split most of his time between New York and Paris. He continued to create and exhibit new works until his death in New York in 2012.
Related Materials:
Also found at the Archives of American Art are an interview of Paul Jenkins, August 1969, conducted by Albert Elsen, and an oral history interview, 1968, conducted by Colette Roberts.
Provenance:
The papers were donated 2007-2009 and in 2012 by Paul and Suzanne Jenkins.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The donor has retained all intellectual property rights, including copyright, that they may own.
1.3 Linear feet ((partially filmed on 1 microfilm reel))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Interviews
Sketchbooks
Sound recordings
Place:
Soviet Union -- description and travel
Date:
1951-1982
Scope and Contents:
Letters, a calendar and essay, sketchbooks (1957-1964), photographs (1963), printed material (1951-1982), 3 audio tapes, and a reel of motion picture film document the life and career of Rudy Pozzatti.
Reel 1618: Six annotated sketchbooks contain designs for the Lincoln, Neb., mural competition (1957), sketches and diary accounts of a trip to Russia (1961), sketches from a trip to Genoa and Rome, Italy, including work on a Japanese folding book (1963-1964), and annotated sketches from a Tamarind workshop (1963).
Unfilmed: Biographical material consists of 2 biographical sketches and a resume. Twenty letters (1952-1980) primarily concern Pozzatti's nomination as distinguished professor at Indiana University (1972). Notes and writings consist of a makeshift calendar designed by Pozzatti and Jimmy Ernst in Russia in 1961 and a 3-page essay "Homage to Rudy Pozzatti" by Elmer Schooley. One photograph shows Pozzatti as a member of the Pennell Selection Committee at the Library of Congress with Fritz Eichenberg. Another photograph shows the Arts Festival Committee examining Pozzatti's woodcut "Enchanted Flute" for the permanent collection of the University of Maine.
Unfilmed: Printed material includes clippings (1952-1986), exhibition announcements and catalogs (1951-1986), and lecture and workshop brochures (1963-1978). Three reel-to-reel audio tapes contain interviews with Pozzatti, including one with Rudolph de Harak conducted by Roger Gafke (1974), and one of a visiting artists discussion conducted by the University of Missouri (1974). A reel of 16 mm motion picture film records an interview with Pozzatti at the Fort Wayne Art Institute (1974).
Biographical / Historical:
Printmaker, painter, art instructor; Bloomington, Ind. Born in Telluride, Colo., Pozzatti received degrees from the University of Colorado in 1948 and 1950, and studied under Emilio Amero, Max Beckmann, and Ben Shahn. He taught printmaking at Indiana University from 1956-1972.
Provenance:
Material on reel 1618 lent for microfilming 1979; unmicrofilmed material donated 1980 and 1986 all by Rudy Pozzatti.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
The Myron Bement Smith collection consists of two parts, the papers of Myron Bement Smith and his wife Katharine and the Islamic Archives. It contains substantial material about his field research in Italy in the 1920s and his years working on Islamic architecture in Iran in the 1930s. Letters describe the milieu in which he operated in Rochester NY and New York City in the 1920s and early 1930s; the Smiths' life in Iran from 1933 to 1937; and the extensive network of academic and social contacts that Myron and Katharine developed and maintained over his lifetime. The Islamic Archives was a project to which Smith devoted most of his professional life. It includes both original materials, such as his photographs and notes, and items acquired by him from other scholars or experts on Islamic art and architecture. Smith intended the Archives to serve as a resource for scholars interested in the architecture and art of the entire Islamic world although he also included some materials about non-Islamic architecture.
Scope and Contents:
The Myron Bement Smith Collection consists of two parts, the papers of Myron Bement Smith and his wife Katharine and the Islamic Archives. The papers include some biographic material about Myron but little about his wife. Information on his academic and professional experience is sketchy and his diaries and appointment books often contain only sporadic entries. The papers contain substantial material about his field research in Italy in the 1920s and his years working on Islamic architecture in Iran in the 1930s. Correspondence comprises the largest and most potentially useful part of the papers. Letters describe the milieu in which he operated in Rochester, NY and New York City in the 1920s and early 1930s; the Smiths' life in Iran from 1933 to 1937; and the extensive network of academic and social contacts that Myron and Katharine developed and maintained over his lifetime.
The Islamic Archives, formally entitled The Archive for Islamic Culture and Art, was a project to which Smith devoted most of his professional life. It includes both original materials, such as his photographs and notes, and items acquired by him from other scholars or experts on Islamic art and architecture. Most of the latter consists of photographs and slides. Smith intended the Archives to serve as a resource for scholars interested in the architecture and art of the entire Islamic world although he also included some materials about non-Islamic architecture. The core collection of the Archives consists of Smith's original photographs and architectural sketches of Iranian Islamic monuments made during his field research in the 1930s. He meticulously photographed the interior and exterior of monuments, including their decorative detail. Some of the photographic materials subsequently loaned, purchased, or donated to the Archives may enable scholars to document sites over time but in many cases the materials are poorly preserved or reproduced. A notable exception to this is the glassplate negatives and prints of 19th century Iranian photographer Antoin Sevruguin.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 2 major series with further subseries. A third series inventories the outsized and miscellaneous materials.
Series 1: Papers
Subseries 1.1: Biographic Materials
Subseries 1.2: Professional Experience
Subseries 1.3: Notebooks, Journals and Appointment Books
Subseries 1.4: Correspondence
Subseries 1.5: Published and Unpublished Materials
Subseries 1.6: Italy Research 1925, 1927-1928
Subseries 1.7: Iran Research 1933-1937
Subseries 1.8: Katharine Dennis Smith Papers and Correspondence
Series 2: The Islamic Archives
Subseries 2.1: Islamic Archives History, Collection Information
Subseries 2.2: Resource Materials Iran
Subseries 2.3: Resource Materials Other Islamic World and General
Subseries 2.4: Myron Bement Smith Architectural Sketches, Plans and Notes, Iran, 1933-1937
Subseries 2.5: Myron Bement Smith Iran Photographs, Notebooks and Negative Registers
Subseries 2.6: Country Photograph File
Subseries 2.7: Lantern Slide Collection
Subseries 2.8: Myron Bement Smith 35 mm Color Slides
Subseries 2.9: Country 35 mm Color Slide File
Subseries 2.10: Myron Bement Smith Negatives
Subseries 2.11: Country Photograph Negatives
Subseries 2.12: Antoin Sevruguin Photographs
Series 3: Outsize and Miscellaneous Items
Subseries 3.1: Map Case Drawers
Subseries 3.2: Rolled Items
Subseries 3.3 Items in Freezer
Subseries 3.4 Smithsonian Copy Negatives
Biographical Note:
Myron Bement Smith was born in Newark Valley, New York in 1897 and grew up in Rochester, New York. He died in Washington D.C. in 1970. He showed an early interest in drawing, and after graduation from high school, he worked as a draftsman for a Rochester architect. He served in the US Army Medical Corps in France during World War I and on return again worked as an architectural draftsman. He studied at Yale University from 1922 to 1926, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. During summer vacations, he worked as draftsman or designer for architectural firms in New York City. After graduation, he received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation grant and spent two years in Italy doing research on northern Italian brick and stone work. He used photography as an tool for his research and published several well-illustrated articles. On return he joined an architectural firm in Philadelphia and in 1931 became a registered architect in New York. He enrolled in Harvard University graduate school in 1929 pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree.
In April 1930, Smith was appointed Secretary of the newly created American Institute for Persian Art and Archaeology founded by Arthur Upham Pope and located in New York City. He had no prior academic or work experience in Islamic art or architecture, and his job entailed designing publications, arranging lectures, organizing exhibitions and fund raising. That summer he arranged an independent study course at Harvard University on Persian art and subsequently studied Persian language at Columbia University and attended graduate courses at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. His work and academic credentials enabled him to compete successfully for a research fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies in 1933 to study Iranian Islamic architecture.
Accompanied by his new bride Katharine Dennis, Smith left for Iran in 1933. They suffered a horrendous motor vehicle accident in Iraq en route and required a lengthy recuperation in Lebanon and Cyprus. The Smiths eventually arrived in Isfahan, Iran, where they established their "Expedition House," as Smith called it, in a rented faculty house at Stuart College. Smith's research consisted of meticulous photographic documentation of Islamic monuments and architectural sketches and drawings of many of them. He concentrated on the Isfahan area but also documented monuments elsewhere in Iran. Smith outfitted his station wagon as a combination camper and research vehicle in which he and his staff traveled widely. Katharine sometimes traveled with him but generally she remained in Isfahan managing the household and logistics for the "expedition." The Smiths left Iran in 1937.
Smith published several articles about Iran's Islamic monuments based on his field research and in 1947 completed his PhD thesis for The Johns Hopkins University on the vault in Persian architecture. His professional career from 1938 until his death in 1970 consisted of a series of temporary academic positions, contract work and government or academic sponsored lecture tours and photographic exhibits. He had a long lasting relationship with the Library of Congress where he served as an Honorary Consultant from 1938 to 1940 and again from 1948 to 1970; from 1943 to 1944 he was Chief of the Iranian Section at the Library. Despite his lack of published material, Smith was well-known among academic, government and private citizens who worked, traveled or were otherwise interested Iran and the Islamic world.
Smith developed an extensive network of professional and social contacts that dated from his early student days and increased markedly during his time at the Persian Institute and later in Iran. He kept in touch with them and they touted him to others who were interested in Iran or Islamic art and architecture. This network served him well in realizing his ambition of creating a resource for scholars that relied on photographs to document Islamic architecture. The Islamic Archives began with his own collection of photographs from his Iran research and grew to include all manner of photographic and other materials not only on the Islamic world but also other areas. Creating and managing the Archives became the main focus of Smith's professional life and career. In 1967 he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to revise his PhD thesis as a publishable manuscript but died before he could complete it.
Related Materials:
The Antoin Sevruguin Photgraphs
Ernst Herzfeld Papers
Lionel B. Bier Drawings
Lionel D. Bier and Carol Bier Photographs
Provenance:
Gift of Katherine Dennis Smith, transfered from National Anthropological Archives.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
The Myron Bement Smith Collection, FSA A.04. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Katherine Dennis Smith.
Papers of art collectors Pauline Baerwald Falk (1910-2000) and Myron Samuel (Johnny) Falk Jr. (1906-1992). This collection includes correspondence; art collection documentation; research materials; photographs (slides and prints) and audiovisual materials; financial information; biographical data; records of philanthropic and social activities; travel records; and appointment books.
Arrangement:
Organized into five series:
• Series 1: Biographic Materials
• Series 2: Travel
• Series 3: Correspondence
• Series 4: Collection Files
• Series 5: Slides
Biographical / Historical:
Pauline Baerwald was born in New York City in 1910, living there until her death in 2000. In 1932 she graduated from Smith College and went on to the School of Social Work at Columbia University. Pauline's father, Paul Baerwald, was a German-Jewish banker and philanthropist, as well as an executive board member of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), an agency chartered to provide refugee services for European Jews who were victims of persecution throughout Russia and Europe. Pauline was an active volunteer with the JDC throughout World War II. After the war she was one of the founders of the National Refuge Service (later the New York Association for New Americans) as well as the Jewish Social Service Association. She also served as president of the Jewish Family Services, a predecessor agency of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services. In 1935 Pauline Baerwald married Myron "Johnny" S. Falk, Jr., and raised three children: Patricia, Michael and Nancy. Pauline, with support from Johnny, was a founder of the New Lincoln School in Manhattan, having attended the Lincoln School as a child. They maintained connection to charitable social work throughout their lives.
Myron "Johnny" S. Falk, Jr., son of Myron S. Falk, was born in New York City in 1906. In 1928 he earned a degree at Yale and a B.S. in Engineering from MIT in 1929. During World War II Johnny was a commissioned officer in the army, posted to the Pentagon ordinance section, applying his engineering and management skills to the task of munitions production. The family moved to Washington, D.C. during the war. In addition to his professional career as an investment banker with Ralph E. Samuels and Co., Johnny was a director of the New York Foundation and Hebrew Technical Institute. He was a board member of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and Bennington College.
Pauline and Johnny were both introduced to Chinese art early in life. Johnny's father collected Chinese porcelain to decorate his New York home. In keeping with the taste of the times, most of his pieces were Kangxi blue and white porcelains. On his sixtieth birthday he divided his porcelains among his three children. Several years later Johnny and his sister, Mildred, gave many of those Kangxi porcelains to the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to be permanently installed, together with many other porcelains, to re-create the original appearance of the Whistler Peacock Room.
Pauline was introduced to Chinese art by her uncle, Emil Baerwald, who took her to the Metropolitan Museum to see the Bishop Collection and on visits to Yamanaka and Company on Fifth Avenue, where Mr. Shirai would take them into the private rooms to see the rarest pieces. Emil Baerwald lived in Europe, and, as an active collector of Chinese ceramics, he became acquainted with leading Chinese art collectors there, including George Eumorfopoulos and Sir Percival David. He provided introductions to collectors when Pauline and Johnny visited England in 1950.
In 1937 Pauline and Johnny made their first trip to China on Pan Am's Clipper, flying from San Francisco to Manila. It was during their first visit to China that Johnny and Pauline began buying early Chinese pottery and works of art. Pauline referred to this trip as the one trip that formed their collection. On this flight they met K.C. Chung, a consultant and friend for years to come. Pauline's uncle, Ernst Baerwald, lived in Tokyo and was well connected in the arts. Through his introductions they met significant art dealers, including Mathias Komor, who became an advisor to them.
Pauline and Johnny were contributors the founding of many Asian art organizations in America during the years following World War II and the Korean War. They participated in the establishment of the Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America in 1945, a scholarly journal which was renamed Archives of Asian Art in 1966 and continues publication today.
Pauline and Johnny were strong supporters of the Asia Society, where Johnny was a trustee. In 1971 they were among the first participants in the Japan Society and were founding members of the Friends of Japan House Gallery. Johnny was also a trustee of the Research Laboratory of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 1966 until his death. In 1950 Pauline and Johnny attended a meeting of the Oriental Ceramic Society (OCS) of London, and a few years later Johnny became the OCS representative in North America, a post he held for more than thirty years.
Johnny Falk died in 1992 and Pauline Baerwald Falk passed away in 2000, the same year the collection of approximately 700 items was assigned to Christie's.
Provenance:
Gift of the Falk family.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting Search this
Genre/Form:
Correspondence
Photographs
Diaries -- 20th century
Maps -- 20th century
Citation:
Pauline B. and Myron S. Falk, Jr. Papers, FSA.A2002.03. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the Falk family.
Sponsor:
Processed in 2022 with funding from the Smithsonian Institution's American Women's History Initiative.
