Materials less than 15 years old Restricted. Records may contain personally identifiable information (PII) that is permanently restricted. Contact reference staff for details
Smithsonian Institution Photographic Services Division Search this
National Museum of History and Technology Search this
Physical description:
35mm;
Type:
Black-and-white negatives
Date:
1972
September 15, 1972
Local number:
SIA Acc. 11-009 [72-8844]
Restrictions & Rights:
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions. Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
The gift as material culture : report of a Yale-Smithsonian seminar held at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., April 28-30, 1991 / edited by Patricia Thatcher and Paul Michael Taylor with Cynthia Adams Hoover
Title:
Report of a Yale-Smithsonian seminar
Author:
Yale-Smithsonian Seminar on Material Culture (1991 : Washington, D.C.) Search this
Interview of Hoover discusses her childhood; early interest in music; education at Wellesley, Radcliffe, and Brandeis; and career at the Smithsonian, including the development of a musical instruments division, her special interest in the keyboard coll...
The Smithsonian Institution Archives began its Oral History Program in 1973. The purpose of the program is to supplement the written documentation of the Archives'
record and manuscript collections with an Oral History Collection, focusing on the history of the Institution, research by its scholars, and contributions of its staff. Program
staff conduct interviews with current and retired Smithsonian staff and others who have made significant contributions to the Institution. There are also interviews conducted
by researchers or students on topics related to the history of the Smithsonian or the holdings of the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Cynthia Adams Hoover, Curator of Musical Instruments at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History from 1961 to 2004, was interviewed in 1986 by Richard Binfield,
a student in an oral history seminar at the University of Maryland, to document her long and distinguished career as a scholar of American music and her role in engaging the
scholarly community at the Smithsonian.
Descriptive Entry:
Cynthia Adams Hoover was interviewed in 1986 by Richard Binfield, a student at the University of Maryland, as part of a seminar project that focused on interviews of
Smithsonian staff members, taught by Smithsonian Institution Archives Historian Pamela M. Henson. This interview of Hoover covers her youth, education, and career at the Smithsonian,
including the development of a musical instruments division, her special interest in the keyboard collection, her work on various publications, programs, and exhibits, and
reminiscences of colleagues and administrators. The collection consists of 1.5 hours of audio recordings and 28 pages of transcript
Historical Note:
Cynthia Adams Hoover (1934- ) received her B.A. from Wellesley College in 1957, the M.A.T. from Radcliffe College in 1958, and the M.F.A. from Brandeis University in
1961. She was appointed an Assistant Curator of Musical Instruments in the Division of Cultural History, National Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum
of American History) in 1961. In 1964, she advanced to Associate Curator and in 1975 she advanced to Curator of Musical Instruments. Upon her retirement in 2004, she was named
Curator Emeritus. Hoover was instrumental in creating the Yale-Smithsonian Seminar Series which focused on material culture research, was the founder of the Material Culture
Forum at the Smithsonian Institution, and was involved in several professional societies, including the American Musicological Society. Her research specialties include the
cultural, social, and technological history of musical instruments, especially the piano, made and used in America; music in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American life;
and interpretation of American material culture. Her work has resulted in exhibitions and publications on such subjects as Music in Early Massachusetts, Nineteenth-Century
American Ballroom Music, 1840-1860; Music Machines-American Style, and PIANO 300: Celebrating Three Hundred Years of People and Pianos. Hoover received a
Guggenheim Fellowship to research the changing intersections of technology, culture, and commerce of the piano, work that resulted in the PIANO 300 exhibition and related
programs in 2000 2001.
Rights:
Restricted. Contact SIHistory@si.edu to request permission.
