This series contains loose sketches and drawings, sketchbooks, woodcuts, and lithographs by Olive Rush, along with a few artworks created by others.
Sketches and Drawings are grouped by subject matter, with those representing Rush's murals and frescoes filed separately. There is some crossover among the subject categories, and sketches and drawings made for murals in particular are likely to be found in other categories. Although most sketches are unidentified, murals and frescoes known to be represented here include Rush's Federal Art Project murals at the Santa Fe Public Library, the New Mexico College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts, and the Pawhuska, Oklahoma Post Office. Also represented are privately commissioned works, including murals and frescoes created for the La Fonda Hotel of Santa Fe, the Sandia School in Albuquerque, and the homes of Florence Barrett, Cyrus McCormick, and Mary Wheelwright, among others. Photographs of many of Rush's murals and frescoes are found in Series 7.
Among the other sketches and drawings are scenes of Native American reservation life, scenes from home and travel destinations, studies for Rush's illustrations, portraits, and other paintings, and abstract, non-objective drawings. Sketches and Drawings are mostly executed in pencil, but are also found in colored pencil, charcoal, watercolor, pen and ink, crayon, and oil.
Sketchbooks contain a similar range of subjects and media, with sketches sometimes accompanied by notes and information about location and date of execution. Artwork by Others includes works by Charles Barrows, Edgar Miller, Dorothy Stewart, Mootzka, Will Shuster, and Ethel Pennewill Brown Leach. See Correspondence for prints received by Rush as greeting cards. Additional drawings by Ethel P.B. Leach are found in Biographical Materials.
Collection Restrictions:
The bulk of the collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website. Use of material not digitized requires an appointment.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Olive Rush papers, 1879-1967. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
From the start, Hersh considered photography integral to the realization of her objectives for her unfinished book about Native Southwest jewelers. The photographs in this collection were made for the purposes of illustrating Hersh's book. She accounted for photography costs in her Ford Foundation grant application and upon securing Foundation funding in June of 1975 immediately hired Nancy Lensen-Tomasson. Together the two made several trips around Arizona and New Mexico to photograph jewelry and native jewelers on location. Lensen-Tomasson used a Hasselblad 2 ¼ camera for this work; the Ford Foundation or Hersh paid for all film and processing fees.
Under the guidance of Hersh, Lensen-Tomasson photographed individual pieces of jewelry, jewelry modeled by Native community members, portraits of jewelers wearing their work, and several series of various jewelers working at their benches. The jewelers provided the names of prospective models (who, along with the jewelers, signed release forms), and Hersh provided clothing for them. Most of the models were high school students. The jewelers themselves chose examples of their work for photography and were apparently pleased to pose wearing their jewelry for the camera.
From a vast body of work produced by Lensen-Tomasson, the photographs and negatives in the Hersh collection were particularly chosen by Hersh for the purposes of her book. She took possession of the negatives in order to restrict their use. Lensen-Tomasson retained the remainder of the negatives.
Arrangement:
The photographs series consists of five subseries, arranged alphabetically by culture group and followed by a subseries for miscellaneous and unidentified photographs. Each subseries is arranged alphabetically by jeweler name, when known, and each photographic print (both color and black & white) has an NMAI inventory number assigned to it. For some prints, NMAI owns the original negative. The negatives have also been assigned NMAI inventory numbers and the prints are cross referenced to them. Most of the photographs in the Hopi, Santo Domingo, and Zuni subseries have also been described on an item level in NMAI's collections database.
Biographical note:
In June 1975, Hersh hired photographer Nancy Lensen-Tomasson; between 1975 and 1980 the two made a number of trips around Arizona and New Mexico to photograph jewelry and jewelers on location.
Born Nancy Lensen in 1931, Lensen-Tomasson received her BA in Art History from Wellesley in 1953 and an MA in Photography from the University of New Mexico in 1973. During her collaboration with Hersh, Lensen-Tomasson was a graduate student in the fine arts at the University of New Mexico. In 1978, she received an MFA in photography from the University of New Mexico and went on to teach photography at Virginia Commonwealth University for seventeen years. She completed photo-documentary work in Africa (Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Ghana, and Togo) and in Russia. Her work is represented in such collections as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana; the Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Russian Union of Art Photographers, Moscow, Russia; Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman; Northlight Gallery, Arizona State University, Tempe; and the Handwerker Gallery, Itaca College, Ithaca, New York.
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:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadbast materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Phyllis Hersh collection, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Collection Director:
Heye, George G. (George Gustav), 1874-1957 Search this
Container:
Box 266, Folder 12
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1915-1918
Scope and Contents:
Correspondents: Richard Van Vredenburgh, Theodoor de Booy, Charles Heuser, J. Walter Fewkes, George Gustav Heye, Bennett Young, Samuel G. Tate, George Payne, Otto B. Giers, Francis LaFlesche, Clarence B. Moore, G.L. Berg, William Curtis Farabee, F.W. Skiff, Charles Furlong, V.T. Hammer, James B. Ford, P.E. Goddard, Fred E. Sander, Edgar L. Hewett, J.E. Standley, Henry D. Paxson, John W. Harrington, Frederick W. Hodge, F.W. Waugh, William J. Seever, Elliot E. Haaseman, V. May White, Henry G. Bayer, Benjamin Talbot Babbitt Hyde, W.J. MacKAy, Clark Wissler.
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:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation Records, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Indians of North America -- New Mexico Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Postcards
Photomechanical prints
Place:
New Mexico
Ranchos de Taos (N.M.)
Scope and Contents:
Postcard booklet of sites in New Mexico, plus front and back cover illustrations. Most views are mountain scenes and buildings. The cover illustration (shown here) depicts the Old Mission Church in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico with women, children and men in Southwestern Indian style dress. Subjects include Raton Pass, Taos Indian Pueblo, Hermit's Peak (Las Vegas, N.M.), Starvation Peak on the Santa Fe Trail, Old San Miguel Mission (Santa Fe), "oldest house in America, Santa Fe," sunset on the Rio Grande, Albuquerque, and Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe. The cover and back illustrations (the latter shows Navajo Indian women weaving) are reproductions of paintings, while the postcards appear to be reproductions of hand-painted photographs.
Local Numbers:
BL318 (Image No., cover illustration, not in Archives Center file)
General:
Series 1, Box 10, U.S.A.--New Mexico--General Mountain Views.
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
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.
Indians of North America -- New Mexico Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Picture postcards
Postcards
Place:
New Mexico
Santa Fe (N.M.)
Scope and Contents:
Postcard booklet of sites in New Mexico, with several depictions of Native Americans and references to Mexicans. The cover has an illustration of a man on a horse with a package on the second horse. The other side is a Pueblo scene of men performing a ceremonial dance with spectators. Booklet contains several depictions of ethnic Mexicans and Indians and contains a postcard history of the Southwest.
General:
Series 1, Box 10, U.S.A.--New Mexico---General Mountain Views.
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
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.
Illustration of a New Mexican Indian Pueblo, including the well-known adobe structures. Verso gives description of the location in relation to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and about the wares that the Indians sell to tourists passing through.
Local Numbers:
AC0200-0000079 (AC Scan)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
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.
National Philatelic Collection, Smithsonian Institution. Search this
Blenkle, Victor A., Dr., 1900-1978 (physician) Search this
Extent:
1 Item (black and white, 3.5" x 5.5".)
Type:
Archival materials
Postcards
Picture postcards
Place:
Santa Fe (N.M.) -- 1920-1930
Scope and Contents:
Illustration by Arthur J. Merrill, signed 1898, but postmark is 1951. The card depicts a street scene in Santa Fe. On verso: "Across the lane from San Miguel Church stands an old 'puddled' adobe house. This house is believed to be pre-Spanish and is undoubtedly well over 400 years old."
General:
Series 1, Box 10, U.S.A.--New Mexico--Santa Fe.
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
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.
National Philatelic Collection, Smithsonian Institution. Search this
Blenkle, Victor A., Dr., 1900-1978 (physician) Search this
Extent:
1 Item (color; Ink on paper, 3-1/2" x 5-1/2".)
Culture:
Indians of North America -- New Mexico Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Postcards
Picture postcards
Place:
Santa Fe (N.M.)
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Card has illustration of La Fonda, a hotel with adobe applique, with cars parked in front of the hotel. The verso describes the hotel as an inn where travelers can stay while touring the Indian territories and the Southwest.
Arrangement:
In series 1, box10, grouping U.S.A.--New Mexico--Santa Fe.
Local Numbers:
AC0200-0000082 (AC Scan)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
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.
Color illustration taken from the "New Mexico: Postcard Booklet" (BL381): two women sitting on the ground working on a rug with emblematic Southwestern designs. Behind the women are rugs hanging on a clothes line. The exterior of the booklet on one side shows two women sitting and weaving.
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
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.
Topic:
Indians of North America -- New Mexico Search this
