Card file, including sales records, customer files, and service records.
Biographical / Historical:
Art gallery; Boston, Mass. Director and owner was Edyth Shulman. Specialized in tribal art, especially Eskimo (Inuit) art, much of it contemporary carving and printmaking fostered by the government beginning in the 1950s. Located on Newbury St., ca. 1970-1972, and in Cambridge, ca. 1972-1978.
Provenance:
Donated 1994 by Robert Vose, who received the records from the family of Edyth Shulman.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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:
Arwin Galleries records, 1948-1981. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
The reference library subseries includes information gathered by Bert and Ellen Witt on subjects relating to Inuit art. These materials include articles and pamphlets on topics such as artistic mediums, general information on native communities in the Arctic, the developemnt of the Arctic, and miscellaneous materials on Inuit life and culture. This subseries is arranged alphabetically with the miscellaneous material at the end of the subseries.
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); Collection Title, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Festival Recordings: Narrative Stage: Balladry continued: Conserving American Indian Culture
Creator:
Smithsonian Institution. Festival of American Folklife. Cultural Conservation Program 1985 Washington, D.C. Search this
Collection Creator:
Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Search this
Extent:
1 Sound recording (sound tape reel)
1 Item (sound-tape reel, analog, 7 in.)
Type:
Archival materials
Sound recordings
Place:
United States
Washington (D.C.)
Date:
1985 June 26
Local Numbers:
FP-1985-7RR-0397
Publication, Distribution, Etc. (Imprint):
United States Cultural Conservation Program 1985
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note:
Recorded in: Washington (D.C.), United States, June 26, 1985.
Restrictions:
Restrictions on access. Some duplication is allowed. Use of materials needs permission of the Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights:
Copyright and other restrictions may apply. Generally, materials created during a Festival are covered by a release signed by each participant permitting their use for personal and educational purposes; materials created as part of the fieldwork leading to a Festival may be more restricted. We permit and encourage such personal and educational use of those materials provided digitally here, without special permissions. Use of any materials for publication, commercial use, or distribution requires a license from the Archives. Licensing fees may apply in addition to any processing fees.
The Arctic Circle records include materials gathered by Bert and Ellen Witt for their private gallery of Inuit art The Arctic Circle. These materials include native artists information which is organized by community, reference material organized topically, slides from the gallery's annual print collections as well as photographs of scupltures and textiles displayed in the gallery. Much of the reference material used by the gallery pertains to native communities in the Nunavet Territory of Canada such as Cape Dorset and Baker Lake as well as other small communities throughout the Northwest Territiories. Additionally photographs taken by Bert and Ellen Witt's son Tony during a trip to Canada in 1973 are included in this collection.
Scope and Contents:
The Arctic Circle records include materials gathered by Bert and Ellen Witt for their private gallery of Inuit art The Arctic Circle. These materials include native artists information which is organized by community, reference material organized topically, slides from the gallery's annual print collections as well as photographs of scupltures and textiles displayed in the gallery. Much of the reference material used by the gallery pertains to native communities in the Nunavet Territory of Canada such as Cape Dorset and Baker Lake as well as other small communities throughout the Northwest Territiories. Additionally photographs taken by Bert and Ellen Witt's son Tony during a trip to Canada in 1973 are included in this collection.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into three series:
Series 1: Papers, 1971-1980,
Series 2: Reference Materials, 1967-1987,
Subseries 2.1: Artists Listed by Community, 1971-1984, undated,
Subseries 2.2: Reference Library, 1967-1987, undated,
Series 3: Photographs, 1971-1987,
Subseries 3.1: Gallery Objects, 1979-1987,
Subseries 3.2: Witt Family Arctic Trip, 1973,
Subseries 3.3: Other Photos, 1971, 1975
Series 1: Papers, 1971-1980
Series 2: Reference Materials, 1967-1987
Subseries 2A: Artists Listed by Community, 1971-1984, undated
The Arctic Circle was founded in Los Angeles in 1970 as a private art gallery devoted entirely to the exhibition and sale of scupltures and graphics by Inuit artists of the Canadian arctic. Between 1970 and the late 1980's approximately six to eight exhibitions were mounted on themes illustrative of native life in the Canadian arctic. The gallery was created and founded by Bert and Ellen Witt and run out of their home on North La Jolla Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Bert Witt, sometimes accompanied by his wife Ellen and son Tony, traveled extensively in the Canadian arctic visiting many Inuit communities and forming personal aquaintances with native artists. Through the Artic Circle, Witt supported the Arctic co-operative movement by purchasing art through co-ops in each settlement he visited or through the co-op distribution points for the Northwest Territories and Arctic Quebec.
Provenance:
The archival material in this collection accompanied a donation to NMAI by Bert and Ellen Witt in 2001 that included sculptures, drawings, prints and textiles. An additional three photographs were donated by Bert Witt in 2004.
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).
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.
Topic:
Inuit art -- 20th century -- Exhibitions Search this
Art galleries, Commercial -- California -- Los Angeles Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Articles
Slides
Brochures
Clippings
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Collection Title, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
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); Collection Title, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection consists of two color woodblock prints and eight crayon/pencil drawings made by Inuit residents of Cape Dorset in Nunavut territory, Canada, circa 1966. The prints and drawings depict traditional Inuit subjects, including birds, bears, fish and hunting scenes.
Biographical / Historical:
Cape Dorset is an Inuit community located on Dorset Island in the Qikiqtaaluk region of Nunavut, Canada. Since the 1950s, Cape Dorset, often called the "Capital of Inuit Art," has been a center for Inuit artists, especially in the areas of drawing, printmaking, and carving.
Edmund Snow Carpenter (1922-2011) was an archaeologist and visual anthropologist who worked extensively with the indigenous peoples of the Canadian Arctic as well as Papua New Guinea. With his colleague and close collaborator Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), he laid the groundwork for modern media theory. Carpenter is also known for his work as an ethnographic filmmaker and as a collector of Paleo-Eskimo art. The Papers of Edmund Carpenter, circa 1938-2011, document the research interests and projects undertaken by Carpenter in the fields of cultural anthropology, ethnographic filmmaking, media theory, archaeology, and indigenous art.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Edmund Carpenter, 1940-2011, document the research interests and projects undertaken by Carpenter in the fields of cultural anthropology, ethnographic filmmaking, media theory, archaeology, and indigenous art. Specific research projects and interests documented are: his 1950s fieldwork among the Aivilik Inuit in the Canadian Arctic as well as his studies into Inuit concepts of space, time, and geography; his partnership and collaboration with media theorist Marshall McLuhan and his ethnographic studies of Papua New Guinean tribal communities; his early-career archaeological digs at Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) burial mounds in Sugar Run, Pennsylvania, as well as later archaeological interest in Arctic peoples, Siberia, and the Norwegian artifact dubbed the "Norse Penny"; his reflections on the disciplines of anthropology and media studies; his editing and completion of the work of art historian Carl Schuster at the Museum der Kulturen (Museum of Ethnology) in Basel, Switzerland; his editing of The Story of Comock the Eskimo, as told to Robert Flaherty; and his museum exhibitions compiled on the topics of surrealist and tribal art. The collection also documents Carpenter's correspondence with fellow scholars, ethnographers, filmmakers, and colleagues; his published writings; and elements of his personal life, such as obituaries and personal photographs.
Materials in this collection include artifact and burial records; correspondence; drawings and illustrations; essays; interviews and oral histories; inventories and catalogues; manuscripts and drafts, and fragments of drafts; maps; memoranda and meeting minutes; notes, notebooks, and data analysis; obituaries and memorials; photographic prints, slides, and negatives, including personal photographs and portraits; proposals and plans for museum exhibits; reports; resumes and bibliographies; reviews; and sound recordings on CD-Rs and audio cassettes. Additional materials include books and book chapters; journal copies and journal excerpts; magazine, newspaper, and article clippings and excerpts; museum and gallery catalogues, brochures, and guides; pamphlets; and reprints. A portion of the material collected here consist of consolidated research into specific topics, gathered from archival repositories, museums, correspondence, and published works. This material consists of research reprints and archival reference photocopies and photographic prints from various repositories.
Items worthy of special mention in this collection include: annotated draft chapters from Marshall McLuhan's seminal work on media theory, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (Series 2); a 1957 letter from e. e. cummings to Carpenter, written in verse (Series 3); an undated thank-you note addressed to "Sadie" from Helen Keller (Series 3); and a transcript of an interview of Carpenter by his former student, Harald Prins (Series 2).
Audiovisual material in this collection is currently undergoing processing.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into the following 7 series:
Series 1. Fieldwork and drafts, 1940-2011 (bulk 1940-1959)
Series 2. Research and project files, 1940-2011
Series 3. Correspondence, circa 1938-2011
Series 4. Publications and lectures, circa 1942-circa 2006
Series 5. Personal, 1942-2011
Series 6. Film and visual material (in-process)
Series 7. Writings by others, 1960-2009, undated
Biographical Note:
Edmund Snow Carpenter (1922-2011) was an archaeologist and visual anthropologist who worked extensively with the indigenous peoples of the Canadian Arctic and Papua New Guinea. With his colleague and close collaborator Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), he laid the groundwork for modern media theory. Carpenter is also known for his work as an ethnographic filmmaker and as a collector of Paleo-Eskimo art.
Born in 1922 in Rochester, New York, Edmund (nicknamed "Ted") Carpenter served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II before receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1950 under Frank Speck for work on Iroquoian prehistoric archaeology. Carpenter began teaching at the University of Toronto in 1948 while simultaneously working as a programmer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). In the 1950s, he undertook fieldwork in the Canadian Arctic among the Aivilik (an Inuit Igloolik subgroup). This fieldwork resulted in several publications in the field of cultural anthropology, including Time/Space Concepts of the Aivilik (1955), Anerca (1959), and Eskimo (1959, republished as Eskimo Realities in 1973).
Also in the 1950s, Carpenter began a working relationship with media theorist Marshall McLuhan. Together, they received a Ford Foundation grant (1953-1955) for an interdisciplinary media research project into the impact of mass communications and mass media on culture change. Carpenter and McLuhan's partnership resulted in the Seminar on Culture and Communication (1953-1959) and the journal series Explorations. In 1957, Carpenter was the founding chair in the interdisciplinary program "Anthropology and Art" at San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge). There, he collaborated with Bess Lomax Hawes and other colleagues in the production of several ethnographic films, including Georgia Sea Island Singers about Gullah (or Geechee) songs and dances. During this period, Carpenter worked with McLuhan on the latter's seminal book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964). The article published as "Fashion is Language" in Harper's Bazaar under McLuhan's name (1968) was actually written by Carpenter. It was later published in book form under Carpenter's name, with the title They Became What They Beheld (1970).
In 1969, Carpenter took a research professorship at the University of Papua and New Guinea sponsored by the government of Australia. Alongside photographer Adelaide De Menil (whom he would later marry), he applied many of the ideas about media literacy and culture change to indigenous communities of Papua New Guinea. These activities led to developments in the field of media ecology, as well as the publication of Carpenter's best-known work, Oh, What a Blow the Phantom Gave Me! (1976).
Carpenter taught intermittently at various universities throughout his career, including Fordham University, the University of California-Santa Cruz, Adelphi University, Harvard University's Center for Visual Anthropology, the New School for Social Research, and New York University. He spent eight years associated with the Museum of Ethnology in Basel, Switzerland (1973-1981), editing art historian Carl Schuster's research.
In addition to his teaching and research, Carpenter, with his wife Adelaide De Menil, collected tribal art, eventually amassing the largest private collection of Paleo-Eskimo art in the United States. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Carpenter curated various exhibitions on art and visual culture, including the Menil Collection's Witness to a Surrealist Vision and the Musée du Quai Branly's Upside Down (later reconstructed at the Menil Collection). In later years, Carpenter resumed his archaeological interest in Arctic peoples, researching and collaborating on the Zhokhov Island Mesolithic site in the Russian Arctic with Russian scientists from the Institute for the History of Material Culture and archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.
Carpenter died on July 1, 2011 at his home in New York.
Grimes, William. "Edmund Carpenter, Archaeologist and Anthropologist, Dies at 88." The New York Times. 2011 July 7. https://www.nytimes.com
Prins, Harald E. L. and John Bishop. "Edmund Carpenter: Explorations in Media and Anthropology." Visual Anthropology Review 17:2 (Fall-Winter 2001-2002): 110-140.
Chronology
1922 September 2 -- Born in Rochester, New York
circa 1940-1941 -- Archaeological field work, Sugar Run mounds, Pennsylvania
1942-1946 -- Served in the United States Marine Corps
1948-1957 -- Anthropology Department, University of Toronto
circa 1950 -- Began work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
1950 -- Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania (Anthropology)
1950s -- Fieldwork among the Aivilik Inuit
1953-1959 -- Ran the Seminar on Culture and Communication with Marshall McLuhan
1957-1967 -- "Anthropology and Art" program at San Fernando Valley State College (California State University, Northridge)
1967-1968 -- Schwitzer Chair, Fordham University (with Marshall McLuhan)
1968-1969 -- Carnegie Chair in Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz
1969-1970 -- Research Professor, University of Papua and New Guinea
1973-1981 -- Associated with the Museum of Ethnology in Basel, Switzerland for Carl Schuster papers project
circa 1989-2005 -- Collaboration regarding Zhokov Island archaeological site
2011 July 1 -- Died in East Hampton, New York
Separated Materials:
Film and video recordings are retained by the Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA) as the Edmund Carpenter-Adelaide de Menil Collection (HSFA 2004-04). Once processing is complete, they will be described in the following finding aid in Series 6.
Provenance:
The Edmund Snow Carpenter papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives in 2017 by Adelaide de Menil on behalf of the Rock Foundation.
Restrictions:
The Edmund Snow Carpenter papers are open for research.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Digital media in the collection is restricted for preservation reasons.
Access to the Edmund Snow Carpenter papers requires an appointment.
Series 2 documents Carpenter's various research interests and aspects of various projects, including manuscript preparation, museum and archival research, and close collaboration with other scholars. This series is thematically related to, but distinct from, Series 1, which focuses on site-specific field research.
Projects documented in this series include Carpenter's work promoting the English-language translation of The Historical-Ethnographic Atlas of Siberia; his topical research and unfinished manuscript on the subject of Inuit and indigenous Arctic conceptions of geography and space; an incomplete memoir biographizing the anthropologists and other individuals who influenced his work; his collaborations with media theorist Marshall McLuhan, including drafts of McLuhan's seminal book, Understanding Media; his reflections on the Museum of the American Indian in New York City and its founder, George Heye; the proposals and completion of multiple museum exhibits in both Europe and the United States on the topics of art history and tribal art; his research into the debatable provenance of the "Norse Penny," a Norwegian artifact uncovered at a Native American archaeological site in Maine; as well as general and unidentified research files. The series also documents Carpenter's research and eventual publication of ethnographic and art historical material accumulated by the scholars Robert Flaherty (working on Inuit art and archaeology) and Carl Schuster (working on tribal art and traditional symbolism).
Material types present in this series include articles, reprints, and newspaper clippings; brochures and guides; correspondence; drafts and fragments of drafts; inventories; manuscripts; maps; memoranda and meeting minutes; notes; photographs; proposals; reports; and sound recordings. Most of these files do not contain documents or photographs created by Carpenter. Rather, they largely represent his consolidated research into specific topics, gathered from archival repositories, museums, correspondence, and published works.
Arrangement:
Series 2 is divided into the following 10 sub-series:
2.1 "Atlas of Siberia," circa 2003;
2.2 "Eskimo Mapping," 1987-2002, undated;
2.3 Memoir, 1947, 1992-2007, undated;
2.4 Robert Flaherty, 1958-2009;
2.5 George Heye and the Museum of the American Indian, 1978, 1990-2006;
2.6 Marshall McLuhan, 1950-1973, 1981-1988, 2000;
2.7 Museum exhibitions, circa 1974-2011;
2.8 Norse penny 1979, circa 2001-circa 2003;
2.9 Carl Schuster, 1940-1963, 1986-2000 (bulk 1940-1949);
2.10 General 1947-1958, 1970-circa 2007, undated.
Restrictions:
Use of archival sound recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Edmund Snow Carpenter papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Rock Foundation.
This sub-series documents Carpenter's research related to Robert Flaherty and Flaherty's work on the Inuit ("Eskimo") hunter Comock. Carpenter served as the editor to The Story of Comock the Eskimo, as told to Robert Flaherty (1968), which was later re-published as Comock: The True Story of an Eskimo Hunter (2003). The bulk of the sub-series consists of compiled and reproduced research files on Flaherty, Comock, and Inuit art and archaeology. These files include reference photographs and photocopies from archival repositories; newspaper and magazine clippings; biographies and reviews; and notes. Also included is correspondence related not only to Comock and Flaherty, but to Carpenter's other Arctic and Inuit projects.
Of note in this sub-series is an incomplete mock-up of a book labeled "Comock, Enooesweetok and Flaherty," as well as a galley of the French translation of The Story of Comock the Eskimo, as told to Robert Flaherty ("L'Histoire de Comock L'Esquimau"). Also included is Richard Leacock's recounting of his experience with Robert Flaherty creating 1948's Louisiana Story.
Related material can be found in sub-series 2.2: "Eskimo Mapping."
Arrangement:
The material in this sub-series is arranged alphabetically.
Series Restrictions:
Use of archival sound recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Edmund Snow Carpenter papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Rock Foundation.
Files containing Sturtevant's students' grades have been restricted, as have his students' and colleagues' grant and fellowships applications. Restricted files were separated and placed at the end of their respective series in boxes 87, 264, 322, 389-394, 435-436, 448, 468, and 483. For preservation reasons, his computer files are also restricted. Seminole sound recordings are restricted. Access to the William C. Sturtevant Papers requires an apointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
William C. Sturtevant papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The papers of William C. Sturtevant were processed with the assistance of a Wenner-Gren Foundation Historical Archives Program grant awarded to Dr. Ives Goddard. Digitization and preparation of these materials for online access has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
