The papers of Hildreth Meière measure 27.3 linear feet and 1.40 GB and date from 1901 to 2011, with the bulk of material dating from 1911 to 1960. The collection documents Meière's life and travels, and her long and prolific career as an architectural muralist through biographical material, correspondence, writings, thirteen diaries, files regarding her war relief work during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, printed and digital materials, extensive photographs and slides, eight sketchbooks, and two videocassettes and 93 reels of motion picture film documenting her travels, her volunteer efforts in Spain following the civil war, artwork, and home movies.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Hildreth Meière measure 27.3 linear feet and 1.40 GB and date from 1901 to 2011, with the bulk of material dating from 1911 to 1960. The collection documents Meière's life and travels, and her long and prolific career as an architectural muralist through biographical material, correspondence, writings, thirteen diaries, files regarding her war relief work during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, printed and digital materials, extensive photographs and slides, eight sketchbooks, and two videocassettes and 93 reels of motion picture film documenting her travels, her volunteer efforts in Spain following the civil war, artwork, and home movies.
Biographical material includes an autobiographical narrative written by Meière, her many awards and certificates, membership information, passports, her U.S. Navy service records from World War I, documentation of her brief marriage and family genealogy, obituaries, and memorial service documentation. Also found are extensive writings and research conducted by Meière's daughter, Louise Meière Dunn, which include a complete list of Meière's commissions, detailed biographical narratives, and records of Meière's works held elsewhere.
The papers contain Meière's personal and family correspondence, travel correspondence, and business correspondence regarding professional activities. Much of the correspondence with family and friends was written during Meière's extensive travels over the world. Both family and travel correspondence have extensive indexes, summaries, and in some cases, transcripts prepared by Meière's daughter, Louise Meière Dunn. Some of the indexes, summaries and transcripts are digital. Writings include poetry and diaries kept during childhood and school years, travel diaries, essays and talks written about Meière's work, writings Meière prepared for committees of the National Mural Painters Association, and detailed travelogues of her trips to Constantinople and the Balkans in 1933, to Russia in 1936, her "Grand Tour" to Australia, Southeast Asia, India, Africa, and Europe in 1952-1953, and her "Holy Land" tour of the Middle East in 1954.
Civilian War Service Records document Meière's efforts at war relief organization during and after the Spanish Civil War and during World War II. The Spanish Civil War files include extensive photographs provided by the Spanish government as well as three motion picture films documenting refugees and damaged architecture and public artwork shot by Meière during a trip sponsored by Franco's government. World War II activities concern Meière's efforts to organize artists in the United States to design and execute murals and other works of public art at military facilities around the U.S.
Travel records include maps, ephemera, slides, and 83 motion picture films taken on trips abroad between 1933 and 1958. Trips include Eastern and Western Europe, the Mediterranean Region and the Middle East, South America, Mexico and Guatemala, India, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, and the UK. The motion picture films are mostly shot in Kodachrome color and many contain intertitles prepared by Meière to identify locations for travel lectures.
Printed materials consist primarily of clippings and publications that reference Meière's work, contain profiles of her, or contain published writings by her. A single published educational film is also found, given to her by an Australian filmmaker friend. Additional photographs, digital photographs and moving images include personal photographs of Meière, with portraits by Peter A. Juley and Sons and Berenice Abbott, photographs of many of her commissioned works, and a few photographs of artwork by others. Home movies show Meière with friends in 1926 and 1940. Among the photographic documentation of artworks by Meière and others are motion picture films of the 1939 New York World's Fair, the D.C. Municipal Building Frieze, and the 1937 Paris Fair; also found are 311 lantern slides and 201 glass copy negatives of her own completed works as well as murals she documented while traveling, notably murals in Norway and Oberammergau, Bavaria, taken in the 1930s.
Eight sketchbooks date to her early years as an art student and artist and include many figure studies, landscapes, and theatrical sketches made at home and abroad.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 8 series. Indexes, summaries, and transcripts prepared by Louise Meière Dunn that relate directly to archival materials in the collection are found throughout the collection with the material they describe. These indices are particularly rich in Series 2, Correspondence.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1915-2003 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 1, 14, OV18)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1901-2011 (3 linear feet; Boxes 1-4, RD19, 0.038 GB; ER01-ER03)
Series 3: Writings, 1904-1960 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 4-5)
Series 4: Civilian War Service Records, 1938-2006 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 5-6, 15, FC 28-30, 1.33 GB; ER05)
Series 5: Travel Records, 1933-1958 (12.8 linear feet; Boxes 6-10, 15, OV18, FC 31-111)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1913-1998 (2.1 linear feet; Boxes 10-12, 15, FC 112)
Series 7: Photographs and Moving Images, 1915-1966 (5.8 linear feet; Boxes 12-13, 16, 20-27, FC 17, 113-127, 0.029 GB; ER04)
Series 8: Sketchbooks, 1911-1922 (0.4 linear feet; Box 13)
Biographical / Historical:
Hildreth Meière (1892-1961) was born in Flushing, New York, and had a prolific career from 1921-1961 as an architectural muralist working primarily in an Art Deco style. Meière painted murals and designed for various mediums including mosaic, metal, and stained glass. In 1956 the American Institute of Architects awarded Meière their Fine Arts Medal.
Meière was educated at New York's Convent of the Sacred Heart, Manhattanville, the Art Students League in New York, the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute), and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in addition to pursuing studies in Italy. Her major commissions include the Nebraska State Capitol at Lincoln, the National Academy of Sciences, the Resurrection Chapel of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. In New York, she designed the Art Deco plaques on the exterior wall of Radio City Music Hall; created mosaic interiors for the Irving Trust Building at 1 Wall Street; and provided ecclesiastical decorations for St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, Temple Emanu-El, and elsewhere. She also created murals for the Chicago 1933 Century of Progress Fair, and the 1939 New York World's Fair.
She was also an active officer in the Art Students League and the National Society of Mural Painters. Some of her most inspired collaborations were with the architect Bertram Goodhue in the 1920s, and only his sudden death in 1924 put an end to them, although some projects were finished with the successor firm.
Meière died in 1961 at the age of 68. Her work is remembered in several major publications, including The Art Deco Murals of Hildreth Meière by Catherine Coleman Brawer and Kathleen Murphy Skolnik, with photographs by Meière's granddaughter, Hildreth Meière Dunn, published in 2014; and the catalog of the 2009 exhibition at St. Bonaventure University, curated by Brawer and photographed by Dunn, entitled Walls Speak: the Narrative Art of Hildreth Meière.
Provenance:
A majority of the collection placed on deposit 2001 by Louise Meière Dunn, daughter of Hildreth Meière. The collection was donated incrementally by Dunn through 2012. Donations occurred 2001-2007, and again in 2010-2012.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires and appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Muralists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Mosaicists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Hildreth Meière papers, 1901-2011, bulk 1911-1960. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the digitization of 84 reels of motion picture film in the collection was provided by The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University through a generous grant from the Ruth Dayton Foundation. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
Végétation et qualité de l'environnement côtier en Méditerranée organisé dans le cadre du Gruppo di lavoro per la vegetazione, Società botanica italiana par les professeurs E. Biondi et L. Mossa ; rédacteur, J.-M. Gehu
Managing Mediterranean wetlands and their birds : proceedings of a symposium on managing Mediterranean wetlands and their birds for the year 2000 and beyond / [edited by Max Finlayson, Ted Hollis and Tim Davis ; editorial panel Alain Crivelli ... et al.]
Percy B. Eckhart was a lawyer, a prolific oil painter, and a supporter of the arts. Most of the film footage in this collection is of travel, but there is also film footage of his family, and of a fiction film.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains the films of Percy B. Eckhart. The travel film footage includes trips to the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Virginia, Florida, Scandinavia, Northern Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Western Europe. The home movie film footage was filmed in Lyme, Connecticut; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Charlevoix, Michigan. The miscellaneous film footage is outtakes and tests from a professional or serious amateur fiction film and Eugene Castle's "Hindenberg Explodes!" Castle's film is the only one in this collection that was published.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 3 series: (1) Travel Footage, 1926-1936, 1949-1950; (2) Home Movies, 1925-1932, 1947; (3) Miscellaneous Film Footage, 1954
Biographical Note:
Percy Bernard Eckhart was born in 1877 in Lake Forest, Illinois. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and his law degree from Harvard University. He taught public utility law at the University of Chicago and was a founding partner in the law firm of Eckhart, McSwain, Hassell, and Husum. He also served as legal counsel for the Art Institute of Chicago. His support of the arts included serving as a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago, a founder of the Ravinia Festival association, and a governing member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestral association. He additionally served as director and officer of the B. A. Eckhart Milling company, a firm started by his late father; as a member of the executive committee of Montgomery Ward & Co; as a director of Chicago Title & Trust company, and the Champlain Oil & Refining company; and as president of the DeSoto Securities company, DeSoto Realty Trust, and the 208 La Salle Street corporation. In 1951, he received Northwestern University's centennial award. In his spare time, he was also a prolific oil painter (primarily of landscapes, some of which were exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1920s). Eckhart died in 1969 in Lake Placid, New York.
Sources Consulted
"Percy Eckhart Dies at Age 93; A Civic Leader." Chicago Tribune, July 16, 1969.
Chronology
1877 -- Born in Lake Forest, Illinois
1899 -- Graduated from the University of Chicago
1902 -- Received J.D. from Harvard University
1903-1915 -- Taught public utility law at the University of Chicago
1951 -- Received Northwestern University's centennial award
1969 -- Died in Lake Placid, New York
Provenance:
Donated by Wendy Williams in 2017.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. 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.
Access to the Percy B. Eckhart film collection requires an appointment.
La Conservazione dei monumenti nel bacino del Mediterraneo : influenza dell'ambiente costiero e dello spray marino sulla pietra calcarea e sul marmo : atti del 1o Simposio internazionale, Bari, 7-10 giugno 1989 / editore scientifico, Fulvio Zezza
Title:
Conservation of monuments in the Mediterranean Basin
The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 2005 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 6 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: Food Culture USA
Series 3: Forest Service, Culture, and Community
Series 4: Nuestra Música: Music in Latino Culture
Series 5: Oman: Desert, Oasis, and Sea
Series 6: Special Events
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 2005 Smithsonian Folklife Festival was produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
In its 39th year, the Festival once again presented a sample of the diverse cultural heritage of America and the world to large public audiences in an educational, respectful, and profoundly democratic way on the National Mall of the United States. True to form, the Festival illustrated the living, vital aspect of cultural heritage and provided a forum for discussion on matters of contemporary concern.
For the first time, a full-scale Festival program was devoted to an Arab nation, Oman. Oman is at the edge of the Arabian Peninsula, both geographically and historically situated between East Africa and the Indian Ocean. Trade routes, frankincense, silverwork, Islam, a strategic location, and oil have connected it to the cultures of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean region, and beyond. Contemporary Omanis live poised between a long and rich past and a future they are in the midst of defining. New roads, hospitals, schools, businesses, high-tech occupations, and opportunities for women are developing alongside traditionally valued religion, family life, artistry, and architecture. Omanis are well aware of the challenges of safeguarding their cultural heritage in an era of globalization. The Festival program provided a vivid illustration of the approaches they have taken and enabled American visitors and Omanis to engage in open, two-way interchange.
During the Festival, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service celebrated its 100th anniversary. Programs in previous years have illustrated the traditions of White House workers and of Smithsonian workers. This Festival examined the occupational culture of Forest Service rangers, smokejumpers, scientists, tree doctors, and many others devoted to the health and preservation of our nation's forests. They were joined by artists and workers from communities that depend upon the forests for their livelihood or sustenance. The Festival offered the opportunity for an active discussion of the significance of our national forests and rangelands to the American people.
Food Culture USA examined the evolution of our nation's palate over the preceding generation. New produce, new foods, new cooking techniques, and even new culinary communities have developed as a result of immigrant groups taking their place in our society, the rise of organic agriculture, and the growing celebrity of ethnic and regional chefs on a national stage. A diversity of growers, food inspectors, gardeners, educators, home cooks and prominent chefs shared their knowledge and creativity as they demonstrated the continuity and innovation in America's culinary culture.
The program in Latino music continued with a series of evening concerts. The 2004 program drew many Latinos to the National Mall, helping the Smithsonian reach out to a major segment of the American population. Audiences in both 2004 and 2005 were thrilled by the performances, as were the musicians who presented their own cultural expressions and thus helped educate their fellow citizens of the nation and the world. Smithsonian Folkways released recordings of three of the groups that had performed the previous year, and one later went on to be nominated for a Grammy award.
The 2005 Festival took place for two five-day weeks (June 23-27 and June 30-July 4) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 9th Street and 14th Street, south of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan). It featured four programs and the Rinzler Concert.
The 2005 Program Book included schedules and participant lists for each program; keynote essays provided background on the Festival and on each of the programs (with a Spanish version of the Latino music essay).
The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Richard Kurin, Director; Richard Kennedy, Deputy Director; Smithsonian Folklife Festival: Diana Parker, Festival Director; Arlene L. Reiniger, Program Specialist; Charlie Weber, Media Specialist; Smithsonian Folkways Recordings/Smithsonian Global Sound: Daniel Sheehy, Curator and Director; Anthony Seeger, Curator and Director, Emeritus; D.A. Sonneborn, Assistant Director; Ralph Rinzler Archives: Jeffrey Place, Archivist; Stephanie Smith, Assistant Archivist; Cultural Heritage Policy: James Early, Director; Cultural Research and Education: Olivia Cadaval, Chair; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Senior Ethnomusicologist Emeritus; Betty J. Belanus, Olivia Cadaval, Nancy Groce, Marjorie Hunt, Diana Baird N'Diaye, Frank Proschan, Peter Seitel, Cynthia Vidaurri, Nilda Villalta, Curators, Folklorists, Education and Cultural Specialists; Carla Borden, Program/Publications Manager; John W. Franklin, Program Manager; Research Associates: Robert Albro, Geri Benoit, Patrick Delatour, Kip Lornell, Mara Mayor, Joan Nathan, Sam-Ang Sam, Preston Scott, Chucho Valdez, Patrick Vilaire, Nilda Villalta; Rockefeller Humanities Fellows (2004-05): Robert Albro, Jane Anderson, Lesley Fordred-Green, Christina Kreps, Tong Lam, Lillian Manzor, Marya McQuirter, Sita Reddy
Folklife Advisory Council
Kurt Dewhurst (chair), Judy Mitoma (vice-chair), Michael Doucet, Anthony Gittens, John Herzog (ex-officio), Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Debora Kodish, Enrique Lamadrid, Worth Long, Libby O'Connell, J. Scott Raecker, Robert Santelli, Ricardo Trimillos
Folkways Advisory Board
Michael Asch (chair), Phyllis Barney, Hal Cannon, Don De Vito, Ella Jenkins, Anthony Seeger (ex-officio), Fred Silber
National Park Service
Fran P. Mainella, Director; Donald W. Murphy, Deputy Director; Joseph M. Lawler, Regional Director, National Capital Region
The Festival was supported by federally appropriated funds; Smithsonian trust funds; contributions from governments, businesses, foundations, and individuals; in-kind assistance; and food, recording, and craft sales. Support for this year's Festival came from the Music Performance Fund, with in-kind support provided through Motorola, NEXTEL, WAMU 88.5 FM, WashingtonPost.com, Pegasus Radio Corp., and Icom America.
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2005 Smithsonian Folklife Festival forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
Restrictions:
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
