Mary Slusser (1918-2017) was a prominent scholar of Nepalese art, architecture, and cultural history. This collection contains personal files, professional correspondence, research files, travel documents, and photographs. The research files relate to her study of specific subjects and contain mixed media. Photographic materials include prints, slides, negatives, contact sheets, and digital images on compact discs in both color and black and white. Most of the collections are related to her study of Nepal, though other countries are represented including Tibet, Laos, China, and Vietnam. Subjects include firsthand observations of objects and sites; notes on secondary sources; correspondence with fellow scholars; manuscript drafts; and records of her work on the gallery space, and guide to, the Patan Museum. The earliest materials date from 1951 during the beginning of her time living abroad alongside her husband, while both worked for the State Department. The materials continue through 2017, reflecting her dedicated scholarship and travel through the end of her life.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into five series:
• Series 1: Biographical Materials
• Series 2: Correspondence
• Series 3: Research Files
• Series 4: Travel Files
• Series 5: Photographic Materials
Biographical / Historical:
Dr. Mary Slusser (1918-2017) was born as Mary Shepherd in Welland, Ontario to George Percy and Ethel Mary Shepherd. Her family moved to Michigan the following year and Slusser became a naturalized US citizen in 1934. Slusser followed her sister, Dorothy Shepherd (1916-1992), to the University of Michigan, where Mary graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1942. During her studies at Michigan, she met Robert Slusser, whom she would marry in 1944. Slusser moved to New York City in 1942, again following the path of her sister, Dorothy, who had enrolled in graduate school at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. Slusser undertook some coursework at NYU as a part-time student. Slusser would eventually complete her graduate studies at Columbia University, earning a PhD in anthropology in 1950. She completed some of her coursework at Harvard University, while her husband studied at nearby Tufts University. Her dissertation was titled "Preliminary archeological studies of northern Central Chile."
Next, Slusser worked as a research analyst at the US State Department. Her husband also worked at the agency and spent much of his career completing foreign service appointments as an economist with USAID. Slusser accompanied her husband to his various overseas posts, beginning in 1954 in Vietnam. The Slussers would live and work abroad in Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Guinea, Nepal, and Tunisia. Slusser continued to work for the State Department as a field anthropologist. Mary received funding from the Smithsonian to acquire a small collection of Nepalese artifacts. She immediately took to learning about the art and culture of the region. She found a dearth of English-language information on the area and did her own field work and engaged with local scholars to fill in the gaps. She remained in Nepal for five years, contracted by the Smithsonian to write a guide to Nepal. Her research would lead to Nepal Mandala: A Cultural Study of Kathmandu Valley, a two-volume set of text and images, predominantly her own photographs, which was published in 1982.
Robert Slusser retired in 1980, and he and Mary permanently settled in Washington, DC. Her scholarly work took her to museums, first at the Museum of African Art as a curatorial assistant from 1975 to 1978, and then a post-doctoral fellowship at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in 1989. After her fellowship, Slusser was asked to remain at the museum as a research associate, an unpaid position she held for the rest of her career. Slusser continued to publish works on Nepalese art, including the 2010 book, The Antiquity of Nepalese Wood Carving: a Reassessment, co-authored with Paul Jett, a conservator at the museum. Slusser used carbon dating tests to show that many Nepalese wood sculptures were much older than originally thought. Slusser also contributed to the establishment of the Patan Museum in Nepal, which opened in 1997. She served as the museum's cultural advisor and curator and wrote the museum guide and many of the exhibition materials.
Slusser continued to travel to Nepal and other parts of central Asia well into her eighties, often visiting remote sites on foot with the aid of local guides. Slusser stayed active at home, continuing her research work despite declining eyesight and hearing. She died in 2017 at age 98.
Related Materials:
Mary Shepherd Slusser papers, circa 1950 – circa 1995, National Museum of National History, National Anthropolgical Archives, NAA.1983.0407
Dorothy Shepard Photographs, National Museum of Asian Art Archives, FSA.A2015.12
Russell Hamilton Postcard and Photograph Collection, National Museum of Asian Art Archives, FSA.A2001.13
Russell Hamilton postcards, between 1900-1909, National Museum of African Art, Eliot Elisophon Photographic Archives, EEPA.2003-001
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the National Museum of Asian Art's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Mary Lee Hu, 2009 March 18-19. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Raquel Rabinovich, 2012 September 25 and October 9. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Search this
Type:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Place:
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and views
Arizona -- Description and travel
California -- description and travel
China -- description and travel
Greece -- description and travel
Italy -- description and travel
Nepal -- description and travel
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Cindy Kolodziejski, 2007 May 5-16. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Mary Lee Hu conducted 2009 March 18-19, by Mija Riedel, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Hu's home and studio, in Seattle, Washington.
Hu speaks of growing up outside Cleveland, Ohio; her early interest in making objects; attending the Lawrence Art Center camp in Kansas at the age of 16 where she first experimented with metals; her like of working with tools in order to create something; taking metal smith classes at the Cleveland Institute of Art during high school; attending Miami University in Ohio for two years followed by two years an Cranbrook Academy of Art; working as a TA with L. Brent Kington at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale; her collaborative work in both textiles and metals while at Carbondale which lead to her first experimentation in weaving silver wire; creating a body of work for her Master's thesis in which all the pieces were woven wire; various works, their origins, when, where and why they were created, including her Neckpiece, Choker, Bracelet, Brooch and Ring series; her aesthetic interest in patterns, line and positive/negative space; a limited interest in and use of color in her work; the transition from silver to gold wire; a progressively larger interest in the history of jewelry and body adornment which eventually became a lecture at the University of Washington, where she taught for 26 years; numerous trips around the world to countries such as China, Tibet, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia; a strong interest in ethnic and native jewelry/body adornment practices; the various purposes which jewelry can serve in society; her involvement with the Society of North American Goldsmiths and the American Craft Council; her technique based teaching practices; the role that modern technology plays in teaching, learning, and making jewelry; the lack of support and funds for metals programs in universities around the country; her library, which includes aver 2,000 books about the history of jewelry and body adornment; her collection of jewelry from around the world; her want to create beautiful and functional jewelry; the public and private aspects to jewelry and it's role in museums; current projects and the importance to maintain interest of metals in younger generations. Hu also recalls Gary Turner, Hans Christensen, Otto Dingeldein, Heikki Seppä, Hero Kielman, Phil Fike, Patti Warashina, Gary Noffke, Elliott Pujol, Chonghi Choo, Daphne Farafo, Vicki Halper, Ron Ho, Miye Matsukata, Alma Eikermann, Mark Baldridge, Kurt Matzdorf, Eleanor Moty, Fred Fenster, John Marshall, James McMurray, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Mary Lee Hu (1943- ) is a metalsmith in Seattle, Washington. Smith was educated at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Southern Illinois University. She teaches at the University of Washington.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 43 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Occupation:
Metal-workers -- Washington (State) -- Seattle Search this
Educators -- Washington (State) -- Seattle Search this
Webb, Elizabeth N. (possible photographer) Search this
Extent:
53 Slides (53 black and white copy slides)
20 Color slides (circa)
1,500 Prints (circa, silver gelatin (some in photo albums))
1,000 Items (circa 1000 copy color prints (made from slides))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Slides
Color slides
Prints
Photographs
Place:
India -- description and travel
Japan -- Description and Travel
Singapore -- Description and Travel
Serbia -- description and travel
Scotland -- description and travel
Russia -- Description and Travel
Sri Lanka -- Description and Travel
Spain -- description and travel
South Africa -- Description and Travel
Chile -- description and travel
Somalia -- description and travel
Palestine -- description and travel
Peru -- Description and Travel
Nepal -- Description and Travel
Norway -- description and travel
Egypt -- description and travel
Portugal -- description and travel
Romania -- description and travel
Philippines -- Description and Travel
Poland -- description and travel
Kenya -- Description and Travel
Israel -- Description and Travel
China -- Description and Travel
Morocco -- description and travel
Mozambique -- description and travel
Mexico -- description and travel
Montenegro -- description and travel
Croatia -- description and travel
Denmark -- description and travel
Czech Republic -- Description and Travel
Burma -- Description and Travel
Bulgaria -- description and travel
Canada -- Description and Travel
Austria -- description and travel
Brazil -- Description and Travel
Borneo -- description and travel
England -- description and travel
France -- description and travel
Ecuador -- Description and Travel
Holland -- Description and Travel
Guatemala -- Description and Travel
Greece -- description and travel
Germany -- description and travel
Ireland -- description and travel
Iran -- Description and Travel
Italy -- description and travel
Hungary -- description and travel
United States -- description and travel
Thailand -- description and travel
Taiwan -- description and travel
Switzerland -- description and travel
Yugoslavia -- description and travel
Yucatan -- Description and Travel
Date:
1938-1996
Scope and Contents note:
Photographs made by Robert and Elizabeth Webb in numerous locations across the world, including Asia (China, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Borneo, Singapore, Thailand, Burma, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, and Russia); the Balkans (Czech Republic, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Poland); Europe (Spain, England, France, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Holland, Norway, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, and Portugal); the Middle East (Egypt, Iran, Israel, and Palestine); Africa (Kenya, Morocco, Somalia, Mozambique, and South Africa); South America (Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Yucatan, and Guatemala); and North America (Canada, Florida, Washington state, Alaska, Hawaii, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah). The photographs largely document architecture and art, including historical sites, though there are additional images of parades, transportation, cities, villages, markets, waterways, and people.
Commercial slides in the collection are by Swiss-Foto, E. Djupdraet, Herz-Color-Dias, Hong Kong Color Slide Service, SK Slide Co., Lehnert & Landrock, Douglas Whiteside, Vacation Films, Arctic Circle Enterprise, HI-FI Color Slides, Pana-Vue Slides, CP Inc., Jordan's Colour Lab, Hawaii Chrome, Syon House, John Decopoulos, La Goelette, and Zerkowitz. Notes by Robert Webb and original photograph albums are also available with the collection.
Biographical/Historical note:
Robert Watkins Webb (1906-1998) graduated from Southern Methodist University and received his medical degree from Tulane University in 1933. Before starting his psychiatry practice in Dallas, Webb traveled around the world, returning on the SS Normandie to New York (1938). An amateur photographer, Webb documented this and subsequent foreign trips, later submitting some of his photographs to the Dallas Museum of Art. He served four years in the Army during World War II,stationed primarily in Port Moresby, New Guinea. He later became chief psychiatrist of the Veterans Administration clinic in Washington, DC, from 1946-1950. In 1952, he married Elizabeth Nutting, a psychiatric social worker, while cruising the Mediterranean.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 98-9
Location of Other Archival Materials:
The DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University holds Robert W. Webb photographs.
600 Mounted prints (circa 600 mounted prints, silver gelatin)
4,000 Color slides (circa)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Mounted prints
Color slides
Photographs
Place:
Pakistan -- Description and Travel
Fiji -- Description and Travel
Ethiopia -- Description and Travel
Easter Island -- Description and Travel
Yemen -- Description and Travel
Honduras -- Description and Travel
Peru -- Description and Travel
Guatemala -- Description and Travel
Israel -- Description and Travel
Vietnam -- Description and Travel
Solomon Islands -- Description and Travel
Colombia -- Description and Travel
Thailand -- description and travel
Taiwan -- description and travel
Jordan -- Description and Travel
Uzbekistan -- Description and Travel
Singapore -- Description and Travel
Bhutan -- Description and Travel
Afghanistan -- Description and Travel
Burma -- Description and Travel
Brazil -- Description and Travel
Australia -- Description and Travel
Lebanon -- Description and Travel
Iraq -- Description and Travel
Iran -- Description and Travel
India -- description and travel
New Guinea -- Description and Travel
Syria -- Description and Travel
Nepal -- Description and Travel
Hong Kong -- Description and Travel
Cambodia -- Description and Travel
Sri Lanka -- Description and Travel
Chile -- description and travel
Mexico -- description and travel
Japan -- Description and Travel
Italy -- description and travel
Morocco -- description and travel
Spain -- description and travel
Mongolia -- Description and Travel
New Zealand -- Description and Travel
Russia -- Description and Travel
Kenya -- Description and Travel
Macau (China) -- Description and Travel
Malaysia -- Description and Travel
Yucatan -- Description and Travel
Indonesia -- Description and Travel
Date:
1954-1971
Scope and Contents note:
Photographs made by Janet Longcope during trips to countries around the world. They depict landscapes, buildings, markets, dances, agriculture, arts and crafts, ceremonies, children, cooking, musicians, and transportation. Locations depicted include Afghanistan, Australia, Bhutan, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Easter Island, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, Greece, Guatemala, Hawaii, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Macao, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, New Guinea, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, Siberia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Spain, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, and Yucatan. Longcope used many of these photographs in lectures.
Biographical/Historical note:
Janet Longcope (1886-1974) was a bookbinder and world traveler who gave informal lectures about her travels. Ater the death of her husband Dr. Warfield T. Longcope in 1953, she visited countries all over the world, returning to some, such as India, as many as nine times.
An interview of Cindy Kolodziejski conducted 2007 May 5-16, by Frank Lloyd, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at the Frank Lloyd Gallery, in Santa Monica, California.
Kolodziejski speaks of moving in her early childhood from Germany to Arizona and finally to California; the divorce of her parents at a young age and her feelings of abandonment; her desire as a young child to be an artist; the early influence of her grandmother, an art teacher; teaching herself how to draw by copying images and creating still-lifes; an influential art teacher in high school who encouraged her to pursue college-level art classes and attend art school after graduation; her decision to enroll at Otis College of Art and Design; her foundation art classes at Otis and increasing interest in ceramics; choosing ceramics as a medium because of its flexibility and of form and potential for imagery; the value of her art education to her career; earning a Master of Fine Arts degree while teaching at California State University, Long Beach; the union of form, function, and imagery in her work, especially seen in a recent exhibition at the Frank Lloyd Gallery titled "Reversal of Fountain"; using the University of California, Los Angeles, libraries to find images at first, and later searching the internet for inspiration; creating pieces which play with and explore gender issues and sexuality; being reviewed and featured in articles which are especially concerned with issues of the body and femininity; the documentation of her art in various periodicals and texts, including a piece she wrote for Ceramics Monthly concerning her own work; gaining exposure through these articles, which helped to advance her career; the painstaking and technical process required to fashion her works of art; showing at the Garth Clark Gallery very quickly after graduation; traveling to Greece, China, Nepal, New York, and Italy, and being influenced by the exposure to the different art and cultures; recent travels with her daughter to Italy and feeling excited and humbled by the beauty of certain works; giving a talk at the Getty Museum about a show entitled "The Royal Menagerie" featuring the Meissen large-scale porcelain animals; participating in group shows in museums, particularly the "Color and Fire" exhibit which showcased important ceramicists from 1950 to 2000; being awarded various grants and feeling that applying for those awards is a very worthwhile experience for many artists; teaching first at the high school level and then in college; her teaching methods; forming friendships with fellow artists and art teachers; integrating the use of technology into her art-making process by finding and manipulating images on the computer; feeling motivated to produce in a positive way for exhibition deadlines; the support and friendships that developed through exhibiting with the Clark Garth and Frank Lloyd galleries; the encouragement and support she has been shown by her family throughout her career; and categorizing herself first and foremost as an artist rather than a craft artist or ceramicist. Kolodziejski recalls, Lita Albuquerque, Jill Giegerich, Peter Lodato, Barbara Thomason, Roy Dowell, Eugene Sturman, Carol Caroompas, Tony Marsh, Ralph Baccera, Adrian Saxe, Ron Nagle, Roseline Delisle, John Mason, Jo Lauria, David Pagel, Garth Clark, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Cindy Kolodziejski (1962- ) is a sculptor and painter from Venice, California. Frank Lloyd (1951- ) is a gallery owner from Santa Monica, California.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 7 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 10 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
An interview of Raquel Rabinovich conducted 2012 September 25 and October 9, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art, at Rabinovich's home, in Rhinebeck, New York.
Rabinovich speaks of growing up in Argentina; becoming aware of art; reproductions and books; European art; her Jewish heritage; her parents moving to Argentina before World War I; Jewish persecution; her parents' background; living in Cordoba; speaking Spanish and Yiddish growing up; quiet reflections; church; art exposure; traveling and moving to Paris; the influence of Ernesto Farina; Peron's dictatorship and rebellion; attending medical school and the call of art; political activities and spending time in jail; meeting Jose and moving to Scotland; Paris and exposure to artwork; teachings of Andre Lhote; her early works; abstraction; painting; the Mona Lisa; darkness and light; "The Dark is Light Enough"; exposure to literature and poetry; living in Copenhagen; meeting Jorge Luis Borges; the Book of Sand; her siblings; her children and her relationship to them; staying up to date with current events; libraries and a lack of books growing up; meditation; texture and the monochromatic works; interest in Jasper Johns' work; meeting Jasper Johns; living in New York; trip to Machu Picchu and spending the night outdoors; "Cloister, Crossing, Passageway 1.32"; glassworks and transparency; exhibiting artwork; her divorce; Rodolfo Mondolfo; environment and exposure; quiet contemplation; spending time with artwork; commissioned work near High Falls; "River Library"; libraries as places of knowledge; minimalism; the 1980s; her daughter's wedding and her relationship with Jose; stones; traveling to Nepal, Thailand, India, and Egypt; temples; Buddhism; "Chhodrtens"; garbhagrihas; NEA fellowship and residency in Paris; "Thrones for the Gods"; INTAR Gallery; "Gateless Gates"; artifacts; Pabhavikas sculpture; Charles Stein; Linda Weintraub; George Quasha; Station Hill Press; "Enfolded Darkness" and "Light Unworn". Rabinovich also recalls Baron Hughes, Beethoven, Lenin, Diego Velazquez, Andre Lhote, Mondrian, Picasso, Braque, David Levi Straus, Robert Kelly, Cezanne, Philip Pavia, Agnes Martin, Dorothea Rockburne, Barry Schwabsky, Bill Zimmer, Agnes Denes, Louisa Valenzuela, Julia Herzberg, and Marco Maggi.
Biographical / Historical:
Raquel Rabinovich (1929- ) is a painter and sculptor in Rhinebeck, New York. James McElhinney (1952- ) is a painter and educator from New York, New York.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Smithsonian Networks is a joint venture between Showtime Networks and the Smithsonian Institution. It was formed to create channels featuring programs largely inspired
by the assets of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum and research complex. Smithsonian Channel features award-winning original documentaries, series and
ground-breaking programs highlighting America's historical, cultural and scientific heritage. This accession consists of programs created for the Smithsonian Channel that
cover a range of topics including aeronautics, astronautics, science, nature, and American culture and history. Materials are in electronic format.
Restrictions:
Special restrictions on use of these materials apply. See Record of Transfer, Appendix B, Transferring office; Record of Transfer, August 25, 2009; Contact reference staff for details.
Himalayan journals, or, Notes of a naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, &c. / by Joseph Dalton Hooker ; with maps and illustrations ; in two volumes
Title:
Himalayan journals
Notes of a naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, &c
Sketches from Nepal, historical and discriptive, with an essay on Nepalese Buddhism & illustrations of religions monuments & architecture / by H. Ambrose Oldfield
Kathmandu Valley, the preservation of physical environment and cultural heritage : a protective inventory / prep. by His Majesty's Government of Nepal in collab ; with the United Nations and Unesco ; [coordination and production: Carl Pruscha]
A journey to Katmandu : (the capital of Nepaul) with the camp of Jung Bahadoor ; including a sketch of the Nepaulese ambassador at home / by Laurence Oliphant
