An interview of Jesse Nusbaum conducted by Sylvia Loomis on 1963 Dec. 12 for the Archives of American Art.
Nusbaum speaks of working in archaeology and architecture in New Mexico; and his involvement in the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) as regional director for Arizona and New Mexico; selecting artists for the PWAP; problems with the PWAP; some of the work done on public buildings; and the project's impact on art and artists.
Biographical / Historical:
Jesse L. Nusbaum is an art administrator in Arizona and New Mexico.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound tape reel. Reformatted in 2010 as 1 digital wav file. Duration is 40 min.
Provenance:
This interview conducted as part of the Archives of American Art's New Deal and the Arts project, which includes over 400 interviews of artists, administrators, historians, and others involved with the federal government's art programs and the activities of the Farm Security Administration in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Restrictions:
Transcript: Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Occupation:
Arts administrators -- New Mexico -- Interviews Search this
Official correspondence of the Public Works of Art regional committee for New Mexico and Arizona. Correspondents include: Edward Bruce, Jesse L. Nusbaum, Forbes Watson, Emil Bisttram, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Architect, committee member of Public Works of Art regional committee--Region 13; Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1965 by John Gaw Meem.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Correspondence, bulletins, reports and catalogs relating to the 13th region (New Mexico and Arizona) of the Public Works of Art Project.
Biographical / Historical:
Nusbaum was director of Region 13 of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). It was the first of the New Deal art programs, established under the Department of the Treasury in December 1933 to assist unemployed artists by enabling them to work on the decoration of non-federal public buildings. Although it lasted only until the following summer, it engaged nearly 4,000 artists in all parts of the country and served as an important precedent for subsequent federal art programs, such as the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. It existed until June 1934.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1963 by Jesse L. Nusbaum.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
United States of America -- New Mexico -- Santa Fe County -- Santa Fe
Date:
1928
General:
See also Sena Plaza, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original images by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens.
This collection includes glass plate and copy negatives taken by Frederick Webb Hodge on a collecting trip to the Havasupai Reservation in the Grand Canyon, Arizona in 1919. Hodge was an archaeologist and collector for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation between 1918 and 1931 most famously leading the Hendricks-Hodge Hawikku excavations between 1917 and 1923.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes 41 glass plate negatives made by Frederick Webb Hodge on a trip to the Havasupai (Coconino) Reservation in 1919. It is likely the trip took place in September of that year following work done by Hodge at Hawikkuh, New Mexico and before he returned to New York City. It is also likely that Jesse Nusbaum accompanied Hodge on this trip and may have shot some (or many) of the photographs himself. Many of the photographs are landscape shots of the Havasu Canyon on the Havasupai (Coconino) reservation which include views of the Havasu Falls, Havasu Creek, Wigleeva rock formation and various rock walls. There are also photographs of people and structures around the Havasupai reservation including several portraits of Havasupai community members, mostly women, holding baskets and posing in the Supai Village. Copy negatives were made of the glass plate negatives during a large photograph conservation project conducted by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation in the 1960s.
Arrangement:
Arranged by negative number: N05849 - N05889.
Biographical / Historical:
Frederick Hodge (1864-1956) was an editor, anthropologist, archaeologist, and historian born in Plymouth, England to Edwin and Emily (Webb) Hodge. His parents moved to Washington, D.C. when Frederick was seven years old. In Washington, he attended Cambridge College (George Washington University). Hodge was employed by the Smithsonian Institution in 1901 as executive assistant in charge of International Exchanges, but transferred to the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1905, where he worked until February 28, 1918. Hodge was the editor for Edward S. Curtis's monumental series The North American Indian. After leaving the Bureau, he moved to New York City and became editor and assistant director at the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. In 1915, accompanied by the museum's director George Gustav Heye and staff member George H. Pepper, Hodge undertook excavations at the Nacoochee Mound near Helen, Georgia. Hodge then directed the excavations of the ruins of Hawikkuh, near Zuni Pueblo, during the period 1917-23.
He was associated with Columbia University, Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition, and the U.S. Geological Survey. He was the director of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Los Angeles. He served as executive officer at the Smithsonian Institution, chairman of the Committee of Editorial Management and the Committee dealing with the Linguistic Families North of Mexico. He was a member of the Committee on Archaeological Nomenclature, the Committee of Policy, the National Research Council, and the Laboratory of Anthropology, School of American Research, Journal of Physical Anthropology, and the Museum of the American Indian.
Separated Materials:
Ethnographic material collected by Frederick Webb Hodge on this trip can be found in NMAI's Ethnology collection with catalog numbers 093309 - 093312 (09/3309 - 09/3312).
Provenance:
Donated to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, by Frederick Webb Hodge in 1919.
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:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian.
This collection includes negatives and prints created between 1917 and 1923 during the Hendricks-Hodge Hawikku (Hawikuh) archaeological expedition on the A:shiwi (Zuni) Reservation in New Mexico. The expedition which was sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, was one of the most extensive archaeological projects conducted at the time. Photographs in this collection were shot by Alanson B. Skinner, Frederick Webb Hodge, Edwin Francis Coffin, George Hubbard Pepper, Jesse L. Nusbaum, Donald Cadzow, and Victor Schindler. Many of the photographs in this collection have been restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Scope and Contents:
The photographs in this collection were shot between 1917 and 1923 by various archaeologists and ethnographers involved in the Hawikku excavations. This includes Alanson B. Skinner, Frederick Webb Hodge, Edwin Francis Coffin, George Hubbard Pepper, Jesse L. Nusbaum, Donald Cadzow, and Victor Schindler. Many of the photographs in this collection have been restricted due to cultural sensitivity.
Photographs from 1917 were shot by Alanson B. Skinner and Frederick Webb Hodge and include images with Zuni workmen as well as many images of burials (restricted). Photographs from 1918 were shot Edwin Francis Coffin and George Hubbard Pepper. Pepper's photographs include images of Kyusita (Cayusetsa) a Zuni potter, at work. Photographs from 1919 were shot by Jesse Nusbaum and Frederick Webb Hodge and include images of room sites, burials (restricted) and Camp Harmon. There are also images of George and Thea Heye, Harmon Hendricks and Joseph Keppler at the site.
Photographs from 1921 and 1923 were shot by Edwin Coffin and include Portraits of A:shiwi (Zuni) community members, kiva sites and room sites. There are also photographs from Donald Cadzow from 1923. Cadzow was assigned to accompany and assist Owen Cattell during the 1923 filming of events and ceremonies at Zuni (see NMAI. AC.001.001, Museum of the American Indian Ethnographic Film Collection). These include images of pottery making, skin dressing, as well as ceremonial photographs (restricted). Victor Schindler also shot images of the Rain Dance and of Owen Cattell filming at this time.
In addition to on site photographs, there are also object images included in this collection. There are also a small amount of photographs from Kechipauan that are included in this collection, separate from the Louis C.G. Clarke Kechipauan Expedition photographs (NMAI.AC.001.044).
Many of the negatives are glass plate, though the majority were also copied onto acetate "safety film" in the 1960's during a photo conservation project. Any original nitrate negatives were destroyed by the museum.
Arrangement:
Arranged by catalog number.
Biographical / Historical:
The Hendricks-Hodge Hawikku (Hawkuh) Expedition was one of the most extensive archaeological projects ever conducted in the Southwest. With major funding from Harmon W. Hendricks, Frederick Webb Hodge began the field work in 1917 while still with the Bureau of American Ethnology. The first season was jointly sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation (MAI) and the Smithsonian Institution. Hodge joined the staff of the MAI in 1918 and subsequent fieldwork during the summers of 1918-1921 was sponsored by this institution. The last field season, during the summer of 1923, was jointly sponsored by the Museum of the American Indian and Louis C.G. Clarke, then director of the University Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, Cambridge University. Major excavations were carried out at two sites of early historic villages near the modern Pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico: Hawikku (also Hawikuh) and Kechiba:wa (also Kechipawan, Kechipaun, or Kechipauan).
During the work at Hawikku, Hodge supervised a staff which included Jesse L. Nusbaum, Edwin F. Coffin, Samuel K. Lothrop, George Hubbard Pepper, Alanson Buck Skinner, Donald A. Cadzow, and Louis C. G. Clarke. In addition, at least 39 A:shiwi (Zuni) men participated in this excavation of their ancestral villages. Hodge's archaeological techniques encompassed stratigraphic excavation; the systematic recording of rooms, features, artifacts in field notebooks; in situ photographs; and ethnographic analogy. These techniques resulted in the recovery and documentation of thousands of artifacts of diverse types including ceramics, wood, bone, textiles, shell, lithics, and architectural elements from about 370 rooms, 1000 burials, and the large mission church and its associated friary. Hodge published several articles and one book related to the site on specialized topics such as bonework, turquoise, and the history of Hawikku. The only descriptive publication of the excavations, The Excavation of Hawikuh by Frederick Webb Hodge, Report of the Hendricks-hodge Expedition, 19
Related Materials:
See associated materials in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation records (NMAI.AC.001).
See: Hendricks-Hodge Archaeological Expedition papers. #9170. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
See: "The Excavation of Hawikuh by Frederick Webb Hodge: Report of the Hendricks-Hodge Expedition, 1917-1923," by Watson Smith, Richard Woodbury and Nathatlie Woodbury. Contributions from the Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation, Volume XX, 1966
Provenance:
The photographs in this collection were sent back to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation by the various photographers over the course of the field work, 1917-1923.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Thursday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu). Photographs with burials, human remains or any other cultural sensitivity are restricted.
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited users to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not changed, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian.
Topic:
Excavations (Archaeology) -- New Mexico -- Photographs Search this
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Hendricks-Hodge Hawikku Expedition photograph collection (NMAI.AC.001.042), Item Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Includes images from the excavations at Hawikku near Zuni Pueblo and Basketmaker's Cave in Kane County, Utah, as well as objects found at Cave Lakes, also in Kane County, Utah. Also included are views of Zuni Pueblo, Santa Clara Pueblo, Jemez Pueblo, Puye cliff dwellings, Pecos Mission and other views of Arizona and New Mexico.
Arrangement note:
Negatives: organized in individual sleeves; arranged by negative number
Prints: organized in folders; arranged by print number
Biographical/Historical note:
Jesse L. Nusbaum, a long-time archaeologist and administrator for the National Park Service and recipient of the Distinguished Service ward from the Department of the Interior (1954), began his career as a teacher, attending Colorado Teachers College in Greeley, where he received his Bachelor of Pedagogy in 1907. He then moved to Las Vegas to teach science and manual arts at New Mexico State Normal School. Later that year, he made his first connection with Mesa Verde as a photographer and archeological assistant to A. V. Kidder; Nusbaum spent the next year working as an assistant to the archeologist. In June of 1909 he became the first employee of the School of American Archeology and Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe under Dr. Edgar L. Hewett. Nusbaum traveled to Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Colorado, and New Mexico where he undertook archeological surveys, investigations, excavations, and ruins stabilization.
Nusbaum's work at the museum brought him back to Mesa Verde for the excavation, repair, and stabilization of the Balcony House, a project which extended into the winter of 1910. In 1913, he supervised the completion of the New Mexico Palace of Governors in Santa Fe and worked in the Mayan ruins of the Yucatan with Dr. S. G. Morley. He then supervised the construction of the state art museum from 1916 to 1918. Nusbaum enlisted during World War I in the hopes of becoming an aviator, but instead he became an engineer and served in France until his discharge in 1919. After the war, Nusbaum moved to New York City and worked at the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. While Nusbaum was working in New York he took part in several expeditions to the Southwest, including those at Hawikku (Hawikuh) Pueblo and Basketmaker Cave.
In 1921, while still in New York, he was selected by Stephen Mather and Arno Cammerer to become superintendent at Mesa Verde National Park. Director Mather had become disgusted with the conditions that had developed there under a political superintendent. Nusbaum was a very effective superintendent, advancing the development of the park and preserving the archeological resources. He discontinued grazing, built a museum and developed good interpretive programs, especially ones designed to explain the Antiquities Act. His involvement with the Act led to his designation in 1927 as the lead archeologist and prime enforcer of the Act for the Southwest (while remaining Mesa Verde superintendent).
Nusbaum continued this dual capacity until 1930, when he took a leave of absence to organize and direct the Laboratory of Anthropology at Santa Fe, New Mexico. He continued as director of the laboratory until 1935, having earlier returned to the Park Service and resumed his dual duties as Mesa Verde superintendent and Department of the Interior archeologist enforcing the Antiquities Act. Nusbaum continued this dual position for many years. In 1946 he left Mesa Verde and his dual role for Santa Fe. At the National Park Service office there, he took up increased duties as the senior archeologist of the National Park Service. In this capacity, Nusbaum began one of the first salvage archeology projects when he persuaded El Paso Natural Gas Company to allow archeological excavation along their pipelines. After a year's extension Nusbaum was forced to retire from the NPS at the age of 71 in 1957. However, he continued to do consulting work for many years. He died in Santa Fe in December 1975, at the age of 88.
Restrictions:
Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.
Rights:
Restricted: Cultural Sensitivity
Genre/Form:
Negatives
Photographic prints
Photographs
Citation:
Jesse L. Nusbaum negatives and photographs, 1910-1928, National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution (negative, slide or catalog number).
Some of the film negatives are in special storage and cannot normally be consulted by researchers. Under special circumstances, however, examination will be allowed but researchers should make special arrangements well in advance of the need
