7.72 Linear feet (20 document boxes and 1 restricted box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
Guilá Naquitz Cave (Mexico)
Oaxaca (Mexico : State)
Tehuacán (Mexico)
Peru
Date:
1942-1998
bulk 1960-1987
Summary:
C. Earle Smith Jr. (1922-1987) was one of the founders of the modern field of paleobotany. This collection documents his research and professional activities through correspondence, research notes, data, manuscripts, publications, and photographs. Represented in the collection is his fieldwork in Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, and Costa Rica.
Scope and Contents:
This collection documents the research and professional activities of C. Earle Smith Jr. through correspondence, research notes, data, manuscripts, publications, and photographs. Represented in the collection is his fieldwork in Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, and Costa Rica. The only materials pertaining to his early work in Bat Cave are a few pages of notes and articles about his discovery of early corn remains. Most of the collection dates from the 1960s up to his death in 1987. There is, however, some correspondence dated after his death regarding the return of specimens that he had been analyzing for others. The collection also contains his files as a professor at the University of Alabama; papers he presented; talks that he gave; and photographs of plant remains. His correspondence makes up the bulk of collection and can be found throughout the series. He corresponded with eminent figures in the fields of anthropology and botany, including Kent V. Flannery, Richard MacNeish, Paul Mangelsdorf, and other colleagues.
Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 8 series: (1) Correspondence, 1962-1998; (2) Research, 1942-1991; (3) Writings, 1956-1987; (4) Professional Activities, 1971-1987; (5) University of Alabama, 1964-1987; (6) Writings by Others, 1960-1984; (7) Personal Files, 1950-1953, 1964-1987; (8) Photographs, circa 1960s-1982
Biographical Note:
Claude Earle Smith Jr. was one of the founders of the modern field of archaeobotany. Known as "Smitty" to his friends, he was born on March 8, 1922, in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Orlando, Florida. He was trained as an economic botanist at Harvard University, where he earned his bachelor's (1949), master's (1951), and doctorate (1953) in botany.
As an undergraduate student at Harvard in 1941, Smith assisted Richard Evans Schultes in collecting plants in the Colombian Amazon. While in the field, news reached Smith of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and he decided to return home to enlist in the Navy. After the war, he continued his studies at Harvard and, in 1948, he was sent by Paul C. Manglesdorf to excavate Bat Cave, New Mexico, where he and Herbert Dick, another Harvard student, discovered the earliest remains of corn. Smith coauthored with Mangelsdorf "A Discovery of Remains of Prehistoric Maize in New Mexico" (1949). Throughout his career, Smith continued to study the early domestication and distribution of corn and other plants including cotton, avocado, and beans.
With his research focused on archaeologically-recovered plant remains and their usage by humans, Smith served as botanist at various archaeological sites in Latin America, working with Richard MacNeish in Tehuacán Valley; Kent Flannery in Oaxaca Valley; Paul Tolstoy in the Basin of Mexico; Ronald Spores in Nochixtlan; Terence Grieder in La Galgada, Peru; Thomas Lynch in Callejón de Huaylas, Peru; Joyce Marcus in Cañeta Valley, Peru; Anna Roosevelt in the Middle Orinoco area of Venezuela; and Michael J. Snarkis in Costa Rica. He also conducted ethnobotanical fieldwork in the Yucatán, Panama, the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and Australia.
From 1953 to 1958, Smith served as assistant curator of botany at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and as acting director of the Taylor Memorial Arboretum. He was also a curator of botany at the Field Museum of Natural History (1959-1961) and Senior Research Botanist for the Agricultural Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1962-1969). In 1970, Smith took a faculty position in the anthropology and biology departments at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa and was acting chair of the anthropology department between 1981 and 1986. He served as president of the Society for Economic Botany in 1979.
At the age of 65, Smith was killed in an automobile accident on October 19, 1987.
Sources Consulted
Lentz, David L. "C. Earle Smith, Jr. 1922-1987." Economic Botany 42, no. 2 (1988): 284-285.
Schultes, Richard Evans. "How I Met C. Earle Smith." Journal of Ethnobiology 10, no. 2 (1990): 119-121.
Chronology
1922 -- Born on March 8 in Boston, Massachusetts
1940-1941 -- Studies at Harvard University
1941 -- Assists Richard Evans Schultes in ethnobotanical collection in Colombian Amazons
1942-1946 -- Serves in Navy
1946 -- Returns to Harvard to continue his studies
1948 -- Excavates Bat Cave in New Mexico and discovers earliest remains of corn
1949 -- Earns A.B. cum laude at Harvard
1951 -- Earns A.M. at Harvard
1953 -- Earns Ph.D. at Harvard University
1953-1958 -- Consultant for Smith, Kline and French Acting Director at Taylor Memorial Arboretum Assistant Curator in the Department of Botany at Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
1959-1961 -- Associate Curator in Department of Botany at Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
1962-1969 -- Senior Research Botanist at Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
1970-1987 -- Professor of Anthropology and Botany, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
1979-1980 -- President of Society for Economic Botany
1987 -- Killed in automobile accident on October 19
Related Materials:
Photographs from C. Earle Smith Jr.'s excavation of Bat Cave can be found in Photo Lot R86-67 Copies of Herbert W. Dick photographs of excavations at Bat Cave, 1948-1950, https://sova.si.edu/record/NAA.PhotoLot.R86-67.
Provenance:
At his death, C. Earle Smith Jr.'s papers were left with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alabama. They were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Smith's widow, Roberta Smith Largin.
Restrictions:
Grant proposal reviews in Series 4: Professional Activities and materials with student grades in Series 5: University of Alabama have been restricted.
Access to the C. Earle Smith Jr. papers requires an appointment.
C. Earle Smith Jr. papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The C. Earle Smith Jr. papers were processed with the assistance of a Wenner-Gren Foundation Historical Archives Program grant awarded to Vernon (Jim) Knight of the University of Alabama.
These papers relate to the professional and personal life of Linda M. Klug. The bulk of this collection relates to Klug's work in the Philippines with the Samal culture. The collection mainly reflects Klug's interests in linguistics and childhood behavior. The collection also pertains to Klug's interests in a wide variety of topics including, but not limited to: ethnomusicology, marriage and religious practices, kinship units, economic and ecological factors, and gastronomy. Included in the collection are field notes, linguistic materials, research notes, her PhD dissertation, compositions, correspondence, card files, maps, photographs, slides, a journal, expense accounts, grant applications, scripts and other documents that cover a period from the mid -1960's to the mid-1980's.
Scope and Contents:
These papers relate to the professional and personal life of Linda M. Klug. The bulk of this collection relates to Klug's work in the Philippines with the Samal culture. The collection mainly reflects Klug's interests in linguistics and childhood behavior. The collection also pertains to Klug's interests in a wide variety of topics including, but not limited to: ethnomusicology, marriage and religious practices, kinship units, economic and ecological factors, and gastronomy.
Included in the collection are field notes, linguistic materials, research notes, her PhD dissertation, compositions, correspondence, card files, maps, photographs, slides, a journal, expense accounts, grant applications, scripts and other documents that cover a period from the mid -1960's to the mid-1980's.
Arrangement:
The Linda Klug papers are arranged in 6 series: (1) Field Notes, 1968-circa 1970; (2) Writings and Drafts, 1965-1986; (3) Films, circa 1971-circa 1976; (4) Research, circa 1968-circa 1986; (5) Personal, 1968-1984; (6) Visual Material, circa 1968 - circa 1971.
Biographical / Historical:
Linda M. Klug (1940- ) was an anthropologist and professor emeritus at Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington. Klug's research interests include the Zapotec Culture of Mexico and Samal Culture in the Philippines. She conducted field work in the Philippines beginning in September of 1968 and remained there until November of 1969. While in the Philippines, Klug focused on studying the Zamboanga area and the island of Malanlipa (Lahat Ano). Klug later returned to the Philippines during the summer of 1971 in order to shoot footage for her documentary films: Life on Samal Island (published 1976) and Patterns of Samal Childhood. Much of Klug's work in the Philippines influenced her later career.
Klug received her BA at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She completed her MA thesis on Acculturation and Marketing in Eight Oaxacan Villages (1969) for San Franciso State University. She received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh after submitting a dissertation entitled Kinship and Alliance on Lahat Ano (1972).
Related Materials:
The audiotapes (21), audiocassettes (3), and reels of film (64) from this collection were transferred to the Human Studies Film Archives. Also, one artifact was sent to the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology Collections.
Provenance:
The Linda Klug papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives in 2002 by Professor Linda Klug.
Restrictions:
The Linda Klug papers are open for research.
Access to the Linda Klug papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Genre/Form:
Dissertations
Maps
Scripts (documents)
Photographs
Field notes
Citation:
Linda Klug papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
An interview of Neda Al-Hilali conducted 2006 July 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 the artist's home, in Los Angeles, California.
Al-Hilali speaks of her childhood in Czechoslovakia and Bavaria; studying language in London; her experience living in Baghdad, Iraq with her first husband; moving to California and completing her undergraduate and graduate degrees at UCLA; teaching experiences at Scripps College, Claremont Graduate University, California State University Los Angeles, and UCLA; the installation processes of Beach Occurrence with Tongues, Black Passage, the Cassiopeia series, and others; frustrations she encountered with commission work; the rich history of the fiber tradition; travels to Afghanistan, Japan, and Oaxaca, Mexico; achieving gestural and painterly qualities with fiber; the importance of color in textile work in the Middle East; experiences with galleries, including the Hunsaker/Schlesinger Gallery in Santa Monica, California; utilizing a Ouija board for reflection and creative guidance; issues such as global warming and over-development; the status of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule; the gratitude she feels at being a part of the fiber tradition; and plans for the future. Al-Hilali also recalls Bernard Kester, Jim Bassler, Fern Jacobs, Joyce Hunsaker, Alice Simsar, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Neda Al-Hilali (1938- ) is a fiber artist and weaver in Los Angeles, California. Mija Riedel (1958- ) is a curator and writer in San Francisco, California.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 22 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hr., 46 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.
Five boxes containing sixty-four 5 inch and fifteen 7 inch open reel tapes recorded primarily by American herpetologist Charles M. Bogert from 1953-1965. This collection has two parts: the first focusing mainly on traditional music and liturgical music from several regions in Mexico: Oaxaca, Jalisco, Nayarit. Also included is music recorded in the Southwestern United States. The second portion of the collection contains amphibian, bird, and insect calls and choruses, mostly from these same regions in Mexico, the Southwestern, Western, and Southern United States, and Sri Lanka.
Scope and Contents:
The collection is divided into 2 series. Series 1 contains forty-three 5 inch and twelve 7 inch open reel tapes of musical performances by groups and individuals Bogert recorded throughout Mexico, South America, and the southwestern United States between 1952 and 1965. Series 2 contains twenty-one 5 inch and 3 7 inch open reel tapes of field recordings made by Bogert in natural settings in Mexico, Southwestern United States, and Sri Lanka. Sounds include amphibian choruses, mating calls and warnings, bird calls, and insect communication.
Arrangement:
Tapes are arranged into two series. Series 1: Musical Performances, 1953-1965, and Series 2: Field Recordings of Amphibians, Birds, and Insects, 1954-1964. Within each series, tapes are arranged by size, followed by chronological order, with undated tapes placed at the end of each sequence.
Biographical / Historical:
Charles Mitchill Bogert (June 4, 1908–April 10, 1992) was an American herpetologist, researcher, and curator of herpetology for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and a notable early ethnomusicologist. Bogert was a major figure in twentieth century herpetology, as a researcher and as administrator at the American Museum of Natural History for 25 years, as well as a folksong collector. Bogert traveled widely--including to Sri Lanka, Central America, the Southwestern United States, Florida, and the Bahamas--in search of experimental settings and samples of indigenous frog species. He would also use these travels to record the local folk music, usually performed by informal groups and in church celebrations.
He felt especially at home in Mexico, where in addition to conducting faunal surveys he made recordings of traditional music that were later commercially released on Folkways Records. In 1955, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for a year's research; a portion of his results are in the collection.
In 1960, he became a lecturer at the University of Colorado, and began an extensive study of the Oaxaca region of Mexico. In 1966, he was given an honorary LLD from UCLA. In 1978, he became a consultant at the Los Alamos National Environmental Research Park for a year. Afterwards, he continued to travel and conduct further studies, until his death in 1992 in his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Folkways Records Releases
1954 -- FX 6122, Sounds of the American Southwest
1958 -- FX 6166 (SFW45060), Sounds of North American Frogs FW 8867, Tarascan and Other Music of Mexico: Songs and Dances of the Mexican Plateau
1960 -- FW 8870, Mariachi Aguilas de Chapala
Restrictions:
Access by request only. Where a listening copy has been created, this is indicated in the respective inventory; additional materials may be accessible with sufficient advance notice and, in some cases, payment of a digitization fee. Contact the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at rinzlerarchives@si.edu for additional information.
Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for information.
Recorded in: Washington (D.C.), United States, June 30, 1991.
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 Flora S. Kaplan collection includes manuscript materials, field notes, slides, negatives and photographs. The extensive slide collection was taken in several regions of Mexico from the mid-to-late 1960's through the early 1980's and documented local craft processes, particularly ceramics, their makers, their families and life styles.
Scope and Contents:
The Flora S. Kaplan collection consists primarily of photographic materials documenting the pottery and pottery techniques of Mexican potters, as well as their families and lifestyles. A small amount of manuscript materials, including field notebooks, accompanied the slides, prints, and negatives which were donated to the National Museum of the American Indian in 2008 and 2009. Although the bulk of the photographs were taken by Flora Kaplan herself, a limited number of images were shot by photographer Sidney Kaplan (no relation). The photographs were taken primarily in the following area: barrios of Puebla de los Angeles (capital of the state of Puebla) (Barrios de la Luz) and the surrounding towns in the Puebla Valley (Acatepec, Santa María Tonantzintla, Amozoc, Cholula, La Acocota, Tepeaca, Izucar de Matamoros, Tecali de Herrera, Acoman, Ocototlan). There are also photographs of potters in the Mexican states of Chiapas (Chamula, Chanal, Amatenango, San Cristobal de las Casas, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapa de Corzo) ; Morelos, Michoacan (Janitzio, Alcoman, Capula, Tzintzuntzan, Morelia, Patzcuaro) ; Oaxaca (San Bartolome Coyotepec, Santa Maria Del Tule) ; Guerrero (Acapulco), Veracruz (Puerto de Veracruz, Minatitlán) ; Mexico (Teotihuacan) and the Distrito Federal (Mexico City).
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in two series; Series 1: Papers, 1952, 1958, 1970-1986 and Series 2: Photographs, 1971-1978, 1988. The Photographs series is then divided into 3 subseries based on material type. Subseries 2A: Slides, 1972-1978, 1988, Subseries 2B: Negatives, 1972-1973, 1977, and Subseries 2C: Silver Gelatin Prints, 1971-1977.
Biographical / Historical:
Flora Edouwaye S. Kaplan, anthropologist, is a professor emerita, and former founding director (1978-99) of the Museum Studies Program, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, New York University. She taught Anthropology as a Fulbright professor, (1983-85), University of Benin, Nigeria; and previously taught at Lehman College, CUNY (1970-1976), before arriving at New York University in 1976. She publishes widely on Benin (Nigeria) and on Mexico, museum politics, art, photography, religion and gender. She holds degrees in anthropology from The Graduate Center, CUNY (Ph.D.), and Columbia University (M.A., archaeology). Dr. Kaplan is a former curator of The Brooklyn Museum, New York. She was a research associate at the Museum of the American Indian, (1977-87), and is an associate at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at NYU. She currently co-edits the books series 'Museum Meanings' (Routledge) and has been a Board member of the journal 'Museums & Society' (University of Leicester Press) since 2004.
Books transferred to the NMAI Library:
A Mexican Folk Pottery Tradition: Cognition and Style in Material Culture in the Valley of Puebla by Flora S. Kaplan
Una Tradition Alfarera by Flora S. Kaplan
The Changing Roles of Ceramics in Society: 26,000 B.P. to the Present Edited by W.D. Kingery
Provenance:
This collection was originally donated by Flora S. Kaplan in October of 2008. An additional archival donation was made in December of 2009.
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.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Collection Title, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology Search this
Extent:
0.5 cu. ft. (1 document box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Newsletters
Pamphlets
Place:
Oaxaca (Mexico : State)
Date:
1998-1999
Descriptive Entry:
This accession consists of program records of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology documenting the organization's 1999
annual meeting in Oaxaca, Mexico. Materials include correspondence, the program schedule, a booklet, proposals, newsletters, and program committee information.
National Ethnobotanical Herbarium Online (Website)
Creator::
National Museum of Natural History. Department of Botany Search this
Extent:
0.22 cu. ft. (0.22 non-standard size boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Field notes
Place:
Oaxaca (Mexico : State)
Date:
2013-2014
Descriptive Entry:
The accession consists of two field books that document plant collecting conducted as part of the project "Documentation and Revitalization of the Language and Traditional
Ecological Knowledge of the Isthmus Zapotec Community." Collecting occurred in La Ventosa located in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico. The principle investigator was Gabriela
Perez Baez of the Department of Anthropology. Botanical collections and their related documentation were deposited in the Department of Botany and subsequently made available
on the National Ethnobotanical Herbarium Online pilot website.
Breve reseña histórica y geográfica del estado de Oaxaca, por el Lic. Francisco Belmar. Ed. oficial dedicada á los delegados del Congreso pan-americano
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