Photographs collected and made by Helen Hamilton Gardener, probably during a world cruise following her husband's retirement from active duty in Puerto Rico in July 1902. The photographs document people, activities, cities, and tourist sites in Japan, China, Egypt, France, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere. Gardener's lecture notes and a clipping from the Porto Rico Review, 1910, are available with the collection. Lantern slides in the collection were probably used in Gardener's later lectures in the United States.
Biographical/Historical note:
Helen Hamilton Gardener (1853-1925), born Alice Chenoweth in Virginia in 1853, was an author, feminist, and public official. Educated at the Cincinnati (Ohio) Normal School (graduated 1873), Chenoweth moved with her first husband, Charles S. Smart, to New York City in 1880. There, Chenoweth studied biology at Columbia University, lectured on sociology at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and came into contact with the theories of freethinker Robert G. Ingersoll. Chenoweth published her own lectures on freethinking in "Men, Women, and Gods," and Other Lectures (1885), at which point she adopted the name Helen Hamilton Gardener. Gardener's feminism came to fruition in 1888, when she refuted the claim that the female brain was inferior to men's in her article "Sex in Brain," joining the struggle for equal rights for women. In 1902, Gardener married her second husband, Lieutenant Colonel Selden Allen Day, a Civil War veteran who organized the first battalion of the Puerto Rican regiment under US control. The couple embarked on a five-year worldwide tour in July 1902, finally settling in Washington, DC. Gardener served as the National American Women Suffrage Association's vice president (1917) and its chief liaison to the Wilson Administration during the passage of the nineteenth amendment. President Wilson then appointed her to the US Civil Service Commission, the highest federal position held by a woman at the time.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 98, USNM ACC 90351
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs collected by Gardener are held in National Anthropological Archives Photo Lot 97.
Artifacts collected by Gardener are held in the Department of Anthropology collections in accessions 90351 and 89779.
See others in:
Helen Hamilton Gardener photograph collection, circa 1900-1910
Restrictions:
Original nitrate negatives are in cold storage and require advanced notice for viewing.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Lantern slides
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 98, Helen Hamilton Gardener photograph collection, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
The collection documents Louis S. Nixdorff's participation in the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. He was a member of the University lacrosse team that represented the United States.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains an oversize scrapbook of newspaper clippings, loose clippings from a Baltimore newspaper Sunday supplements, a diary recorded by Nixdorff, and an album of photographs that Nixdorff took on the Amsterdam visit and several other trips.
The newspaper clippings in an oversize scrapbook follow the fortunes of the Johns Hopkins University lacrosse team, national champions for 1926 and 1927, through its 1928 season, a post-season series, the playoffs to represent the United States at the Olympic Games in the summer of 1928, and the Olympic lacrosse games in Amsterdam. Newspaper clippings years later reminisce about the 1928 lacrosse team at the Olympic games in Amsterdam.
The newspaper clippings recounting various games are seldom identified and most of the articles are not dated. Some are from the Baltimore Post, later taken over by the News and were written by Yale Merrill. Others are from the Sunpapers, morning and evening. Some carry an Associated Press identification. Many of the accounts of the 1928 intercollegiate season prior to the Olympic Games were written by W. Wilson Wingate. Some of the news clippings are incomplete.
The trip of the 268 Olympic athletes to Amsterdam on the S.S. President Roosevelt is described graphically by Louis S. Nixdorff in his diary. The diary transcript included later in this Register has been transcribed exactly as written by the author, regardless of omissions of obvious words or occasional misspellings. The diary entries relating to the voyage clearly depict the boredom of the long voyage for young athletes eager to get to Amsterdam and compete in the Olympics. Training was continued during the trip insofar as it was possible on shipboard. Training and meals represented welcome relief from the monotony of the journey.
The diary is written in a clear hand in a soft-cover, lined notebook. Nixdorff presumably purchased it specifically to put his thoughts and observations down on this exciting and, to him, historic trip. The diary covers the period from the departure of the lacrosse team from the Baltimore and Ohio railroad station in Baltimore for New York on July 10, 1928, to the departure from Cherbourg for home on August 15, 1928. It includes Mr. Nixdorff's accounts of shipboard life, the game against the Canadians that the Americans won and their loss to the English team on the following day. England's subsequent loss to Canada meant that each team had a win and a loss. No team was declared a victor. The diary also covers a one-week stay in Paris, including a trip to the nearby World War I battlefields.
The collection contains snapshots that Nixdorff took on the S.S. President Roosevelt en route to Amsterdam, and images of Olympic events and of sightseeing in and around Amsterdam and Paris. These photographs mounted in an album portray an individual's effort to document his travels in a meaningful way.
Other material in the collection includes copies of three reminiscent articles published in the Baltimore Sun magazine section on April 5, 1951, June 26, 1955, and April 23, 1978; photogravure pictures of a Hopkins University of Virginia game and a Hopkins-University of Maryland game without attribution or date; Mr. Nixdorff's visa for France; Gen. Douglas MacArthur's report on the ninth Olympiad to the president of the United States; the official program for August 5, 1928; the passenger list for the S.S. President Roosevelt's return to New York; a cloth Olympic blazer patch; and two cloth lacrosse numbers.
This collection represents a contribution to both sports history and the history of the Olympics. The collection complements several Archives Center photographic collections, emphasizing international travel and touring by an American between the two World Wars.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into five series.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1926-1987
Series 2: Diary, 1928
Series 3: Photographs, 1928
Series 4: Newspaper clippings/Scrapbook, 1928, 1951, 1955, 1978
Series 5: Programs, Awards, Invitations, 1928
Biographical / Historical:
Louis S. Nixdorff (October 1, 1906-January 23, 1992), a native Baltimorean, spent his life there. He graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in 1924 and from the Johns Hopkins University in 1928 with a degree in business administration. While attending Johns Hopkins he was a member of the University lacrosse team that represented the United States at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. He later became a real estate executive and president of Properties Incorporated in Baltimore. Mr. Nixdorff continued to make real estate appraisals and to manage properties after retirement. He belonged to the Johns Hopkins Club, the Baltimore City Real Estate Brokers Round Table and the Maryland Historical Society. He also was an enthusiastic golfer.
The tremendous interest and excitement generated by lacrosse in Baltimore in 1928 is clear from the press coverage of intercollegiate lacrosse for that year. Stories on important games began at least a day before the event, continued during the day of the game in morning and evening papers and lasted for at least a day afterward.
The process that culminated in the selection of the Johns Hopkins University team to represent the United States in the Olympic games in Amsterdam was a formal one. The lacrosse ladder selected by the Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association to place before the Olympic Committee included ten teams. Of these, six were chosen by the Olympic Lacrosse Committee for national playoffs: the Mount Washington Club, Army, Navy, the University of Maryland, Rutgers and the Johns Hopkins University. In the playoffs the University of Maryland defeated Rutgers 7-2 and Navy 6-2. Hopkins defeated Mt. Washington 6-4 and Army 4-2. In ever-mounting excitement, Hopkins on June 23, 1928, overwhelmed Maryland 6-3. The executive committee of the American Olympics Commission formally ratified this selection of the Johns Hopkins University lacrosse team to represent the United States at the 1928 Olympics. Four members of that team are in the Lacrosse Hall of Fame: C. Gardner Mallonee, John Lang, Tom Biddison, and Bill Logan.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History
George W. Sims Collection (AC0127)
Clyde W. Stauffer Photographic Album (AC0139)
Donald Sultner-Welles Collection (AC0145)
Separated Materials:
An Olympic blazer patch and two lacrosse numbers are in the Division of Community Life. See accession
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives Center by Mrs. Anne Byrd Nixdorff, January 1992.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
An interview with Alexis Smith conducted 2014 January 24 and April 14, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, for the Archives of American Art at Smith's studio, in Venice, California.
Ms. Smith discusses growing up in Southern California and her early years living with her parents on the grounds of Metropolitan State Hospital, a mental institution in Norwalk, California; her mother's death when Ms. Smith was 11; the family's time in Whittier and Palm Springs and being raised as an only child by her father; her early interest in French studies and travel to France as a student; her interest in studying art beginning with a John Coplans class at UC Irvine; her time at at UC Irvine in the early days of the university and her growing attraction to the life of an artist; the origin of her name Alexis Smith; and the encouragement of her fellow artists to continue pursuing her cut-up collages from literature, photos, magazines, and Hollywood ephemera. Ms. Smith also describes her time with her artist women's group in the 70s; her husband Scott Grieger; working for Frank Gehry; her showing with the Nicholas Wilder Gallery; her relationship with Chris Burden and her time with him during his period of performance pieces in the 70s; the Riko Mizuno Gallery; her work with terrazzo and its use for installations at the LA Convention Center, Ohio State University, and other installations; the appropriation of text and the assistance of Jerry Solomon utilizing custom frames in her artwork; the impact of women from history, media and literature on her art; her relationship with Coy Howard; the Holly Solomon Gallery; her Jane series; her On the Road series; her installation Snake Path at UC San Diego; her piece for SITE Santa Fe Red Carpet; teaching at UCLA; her installation of the piece Scarlet Letter at Las Vegas Central Library and its subsequent removal; her associations with Margo Leavin Gallery and Honor Fraser gallery; and the loss of her long-time studio space and the challenges of storing her artwork. Ms. Smith also recalls Judy Chicago, Robert Irwin, Vija Celmins, Larry Bell, Barbara Burden, Richard Sedivy, Avilda Moses, Craig Krull, and Allen Ruppersberg among others.
Biographical / Historical:
Alexis Smith (1949- ) is a collage, multimedia, and installation artist in Los Angeles, California. Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is an art critic and writer from Beverly Hills, California.
General:
Originally recorded as 5 sound files. Duration is 3 hr., 11 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.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
California -- San Francisco -- Description and Travel
Date:
2012 August 13-27
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Catherine Opie conducted 2012 August 13-27, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, for the Archives of American Art, at Opie's home and studio in Los Angeles, California.
Opie discusses her childhood in Sandusky, Ohio, moving to California, and introduction to photography; her life in San Francisco and its role in her formulation of sexuality and identity; the importance of identity within her work, especially that of the queer community; the role of architecture and her landscape paintings as metaphor for the queer community and the search for identity; the role of reconceptualization in her work, leading to the ever-changing nature of her works, including comparisons between her portraiture and her landscape photography; her influences and her moniker of the "American photographer" Opie also recalls her partner, painter Julie Burleigh; gallery owners Stuart and Shaun Regen; members of her community and subjects of her portraiture, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Catherine Opie (1961- ) is an artist and professor in Los Angeles, California. Hunter Drohojowska-Philp is a writer and art historian in Los Angeles, California.
General:
Originally recorded as 7 digital sound files. Duration is 5 hr., 17 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.
Restrictions:
For information on how to access this interview contact Reference Services.
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Topic:
Gay artists -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews Search this
Photographers -- California -- Los Angeles -- Interviews Search this
Women artists -- California -- Los Angeles -- Interviews Search this
An interview of Joel Philip Myers conducted 2007 May 1, by Daniel Klein, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, in the artist's home, in Marietta, Pennsylvania.
Myers speaks of his childhood in Patterson, New Jersey; making charcoal drawings as a child and taking private courses in oil painting; choosing to pursue a career in advertising design; attending Parsons School of Design in New York City; working as a package designer for Donald Deskey Associates; being influenced by Scandinavian design he saw in New York City to study abroad in Denmark; studying ceramic design at Kunsthaandvaerkerskolen in Copenhagen; meeting and marrying his wife, Birthe, while in Copenhagen; returning to the United States and going back to work for Donald Deskey; attending Alfred University and receiving his B.F.A. and M.F.A. in ceramics; accepting the position director of design for Blenko Glass Company in Milton, West Virginia with no previous experience in glass; teaching himself how to blow glass in the factory alongside the workers; the intense heat and extreme noise of a glass factory; learning of Harvey Littleton's glass workshop in 1962 in Toledo, Ohio, but being unable to attend; having limited exposure to the glass movement and developing his glass art without knowledge of the work of Littleton and his students; designing 50 to 60 different vases, bowls, decanters, and decorative objects a year from 1963 - 1970 at Blenko Glass Company; creating sculptural glass forms in his penetration pieces for his masters thesis; learning of what was happening in the studio glass world by attending the World Craft Council in 1964 in New York City; Paul Smith discovering his work and thereby gaining some publicity in Craft Horizons; being invited by Littleton to give a workshop at the University of California, Berkeley in 1968; the initial shock of seeing glass sculpture made with no real technique; his early attraction to cold-work in order to work intimately with the surface of the glass; acquisition of his work by the Toledo Art Museum and the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, North Carolina; establishing a glass program at Illinois University in Bloomington-Normal; his attempts to recruit international students; taking a semester sabbatical in Baden, Austria; being heavily influenced by the natural world; the series Garden, Perfume Bottle, Contiguous Fragment, Dr. Zharkov, The Dialogues, and others; teaching at Pilchuck School of Glass; studying the First World War and consequently creating Musée des Beaux Arts [1996]; travels to Japan; his teaching philosophies; the prevalence of independent glass studios in the world today; and plans for the future. Myers recalls Ted Randall, William H. Blenko, Sr., William H. Blenko, Jr., Marvin Lipofsky, Fritz Dreisbach, Richard Marquis, John Lewis, Bob Ness, Bertil Vallien, David Huchthausen, John Popelka, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Joel Philip Myers (1934- ) is a glass artist from Milton, West Virginia. Daniel Klein (1938- ) is an art consultant from London, England.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 15 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.
Oral history interview with Glen Kaufman conducted 2008 January 22 and February 23 by Josephine Shea, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America at Kaufman's home in Athens, Georgia.
Kaufman speaks of his childhood in Chicago; earning his B.A. in education in Wisconsin and meeting his wife; joining the ROTC and moving to Ohio; attending Cranbrook Academy of Art; living and studying in Denmark; traveling through Western Europe; working at the Liebes Studio in New York; teaching at Cranbrook for about 40 years; working in Japan; using metal leaf and wax in his art; moving from large to miniature textiles; his glove exhibition; visiting India; gallery exhibitions in Japan; the difference between university-trained artists and artisans; the impact of travel and international influences on his work; the art community in Kyoto; using Japanese dancers in his exhibitions; incorporating traditional Korean and Japanese materials and techniques into his work. Kaufman also recalls Charlene Page, Bill Thompson, Maija Grotell, Marianne Strengell, Dorothy Liebes, Jack Lenor Larsen, Meda Parker Johnston, Earl McCutchen, Ed Lambert, Mildred Constantine, Louise Allrich, Ed Rossbach, Camille Cook, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Glen Kaufman (1932- ) is a textile artist who lives and works in Athens, Georgia and Kyoto, Japan. Josephine Shea (1958- ) is curator of the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House in Detroit, Michigan.
General:
Originally recorded as 4 minidiscs as 12 digital sound files. Duration is 5 hr., 29 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.
Restrictions:
For information on how to access this interview contact Reference Services.
