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W. Royal Stokes Collection of Music Photoprints and Interviews

Interviewee:
Sun Ra  Search this
Gaskin, Leonard, 1920-  Search this
Taylor, Billy  Search this
Sullivan, Maxine, 1911-1987  Search this
Wells, Ronnie  Search this
Whiting, Margaret  Search this
Towers, Jack  Search this
Venuti, Joe, 1903-1978  Search this
Pullen, Don, 1941-  Search this
Roney, Wallace  Search this
Pizzarelli, Bucky, 1926-  Search this
Pizzarelli, John, 1960-  Search this
Shaw, Artie, 1910-2004  Search this
Shepp, Archie, 1937-  Search this
Sanders, Pharaoh  Search this
Grant, Felix, 1918-1993  Search this
Scott, Jimmy  Search this
McPhail, Jimmy  Search this
McPartland, Marian  Search this
McFerrin, Bobby  Search this
Krall, Diana  Search this
O'Connell, Helen  Search this
Mulligan, Gerry  Search this
Metheny, Pat  Search this
McShann, Jay  Search this
Horn, Shirley, 1934-  Search this
Hinton, Milt, 1910-2000  Search this
Hill, Andrew, 1937-  Search this
Hendricks, Jon, 1921-  Search this
Keane, Helen  Search this
Kaminsky, Max, 1908-  Search this
Jordan, Sheila, 1928-  Search this
Humes, Helen, 1913-1981  Search this
Hampton, Lionel  Search this
Harris, Eddie, 1934-  Search this
Heath, Jimmy, 1926-  Search this
Frishberg, Dave  Search this
Ennis, Ethel  Search this
Farmer, Art, 1928-  Search this
Flanagan, Tommy, 1930-  Search this
Hampton, Slide  Search this
D'Rivera, Paquito, 1948-  Search this
Daniels, Billy  Search this
Davison, Bill  Search this
Donegan, Dorothy, 1922-  Search this
Crouch, Stanley, 1945-2020  Search this
Conyers, John, 1929-  Search this
Cruz, Celia, 1924-2003  Search this
Byard, Jaki  Search this
Brown, Ruth  Search this
Carter, Betty, 1930-  Search this
Byron, Don  Search this
Betts, Keter, 1928-  Search this
Bellson, Louis  Search this
Bowie, Lester, 1941-  Search this
Blakey, Art, 1919-1990  Search this
Allen, Steve, 1921-2000  Search this
Adderly, Nat, 1931-2000  Search this
Bailey, Benny, 1925-  Search this
Collector:
Stokes, W. Royal, Dr., 1930-  Search this
Names:
Armstrong, Louis, 1901-1971  Search this
Davis, Miles  Search this
Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974  Search this
Gillespie, Dizzy, 1917-  Search this
Extent:
10 Cubic feet (39 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Audiotapes
Black-and-white photographic prints
Publicity photographs
Date:
1940s-2005
Summary:
Publicity photographs of musicians and entertainers, mostly jazz musicians, such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie, but including many rock and even a few classical performers. The collection also contains tape recorded radio interviews conducted between 1970 and 2003. In addition there are posters relating to musical performances.
Scope and Contents:
This collection was formed by W. Royal Stokes in the course of his professional work as a music and arts critic. It is composed primarily of publicity portraits of musical performers, both single acts and groups. The emphasis is on jazz musicians and singers, although many rock stars and groups, and other popular musical performers are included. Even a few classical musicians are represented. The pictures are primarily mass-produced black and white publicity photographs distributed to newspapers, writers, etc., by agents for entertainment personalities. Some prints were made from the original negatives, while others clearly were made from copy negatives after typography was stripped together with a print and re-photographed. However, there are some rarer original photographs included in the collection, such as personal color snapshots, higher quality prints by art photographers, etc. Nearly all the prints are unmounted, and are 8 x 10 inches or smaller in size. The bulk of the photographs date from circa 1970 to 2000, however, a number of the earlier photographs are included as well as slightly later examples.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into nine series.

Series 1, Photographs of Musicians and Ensembles, circa 1970-2000; undated

Subseries 1.1, Musicians and Ensembles

Subseries 1.2, Recording Company Photographs

Subseries 1.3, Unidentified Musicians

Series 2, Photographs of Performances, 1987-2002; undated

Subseries 2.1, Music Festivals, 1987-2002; undated

Subseries 2.2, Concerts, Music Clubs and Other Venues, 1920s-1940s and circa 1980s-1990s; undated

Series 3, Formal and Informal Groups, circa 1980s-2000; undated

Series 4, Photographs of Musicians in Films, Radio, Television and Theater, 1940s-2000; undated Series 5, Photographs of Subjects and Products related to Musicians and Music, 1970-2000; undated

Series 6, Photographs of Non-Musicians, circa 1980s-2000; undated

Series 7, Interviews with Musicians, 1970-2003

Series 8, Audiovisual Materials, 1970-2003

Subseries 8.1, Audio Recordings - Audiocassettes

Subseries 8.2, Audio Recordings-Audiotapes

Series 9, Posters, 1976-1990; undated
Biographical / Historical:
Born in Washington, D.C., W. Royal Stokes served in the Army and then embarked on an academic career, teaching at the University of Pittsburgh, Tufts University, Brock University and the University of Colorado. He left the academic profession in 1969 and become a writer, broadcaster and lecturer, journalist, and critic and authority on jazz music. A follower of jazz since his teens in the 1940s, Stokes has written about music for such publications as Down Beat, Jazz Times, and the Washington Post, and hosted the public radio shows "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say . . ." and "Since Minton's". Today he is the editor of the quarterly Jazz Notes, and is the author of The Jazz Scene: An Informal History From New Orleans to 1990 and Swing Era New York: The Jazz Photographs of Charles Peterson.. He is also the author of Living the Jazz Life: Conversations with Forty Musicians about Their Careers in Jazz (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). Dr. Stokes lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of Ameican History:
Duke Ellington Collection, 1928-1988 (AC0301)

Herman Leonard Photoprints, 1948-1993

Frank Driggs Collection of Duke Ellington Photographic Reference Prints [copyprints], 1923-1972

Jazz Oral History Collection, 1988-1990

Ernie Smith Jazz Film Collection, 1910s-1970s (mostly 1930s-1960s)

Jeffrey Kliman Photographs

Stephanie Myers Jazz Photographs, 1984-1987, 2005

Chico O'Farrill Papers

Paquito D'Rivera Papers, 1989-2000.

Louis Armstrong Music Manuscripts, undated

Tito Puente Papers, 1962-1965.

Audrey Wells "Women in Jazz Radio Series, 1981-1982

Mongo Santamaria Papers, 1965-2001

Ramsey Lewis Collection, 1950-2007

Earl Newman Collection of Monterey Jazz Festival Posters, 1963-2009

James Arkatov Collection of Jazz Photographs, 1995-2003

Francis Wolff Jazz Photoprints, 1953-1966

Floyd Levin Jazz Reference Collection, circa 1920s-2006

Jazz Oral History Program Collection, 1992-2009

Leslie Schinella Collection of Gene Krupa Materials
Provenance:
Donated by W. Royal Stokes to the Archives Center in 2001.
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.
Topic:
Jazz musicians -- 1950-2000 -- United States  Search this
Musicians  Search this
Publicity  Search this
Portraits -- Musicians  Search this
Popular music -- 20th century -- United States  Search this
Entertainers  Search this
Rock music  Search this
Genre/Form:
Audiotapes
Black-and-white photographic prints -- Silver gelatin -- 1950-2000
Publicity photographs
Citation:
W. Royal Stokes Collection of Jazz Musicians' Photographs, ca. 1970-2000, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0766
See more items in:
W. Royal Stokes Collection of Music Photoprints and Interviews
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8b79b5a94-c967-451e-bafb-e62dc2d8ff45
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0766
Online Media:

William "Cat" Anderson Collection

Creator:
Anderson, William "Cat", 1916-1981 (musician)  Search this
Names:
Cat Anderson Quintet  Search this
Duke Ellington Orchestra  Search this
Lionel Hampton Orchestra  Search this
Mingus Quintet  Search this
Bechet, Sidney (musician)  Search this
Calloway, Cab, 1907-1994  Search this
Carter, Benny, 1907-2003  Search this
Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974  Search this
Fitzgerald, Ella, 1917-1996  Search this
Hampton, Lionel  Search this
Humphrey, Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio), 1911-1978  Search this
Humphrey, Muriel  Search this
Johnson, Lucy Bird  Search this
Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973  Search this
Tatum, Art, 1909-1956  Search this
Webster, Ben  Search this
Extent:
5 Cubic feet (12 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Manuscripts
Transcripts
Oral histories (document genres)
Oral history
Phonograph records
Photographs
Recordings
Interviews
Clippings
Audiotapes
Awards
Audiocassettes
Articles
Date:
1940-1981
bulk 1963-1977
Scope and Contents note:
Primarily audiotapes, sheet music, and photographic images. Also: correspondence, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, itineraries, awards, and ephemera.,Of particular interest are recordings or photographic images, including the personalities listed below, and President and Mrs. Tubman of Liberia; also, two interviews and three recordings of Cat Anderson as guest with various university and college jazz bands.
Arrangement:
Collection is divided into four series.

Series 1: Music

Series 2: Original tapes and recordings

Series 3: Photographs

Series 4: Miscellaneous
Biographical/Historical note:
Cat Anderson (Sept 12, 1916 - April 29, 1981) was one of the premier trumpet players of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Known for his effortless high notes, he was a strong section leader and a great soloist whose style exhibited humor and precision. He grew up in Jenkins= Orphanage in Charleston, SC, received basic music training there, and participated in many of their famous student ensembles. He formed and played with the Cotton Pickers, a group of orphanage teens while still a young man. Before joining Ellington in 1944, he played in several big bands, including Claude Hopkins and Lionel Hampton. Anderson left the Ellington organization from 1947 through 1949 again to lead his own group. From 1959 to1961 and after 1971 Anderson free lanced, working with the Ellington orchestra intermittently. He died in 1981 after receiving honors from the US Air Force, the Prix du Disque de Jazz, and the City of Los Angeles.
Related Archival Materials:
Related artifacts include: awards, plaques, mutes, trumpet mouth pieces, and the Jon Williams/Cat Anderson simulator in the Division of Cultural and Community Life (now Division of Cultural and Community Life). See accession: 1998.3074.
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the National Museum of American History in January 1998, by Dorothy Anderson, Cat Anderson's widow. It was acquired through negotiations with her, her brother, Mr. John Coffey and her nephew, Andrew Brazington. The materials were picked up from Mr. John Coffey of upper N.W. Washington, DC on January 21, 1998.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Master tapes not available to researchers.
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.

Copyright status of items varies. Signed copies of releases on file.
Occupation:
Composers -- 20th century  Search this
Topic:
Music -- 20th century  Search this
Music -- Acoustics and physics  Search this
Musicians -- 20th century  Search this
Piano and synthesizer music  Search this
Inventions -- 1980-2000  Search this
Synthesizer music  Search this
Electric engineering -- 1980-2000  Search this
Band musicians  Search this
African American musicians  Search this
Jazz musicians -- United States  Search this
Inventors -- 20th century  Search this
Genre/Form:
Manuscripts -- Music -- 20th century
Transcripts
Oral histories (document genres)
Oral history
Phonograph records
Photographs -- 20th century
Recordings
Interviews
Interviews -- 1950-2000
Clippings -- 20th century
Audiotapes -- 1940-1980
Awards
Audiocassettes
Audiotapes
Articles -- 1940-1980
Citation:
William "Cat" Anderson Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0630
See more items in:
William "Cat" Anderson Collection
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep891a9a0e4-7c4f-4956-b81e-6d65c57e1f29
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0630
Online Media:

William Claxton Photographs

Creator:
Claxton, William  Search this
Names:
George Williams Brass Band.  Search this
Stan Kenton Band.  Search this
Armstrong, Louis, 1901-1971  Search this
Baker, Chet  Search this
Baker, Halima  Search this
Charles, Ray, 1930-2004  Search this
Charles, Roosevelt  Search this
Coleman, Ornette  Search this
Coltrane, John, 1926-1967  Search this
Davis, Miles  Search this
Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974  Search this
Evans, Bill, 1929-1980  Search this
Gillespie, Dizzy, 1917-1993  Search this
Jones, Elvin  Search this
Kenton, Stan  Search this
Monk, Thelonious  Search this
Mulligan, Gerry  Search this
Parker, Charlie, 1920-1955  Search this
Rollins, Sonny  Search this
Sinatra, Frank, 1915-1998  Search this
Washington, Dinah, 1924-1963  Search this
Webster, Ben  Search this
Williams, Cootie, 1911-1985  Search this
Williams, Joe, 1918-  Search this
Extent:
1 Cubic foot (28 items)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Black-and-white photographic prints
Date:
1951-1970
Summary:
Photographic prints taken by photographer William Claxton (October 12, 1927-October 11, 2008) of jazz musicians.
Scope and Contents:
Collection consists of twenty-eight photographic prints processed in 1999 by a professional laboratory for photographer William Claxton. The prints document jazz artists in recording sessions and performing throughout the United States. It is divided into two series: Series 1, Duke Ellington, 1955-1960, and Series 2, Other Artists, 1955-1970.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into two series.

Series 1: Duke Ellington, 1955-1960

Series 2: Other Artists, 1951-1970
Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Duke Ellington Collection, NMAH.AC.0301

William H. Quealy Collection of Duke Ellington Recordings, NMAH.AC.0296

Duke Ellington Oral History Project, NMAH.AC.0368

Billy Strayhorn Ephemera Collection, NMAH.AC.0383

Collection of Duke Ellington Ephemera and Related Audio-visual Materials, NMAH.AC.0386

Robert Udkoff Collection of Duke Ellington Ephemera, NMAH.AC.0388

Frank Driggs Collection of Duke Ellington Photographic Reference Prints, NMAH.AC.0389

New York Chapter of the Duke Ellington Society Collection, NMAH.AC.O390

Felix Grant Collection, NMAH.AC.0410

Carter Harman Collection of Interviews with Duke Ellington, NMAH.AC.0422

Archives Center Collection of Music Transcriptions of Duke Ellington Compositions, Carter Harman NMAH.AC.0430

Jazz Oral History Collection about Duke Ellington, NMAH.AC.0431

Herman Leonard Photoprints, NMAH.AC.0445

Don Brown Collection of Duke Ellington Recordings, NMAH.AC.0472

Betty McGettigan Collection of Duke Ellington Memorabilia, NMAH.AC.0494

Dr. Theodore Shell Collection of Duke Ellington Ephemera, NMAH.AC.0502

Jay McCarter Phonograph Record Collection, NMAH.AC.0541

Tom Whaley Collection, NMAH.AC.0652

Edward and Gaye Ellington Collection of Duke Ellington Materials, NMAH.AC.0704

Andrew Homzy Collection of Duke Ellington Stock Arrangements, NMAH.AC.0740

John Gensel Collection of Duke Ellington Materials, NMAH.AC.0763

W. Royal Stokes Collection of Music Publicity Photoprints, Interviews and Posters, NMAH.AC.0766 Milt Gabler Papers, NMAH.AC.0849

Paquito D'Rivera Music Manuscripts and Photograph, NMAH.AC.0891

Charismic Productions Records of Dizzy Gillespie, NMAH.AC.0979

Floyd Levin Jazz Reference Collection, NMAH.AC.1222

Al Celley Collection of Duke Ellington Materials, NMAH.AC.1240

James Moody Papers, NMAH.AC.1405
Provenance:
The National Museum of American History purchased the collection on March 31, 1999.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Gloves required with unprotected photographs.
Rights:
Copyright restrictions. Contact staff for information.
Topic:
Musicians -- 1950-1960 -- United States  Search this
Music -- West coast -- 1950-1960  Search this
Jazz  Search this
Genre/Form:
Black-and-white photographic prints -- Silver gelatin -- 1950-2000
Citation:
William Claxton Photographs, 1951-1971, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0695
See more items in:
William Claxton Photographs
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8f806c04e-a0d9-46c4-8765-417e8e2084e0
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0695
Online Media:

Joseph Pedott Papers

Creator:
Joseph Enterprises, Inc. (San Francisco, California)  Search this
Pedott, Joseph  Search this
Extent:
2 Cubic feet (3 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Advertisements
Oral history
Audiotapes
Interviews
Design drawings
Photographs
Packaging
Date:
circa 1976-2005, 2008
Summary:
Papers relating to products developed and marketed by Joseph Enterprises, Inc., including the Chia Pet and the Clapper. The collection includes internal business documentation including correspondence, design drawings, and photographs. Print advertising and packaging samples as well as audiovisual materials make up an important part of the collection. The video collection includes commercials for the Chia and Clapper products as well as clips of product mentions in popular entertainment. In addition, there are two recorded oral history interviews with Joseph Pedott.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents the Chia Pet, the Clapper, and other products of Joseph Enterprises, Inc. Other materials include packaging and advertising campaigns by Joseph Pedott Advertising & Marketing for other companies. While fragmentary and limited in extent, these materials illustrate the progress of Joe Pedott's career from a one-man advertising agency to a modest scale, enduring marketing business. The papers include early advertising work for small local clients and for a national client (Eversharp/Parker Pen) and well as early television for a variety of retail products. There is little on unsuccessful products, often just a few advertisements. The materials are complemented by the oral history interviews.
Arrangement:
Collection organized into eight series.

Series 1: Oral History Interviews, September 2004, April 2008

Series 2: Chia Pet, 1981-2005, undated

Series 3: The Clapper, 1976-1985, undated

Series 4: Scribe Ett, 1981, 1984, undated

Series 5: Eversharp Pen Company, undated

Series 6: Various Products, 1985, undated

Series 7: Newspaper Clippings, 1989-2004, undated

Series 8: Audiovisual Materials, 1979-2005, undated

Subseries 8.1, Commercials, 1979-2005

Subseries 8.2, Promotions, 1996-2001
Biographical / Historical:
Joseph Pedott was born April 14, 1932 in Chicago. He attended the University of Illinois, where he and friend Daryl Peters, began the advertising company, Pedott & Peters. They successfully began producing commercials for automotive and retail companies and made a large amount of money by the time they reached the age of twenty-one. After making a bad business investment the partners focused on completing college. They began building up the company upon graduation.

Pedott and Peters worked together for several years before deciding to dissolve the partnership. Pedott then began working for R. Jack Scott, a Chicago advertising agency. Pedott worked for Scott for just over two years and during that time, out-performed those with more experience in the advertising field. Pedott left Chicago for San Francisco in 1956. He worked briefly at a small firm on commission before forming his own agency, Joseph Pedott Advertising & Marketing. Pedott's firm was innovative in advertising techniques. The company was the first to use "dealer tagging," a technique used at the ends of television commercials. During the last five seconds of the commercial consumers would learn where the advertised item could be purchased.

While attending a Chicago house wares show Pedott noticed the Chia Pet. He spoke with the product owner and learned that while the product was selling well, the owner was losing money on every Chia sold. Pedott bought the name and concept and reworked the manufacturing of the product after a trip to Mexico to witness first hand how the Chias were made. Later pedott moved Chia manufacturing to China. Pedott created a new company, Joseph Enterprises, Inc., (JEI) to manufacture the Chias. Joseph Pedott Advertising ran the advertising campaigns for all of JEI's products while continuing to work for non JEI clients.

After improving the quality of the product, the "new" Chia arrived on the market in 1982 and quickly expanded throughout the country, sold largely at drugstores. Today, the Chia Pet has large name recognition among the American public and continues to be a popular gift, especially at Christmas time. The line has expanded beyond the original ram and bull shapes to include a variety of animals (pig, elephant, kitten, dinosaur, etc.) as well as famous cultural icons such as Jerry Garcia, Bugs Bunny and various Looney Tunes characters, and Homer and Bart Simpson. In addition, the Chia Herb Garden entered the market in the mid-1990s.

Pedott's other success, the Clapper, came about through the advertising campaign for the Great American Turn On. Pedott discovered that the original product did not work properly and felt the owners were cheating their customers. JEI bought the product, including the patent, and reworked the electrical wiring to ensure that the company was selling a high quality product. As with the Chia Pet, The Clapper and its advertising, like the Chia, are familiar to a large number of Americans.

Note: Material for this section was taken from Joe Pedott Oral History Interview Abstract, September 20, 2004, Joseph Pedott Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Related Materials:
Materials in the National Museum of American History

The Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life) holds artifacts related to this collection (Accession # 2005.3116) that include:

1. Chia Pet Handmade Clay Decorative Planter with Chia Seeds, Chia pet dog

2. Chia Pet Handmade Clay Decorative Planter with Chia Seeds, Chia pet ram

3. Chia Pet Handmade Clay Decorative Planter with Chia Seeds, Chia pet bull

4. Chia Pet Handmade Clay Decorative Planter with Chia Seeds, Chia-saurus

5. Chia Pet Handmade Clay Decorative Planter with Chia Seeds, Chia Shrek character

6. Handmade Clay Decorative Planter with Chia Seeds, Donkey from Shrek

7. Chia Pet Handmade Clay Decorative Planter with Chia Seeds, Jerry Garcia Chia

8. Bigmouth: A portable, plastic garbage bag holder

9A. CD Mobile antenna with packaging

9B. CB Mobile monitor with box

10. Video recorder with packaging

11. Metal detector with packaging

12. Pen set with frame and packaging

13. Light switch with box

14. Light switch with packaging

15. Jar lid opener with box

16. Tapeless measure with packaging

17A. Pen, engraving

17B. Pen, engraving with packaging

17C. Pen, engraving with packaging

17D. Pen, engraving with packaging

18A. Knife, Pumpkin cutter

18B. Knife, Pumpkin cutter

18C. Knife, Pumpkin cutter

18D. Knife, Pumpkin cutter

18E. Knife with packaging

18F. Pumpkin cutter with packaging
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Joseph Pedott, 2005.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Novelties  Search this
Toys  Search this
Popular culture  Search this
Marketing  Search this
Genre/Form:
Advertisements
Oral history
Audiotapes
Interviews
Design drawings
Photographs -- 1950-2000
Packaging
Citation:
Joseph Pedott Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0898
See more items in:
Joseph Pedott Papers
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8c1a7ec84-0a30-48f5-9447-f102700bd4b4
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0898
Online Media:

Peter Howard Selz papers

Creator:
Selz, Peter Howard, 1919-2019  Search this
Names:
College Art Association of America  Search this
Institute of Design (Chicago, Ill.) (Faculty)  Search this
Marlborough Gallery  Search this
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Pomona College (Claremont, Calif.)  Search this
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (Calif.)  Search this
University of California, Berkeley. University Art Museum  Search this
Baykam, Bedri, 1957-  Search this
Beckmann, Max, 1884-1950  Search this
Benton, Fletcher, 1931-  Search this
Bergman, Ciel, 1938-  Search this
Bury, Pol, 1922-2005  Search this
Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976  Search this
Chase-Riboud, Barbara  Search this
Christo, 1935-  Search this
Conner, Bruce, 1933-2008  Search this
Dubuffet, Jean, 1901-  Search this
Feininger, Lyonel, 1871-1956  Search this
Giacometti, Alberto, 1901-1966  Search this
Golub, Leon, 1922-2004  Search this
Graves, Morris, 1910-  Search this
Guston, Philip, 1913-1980  Search this
Hadzi, Dimitri, 1921-2006  Search this
Lebrun, Rico, 1900-1964  Search this
Lindner, Richard, 1901-1978  Search this
Lipchitz, Jacques, 1891-1973  Search this
O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986  Search this
Onslow-Ford, Gordon  Search this
Paris, Harold, 1925-1979  Search this
Petlin, Irving, 1934-  Search this
Reinhardt, Ad, 1913-1967  Search this
Rothko, Mark, 1903-1970  Search this
Tinguely, Jean, 1925-  Search this
Extent:
31.5 Linear feet
0.696 Gigabytes
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Gigabytes
Photographs
Scrapbooks
Sound recordings
Video recordings
Place:
San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.)
Date:
1929-2014
bulk 1950-2005
Summary:
The papers of art historian and writer Peter Howard Selz measure 31.5 linear feet and 0.696 GB and date from 1929 to 2018, with the bulk of the materials from 1950 to 2005. The papers document Selz's long career via correspondence, writings, professional files, project files, membership and association records, artists' research files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed and digital materials, and nine scrapbooks.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art historian and writer Peter Howard Selz measure 31.5 linear feet and 0.696 GB and date from 1929 to 2018, with the bulk of the materials from 1950 to 2005. The papers document Selz's long career via correspondence, writings, professional files, project files, membership and association records, artists' research files, exhibition files, personal business records, printed and digital materials, and scrapbooks.

Correspondence is with colleagues, artists, museums, and galleries concerning a wide variety of topics, including exhibitions and publications. The bulk of the correspondence consists of alphabetical files (two linear feet) that includes correspondence with artists. Notable correspondents include Pol Bury, Alexander Calder, Gordon Onslow Ford, Alberto Giacometti, Morris Graves, Philip Guston, Dimitri Hadzi, Jacques Lipchitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Jean Tinguely, and others. Eight additional files of chronological correspondence is with curators, arts organizations, and publishers. Additional correspondence is found in the professional files, project files, membership files, artists' research files, and exhibition files.

The bulk of the writings series is comprised of files related to Selz's books and includes typescript drafts and galleys, printed and digital material, correspondence, and publishing contracts. Files are found for Art in Our Times, Art of Engagement, Beyond the Mainstream, and Theories of Modern Art. Other writings consist of drafts of articles, essays, notes, and lectures by Selz. Also included are writings by others, including materials related to Paul Karlstrom's biography of Selz.

Professional files document curatorial and teaching positions at the Chicago Institute of Design, Pomona College, University of California, Berkeley, and the Museum of Modern Art. The series includes contracts, recommendations, syllabi, and correspondence.

Project files document Selz's professional work on specific art projects, panels, and symposiums. There is extensive documentation of Selz's work as project director of Christo's Running Fence, as well as other environmental art work projects by Christo, the Berkeley Art Project, Disney Art Project, "Funk Art" symposium, and the "Art and Politics in the 20th Century" symposium. Project files contain a wide variety of materials, such as correspondence, printed material, financial records, reports, photographs, and other documents. There are 2 tape reels, 1 VHS, and 1 sound cassette.

Membership and association records document Selz's involvement with or membership in various art councils, trustee boards, such as the College Art Association, Art in Chicago Advisory Committee, Bay Area Rapid Transit (B.A.R.T.) Art Council, and the San Francisco Crafts and Folk Art Museum Advisory Board, among others. Materials include meeting minutes, bulletins, correspondence, and memoranda.

Artists' Research Files consist of a wide variety of research materials Selz compiled about artists for lectures, writings, projects, exhibitions, etc. Files vary and may include original and photocopied correspondence, photographic material, resumes, printed and digital material, and writings. There is also 1 sound cassette. Files are found for Bedri Baykam, Max Beckmann, Fletcher Benton, Ciel Bergman, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Bruce Conner, Jean Dubuffet, Lyonel Feininger, Leon Golub, Dimitri Hadzi, Rico Lebrun, Harold Paris, Irving Petlin, among many others.

Exhibition files include catalogs, reviews, clippings, writings, correspondence, and other material documenting exhibitions organized by Selz. Limited materials are found for the MOMA Art Nouveau exhibition. More extensive documentation is found for Seven Decades of Modern Art, 1895-1965, The Joint Show (1967), The American Presidency in Political Cartoons (1976), American Modern Art Between the Two World Wars (1979), German Realism in the Twenties: Artist As Social Critic (1980), Twelve Artists from the German Democratic Republic (1989), a Richard Lindner Retrospective (1996), Spaces of Nature (1999), Color and Fire: Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics, 1950-2000 (2000), and a Nathan Oliviera Retrospective (2002), among others. Some of the materials are in digital format.

Personal business records are related to the Mark Rothko estate and Kate Rothko's legal case against Marlborough Gallery, Inc. Also included in this series are Peter Selz's school transcripts, bequests, royalty statements, house designs, and other material.

Printed materials include clippings, prints of articles written by Peter Selz, exhibition announcements and invitations, and photocopies of artwork images.

There are nine disbound scrapbooks dating from the 1940s up through 2012 containing clippings, exhibition announcements, and photographs of art events, Selz, and artists. This series also includes materials from the 2018 addition that may have previously been compiled in binders.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 10 series. When possible the original order of Peter Selz was maintained. However, multiple accessions were merged and integrated.

Missing Title

Series 1: Correspondence, 1942-2013 (2.3 linear feet; Box 1-3, Box 37)

Series 2: Writings, 1942- circa 2014 (8.3 linear feet; Box 3-10, OV 32, Box 37, 0.035 GB; ER01, ER12)

Series 3: Professional Files, 1949-2012 (1 linear feet; Box 11, Box 37)

Series 4: Project Files, 1962-2015 (2.8 linear feet; Box 12-14, OV 33, Box 37)

Series 5: Membership and Association Records, 1958-2014 (1.1 linear feet; Box 14-15, Box 37)

Series 6: Artists' Research Files, 1955-2014 (7.9 linear feet; Box 15-22, OV 34-35, 0.520 GB; ER02-ER08)

Series 7: Exhibition Files, 1959-2014 (5.2 linear feet; Box 23-27, Box 38, 0.093 GB; ER09-ER11)

Series 8: Personal Business Records, 1929-2014 (1.2 linear feet; Box 28-29, OV 36, Box 38)

Series 9: Printed Material, 1957-2014 (0.3 linear feet; Box 29, Box 38)

Series 10: Scrapbooks, 1947-2018 (1.4 linear feet, Box 29-31, Box 38)
Biographical / Historical:
Peter Howard Selz (1919-2019) was a pioneering historian of modern art, professor, and writer who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-1988 and founded and directed the Berkeley Art Museum from 1965-1973.

Selz was born in 1919 in Munich, Germany to Eugene Selz and Edith Drey Selz. In 1936, the family fled Nazi Germany and immigrated to the United States. Selz attended Columbia University from 1937 to 1938 and became a naturalized citizen in 1942. During World War II, Selz served in the U.S. Army in the Office of Strategic Services. He married writer Thalia Cheronis in 1948 but they later divorced in 1965; he married several times afterwards.

After the war, Selz attended and taught at the University of Chicago where he received a Ph. D. in German Expressionism. He spent a year in Paris, 1949-1950, at the Sorbonne and École du Louvre on a Fulbright grant. He received a second Fulbright grant in 1953 to study at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Belgium. From 1953-1955, Selz also taught at the Chicago Institute of Design.

In 1955 Peter Selz accepted a position to chair the art history department at Pomona College in Claremont and relocated to California for a few years. He also became director of the college's art gallery.

In 1958 Selz moved to New York City to become curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art and was there through the transformative mid-1960s. While at MOMA, he organized several significant exhibitions of modern art, including the 1960 Jean Tinguely "Homage to New York," a sculpture that destroyed itself (and started a fire) in the sculpture garden of the museum; New Images of Man (1959), the Art Nouveau show (1960), and the Art of Assemblage (1961). He also launched important retrospectives, including the first Rodin retrospective in the United States and a comprehensive exhibition of Alberto Giacometti's work in 1965.

In 1965, Peter Selz returned to California to become the founding director of the Berkeley Art Museum at the University of California, Berkeley, a position he held until 1973. He organized exhibitions of Funk, film, and ceramicists like Peter Voulkos and Robert Arneson. Peter Selz later became project director for Christo's "Running Fence", the 24.5-mile long fabric fence over the Marin County hills in 1976. He also served concurrently as a professor of art history at UC until retiring in 1988.

Peter Selz was a member of the College Art Association's board of directors for two terms, 1958-1964 and 1966-1971. Selz is a prolific writer, and the author or co-author of numerous books, exhibition catalogs, and articles. Notable books include German Expressionist Painting (1957), Art in a Turbulent Era (1965), Art in Our Times (1981), and Sam Francis (1975).

In 1988 Peter Selz was named emeritus professor at University of California, Berkeley. In 1993 he was on the acquisitions committee of the Museums of Fine Arts, San Francisco. In 2012, Selz curated The Painted Word exhibition. Selz died in 2019 in Albany, California.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds oral history interviews of Peter Selz conducted by Paul J. Karlstrom on July 28, 1982, October 12, 1982, and November 3, 1999.
Provenance:
The Peter Howard Selz papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Peter Selz in multiple installments from 1976 through 2014. Additional papers were donated in 2018 by Gabrielle Selz, Peter Selz's daughter.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate copies requires advance notice.
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:
Authors -- California -- Berkeley  Search this
Art historians -- California -- Berkeley  Search this
Topic:
Realism  Search this
Political cartoons  Search this
Pop art  Search this
Environment (Art)  Search this
Painting, Abstract  Search this
Ceramics  Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- California  Search this
Art -- Political aspects  Search this
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- Exhibitions  Search this
Art -- Germany  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Scrapbooks
Sound recordings
Video recordings
Citation:
Peter Howard Selz papers, 1929-2018, bulk 1950-2005. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.selzpete
See more items in:
Peter Howard Selz papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9ce9d9d14-7599-455d-828d-57077e76ef17
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-selzpete
Online Media:

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Documentation Project

Collector:
National Museum of American History (U.S.)  Search this
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars (Napa, California)  Search this
Interviewee:
Bazán, Mario  Search this
Cline, Diane Hardigree  Search this
Fay Turnball, Mary Jane, 1924-2020  Search this
Fay, Nathan, 1914-2001  Search this
McPherson, Daniel  Search this
Ocho-Aylala, Benjamin  Search this
Painter, Brooks  Search this
Shapleigh, Terri  Search this
Silacci, Michael  Search this
Winiarski, Barbara, 1933-2021  Search this
Winiarski, Julia  Search this
Winiarski, Stephen  Search this
Winiarski, Warren, 1928-  Search this
Extent:
3 Cubic feet (11 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Audiotapes
Business records
Clippings
Interviews
Newsletters
Oral history
Photographs
Videotapes
Date:
1960-2006, 2019
Summary:
The collections documents the growth and development of the American wine industry, 1996-2002, using the Stag's Leap Wine Cellars as a case study. Materials include oral and video histories, photographs, business records, and printed materials.
Scope and Contents:
The Stag's Leap Wine Cellars (SLWC) Documentation Project was conducted by an inter-disciplinary team at the National Museum of American History. It is a part of a larger effort by the Museum's American Food and Wine team to document and interpret the changing ways in which Americans have produced, prepared, and consumed their food and drink, especially in the years after World War II. Team members are Nanci Edwards (Office of Project Management and former Collections Manager of the Museum's Agriculture Collection), John Fleckner (Senior Archivist, Archives Center), Rayna Green (Curator, Division of Home and Community Life), and Paula Johnson (Curator, Division of Work and Industry). Jeff Tinsley of the Smithsonian's Office of Photographic Services accompanied the team and shot many of the slides and color photographs.

This collection chronicles the growth and development of American viticulture and viniculture from its revival in the 1960s to the present. It offers a case study in the art and business of making fine wine from the bud to the bottle. Warren Winiarski, founder of SLWC in California's Napa Valley, is deeply interested in the legacy of American winemaking and his winery's place within its broader history. The Winiarski family has generously participated and financially supported the creation of this collection.

The documentation touches on all aspects of the wine business, including picking grapes in the vineyards, making wine in the cellar, marketing it from the business office, and promoting its sales in the tasting room and around the globe. SLWC employees describe the land, the work, the tools, the technical processes, the passions, and the motivations that create SLWC's world famous wines. The collection also provides insights into wider patterns of American immigration history, agricultural and environmental history, ethnic community development, land use in the West, product marketing, and consumerism.

The archival collection is mainly comprised of recorded oral history interviews, documentary photographs, and video footage created by the documentation team in 1997. It also includes company newsletters, vineyard and winery production data sheets, wine labels, and related printed materials collected in 1997 with additional materials added occasionally.

It is divided into seven series, including interviews and abstracts, audiotapes, photographs and slides, videotapes, business records, and printed materials.
Arrangement:
Series 1: Interview Transcripts and Abstracts, 1997, 2003

Series 2: Oral History Interview Sound and Video Recordings, 1996-1997

Subseries 2.1: Sound Recordings, 1997

Subseries 2.2: Video Tapes, 1996-1997

Series 3: Photographs, circa 1960-2000

Series 4: Video Tapes, undated

Subseries 3.1: Family Photographs: circa 1960-1980

Subseries 3.2: Smithsonian Documentary Photographs: 1997, 2000

Series 5: Business Records, 1974-1998

Series 6: Printed Materials, 1994-2005

Series 7: Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Thirtieth Anniversary, 2003
Biographical / Historical:
The history of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars is a family history. It is also a story, in microcosm, of the development of Napa Valley, California as an international wine region and of the rising global acclaim for California wines. Building on the skills and knowledge of earlier Napa winemakers, Warren Winiarski became one of the most influential vintners in the region and his premium wines some of the most prized.

Winiarski arrived in Napa Valley in 1964 with his wife, Barbara, and their children. Like many Napa winemakers of this era, he left behind another career, in his case, an academic position at the University of Chicago to create a family business in a rural setting. At the time, Napa was just beginning to rebuild its reputation after Prohibition, a devastating vine disease, and the widespread production of cheap wines had soured the image of California wines. After apprenticing with several local winemakers, including Lee Stewart and Robert Mondavi, he purchased the land and winery that would become Stag's Leap Wine Cellars (SLWC) in 1972. Winiarski's choice of land was based, in part, Nathan Fay's success in growing Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in an adjoining vineyard; Winiarski later added Fay's property to SLWC.

To commemorate the American bicentennial in 1976, a blind wine tasting at L'Academie du Vin in Paris pitted the best of America's new wines against French classics. Stunning the international wine community, many American wines outscored their French counterparts, with SLWC's 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon taking first place in its division. The accomplishment brought SLWC and Napa Valley worldwide recognition. It excited a great demand for California wines and a new appreciation for American winemaking techniques, which combined new scientific methods with Old World traditions.

The Paris Tasting added momentum to changes already underway in the cultural, financial, and physical landscape of the Napa Valley. It spurred the development of many new wineries, the expansion of acreage under grape cultivation, and the growth of the region's tourism industry. Stag's Leap Wine Cellars was an integral part of these transformations. It continues to play a vital role in the region and the wine industry.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center

American Wine History Documentation Project Records, 1976-2002, Archives Center collection # 817, has recorded interviews, photographs, and other documentary materials created and collected by the American Food and Wine History team.
Separated Materials:
The Division of Work and Industry holds many artifacts from SLWC, including a wine barrel, grape picking knives, shovels, and other vineyard tools; lab equipment used in winemaking; wine bottles, labels, glasses, and other consumer products; and a bottle of the award winning 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon. See accessions: 1998.0181 and 1998.3058.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Only reference copies of audiovisual materials may be used.
Topic:
Wine industry  Search this
Wine and wine making  Search this
Genre/Form:
Audiotapes -- 1990-2000
Business records -- 20th century
Clippings -- 1950-2000
Interviews -- 2000-2010
Newsletters -- 20th century
Oral history -- 1990-2000
Photographs -- 20th century
Videotapes -- 1990-2000
Citation:
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Documentation Project, 1960-2002, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0816
See more items in:
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Documentation Project
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8b66d3155-9c39-46df-abf0-c60cec0ba74b
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0816
Online Media:

[Marshall !Kung Video Project]

Collection Collaborator:
McElwee, Ross  Search this
Blitz, Daniel  Search this
Bishop, John Melville  Search this
Baker, Peter  Search this
Ritchie, Claire  Search this
Young, Robert  Search this
Terry, John  Search this
Galvin, Frank  Search this
Bestall, Clifford  Search this
Gardner, Robert  Search this
Asch, Timothy, 1932-1994  Search this
Marshall, Lorna  Search this
Collection Creator:
Marshall, John, 1932-2005  Search this
Extent:
Videocassettes (sound, color Betacam S





sound, color Betacam SP and SVHS-C; 73 hours)
Type:
Archival materials
Videocassettes
Date:
1992
Scope and Contents:
Subjects include: NNFC and NNDFN meetings and activities; agricultural activities; water access; traveling nurse program; daily life in villages; village visits; interview with President Nujoma; extensive interviews and oral histories with Ju/'hoansi. Footage shot by Peter Baker; additional photography by John Marshall.
Collection Restrictions:
The John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection is open for research. Please contact the Archives for availabilty of access copies of audio visual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played. Materials relating to Series 6 Production Files are restricted and not available for research until 2048, 2063, 2072. Kinship diagrams in Series 13 are restricted due to privacy concerns. Various copyrights and restrictions on commercial use apply to the reproduction or publication of film, video, audio, photographs, and maps.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use. Information on reproduction and fees available from repository.
Collection Citation:
The John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection, 1950-2000, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
HSFA.1983.11, File 2005.11.11
See more items in:
John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman film and video collection
John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman film and video collection / Series 1: Unedited Film and Video Projects
Archival Repository:
Human Studies Film Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pc92688161d-875a-4225-90b6-ad71a6dcf819
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-hsfa-1983-11-ref54

Joan and Robert K. Morrison Collection

Creator:
Morrison, Joan, -2010  Search this
Morrison, Robert K.  Search this
Beirne, Barbara T.  Search this
Names:
Gold Star Mothers, Inc.  Search this
Peace Corps (U.S.) -- 1960-1970  Search this
Moore, Harold (Gold Star parent)  Search this
Moore, Irma (Gold Star parent)  Search this
Extent:
6 Cubic feet (20 boxes )
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Audiocassettes
Transcripts
Black-and-white photographic prints
Oral history
Audiotapes
Date:
1985 - 1987
Scope and Contents:
The collection is comprised of 139 audiocassettes (original copies only), 80 transcripts and tape summaries, and photographs (including some negatives). The transcripts and photographs also exist in single copies only, but they may be used with care by researchers.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in four series.

Series 1: Original Audio Cassette Tapes, 1983-1986

Series 2: Transcripts/Tape Summaries, 1984-1986

Series 3: Photographs, 1984-1986

Series 4: Reference Tapes and CDs, undated
Biographical / Historical:
In 1985, Joan and Robert Morrison conducted approximately 100 oral history interviews with a wide variety of Americans about their experiences during the 1960s. They also collected photographs of each of their interviewees—one taken during the 1960s and the other taken at the time of the interview. Portions of fifty-nine of those interviews were published in their 1987 book, From Camelot to Kent State: The Sixties Experience in the Words of Those Who Lived It (Times Books). Some of the new photographs, which were taken by Barbara Beirne, also were exhibited at The New School in 1989.

The interviewees include civil rights activists, anti-war activists, Vietnam War soldiers, Gold Star mothers, Peace Corps members, Weathermen, black leaders, and counter culture figures. Some of the narrators are members of the rank-and-file, others played leading roles. The in-depth interviews focus on three main questions: 1) What motivated you to act as you did in the Sixties? 2) What actions did you take and what were the results? 3) How did your experiences in the Sixties affect the way your life has developed since then?

Source Information taken from memo to National Museum of American History Collections Committee.
Provenance:
The Morrison's donated this collection of audiocassettes, transcripts, and photographs to the National Museum of American History Archives Center in 1989.
Restrictions:
Tape recordings not available for playback until researcher copies are made; researchers must use transcripts until then.
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.

Some original interviews have restrictions; these have been withheld by the Morrisons' until they can get clearances from the interviewees.
Topic:
African Americans -- Civil rights  Search this
United States -- History -- 1960-1990  Search this
Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Protest Movements  Search this
Peace movements -- 1960-1970  Search this
Soldiers -- 1960-1970  Search this
Civil rights  Search this
Portraits -- 1960-1970  Search this
Civil rights workers  Search this
Genre/Form:
Audiocassettes
Transcripts
Black-and-white photographic prints -- Silver gelatin -- 1950-2000
Oral history
Audiotapes
Citation:
Joan and Robert K. Morrison Collection, 1983-1987, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0359
See more items in:
Joan and Robert K. Morrison Collection
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep822fab27b-07fb-46f8-90e2-3cdf43e1aabc
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0359
Online Media:

Computer Oral History Collection

Creator:
Blanch, Gertrude  Search this
Bloch, Richard M.  Search this
Bradburn, James  Search this
Brainerd, John G.  Search this
Brown, George W.  Search this
Brown, Gordon S.  Search this
Buchholz, Werner  Search this
Burns, Robert  Search this
Atanasoff, John V.  Search this
Atchison, William  Search this
Auerbach, Issac  Search this
Bartik, Jean  Search this
Bauer, William  Search this
Beek, Allan  Search this
Bernstein, Mort  Search this
Bigelow, Julian  Search this
Coleman  Search this
Cohen, I. Bernhard  Search this
Computer History Forum.  Search this
COT Meeting.  Search this
Coombs, John  Search this
Crawford, Perry O.  Search this
Couret, Lynn  Search this
Campbell, Robert V.  Search this
Campaigne, Howard  Search this
Cannon, Edward  Search this
Canning, R.G.  Search this
Clem, Mary  Search this
Cass, James  Search this
CODASYL Meeting.  Search this
Clippinger, Richard F.  Search this
MIT Club Talks (Brown & Wiener).  Search this
Andrews, Ernest G.  Search this
American Federation of Information Processing Societies  Search this
Alt, Franz  Search this
Alrich, John  Search this
Association for Computing Machinery.  Search this
Association for Computing Machinery.  Search this
Argonne National Laboratories R.  Search this
Allard, Gerry  Search this
Aiken, Howard  Search this
Adams, Charles  Search this
Acton, Forman  Search this
Halstead, Maurice H.  Search this
Harmon, Leon  Search this
Harvey, Samuel  Search this
Hazen, Dean Harold  Search this
Gruenberger, Fred  Search this
Gunning, William  Search this
Hagen, Glenn E.  Search this
Hall, W.  Search this
Greenwald, Irwin  Search this
Greenwarld, Sidney  Search this
Griswold, Ralph E.  Search this
Grosch, Herbert R. J.  Search this
Goheen, Harry E.  Search this
Good, I.J.  Search this
Goteib, C.C.  Search this
Granholm, Jackson  Search this
Israel, David R.  Search this
Huskey, Harry D.  Search this
Kates, Josef  Search this
Juncosa, Mario  Search this
Householder, Alston S.  Search this
Horwitz, Bernhard R.  Search this
Hurd, Cuthbert R.  Search this
Howard, Bernard  Search this
Hopper, Grace Murray, 1906-1992  Search this
Holbrook, Bernard  Search this
Horner, Joseph  Search this
Horn, Robert J.  Search this
Herold, Henry  Search this
Herget, Paul  Search this
Holberton, Betty  Search this
Hertz, Ted  Search this
Elkins, Harold  Search this
Estrin, Gerald  Search this
Edwards, Walt  Search this
Elbourn, Robert  Search this
Eckert, J. Presper (John Presper), 1919-1995  Search this
Eddy, Robert Philip  Search this
Downey, William  Search this
Eckdahl, Donald  Search this
Dodd, Stephen  Search this
Dotts, Richard D.  Search this
Dietzhold, Robert  Search this
Dimsdale, Bernard  Search this
Desch, Joseph  Search this
Dickinson, Arthur H.  Search this
Curtiss, John H.  Search this
Dederick, Louis S.  Search this
Glazer, T.  Search this
Givens, Wallace  Search this
Gill, Stanley  Search this
Geisler, Murray  Search this
Garrison, Ken  Search this
Frankel, Stanley  Search this
Forrester, Jay W.  Search this
Forrest, Cameron B.  Search this
Forbes, George  Search this
Fenaughty, Alfred L.  Search this
Fein, Louis  Search this
Feign, David  Search this
Farrand, William R.  Search this
Fall Joint Computer Conference, 12/6/72.  Search this
Fall Joint Computer Conference, 11/17/71.  Search this
Everett, Robert  Search this
Nelson, Eldred  Search this
Neisius, Vincent  Search this
Northrop, John  Search this
Neovius, G.  Search this
Parker, R.D.  Search this
Palevsky, Max  Search this
Phelps, Byron R.  Search this
Patrick, Robert  Search this
Pickrell, D.  Search this
Phister, Montgomery  Search this
Pollmyer, R.  Search this
Polachek, Harry  Search this
Quady, Emmett  Search this
Postley, John A. R.  Search this
Rajchman, Jan  Search this
Ream, Norman  Search this
Reed, Irving S.  Search this
Rees, Mina  Search this
Rhodes, Ida  Search this
Rice, Rex  Search this
Rochester, Nathaniel  Search this
Rogers, Jim  Search this
Rogers, Stanley  Search this
Rosenberg, Milton  Search this
Rosenthal, Paul R.  Search this
Rubinoff, Morris R.  Search this
Salzer, John M.  Search this
Samuel, Arthur L. R.  Search this
Sarkissian, Harold  Search this
Schuette, Roger  Search this
Serrell, Robert R.  Search this
King, Paul  Search this
Kilpatrick, Lester  Search this
Killian, James  Search this
Kaufold, Leroy R.  Search this
Lanzarotta, Sandy R.  Search this
Kreuder, Norman L.  Search this
Korn, Irving  Search this
Kirsch, Russell  Search this
Lovell, Clarence A.  Search this
Lehmer, Derrick H.  Search this
Legvold, Sam  Search this
Larson, Harry  Search this
Martin, Richard R.  Search this
Marden, Ethel  Search this
Madden, Don R.  Search this
Lowe, John  Search this
McPherson, John C.  Search this
Mendelson, Jerry  Search this
Mason, Daniel R.  Search this
Mauchly, John R.  Search this
Michel, J.G.L. R.  Search this
Miller, Frederick G.  Search this
Menzel, Donald H.  Search this
Metropolis, Nicholas C.  Search this
Mitchell, Joel  Search this
MITRE Meeting.  Search this
Mills, Roger L.  Search this
Morton, Paul  Search this
Mumford, Louis  Search this
Mock, Owen  Search this
Morse, Philip B.  Search this
Wilkinson, James H. R.  Search this
Wilkes, Maurice R.  Search this
Wizenbaum, Joe  Search this
Williams, Charles  Search this
Wieselman, Irving  Search this
Wiener, Robert  Search this
Wild, Arthur  Search this
Wieser, C. Robert  Search this
Wrench, John W. R.  Search this
Woodger, Michael  Search this
Yowell, E.C. R.  Search this
Youtz, Pat  Search this
Woo, Way Dong  Search this
Wolfe, Philip  Search this
Woodbury, William R.  Search this
Wood, Ben D.  Search this
Zemanek, Heinz  Search this
Zuse, Konrad  Search this
Smagorinsky, Joseph  Search this
Slutz, Ralph R.  Search this
Skramstad, Harold R.  Search this
Skillman, Sherwood R.  Search this
SIAM/SIGNUM Meeting.  Search this
SIAM-72.  Search this
SHARE XXXVIII.  Search this
SHARE Meeting for Pioneers.  Search this
Taylor, Norman  Search this
Tanaka, David  Search this
Strong, Jack  Search this
Stibitz, George  Search this
Steele, Floyd G. R.  Search this
Sprague, Richard E.  Search this
Snyder, Samuel  Search this
Smith, Charles V.L.  Search this
TV Program KQED.  Search this
Uncapher, Keith  Search this
Torfeh, Mark  Search this
Travis, Irven  Search this
Todd-Tausskky, Olga  Search this
Tomash, Erwin  Search this
Toben, Gregory  Search this
Todd, John  Search this
Wheeler, R.J.  Search this
Whirlwind Discussion.  Search this
Ware, Willis H.  Search this
Wegstein, Joseph Henry  Search this
Wagner, Frank  Search this
Wang, An R.  Search this
von Hippel, Arthur  Search this
von Neumann, John  Search this
Armer, Paul, 1924- (computer technician)  Search this
Interviewee:
Rabinow, Jacob, 1910-  Search this
Former owner:
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Computers, Information and Society  Search this
Extent:
43.5 Cubic feet (158 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Audiotapes
Interviews
Oral history
Sound recordings
Transcripts
Videotapes
Date:
1969-1973, 1977
Summary:
The Computer Oral History Collection (1969-1973, 1977), was a cooperative project of the American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS) and the Smithsonian Institution. This project began in 1967 with the main objective to collect, document, house, and make available for research source material surrounding the development of the computer.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of approximately 43.5 cubic feet of material documenting the development of the computer.
ABC -- Atanasoff-Berry Computer

ACE -- Automatic Computing Engine

ACM -- Association for Computing Machinery

ALGOL -- ALGOLrithmic Language

ALWAC -- Axel Wenner-Gren Automatic Computer

ARPA -- Advanced Research Projects Agency

BACAIC -- Boeing Airplane Company Algebraic Interpretative Computing System

BARK -- Binar Automatisk Rela Kalkylator

BINAC -- Binary Automatic Computer

BIZMAC -- Business Machine

BMEW -- Ballistic Missile Early Warning (System)

BUIC -- Back-up Interceptor Control

CADAC -- Cambridge Digital Automatic Computer

CALDIC -- California Digital Computer

CEC -- Consolidated Electrodynamics Corporation

CEIR -- Council for Economic and Industry Research

COBOL -- Common Business-Oriented Language

CODASYL -- Conference on Data Systems Languages

CONAC -- Continental Automatic Command

COMTRAN -- Commercial Translator

CPC -- Card Programmed Calculator

CRC -- Computer Response Corporation

DARPA -- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

DINA -- Digital Network Analyzer

DDA -- Digital Differential Analyzer

EDSAC -- Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator

EDVAC -- Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer

EAM -- Electric [or Electronic] Accounting Machines [or Methods]

ENIAC -- Electronic Numerical Integrator and Automatic Computer

ERA -- Engineering Research Associates

ERMA -- Electronic Recording and Machine Accounting

FADAC -- Field Artillery Data Computer

FSQ -- Fixed Special eQuipment

IAS -- Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton University)

ICBM -- Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

ILLIAC -- Illinois Automatic Computer

INTERCOM -- Intercommunication System (Programming Language)

JOHNNIAC -- John [von Neumann's ] Integrator and Automatic Computer

JOSS -- Johnniac [John's Integrator and Automatic Computer] Open Shop System

LARK -- Livermore Atomic Research Computer

LAS -- Laboratories of Applied Science

LGP -- Librascope

MAC -- Magnetic Automatic Calculator/Multiple Access Computer

MADDIDA -- Magnetic Drum Digital Differential Analyzer

MAGIC -- Machine for Automatic Graphics Interface to a Computer

MANIAC -- Mathematical Analyzer, Numerical Integrator, and Computer

MIDAC -- Michigan [University of] Digital Automatic Computer

MIDSAC -- Michigan [University of} Digital Special Automatic Computer

MINAC -- Minimal Automatic Computer

MIT -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MITRE -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology Research Establishment

MX -- Missile, Experimental

NATDAN -- North American Digital Anaylzer

NATPAC -- North American Programmed Automatic Computer

NDRC -- National Defense Research Committee [of Office of Scientific Research and Development, World War II]

NELIAC -- Naval Electronics Laboratory International Algebraic Compiler

NORC -- Naval Ordnance Research Calculator [or computer] [Naval Ordnance Proving Ground]

NTDS -- Naval Tactical Data Systems

ONR -- Office of Naval Research

ORACLE -- Oak Ridge Automatic Computer and Logical Engine

ORDVAC -- Ordnance Discrete Variable Automatic Computer [AEC]

OSRD -- Office of Standard Reference Data [National Bureau of Standards]

PACT -- Project for the Advancement of Coding Techniques

QUAC -- Quadratic Arc Computer

RAMAC -- Random Access Memory Accounting Machine

RAYDAC -- Raytheon Digital Automatic Computer

REAC -- Reeves Electronic Analog Computer

RECOMP -- Reliable COMPuter

RESISTOR -- Reusable Surface Insulation Stresses [NASA computer program]

SCERT -- Systems and Computer Evaluation Review Technique

SCM -- Smith Corona Merchant

SEAC -- U.S. Bureau of Standards Eastern Automatic Computer

SHARE -- Society to Help Avoid Redundant Effort

SHOT -- Society for the History of Technology

SIAM -- Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

SILLIAC -- Sydney [version of the ] Illiac

SIMSCRIPT -- Simulation Script

SNOBOL -- String-Oriented Symbolic Language

SSEC -- Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator

SUBROC -- Submarine Rocket

SWAC -- U.S. Bureau of Standards Western Automatic Computer

TPM -- Tape Processing Machine

UDEC -- United Digital Electronic Computer

UNIVAC -- Universal Automatic Computer

WEIZAC -- Weizmann Automatic Computer [at Weizmann Institute]

WISC -- Wisconsin Integrally Synchronized Computer
NT=No Transcript

R=Restricted
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into six series.

Series 1: Transcripts, 1967-1973, 1977

Series 2: Supplemental Documentation, 1922-1974

Series 3: Patents, 1940-1973

Series 4: John Vincent Atanasoff's Materials, 1927-1968

Series 5: Audio Tapes, 1967-1974, 1977

Series 6: Video Tapes, 1968-1972
Biographical / Historical:
The Computer Oral History Collection (1969-1973, 1977), was a cooperative project of the American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS) and the Smithsonian Institution. This project began in 1967 with the main objective to collect, document, house, and make available for research source material surrounding the development of the computer. The project collected taped oral interviews with individuals who figured prominently in developing or advancing the computer field and supplemental written documentation--working papers, reports, drawings, and photographs. The AFIPS provided the "seed" money to support the project and to aid the Smithsonian with its expenditures. Interviews were conducted by I.B. Cohen, A. Dettinger, Bonnie Kaplan, Elizabeth Luebbert, William Luebbert, Robina Mapstone, Richard Mertz, Uta Merzbach, and Henry Tropp. In some instances, the audio tapes and/or transcripts are not "formal" interviews, but rather moderated panel discussions/meetings, or lectures delivered by interviewees.
Related Materials:
The Archives Center contains several "computer" related collections:

American National Standards Institute, 1969-1979

Association for Computing Machinery Collection, 1958-1978 (Washington, D.C., Chapter)

N.W. Ayer Advertsing Agency Records, 1889-1972

Paul Armer Collection, 1949-1970

Robert G. Chamberlain Numerical Control Collection, 1954-1984

J. Childs Numerical Control Collection, 1952-1970

Computer Standards Collection, 1958-1978

Computer World Smithsonian Awards Collection, 1989-2001

Data Processing Digest Collection, 1955-1974

Max Holland Machine Tool Industry Collection, circa 1941-1990

Grace Murray Hopper Collection, 1944-1965

Information Age Exhibition Records, 1979-1990

Institute for Advanced Study Computer Project Records, 1950-1957

Instrument Society of America Collection, 1911-1969

Odex I Walking Robot Collection, 1973-1986

Jacob Rabinow Papers, 1910-1917; 1947-1990

Terry M. Sachs Collection, 1965-1969

Scientists and Inventors Portrait File, circa 1950-1980

Share Numerical Analysis Project Records, 1964-1970

SHARE Records, circa 1954-1984

Cliff Shaw papers, circa 1954-1985

Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Records, 1956-1992

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, circa 1754-1965

Whirlwind I Computer Collection, 1945-1959

B.H. Worsley Collection, 1946-1959

Within the National Museum of American History there are other related collections that may be found in the Division of Medicine and Science. These collections contain both artifacts and documents. Artifacts include: digital computing machines, automatic digital computers and electronic calculators, logic devices, card and tape processors, slide rules, integrators and integraphs, harmonic analyzers and synthesizers, differential analyzers, other analog computing devices, space measurement and representation, time measurement, and combination space and time measurement. Documentation includes the Electronic Computers History Collection and the Mathematical Devices History Collection. Photographs and video materials can also be found. The Smithsonian Institution Archives contains administrative documentation regarding the Computer History Project.
Provenance:
The Computer Oral History Collection was a cooperative project of the American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS) and the Smithsonian Institution. This project began in 1967 and was concluded in 1973. This collection was transferred to the Archives Center in approximately 1986 from the Division of Information, Technology & Society, formerly known as the Division of Electricity.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but original audio tapes and videotapes are stored off-site. Reference copies do not exist for all of the audiovisual materials. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
Topic:
Computers  Search this
Engineers  Search this
Mathematics  Search this
Mathematicians  Search this
Physicists  Search this
Scientists  Search this
Genre/Form:
Audiotapes
Interviews -- 1950-2000
Oral history
Sound recordings -- Compact disks
Transcripts
Videotapes
Citation:
Computer Oral History Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0196
See more items in:
Computer Oral History Collection
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8b666ccc2-1644-4513-9a64-89be727d5419
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0196
Online Media:

Mike Grgich Papers

Creator:
Grgich Hills Cellar (California)  Search this
Grgich, Mike (Miljenko)  Search this
Chateau Montelena (California)  Search this
Extent:
4.3 Cubic feet (11 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Immigration records
Photographs
Business records
Publications
Correspondence
Place:
Napa Valley (Calif.)
Croatia
Date:
1923-2013
bulk 1950-2008
Summary:
Papers of a Croatian-born California winemaker documenting his career in the California wine industry since 1958, especially his years at Chateau Montelena winery (1972-1977) and the subsequent creation of the Grgich Hills Cellar winery (1977- ). There also are records of Grgich's immigration journey and materials about the evolution of the California wine industry. The papers include correspondence, business records, handwritten notes, publications, and a few photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The Mike Grgich Papers document his career in the California wine industry, especially his years at Chateau Montelena winery (1972-1977) and the subsequent creation of the Grgich Hills Cellars winery. There also are records of Grgich's immigration journey and materials about the evolution of the California wine industry. The papers include correspondence, business records, publications, handwritten notes, and a few photographs. Although the collection covers Grgich's life from young adulthood into the twenty-first century, the record is fragmentary, especially for the early years after his arrival in California in 1958.

The Grgich papers had no overall filing system when they were donated. The largest body of materials consists of personal files, arranged by the processing archivist into chronological and subject (topical) sub-series respecting, when possible, the original order of materials. Groups of materials directly related to Chateau Montelena and Grgich Cellars have been kept together but divided into chronological files and subject files. Publications constitute the fourth series. Further information on the organization of the collection is found below in the "System of Arrangement" note.

A single folder of photographs in Subseries 2 of Series 1 includes several snapshots of Grgich in a winery, two group photographs (likely of classes at the University of California-Davis), and several publicity shots. A few additional photographs are found in the Chateau Montelena publicity files and scattered elsewhere within the collection.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into four series.

Series 1, Personal Files, 1950-2006, undated

Subseries 1, Chronological Files, 1954-1992, undated

Subseries 2, Subject Files, 1950-2006, undated

Series 2, Chateau Montelena, 1972-1978, undated

Subseries 1, Chronological Files, 1972-1977, undated

Subseries 2, Subject Files, 1973-1978, undated

Series 3, Grgich Hills Cellars, 1976-2008, undated

Series 4, Publications, 1923, 1959-1996, undated

The Grgich papers were found in packing cartons in his garage and an adjacent storage area in his home in Calistoga, California. Mike Grgich had recently moved to the home. The papers had no discernible overall filing system. Papers found together in folders, mailing envelopes, and other enclosures have been kept together when they constituted a meaningful grouping. Grgich seems often to have retained materials as they accumulated over time. In arranging this collection, some of these materials have been organized chronologically by year. Some of Grgich's papers were found organized by topic or subject. These groupings have been retained; original folder or envelope titles or headings are given in quotation marks.

About one fourth of the collection consists of materials directly related to the Chateau Montelena and Grgich Hills wineries; some of these materials were found intermingled with purely personal papers while others were filed separately. These materials are grouped separately. Printed materials were sometimes found with loose documents inserted; these were maintained together within a folder when they appeared to be related and when no other location within the collection seemed apparent.
Biographical / Historical:
Miljenko Grgich, born April 1, 1923 in Desne, a small farming village in the Croatian region of Yugoslavia, was one of eleven children. His father, along with other agricultural activities, kept a small vineyard where the children helped in cultivation and winemaking. As a young man Grgich worked in a store in his hometown. He was drafted and served a year, 1944-1945, in the Yugoslav army.

Grgich entered the University of Zagreb in 1949, studying a range of science subjects and taking brief courses in English and Russian. In 1954 Grgich entered West Germany on a student visa but soon declared himself a refugee and "stateless" person. Unable to secure an American visa, he was quickly approved by Canada where he arrived in February, 1956.

Grgich lived for two years in British Columbia holding a variety of jobs while seeking admission to the United States. He began to use the name "Mike" during these years. In 1958 the pioneering wine maker Lee Stewart at Souverain Cellars responded to an "employment wanted" ad that Grgich placed in a California wine industry newsletter and on the basis of that offer Grgich was able to enter the country. Grgich has remained in the Napa Valley since that time. He married Tatjana Cizmic in 1962 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1964.

Between 1958 and 1972 Grgich worked at Souverain, the Christian Brothers winery, Beaulieu Vineyard, and Robert Mondavi winery. At Beaulieu Grgich worked under Andre Tchelistcheff, Napa's best known winemaker in this era. The two developed techniques for malolactic fermentation and microfiltration that became standards in the industry. As Grgich developed his technical skills and winery experience he also nurtured an ambition to become head winemaker and co-owner in a winery. In the spring of 1972, Grgich joined Los Angeles attorney James Barrett, commercial real estate developer Ernest Hahn, and Napa Valley businessman Lee Pasich in forming Chateau Montelena winery. Passich and Grgich were "limited partners" while Barrett and Hahn were major investors. Barrett regularly visited the winery and was closely involved in its management. In three hectic months Grgich oversaw conversion of a nineteenth century winery building into a fully equipped modern facility which crushed its first grapes, purchased from various growers in the region, in September. Chateau Montelena also began to replant its vineyards in vines that would produce premium wines, a process that would take several years.

Chateau Montelena and Mike Grgich achieved international celebrity in May, 1976 when their 1973 Chardonnay wine topped a list of French and American wines at a highly publicized blind tasting in Paris. (The red wine winner was made by Warren Winiarski at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars about twenty-five miles further south in the Napa Valley.) Staged during the bicentennial year of the American Revolution, the Paris tasting confirmed and further contributed to the rise of premium winemaking in California and to changes in American wine consumption. In 1996, the National Museum of American History recognized the 1976 event with a symposium on the history of winemaking and the addition of wines from the winning vintages of the two wineries.

In the fall of 1976 Grgich began discussions leading to the creation of a new winery, Grgich Hills Cellar. In this venture he joined Austin Hills, grandson and great nephew of the founders of the Hills Bros. coffee business and a Columbia Business School MBA. Hills already owned a vineyard, and on July 4, 1977, they broke ground for the new wine production and storage facility in Rutherford. Grgich Hills at first specialized in white wines but added Cabernet Sauvignon in 1984. In 2006 the entire estate was certified organic, making it "the country's largest biodynamic winegrower." In 2007 the business was renamed Grgich Hills Estate ("in recognition that all of its wines now come from its own vineyards"). Today Mike Grgich remains involved in the business while his daughter, Violet, and nephew, Ivo Jeramaz, are active in day-to-day management.

Grigich never lost interest in his homeland, and in 1990 he returned there for the first time. In 1995 he received his degree in enology and viticulture from the University of Zagreb and the following year established a new winery, Grgić Vina, in Croatia. He has been a generous supporter of Roots of Peace, an international organization dedicated to the removal of landmines.

Sources:

George M. Taber, Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine (Scribner: 2005). Taber covered the Paris Tasting in 1976 for Time magazine. He interviewed Mike Grgich at length, and Grgich's annotated revisions of Taber's drafts about him are in this collection. Bottle Shock, a 2008 feature film, a highly fictionalized version of the story of Chateau Montelena and the Paris Tasting, is not based on this book.

Miljenko Grgich, "A Croatian-American Winemaker in the Napa Valley," an oral history conducted in 1992, in The Wine Spectator California Winemen Oral History Series, Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/food_wine/wine.html .

Mike Grgich Oral History Interview, September 7, 1997, American Wine Documentation Project, Archives Center, National Museum of American History (ACNMAH#817).

Mike Grgich: 50 Napa Valley Years (Grgich Hills Estate, 2008) (Series 3: Grgich Hills Cellar, box 8, folder 11) A twenty-seven page booklet published by the winery to celebrate Grgich's fifty years in Napa Valley, 1958-2008.
Related Materials:
The Division of Work and Industry holds artifacts donated by Mike Grgich, including a suitcase which he carried from Croatia, a blue beret, pocketknife, tasting cup, two spoons, boxed laboratory instrument, framed religious picture, ten books from Croatia on viticulture and enology, and an atlas of grape varieties. See Accession number 2006.0157 and 2006.3084.

The Division also holds examples of the wines from Chateau Montelena and Stag's Leap Wine Cellars that won the 1976 Paris Tasting. Accession numbers 1996.0028.01 and 1996.0029.01
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Mike Grgich, July 2, 2006.
Restrictions:
Conditions Governing Access: The collection is open for research use.

Physical Access: Researchers must use reference copies of audiovisual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.

Technical Access: Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.
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.
Topic:
Emigration and immigration  Search this
Viticulture  Search this
Wine and wine making -- California  Search this
Genre/Form:
Immigration records
Photographs -- 2000-2010
Business records -- 1950-2010
Publications -- wine industry
Photographs -- 1950-2000
Correspondence
Citation:
Mike Grgich Papers, 1923, 1929, 1950-2008, 2013 undated, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0923
See more items in:
Mike Grgich Papers
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep81c1651cd-f698-4c3b-aa40-cce60d36130a
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0923
Online Media:

Caroline R. Jones Papers

Creator:
Jones, Caroline Robinson, 1942-2001 (advertising executive)  Search this
Names:
Bahamas. Ministry of Tourism  Search this
Denny's, Inc.  Search this
Healthy Start  Search this
Kentucky Fried Chicken (Firm) (restaurants)  Search this
McDonald's Corporation.  Search this
Mingo-Jones Advertising.  Search this
National Campaign for a Drug Free America (U.S.)  Search this
Thompson, J. Walter (advertising agency).  Search this
United Negro College Fund  Search this
Zebra Associates (advertising agency).  Search this
Extent:
15 Sound tape reels
4 Motion picture films
54 Cubic feet (127 boxes; one oversize folder)
129 Video recordings
70 Cassette tapes
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sound tape reels
Motion picture films
Video recordings
Cassette tapes
Date:
1942 - 1996
Summary:
Caroline R. Jones (1942-2001), an African American advertising executive, worked for a number of prominent New York ad agencies and founded her own firm in 1986. She is best known for her work in assisting clients in marketing to minority consumers. The collection includes client files, print advertisements, and radio and television commercials created for a wide range of commercial and public service campaigns.
Scope and Contents:
The collection contains creative presentations, business correspondence, internal memoranda, market research, focus group interviews, production documents, print advertisements, and other documentation for numerous clients at J. Walter Thompson, Kabon Consultants, Zebra Associates, Kenyon & Eckhardt, the Black Creative Group, BBDO, Mingo-Jones Advertising, and Caroline Jones Advertising. The collection has very little documentation of Caroline Jones, Incorporated (1996-2001), but some material exists regarding the shift from Caroline Jones Advertising to Caroline Jones, Incorporated during 1995 and 1996.

Also included are articles and speeches by Jones, including many on the subject of targeted marketing to minority consumers; photographs, awards and publicity; and a small body of personal papers from her childhood in Benton Harbor, Michigan and her experiences at the University of Michigan. The years at Caroline Jones Advertising (1986-1995) are most thoroughly documented and include extensive client files on minority consumer market development for major clients.

The audiovisual materials portion of the collection is substantial and includes radio and television ads created by the agencies at which Jones worked and television programs in which she appeared as a guest and a host.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in seven series.

Series 1: Personal Papers, 1953-1986

Series 2: Business papers, 1965-1995

Subseries 2.1: Speeches, 1972, circa 1983-1994

Subseries 2.2: Articles, 1970-1993

Subseries 2.3: Subject Files, 1967-1995

Subseries 2.4: Publicity, 1965-1995

Subseries 2.5: Business Journals and Datebooks, 1969-1995

Subseries 2.6: Business, Civic, and Political Organizations and Activities, 1968-1993

Subseries 2.7: Awards, Committees, Judgeships, Invitations, 1971-1993

Subseries 2.8: Conferences, 1968-1992

Series 3: Agency Records, 1963-1987

Subseries 3.1: J. Walter Thompson, 1963-1969

Subseries 3.2: Zebra Associates, 1970-1975

Subseries 3.3: Kenyon & Eckhardt, 1971-1974

Subseries 3.4: Kabon Consultants, 1969-1975

Subseries 3.5: Black Creative Group, 1969-1975

Subseries 3.6: BBDO, 1975-1977

Subseries 3.7: Mingo, Jones, Guilmenot and Mingo-Jones, 1977-1987

Subseries 3.8: Freelance Work and Miscellaneous, 1964-1985

Series 4: Caroline Jones Advertising Agency Records, 1987-1996

Subseries 4:1: Client Files and Related Research, 1987-1995

Subseries 4.2: Agency Credentials, 1985-1991

Subseries 4.3: New Business, 1987-1994

Subseries 4.4: Correspondence, 1990-1995

Subseries 4.5: Office Materials, 1990-1995

Series 5: Print Ads, 1964-1996

Series 6: Photographs and Slides, 1950s-1995, undated

Subseries 6.1: Slides, undated

Subseries 6.2: Photographs, 1950s-1995

Series 7: Audio Visual Materials, 1970-1997

Subseries 7.1: Audio cassettes, 1984-1994

Subseries 7.2: Open Reel Audio Tapes, 1970-1984

Subseries 7.3 Videotapes, 1987-1997

Subseries 7.3.1: Agency Reels and Compilations, 1989-1994

Subseries 7.3.2: Television Commercials (Brand/Client specific), 1987-1997

Subseries 7.3.3: Director's Show Reels, 1989-1996

Subseries 7.3.4: Television Programs, 1985-1994

Subseries 7.4: Motion Picture Films, 1970s
Biographical / Historical:
Caroline Robinson Jones (1942-2001) was a highly regarded American advertising and public relations executive. Her work recognized the rising economic power and cultural influence of the black middle class after World War II and contributed to a fundamental shift in American advertising, as mainstream national advertisers sought to reach a consumer market that was increasingly recognized as both economically significant and racially and ethnically diverse. The corporate and public service advertising she created to reach minority audiences stands as a record of our nation's continuing dialogue with race and ethnicity, viewed through the dual lenses of consumption and mass culture.

Caroline Marie Robinson was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the third of nine children. In 1963, she graduated from the University of Michigan, where she was active in Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, with a bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Science. She married Edward Jones, a loan officer with the Small Business Administration in 1965, and had a son, Anthony. After college, she was hired by the New York offices of J. Walter Thompson, one of the country's oldest, largest and most respected advertising agencies. Like most women hired by the agency at that time, she began working in the secretarial pool, but she was invited to attend the agency's copywriting school, becoming the first African-American person ever to do so. She remained at Thompson for five years as a junior copywriter on accounts including Ponds, Chun King, Scott Paper, and the American Gas Association.

In 1969, she joined Zebra Associates as Vice President and Creative Director. Zebra, a black owned agency with a racially integrated staff, was among a pioneer group of advertising agencies that specialized in tailoring national ad campaigns to the needs and desires of an urban, black consumer market. She was named one of the Foremost Women in Communications in 1970, and won her first advertising awards in 1971, including one for work on the Southern Voter Registration Drive.

In 1972, Jones went to work as Senior Copywriter at Kenyon & Eckhardt. She later became a partner and Creative Director. While at K&E, she met Kelvin Wall, who recruited her as a senior consultant at Kabon Consulting, another black-owned agency with which she was associated from about 1970 until about 1974. From there she went on to co-found the Black Creative Group. In 1975, she achieved another first by becoming the first woman Vice President of a major agency, Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn (BBDO).

Jones remained at BBDO until 1977, when she joined Frank Mingo and Richard Guilmenot as principals in a new agency affiliated with Interpublic. That arrangement offered the firm the financial backing of an international advertising and marketing communications giant. Mingo-Jones specialized in tailoring general market campaigns to a black audience, in creating new campaigns for the black market, and, in some cases, repositioning the product or introducing new products to increase market share. Jones played minor roles advising the Carter-Mondale presidential campaign in 1984 (box 31/folder 13), the Mondale-Ferraro campaign (box 34/folder4), and the David Dinkins New York City mayoral campaigns. She also advised the Jesse Jackson presidential campaign and the PLP party of the Bahamas as part of her public relations work for the country (see,for example, notebooks for September,1984, box 79).

In 1986 Caroline Jones left Mingo-Jones to form her own agency, Caroline Jones Advertising, which she restructured in 1994 as Caroline Jones, Inc. and operated until her death in 2001. Her major clients included the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, McDonalds, and Anheuser-Busch. Jones also created public service advertising for the United Negro College Fund, Healthy Start (pre-natal care), and the Partnership for a Drug Free America. Caroline Jones received many awards including "Woman of the Year" by the Advertising Women of New York in 1990. She served on the boards of the Advertising Council, Long Island University, the Women's Bank of New York, and on the New York State Banking Board. Beginning in he late 1980s, she produced and moderated "Focus on the Black Woman" for WNYC Radio and hosted "In the Black: Keys to Success" for WOR-TV.

Sources

Stuart Elliott, "Caroline Jones, 59, Founder of Black-Run Ad Companies," The New York Times, July 8, 2001.

Judy Foster Davis, "Caroline Robinson Jones: Advertising Trailblazer, Entrepreneur and Tragic Heroine," in Eric H. Shaw, ed., The romance of marketing history : proceedings of the 11th Conference on Historical Analysis and Research in Marketing (CHARM), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, May 15-18, 2003 Boca Raton, FL : Association for Historical Research in Marketing, 2003. 210-219.

Judy Foster Davis, "'Aunt Jemima is Alive and Cookin'?' An Advertiser's Dilemma of Competing Collection Memories," Journal of Macroeconomics, Vol. 27, No. 1. March 2007 p. 25-37
Materials in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History:
An oral history interview with Caroline Jones is found in Archives Center Collection (AC0367), The Campbell Soup Advertising Oral History and Documentation Project.
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History in September 1996 by Caroline Marie Robinson Jones.
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.
Topic:
Beer -- 1950-2000  Search this
Liquors -- advertising -- 1950-2000  Search this
African American women executives -- 1950-2000  Search this
African Americans in mass media -- 1950-2000  Search this
advertising -- 1950-2000  Search this
Advertising agencies -- 1950-2000  Search this
Minority consumers  Search this
advertising -- Beer -- 1950-2000  Search this
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0552
See more items in:
Caroline R. Jones Papers
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8d5ff6e4d-7fa0-4339-acee-3ff8076b43b2
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0552
Online Media:

National Cotton Council of America (NCC) Photographs and Film

Creator:
National Cotton Council  Search this
Extent:
28 Cubic feet (48 boxes)
224 Motion picture films
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Motion picture films
Photographs
Motion pictures (visual works)
Slides (photographs)
Date:
circa 1945-1999, undated
Summary:
The collection consists primaily of photographs and films created by the National Cotton Council of America (NCC) to document cotton production and use and to support the advocacy and educational work of the organization.
Scope and Contents:
Collection consists of photographs, slides, and 16mm films created by the National Cotton Council of America (NCC) to document cotton production and use and to support the educational and advocacy work of the organization. It is arranged into four series.

Series one contains black and white photographic prints dating primarily from the 1950s-1970s. The photographs document every aspect of cotton farming, from before the seed is planted to the production of finished cloth. Most of these prints illustrate agricultural practices, including land preparation, planting, bedding, plowing, harrowing, drainage, cultivation, stripping, and harvesting. Another group documents pests and infestations – boll weevils, fleas, mites, pink bollworm, hoppers - and the methods of countering them with insecticide and herbicide applications. Other photographs illustrate more general topics, including the history of cotton, research programs, trading, foreign cotton farming, printing, spinning, and weaving. There are also photographs of agricultural equipment manufactured by International Harvester. In addition, a small group of photographs consist of images from movies produced by the National Cotton Council of America (NCC). The photographs were maintained in the order that was created by the National Cotton Council of America (NCC).

Series two include slides and color photographs which date from the 1980s-early 2000s. These materials document many of the same topics as the black and white photographic prints during a later time. Many of the slides were created and assembled for use in presentations. In addition, there are slides of individuals and activities from the National Cotton Council of America (NCC) board meetings and conferences.

Series three consists of publications and reference materials.

Series four contains two hundred and fourteen films that were created by the National Cotton Council of America (NCC) and date from the 1960s-1980s. Films primarily document cotton farming and its versatility and use in consumer goods. A consistent theme and message are to promote cotton to the fashion industry and for home use.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into four series.

Series 1, Black and White Photographic Prints, 1945-1970s, undated

Subseries 1.1, Cultivation and Production of Cotton, 1950s-1970s

Subseries 1.2, Film Stills, 1956-1971, undated

Subseries 1.3, Subjects and Events, 1945-1965

Series 2, Slides, 1979-1999, undated

Series 3, Publications, 1954-1981

Series 4, Films, 1953-1996, undated
Biographical / Historical:
The National Cotton Council of America (NCC) is the official trade association of the cotton industry. The NCC was founded in 1939 to promote the interests of cotton farmers, ginners, brokers, and manufacturers from the Southern, cotton-growing states. Its mission evolved over the years as new uses for cotton and its byproducts were found; as synthetic fibers were developed; as fashion tastes changed; as government regulation increased; and as foreign competition in farming and manufacturing grew. The National Cotton Council's website states that its current mission is "to ensure the ability of all United States cotton industry segments to compete effectively and profitably in the raw cotton, oilseed and United States-manufactured product markets at home and abroad." Throughout its existence, the NCC has been the contact point for industry issues affecting its members, legislators in Congress, allied agribusinesses, and consumers.

The National Cotton Council of America (NCC) initially gave this collection to the Cotton Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange early in 2008, during the move of the Memphis-based NCC's corporate offices into a much smaller facility. Calvin Turley, president of the Board of the Cotton Museum, accepted the materials with the understanding that he could do with them as he wished. Ultimately, he decided that the collection was outside the scope of the Cotton Museum's mission. Turley offered the collection to the National Museum of American History in the belief that this was "the best possible place in the whole world for it."
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center

Maid of Cotton Records (NMAH.AC.1176)

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (NMAH.AC.0060)

Peter Paul Haring Papers (NMAH.AC.1014)

Sally Fox Innovative Lives Presentation (NMAH.AC.0646)

William Mason Papers (NMAH.AC.0045)

Anne E. Peterson Stereograph Collection (NMAH.AC.0402)

Southern Agriculture Oral History Project Records (NMAH.AC.0773)

Uriah A. Boyden Papers (NMAH.AC.0982)
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives Center in 2009 by the Cotton Museum.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.

Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives.
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.
Topic:
Cotton textile industry  Search this
Cotton industry  Search this
Cotton growing  Search this
Cotton picking  Search this
Cotton manufacture  Search this
Trade associations  Search this
Textile industry  Search this
Cotton  Search this
Cotton farming  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs -- 1950-2000
Motion pictures (visual works)
Slides (photographs) -- 1950-2000
Citation:
National Cotton Council of America Photographs and Film, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.1177
See more items in:
National Cotton Council of America (NCC) Photographs and Film
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep842ca420b-ff48-45ca-8699-a5af5759a074
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1177

Nathaniel Mathis Collection of Barbering and Beauty Culture

Creator:
Mathis, Nathaniel, 1946- (barber, motivational speaker)  Search this
Interviewer:
Ruffins, Fath Davis  Search this
Extent:
5.5 Cubic feet (18 boxes, 1 oversize folder)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Awards
Certificates
Correspondence
Interviews
Oral history
Black-and-white photographic prints
Videotapes
Place:
Washington (D.C.) -- Small business -- 20th century
Date:
1946-2004
bulk 1970-2004
Summary:
Nathaniel Mathis is a Washington, D.C., hairstylist, inventor, motivational speaker, and entrepreneur. His papers document his business life and community involvement.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents the work of a hairstylist, inventor, entrepreneur, and public figure whose career reflects significant changes in the African American community in the later 20th century. It is rich in visual imagery created by and for this community. Business papers, correspondence, publicity, photographs, awards and certificates documenting Mathis's work as a highly regarded barber and hairstylist in Washington, D.C., and as member of the D.C. Board of Barbering and Cosmetology are included. Business papers offer insight into the workings of a small privately-owned business. Numerous publicity items and photographs offer evidence of African American style and fashion in New York and Washington, D.C., from the late 1960s through today. Additional material documents Mathis's activities as a community activist, motivational speaker and distance runner. The collection also includes photographs, oral history interviews, and audio-visual materials.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into ten series.

Series 1: Biographical Information and Activities, 1946-2001, undated

Series 2: Beauty Business Documents and Advertising, 1969-2002, undated

Series 3: Publicity, 1963-2002

Series 4: Washington, D.C. Barbering and Cosmetology Boards, 1966-1997, undated

Series 5: Correspondence, 1967-2002, undated

Series 6: Awards and Certificates, 1969-2001, undated

Series 7: Photographs, 1966-1989, undated

Series 8: Video Materials, 1983-2002, undated

Series 9: Audio Tapes, 1998-2004, undated

Series 10: Memorabilia, 1992-1998, undated
Biographical / Historical:
"Nat Mathis (b. 1946) is a native Washingtonian. He is a man of many talents and measures his success in many ways: innovative hairstylist, entrepreneur, inventor, community activist, motivational speaker and distance runner. Mathis opened his first barber shop in 1969. He is the winner of many national and international hairstyling awards and competitions and was the first African American to win the International Hair Styling competition in Cairo, Egypt in 1981. Mathis was among the first African American hairstylists to embrace and popularize the Afro and, later, cornrows -- hairstyles which many view as expressions of black empowerment. Mathis himself seldom expresses a political ideology of hair, but by 1970, Nat was known among his many satisfied clients and peers as "the Bush Doctor" for his expertise in Afro style and maintenance. He has styled hair for many celebrities; made numerous television appearances; and has been a stylist for several productions at the Kennedy Center, and for two major motion pictures, including Nixon, for which he re-created period hairstyles. He is active in community affairs, gives motivational speeches throughout the Washington, D.C., area, and is particularly interested in mentoring young people. He currently operates a barber shop adjacent to his home in Capitol Heights, Maryland."

*Biographical information provided by Nat Mathis's Official Website, "A Man of Many Talents." http://www.natmathis.com (accessed 02 August, 2006).
Separated Materials:
Mr. Mathis donated three of his patented barbering vests (See Accession # 1998.0114) to the Division of Home and Community Life (now Division of Cultural and Community Life).
Provenance:
Collection donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History by Nathaniel Mathis on April 9, 1998.
Restrictions:
The copllection is open for research.

Physical Access: Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves.

Technical Access: Series 8, Video materials and Series 9, Audiotapes may not be used by researchers unless reference and viewing copies are made available.
Rights:
Copyright held by the Smithsonian Institution. Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: fees for commercial use. The Archives Center does not own rights to the patent, trademark or any related interest in the artifacts.
Topic:
African American barbers  Search this
African American beauty operators  Search this
Barbers  Search this
Barbering  Search this
Barbershops -- Equipment and supplies -- 1970-2000 -- Washington (D.C)  Search this
Beauty culture  Search this
Hair  Search this
Hairdressing of African Americans -- 1970-2000 -- Washington (D.C.)  Search this
Inventors  Search this
Motivation -- Public speaking -- 1970-2000  Search this
Public speaking -- 1970-2000  Search this
Genre/Form:
Awards
Certificates
Correspondence -- 1970-2000
Interviews -- 1980-2000
Interviews -- 2000-2010
Oral history -- 1990-2000
Black-and-white photographic prints -- Silver gelatin -- 1950-2000
Videotapes
Citation:
Nathaniel Mathis Collection of Barbering and Beauty Culture, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0641
See more items in:
Nathaniel Mathis Collection of Barbering and Beauty Culture
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8c5b4bd0f-53cd-4a97-b4ba-930fe65c5330
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0641
Online Media:

Cover Girl Advertising Oral History and Documentation Project

Creator:
Bunting, George L., Jr.  Search this
Brinkley, Christie  Search this
Ellsworth, Scott, Dr.  Search this
Colonel, Sheri  Search this
Giordano, Lynn  Search this
Ford, Eileen  Search this
Hall, L. C. "Bates"  Search this
Grathwohl, Geraldine  Search this
Huebner, Dick  Search this
Harrison, Fran  Search this
Lindsay, Robert  Search this
Hunt, William D.  Search this
McIver, Karen  Search this
MacDougall, Malcolm  Search this
Noble, Stan  Search this
Nash, Helen  Search this
Noxell Corporation.  Search this
Bergin, John  Search this
O'Neill, Jennifer  Search this
Oelbaum, Carol  Search this
Pelligrino, Nick  Search this
Poris, George  Search this
Roberts, F. Stone  Search this
Tiegs, Cheryl  Search this
Troup, Peter  Search this
Weithas, Art  Search this
Witt, Norbert  Search this
Names:
Noxzema Chemical Company  Search this
Extent:
15.5 Cubic feet (30 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Interviews
Business records
Audiotapes
Bumper stickers
Annual reports
Oral history
Black-and-white photographic prints
Press releases
Scrapbooks
Television scripts
Videotapes
Tear sheets
Place:
Hunt Valley (Maryland)
Baltimore (Md.)
Maryland
Date:
1959-1990
Summary:
The Cover Girl Make-Up Advertising Oral History and Documentation Project, 1923-1991, is the result of a year-long study in 1990, which examined the advertising created for Noxell Corporation's Cover Girl make-up products from 1959 to 1990. The objective of the project was to document, in print and electronic media, the history of Cover Girl make-up advertising since its inception in 1959.
Scope and Contents:
Twenty-two oral history interviews (conducted by Dr. Scott Ellsworth for the Archives Center) and a variety of print and television advertisements, photographs, scrapbooks, personal papers, business records and related materials were gathered by the Center for Advertising History staff. The objective was to create a collection that provides documentation, in print and electronic media, of the history and development of advertising for Cover Girl make-up since its inception in 1959.

Collection also includes earlier material related to other Noxell products, including Noxzema, with no direct connection to the Cover Girl campaign.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into eight series.

Series 1: Research Files

Series 2: Interviewee Files

Series 3: Oral History Interviews

Series 4: Television Advertising Materials

Series 5: Print Advertising Materials

Series 6: Company Publications and Promotional Literature

Series 7: Photographs

Series 8: Scrapbooks
Biographical / Historical:
George Avery Bunting founded the Noxzema Chemical Company in Baltimore, Maryland in 1917. In the 1890s, he left behind a teaching job on Maryland's Eastern shore to move to Baltimore, where he hoped to pursue a career as a pharmacist. He landed a job as errand boy and soda jerk at a local drugstore, where he worked while attending classes at the University Of Maryland College of Pharmacy. Valedictorian of the Class of 1899, Bunting was promoted to manager of the drugstore, which he purchased. Bunting began to experiment with the formulation of medicated pastes and compounds, which he marketed to his customers. In 1909, he began refining a medicated vanishing cream, which he introduced in 1914. "Dr. Bunting's Sunburn Remedy," an aromatic skin cream containing clove oil, eucalyptus oil, lime water, menthol and camphor, was mixed by hand at his pharmacy. Marketed locally as a greaseless, medicated cream for the treatment of a variety of skin conditions, including sunburn, eczema, and acne, the product was renamed "Noxzema" for its reputed ability to "knock eczema." By 1917, the Noxzema Chemical Company was formed. During the 1920s, distribution of the product was expanded to include New York, Chicago, and the Midwest and, by 1926, the first Noxzema manufactory was built in northwest Baltimore to accommodate the demand for nearly a million jars a year.

Having achieved a national market by 1938, Noxzema Chemical Company executives pursued product diversification as a means to maintain the corporate growth of the early years. In the 1930s and 1940s, line extensions included shaving cream, suntan lotion and cold cream, all with the distinctive "medicated" Noxzema aroma.

In the late 1950s, Bill Hunt, director of product development at Noxzema, suggested a line extension into medicated make-up. Creatives at Sullivan, Stauffer, Colwell & Bayles, Incorporated (SSC&B), Noxzema's advertising agency since 1946, suggested that the advertising for the new product focus on beauty and glamour with some reference to the medicated claims made for other Noxzema products. In contrast to other cosmetics, which were sold at specialized department store counters, Noxzema's medicated make-up would be marketed alongside other Noxzema products in grocery stores and other mass distribution outlets. After experimenting with names that suggested both glamour and the medicated claims (including Thera-Blem and Blema-Glow), Bill Grathwohl, Noxell's advertising director, selected Carolyn Oelbaum's "Cover Girl," which conveyed the product's usefulness as a blemish cover-up, while invoking the glamorous image of fashion models. These three elements of the advertising, wholesome glamour, mass marketing, and medicated make-up, remain central to Cover Girl advertising nearly a half-century later.

Beginning with the national launch in 1961, American and international fashion models were featured in the ads. The target audience was identified as women between eighteen and fifty-four and, initially, the "glamour" ads were targeted at women's magazines, while the "medicated" claims were reserved for teen magazines. Television ads featured both elements. Cover Girl advertising always featured beautiful women -- especially Caucasian women, but the Cover Girl image has evolved over time to conform to changing notions of beauty. In the late 1950s and 1960s, the Cover Girl was refined and aloof, a fashion conscious sophisticate. By the 1970s, a new social emphasis on looking and dressing "naturally" and the introduction of the "Clean Make-up" campaign created a new advertising focus on the wholesome glamour of the "girl next door," a blue-eyed, blonde all-American image. In the 1980s, the Cover Girl look was updated to include African-American, Hispanic and working women.

In January 1970, SSC&B bought 49% of the Lintas Worldwide advertising network. After SSC&B was acquired by the Interpublic Group of Companies in 1979, the entire Lintas operation was consolidated under the name SSC&B/Lintas in 1981. With the Procter & Gamble buy-out of the Noxell Corporation in September 1989, the cosmetics account was moved to long-time P&G agency Grey Advertising, in order to circumvent a possible conflict of interest between P&G competitor Unilever, another Lintas account. In 1989 SSC&B/Lintas, Cover Girl's agency since its launch in 1961, lost the account it helped to create and define, but the brand continues to dominate mass-marketed cosmetics.

This project is the result of a year-long study of advertising created for the Noxell Corporation's Cover Girl make-up products, 1959-1990. The effort was supported in part by a grant from the Noxell Corporation. The target audience was identified as women 18-54, and initially, the "glamour" ads were targeted at women's magazines, while the "medicated" claims were reserved for teen magazines. Television ads featured both elements. Cover Girl advertising has always featured beautiful women (especially Caucasian women), but the Cover Girl image evolved over time to conform with changing notions of beauty. In the late 1950s-1960s, the Cover Girl was refined and aloof, a fashion conscious sophisticate. By the 1970s, a new social emphasis on looking and dressing "naturally" and the introduction of the "Clean Make-up" campaign created a new advertising focus on the wholesome glamour of the "girl next door," a blue-eyed, blonde all-American image. Through the 1980s, the Cover Girl look was updated to include African-American and Hispanic models and images of women at work.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (AC0060)

N W Ayer Advertising Agency Records (AC0059)
Separated Materials:
"The Division of Home and Community Life, Costume Collection (now Division of Cultural and Community Life) holds eighty-six cosmetic items and one computer that were also donated by the Noxell Corporation in 1990 in conjunction with the oral history project. These artifacts include lipstick, manicure sets, brushes, make-up, eye shadow, blush, powder puffs, eyelash curler, nail polish, and mascara. See accession number 1990.0193.

"
Provenance:
Most of the materials in the collection were donated to the Center for Advertising History by the Noxell Corporation, 1990. All storyboards and videoscripts, and a large collection of business records and proofsheets were donated by George Poris in June 1990. All mechanicals were donated by Art Weithas in June 1990. (These contributions are noted in the finding aid).
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but a portion of the collection is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Copyright and trademark restrictions.
Topic:
Women in advertising  Search this
advertising -- 1930-1940 -- California  Search this
Cosmetics -- advertising  Search this
Endorsements in advertising  Search this
Beauty culture  Search this
advertising -- 1950-2000  Search this
African American women -- Beauty culture  Search this
Modelling -- 1950-1990  Search this
Sex role in advertising  Search this
Radio advertising  Search this
Television advertising  Search this
Genre/Form:
Interviews -- 1950-2000
Business records -- 20th century
Audiotapes
Bumper stickers
Annual reports
Oral history -- 1990-2000
Black-and-white photographic prints -- Silver gelatin -- 1950-2000
Press releases
Scrapbooks -- 20th century
Television scripts
Videotapes
Tear sheets
Citation:
Cover Girl Advertising Oral History & Documentation Project, 1959-1990, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0374
See more items in:
Cover Girl Advertising Oral History and Documentation Project
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep89b09e4c7-64e7-4074-b65e-0d097966d1e3
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0374
Online Media:

Catherine Hann Papers

Creator:
Hann, Catherine (Huynh bach Thuy)  Search this
Names:
United Nations. Office of the High Commissioner for Human RIghts.  Search this
United States Catholic Conference. Migration and Refugee Services  Search this
Extent:
0.6 Cubic feet (2 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Interviews
Oral histories (document genres)
Correspondence
Identity cards
Diaries
Audiotapes
Checkbooks
Date:
1953-2006
Summary:
Papers relating to Catherine Hann's life in Vietnam (1953-1981), her flight by boat to Malaysia and stay at Pulau Bidong refugee camp (February --September 1981), her immigration to the United States (September 1981), and her work in Maryland as a circuit board assembler, manicurist and esthetician.
Scope and Contents:
The Catherine Hann Papers are divided into five series: Life in Vietnam, pre-1981; Stay in Malaysia, 1981; United States, 1981-2006; Oral History Interviews, 2002, 2006; and Photographs, 1955-2005.

Series 1 consists of four documents from Hann's life in Vietnam: an official copy of Hann's 1953 birth certificate, her college student ID, her Gia Long High School student ID and her 1974 South Vietnamese identity card.

Series 2 documents Hann's stay in the Pulau Bidong refugee camp off the coast of Malaysia and her family's medical processing in Kuala Lumpur. Especially interesting is a small diary Hann kept in 1981 documenting the building of the fishing boat, the voyage in the Gulf of Thailand, the stay at Pulau Bidong and Kuala Lumpur, and the family's first few months in the United States. There is an English translation of the diary. Other materials in this series include letters sent by relatives and friends to Hann in the refugee camp, papers documenting a family member's attempt to sponsor the family in the U.S., and hand-made Certificates of Commendation awarded to Hann's husband for his work in the refugee camp. The original letter with attached photographs from the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur granting permission for the family to immigrate is included.

Series 3 describes Hann's life in the United States as she transitioned from refugee to financially successful American citizen. Uncommon pieces of ephemera are cancelled checks repaying a loan from the United States Catholic Conference for the purchase of plane tickets from Malaysia to the United States. Also included are papers from Hann's seventeen years in the electronics industry, textbooks for manicurist training, a ledger and checkbook from Hann's short-lived Nails & Beauty Spa, Inc., and daily schedules with earnings from her current job at Totally Polished.

Series 4 consists of the original audiocassettes, reference CDs and typed transcript of an oral history conducted by Susan B. Strange, associate curator, with Hann on March 7, 2006, as well as a typed transcript of a December 14, 2002, interview with Hann conducted by Daniel Ekman, a student at St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland.

Original photographs in Series 5 document Hann's life in Vietnam, her husband's work in the refugee camp, the family's departure from Pulau Bidong, and Hann at work at Fairchild Space Co. Also in Series 5 is a folder with photocopies of seven photographs taken in 2005 by a Smithsonian staff member of Hann working at her manicure table. Smithsonian negative numbers are included with the photocopies; releases from the photographer, Hann, and the woman having a manicure, are in the Archives Center's control file for this collection. In the same folder are photocopies of five photographs (originals retained by Hann) showing Hann's life in Vietnam; the Archives Center scan number is printed on each photocopy. Hann granted copyright in these five photographs to the National Museum of American History on April 22, 2006; the release form is in the Archives Center's control file.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into five series with chronological arrangement.

Series 1: Life in Vietnam, 1953-1981

Series 2: Stay in Malaysia, 1981

Series 3: United States, 1981-2006

Series 4: Oral History Interviews, 2002, 2006

Series 5: Photographs, 1955-2005
Biographical / Historical:
Catherine Hann was born in Saigon, State of Vietnam, on November 14, 1953 as Huynh bach Thuy. (She changed her name to Catherine Hann when she became a naturalized American citizen on June 19, 1987.) Hann, her parents and younger siblings lived in Saigon where her father worked as an instructor at Truong Quan Y, a South Vietnamese Army medical school. In 1968 Hann's family moved further south to Rach-Gia in Kien Giang province to care for Hann's recently-widowed paternal grandmother. Hann, the eldest of twelve children, stayed behind in Saigon, living with a great-uncle, so that she could continue attending Gia Long High School, one of the most prestigious and academically challenging public schools for girls in the country.

After graduation from Gia Long in 1973, Hann attended the University of Science in Saigon where she studied to become a biologist. In 1975, Hann's father, who had worked in a South Vietnamese military hospital in Rach-Gia since his arrival there in 1968, was sent to a "re-education camp." Hann returned to Rach-Gia to be with her mother and to help support the family. She then began attending a teacher training program in Rach-Gia where she trained as a biology teacher. At the training program, Hann met Han Huu Vinh who became her husband in 1976. After graduation, Hann taught biology in a high school in Rach-Gia while her husband taught mathematics in the same school. Their son, Kinh, was born in 1977.

In addition to supplementing the family income with her teacher salary, she also purchased unprocessed rice or "rough rice," had it milled, and sold the resulting white rice. To make a little more money for the family, the hulls and other residue from the milling process were sold as hog food. The future looked bleak, and Hann and her husband decided to take their young son and flee the country.

After two failed attempts to escape by boat, the Hanns were luckier the third time. A family friend obtained permission to build a fishing boat, a small wooden craft only 11.5 meters by 2.1 meters. Hann's family, one of the initiators and organizers of the scheme to use the fishing boat as a means of escape, hired a man who had served in the South Vietnamese Navy to navigate. At 2:05 a.m. on the morning of February 14, 1981, ninety-two people left Rach-Gia on the overloaded boat and headed southwest. Three days later the fishing vessel, towing another boat found stranded after being attacked by pirates, docked at Pulau Bidong, an island off the coast of Malaysia. After five months in the United Nations refugee camp on Pulau Bidong, Hann, husband, son, brother, and husband's nephew were taken to Kuala Lumpur for processing in preparation for immigration to the United States.

Hann's husband's sister, a naturalized American living in Rockville, Maryland, was their sponsor, and on September 11, 1981, the five-member family group arrived in the United States. The five continued to live together for about four years before Hann's brother and her husband's nephew went out on their own. After being on welfare and receiving intensive English-language training, Hann and her husband gradually became self-sufficient. Hann's first job was working in the cafeteria at Montgomery College in Rockville which she left to work at Denro Labs doing electronic assembly. Hann's husband's first job was at Solarex testing solar panels.

After almost ten years in the electronic assembly field, a Vietnamese friend encouraged Hann to train as a manicurist, and in 1992 Hann graduated from the Aesthetics Institute of Cosmetology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. At first she only manicured her own nails, but a year or so later Hann began working on Saturdays at a busy nail salon while continuing to work full-time in the electronics industry. When she learned that doing facials and waxing was faster and more profitable than doing manicures, Hann obtained training and a license to become an esthetician. After her week-day employer, Orbital Science Corp., moved to Sterling, Virginia, in 2000, a long commute for Hann, she started working full-time as an esthetician and manicurist at Totally Polished in Potomac, Maryland.

Hann works six days a week at Totally Polished, and on her day off she spends the morning doing manicures and waxing for private clients in their homes. This hard work has enabled Hann and her husband to pay off the mortgage on their single-family house in Gaithersburg and purchase a rental house in Florida. Their only child, Kinh, also has done well, earning a Master's Degree from the University of Maryland and now (2006) working on his PhD in biomedical engineering. Kinh is employed by Digene Corporation; he bought a house three years ago; and, as his mother proudly states, he drives a brand new BMW. Hann's stated reason for fleeing her country was "for my son's future;" the family's hard work and sacrifices seem to have made her hopes come true.
Separated Materials:
In 2005, the Division of Work and Industry collected manicure tools and soldering test equipment from Hann; in 2006 the division collected facial and waxing-related objects from Hann. Clothing worn on the boat fleeing Vietnam was donated in 2006 to the Division of Home and Community Life, along with tweezers Hann purchased in Saigon and carried throughout her immigration experience. The wedding of Kinh Hann to Leila Poursedehi in 2008 is documented in the Archives Center Weddings Documentation Collection, collection number 1131. The Vietnamese wedding dress that Leila Poursedehi wore at their wedding dinner was donated to the costume collection in the Division of Home and Community Life in 2008.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Catherine Hann, March 18, 2006.
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.
Topic:
Manicuring  Search this
Naturalization  Search this
Emigration and immigration  Search this
Refugees  Search this
Beauty culture  Search this
Vietnam War, 1961-1975  Search this
Vietnamese Americans -- Biography  Search this
Small business  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs -- 2000-2010
Interviews
Oral histories (document genres)
Correspondence
Identity cards
Photographs -- 1950-2000
Diaries -- 20th century
Audiotapes
Checkbooks
Citation:
Catherine Hann Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0921
See more items in:
Catherine Hann Papers
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep85731561f-8d9f-426e-87e6-76c6c86e99d3
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0921
Online Media:

Emiliano Martinez Collection

Collector:
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Community Life  Search this
Interviewer:
Ahlborn, Richard E., 1933-2015  Search this
Martin, Juana  Search this
Author:
Martinez, Emiliano  Search this
Extent:
0.15 Cubic feet (1 box)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Audiocassettes
Audiotapes
Interviews
Oral history
Photographs
Transcripts
Place:
Fort Chaffee (Ark.)
Date:
1984
Summary:
Papers, oral history, and transcripts relating to Emiliano Martinez, a Cuban immigrant.
Scope and Contents:
Papers and photographs related to the immigration experience of Cuban refugee Martinez: a story from the Washington Post, March 12, 1984; a 45-minute cassette recording of an interview (in Spanish) by Richard E. Ahlborn with Martinez; a transcription in Spanish of the interview; six photographs of the hut taken by a zoo photographer; a covering memorandum from Ahlborn; a copy of Martinez's earnings from the sale of cans; and a diagram of his hut. Ahlborn, a curator in the Division of Community Life, was assisted by Juana Martin, a social worker.
Biographical / Historical:
The story of Emiliano Martinez, a Cuban refugee, was publicized as an example of the ingenuity and survival skills of recent immigrants to this nation. Martinez fled Cuba in one of the freedom flotillas of 1980. After a year in a refugee camp at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, he arrived in Washington, D.C. in April 1981. He shared apartments with other Cuban refugees until October 1982. Using his carpentry skills, he constructed a hut on undeveloped land at the National Zoo, where he lived from December 1982 until March 1984. He then moved into a boarding house in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood. He made his livelihood by selling aluminum cans to a Safeway grocery store for an average of sixty-five dollars a month.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Emilio Martinez.
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.
Topic:
Carpentry  Search this
Emigration and immigration  Search this
Hispanic Americans -- 1950-2000  Search this
Homelessness  Search this
Housing  Search this
Political refugees  Search this
Poverty  Search this
Genre/Form:
Audiocassettes
Audiotapes
Interviews -- 1980-2000
Oral history
Photographs -- Black-and-white photoprints -- Silver gelatin -- 1980-2000
Transcripts
Citation:
Emiliano Martinez Collection, 1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0176
See more items in:
Emiliano Martinez Collection
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep86b08cf62-f39f-45dc-888b-2a21680f2041
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0176

George W. Sims Papers

Author:
Sims, George W.  Search this
Collector:
National Anthropological Archives  Search this
National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Community Life  Search this
Extent:
5 Cubic feet (22 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Manuscripts
Audiotapes
Scrapbooks
Slides (photographs)
Place:
Carmel (Calif.)
Panama Canal (Panama)
California
Date:
1896-1981.
Summary:
Collection documents Sims's activities as a traveler and his interest in historic restoration. It includes forty-one notebooks, 6,000 color slides, a smaller number of photographic prints, forty-one stereo view cards, and three boxes of personal papers and ephemera. While some images are personal, the majority form a documentary record of various subjects and places and provide biographical information on Sims.
Scope and Contents:
These papers document Sims's activities as a traveler and his interest in historic restoration. They consist of forty-one notebooks, Series 1-4; and three boxes, Series 5-9, of personal papers and ephemera. Series 5-7 are particularly valuable for biographical information. Series 10 includes 6,000 color slides, a smaller number of photographic prints, and forty-one stereo view cards. The total volume of the collection is approximately eleven linear feet.

The notebooks cover the years 1896, 1908-1913, 1918, and 1934-1976. The notebooks are written in a documentary styles that is enhanced by literary touches and perceptive details. The subjects include visits to several national parks, the Boronda adobe, and travel on most continents.

The 6,000 35mm slides that Sims took between 1944 and 1976 portray the use of the automobile in travel, national and international touring, and family travel. They are organized by either trip or location. They document his collecting, research, and restoration interests, and complement his written and artistic work. In technique, Sims's photographs are at least a cut above amateur photography. The slides remain in the order in which the Archives Center received them. In some cases they are organized, captioned, and numbered as a slide program. In other cases, while they are captioned they are not part of a specific slide program that Sims organized. Usually the identification in the Detailed Container List represents Sims' s own captions, which have been copied from the slide sleeves.

While some images are personal, the majority form a documentary record of various subjects and places. All the slides are dated and labeled or captioned, either on box inserts or on the slides themselves. The slides are generally organized by trip. Of particular interest is the documentation of Sims's restoration of the Boronda adobe. These slides are well captioned and show the step by step process.

The slides include many early Kodachromes from the 1940s in excellent condition. These represent the few examples of this type in the Museum. Although these slides are not extraordinarily rare, they are a very early example of the color process.

There are also black and white prints and a few color prints. Some of these document an automobile trip along the California coast in the 1930s. All the black-and-white prints portray the photographer for Sims's concern to document his travels adequately and in a meaningful way.

The three document boxes of supplemental material includes articles, correspondence (for example, a letter to Sims from the Henry Ford Museum thanking him for donating an oral history of a motoring trip he had taken), business cards, certificates of achievement, hotel ephemera, news clippings (Series 12), published travel accounts, printed travel brochures, and audio tapes (Series 11), in which Sims recounts many of his trips over the years. This material is valuable because it provides biographical information on Sims. It also may be useful for exhibits and research. Much of the material—the hotel ephemera and the printed travel brochures and accounts—is similar to ephemera in the Warshaw Collection.

Sims's photographs are similar in content to two other collections in the Archives Center. The Clyde W. Stauffer Family Photographic Album portrays family automobile trips across the United States between 1935 and 1940. The Donald Sultner Welles Collection of travel slides documents locations throughout the United States and around the world.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into 12 series.

Series 1:Notebooks, 1896-1975

Series 2: Political Notes, 1964-1976

Series 3: Comments on Vietnam, 1954-1975

Series 4: Moon Landings, 1969-1976

Series 5: Scrapbooks, 1896-1981, undated

Series 6: Correspondence, 1920-1987

Series 7: Biography, 1911-1938

Series 8: Published Material, 1927-1966

Series 9: Artifacts, 1913-1937

Series 10: Photographs, circa 1936-1962

Series 11: Audio Materials

Series 12: Newsclippings, undated
Historical:
Boronda Adobe

In 1946 George W. Sims purchased the old Boronda adobe in the Carmel Valley of California, and over the next ten years he restored it.

The Boronda adobe was built above the Carmel River in 1832 by José Manuel Boronda on his 7,000 acre Rancho de Los Laureles land grant. José was the son of Don Manuel Boronda, the first schoolteacher in California. José was married to Juana Cota of Santa Barbara. The sixty-four foot long house has adobe walls twenty-seven inches thick and hand-hewn redwood beams. Senor and Senora Boronda lived there with their fifteen children. It was in this house that Senora Boronda reputedly made a new cheese much liked by her neighbors and today known as Monterey Jack cheese. She eventually produced enough to sell to the surrounding community.

The Boronda family sold the ranch and adobe to Nathan W. Spaulding in the late 1860s or early 1870s. He was a mayor of Oakland, California. The next owner was the Pacific Improvement Company in the early 1880s, the forerunner of Del Monte Properties Company. A small cheese factory was built to commercialize the product under the name "Monterey Jack." Nevertheless, the adobe eventually became abandoned as a house. Before Sims purchased it the adobe was used as a shelter for dairy cows.

Sims plastered the outside walls to protect the soft adobe bricks and whitewashed the interior walls. The original dirt floor was covered with a floor of two-inch clear, heart redwood, random planks. It slopes downhill as does the roof of the house. The entire house follows the topography of the site. Sims left several cables stretching across the crudely raftered ceiling to support the walls.

Sims reroofed the house with one hundred year old roof tiles from the old Vasquez adobe in Monterey, California. He also constructed a workshop on the cement foundation of the old cheese factory and milk barn, added a carport, and built a fence protected patio of the Mexican type, adjacent to a Spanish garden with gravel paths. The patio walls were made of adobe created from Carmel Valley soil.

The first floor of the adobe consists of a long living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bath. An inside staircase was added and leads to the second floor living room, two bedrooms, and a bath. All of the rooms on the main floor are on a different level. The kitchen at one end of the house is thought to date to the 1790s when the land belonged to the Carmel Mission.
Biographical / Historical:
George W. Sims (1896-1986) was a tax lawyer, certified public accountant, world traveler, and collector of pre-Columbian objects. He spent his childhood in Fairfax County, Virginia. At age seventeen he began the study of law at the Washington College of Law (now American University), and worked at night as a telephone company traffic manager. He was employed as a clerk in the Panama Canal Zone by the Panama Railroad Company, Commissary Branch, from 1915-1916. Sims left Washington, DC, because he needed money for school and received a better salary in Latin America. "The pay was 25% higher there [Panama] than in the U.S.A., because the risks of Yellow Fever were great, and work and living conditions less satisfactory than at home." (Box 8, folder 6) This was the first of his many trips to other countries. He then returned to Washington and graduated from law school.

Between 1918-1919 he served as sergeant first class in the aviation section of the Signal Corps. He was stationed for a time at the Vichy (France) Hospital Center, a part of the United States Base Army Hospital, No. 115. After the war Sims did graduate work in accounting at Benjamin Franklin University in the District of Columbia, studying at night. During the day he worked in the Navy Department's communications section.

In 1919 Sims and a few friends traveled west on one of the early automobile trips across the United States. In July he visited Fresno, California. He returned that same year to Washington, DC, and "made plans for making the West (and Fresno) his permanent home." In January, 1924, Sims returned with his wife to fulfill those plans and thus began his long time love affair with the West and California." (Scrapbooks: Vol. 38, Box 8, folder 2)

After his first wife Katherine died in 1946, Sims spent much time on world cruises. His destinations included North, South, and Central America, Eastern and Western Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Between 1946 and 1956 he also purchased and restored the 1832 Boronda adobe in Carmel, California.

Sims married Emma Marenchin Sims on her birthday November 2, 1971 in Santa Barbara, California. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Sims (1914-? ) worked in the public health field after graduating from Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She remarked, "My world opened up when I married George." Sims died in 1986.
Provenance:
Collection donated by George W. Sims, January 10, 1985.
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.
Topic:
Travel photography  Search this
Adobe houses  Search this
Pre-Columbian objects  Search this
Vichy France  Search this
Audio tapes  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs -- 20th century
Manuscripts
Audiotapes
Scrapbooks -- 20th century
Slides (photographs) -- 1950-2000
Photographs -- Phototransparencies -- 20th century
Citation:
George W. Sims Papers, 1896-1981, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0127
See more items in:
George W. Sims Papers
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep85d82cdde-b7ee-4b6e-b9f6-6698d75d53d0
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0127
Online Media:

Southern Agriculture Oral History Project Records

Director:
Daniel, Pete  Search this
Interviewee:
Accardo, Paul  Search this
Aguirre, Gloria Olmos  Search this
Allen, David  Search this
Anderson, Adra  Search this
Anderson, Walter  Search this
Andrews, John William  Search this
Ardoin, Leslie  Search this
Bailey, Charles  Search this
Bailey, Howard Taft  Search this
Baird, George E., Jr.  Search this
Baronet, Joe  Search this
Bell, Walter M.  Search this
Bennett, Novella  Search this
Bennett, W.J.  Search this
Benson, Dick  Search this
Benton, Aubrey  Search this
Benton, Ina Belle  Search this
Blackstock, Tom  Search this
Blackstock, Velva  Search this
Blanchard, J.F.  Search this
Booth, Mrs. N.J.  Search this
Booth, N.J.  Search this
Bosselman, Willie  Search this
Bossleman, Norman  Search this
Bowman, Wilbert A.  Search this
Bradford, Nara N.  Search this
Bradford, Norwood)  Search this
Brantley, L.D.  Search this
Breaux, Jessie Al., Sr.  Search this
Brinkley, Johnnie  Search this
Brinkley, Lucile  Search this
Broussard, Sam  Search this
Brown, Gordon  Search this
Brown, Mamie  Search this
Bunting, Benny  Search this
Bunting, Joe  Search this
Burkett, Ben  Search this
Burkett, Bennie F.  Search this
Bush, Miller  Search this
Byers, Ruby  Search this
Byers, Sanford  Search this
Caesar, Clarence  Search this
Carline, Herman C.  Search this
Carnahan, Cotton  Search this
Carter, Ethel H.  Search this
Castleberry, Guy W.  Search this
Caughron, Kermit  Search this
Caughron, Rex  Search this
Caughron, Roy  Search this
Cazer, Garland  Search this
Ceras, Delfino  Search this
Claffery, Clegg, Sr.  Search this
Clapp, Clyde  Search this
Clark, Fletcher Talmadge  Search this
Clayton, WIlliam P.  Search this
Cockerham, Lester  Search this
Cockerham, Marie  Search this
Cole, Buster  Search this
Coleman, Harold  Search this
Coleman, Mrs. Harold  Search this
Colvin, R.C.  Search this
Comeaux, Lewis  Search this
Connell, Alton  Search this
Cromertie, John L.  Search this
Crosby, Ruth  Search this
Crosby, Victor  Search this
Cummins, Mary Lee  Search this
Cummins, W.R.  Search this
Cunningham, Tom  Search this
Daniel, Florentine  Search this
Davies, W. J. K.  Search this
Davis, Fredda  Search this
Davis, Otto  Search this
Davis, Pauline  Search this
Delasbour, Anna  Search this
Derbigney, Durrell  Search this
Dillard, John T.  Search this
Dorminy, Henry Clayton  Search this
Dove, Dorothy  Search this
Ducrest, Jesse  Search this
Dulaney, T.W.  Search this
Elam, Edward  Search this
Feilke, Mabel  Search this
Felknor, Jessie F.  Search this
Finchum, Amos  Search this
Finchum, Eva  Search this
Fleming, Arthur B.  Search this
Fletcher, Mrs. Merle Ford  Search this
Flores, Roque Olmos  Search this
Foster, Jim  Search this
Foster, Vergie  Search this
Friesen, Viola Liechty  Search this
Gardner, C.E.  Search this
Garrich, Carl  Search this
Gay, Andrew  Search this
George, Leler  Search this
Gosney, Jessie  Search this
Gosney, Kenneth  Search this
Gray, Leonard  Search this
Gray, Wardell  Search this
Green, Alone  Search this
Green, Clarence  Search this
Griffin, A.C.  Search this
Griffin, Grace  Search this
Hahn, E.L.  Search this
Hall, Joe  Search this
Haransky, Charlotte  Search this
Harper, Woodrow, Sr.  Search this
Harrington, A.M.  Search this
Harris, Edna  Search this
Harris, John, Rev.  Search this
Harris, Robert B.  Search this
Hawkins, Charlie  Search this
Hemphill, Elvin  Search this
Hemphill, Mattie  Search this
Hill, Frank  Search this
Jefcoat, Laz  Search this
Jensen, Olga B.  Search this
Johnson, Herbert  Search this
Kilby, T.H.  Search this
Knight, Martin  Search this
Koen, Eulah  Search this
Lamson, Alfred Ellis  Search this
Landry, Steve  Search this
Lane, Clyde D.  Search this
Laney, John B.  Search this
Langley, Nellie  Search this
Latoilas, Donald  Search this
Lawrimore, Rufus B.  Search this
Leary, Mrs. Stillman  Search this
Leary, Stillman  Search this
Legnon, Hilton  Search this
Legnon, Lena Porrier  Search this
Lenius, Jane  Search this
Lewis, Bobby  Search this
Lewis, Dorothy  Search this
Lewis, Ralph  Search this
Littlejohn, Andrew  Search this
Loewer, Arthur  Search this
Long, Welchel  Search this
Lowder, Clayton  Search this
Lowder, Kathy R.  Search this
Mangum, O.L.  Search this
Martin, Lillian  Search this
McBrayer, Loomis  Search this
McCarty, Ben  Search this
McGee, Dean  Search this
Mercer, Midi  Search this
Minchew, Edna  Search this
Mire, John  Search this
Mohamed, Ethel Wright  Search this
Moody, Edgar  Search this
Morris, Edward  Search this
Murphree, Leo  Search this
Murray, Lurline S.  Search this
Nacquin, Leo  Search this
Nix, Agnes  Search this
Nix, Joe  Search this
Parker, Jonah  Search this
Patout, William A.  Search this
Patterson, Vanona  Search this
Pender, Bessie  Search this
Petticrew, Donald  Search this
Player, C.B., Jr.  Search this
Porter, Virginia  Search this
Proffitt, Harry, Jr.  Search this
Purvis, Clyde  Search this
Redmond, Virgie  Search this
Reed, Bunice  Search this
Reed, Howard  Search this
Rice, Frank  Search this
Richardson, Rosetta  Search this
Rivers, Marion  Search this
Roberts, Gerti  Search this
Roberts, James  Search this
Rodriguez, Ignacio  Search this
Rountree, G. Emory  Search this
Rucker, William  Search this
Salas, Maria  Search this
Sarten, Della  Search this
Scoggins, Lillie  Search this
Scroggins, Alma M.  Search this
Seidenschwarz, Rosie  Search this
Seidenstricker, L.F.  Search this
Seidenstricker, Laverne  Search this
Serrano, Adolofo  Search this
Serrano, Edith  Search this
Serrano, Lidia  Search this
Shannon, Jack  Search this
Shepherd, Grady  Search this
Sims, Lavana  Search this
Sizemore, Martiel  Search this
Skinner, Annie  Search this
Skinner, Jarvis  Search this
Smith, Ethel  Search this
Smith, George  Search this
Soileau, Rouseb  Search this
Spicer, J.M.  Search this
Spivey, Wayland  Search this
Starke, Granville  Search this
Steen, Albert  Search this
Stowers, J.W.  Search this
Strange, Fred  Search this
Strohl, Carl  Search this
Strohl, Mary  Search this
Sumner, Ruby C.  Search this
Temple, Effie  Search this
Thomas, Lottie  Search this
Thompson, Mioma  Search this
Thresto, Chuck  Search this
Tomlinson, Clifton  Search this
Turner, Mrs. O.C.  Search this
Van Houten, Rosetta  Search this
Van Houten, Rudy  Search this
Vickers, Lloyd  Search this
Vidrine, Levie A.  Search this
Walton, W.W.  Search this
Watson, Mary  Search this
Welborn, S.L.  Search this
Wells, Arnalee  Search this
Wells, Homer, Dr.  Search this
White, Wallace  Search this
Wigley, Mabry  Search this
Willey, Gretchen  Search this
Willey, John F.  Search this
Winskie, Dent  Search this
Woodard, Henry  Search this
Yohe, Alma M.  Search this
Yohe, Perry  Search this
Young, Walter  Search this
Interviewer:
Jones, Lu Ann  Search this
Extent:
27.2 Cubic feet (83 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Project files
Questionnaires
Black-and-white photographic prints
Place:
Arkansas -- Agriculture
Mississippi -- Agriculture
Georgia -- Agriculture
South Carolina -- Agriculture
Tennessee -- Agriculture
Virginia -- Agriculture
North Carolina -- Agriculture
Louisiana -- Agriculture
Date:
1986-1991, undated
Summary:
An extensive collection of oral histories conducted by Lu Ann Jones throughout the southern United States between 1985-1991. A few oral histories were conducted by Pete Daniel in the early 1980s. Subjects include all facets of agriculture in the south.
Scope and Contents note:
The collection is divided into four series. Series 1: Oral History Transcripts, 1982-1991 are transcribed versions of the oral interviews. Correspondence and/or notes pertaining to the interviewed individual collected or written by the interviewer are filed in this series following the transcription. The majority of the oral histories were done by Lu Ann Jones between1985-1991. There are a few interviews done by Pete Daniel in the early 1980s and some reference copies of oral histories done elsewhere. This series is divided into eight sub-series: Sub-series 1.1: Arkansas, Sub-series 1.2: Georgia, Sub-series 1.3: Louisiana, Sub-series 1.4: Mississippi, Sub-series 1.5: North Carolina (including transcripts of the Mexican Workers Project in English and Spanish), Sub-series 1.6: South Carolina, Sub-series 1.7: Tennessee, and Sub-series 1.8: Virginia. Files are arranged alphabetically by state and there under by name; within the file materials are arranged chronologically. Interview files may contain transcribed copies of the oral history interviews and subsequent draft copies with corrections by the interviewer or subject. The file also may contain distillations or edited versions of the interview done by the researcher for possible publication. Correspondence and notes files may include Life History Forms, correspondence, newspaper articles, interviewer's notes, business cards, and paper copies of photographs. Signed releases are on file in the registrar's office, NMAH, with copies in the control file of the Archives Center.

Series 2: Project Files and Reference Materials, 1928-2004 contain notes and correspondence kept by Jones in support of the oral history project. This series is divided into four sub-series: Sub-series 2.1: State Files, Sub-series 2.2: Project and Reference Files, 1985-1991, Sub-series 2.3: Reference Publications, Pamphlets and Articles, 1928-2004 and Sub-series 2d: Computer Floppy Disks, 1985 and undated. This series include bills, receipts, photo orders, travel brochures, reference materials, articles, correspondence, fundraising proposals and materials, USDA Extension Service bulletins, product cookbooks, and ephemera. These materials are valuable in documenting the methodology of the oral history project. They are also valuable in detailing the funding and maintenance of the project over its five-year lifespan. There is also a great deal of information on black farmers. This series is arranged alphabetically by state and county or by article/publication title and within the file chronologically.

Series 3: Photographic Prints and Slides, 1987-1991 documenting the individuals interviewed, their homes and businesses, and geographic locations that were studied as part of the oral history project. The series is arranged numerically then chronologically by year. This series is followed by detailed photographic descriptions arranged alphabetically by state then subject. Photograph files contain photographs taken by a Smithsonian photographer or Jones and any copies of photographs supplied by the subject. Most of the photographs are black and white.

Series 4: Original Interview Tapes and Reference Compact Discs (CD), 1986-1991 are the original tapes of the individual interviews conducted by Jones. This series is divided into eight sub-series. Reference numbers for CDs matching the original tapes are noted after the tapes. CDs 495-497 are for the Smithsonian Photographer's Show: Sub-series 4.1: Arkansas, Sub-series 4.2: Georgia, Sub-series 4.3: Louisiana, Sub-series 4.4: Mississippi, Sub-series 4.5: North Carolina (within this sub-series are the transcripts of the Mexican Workers Project there may be an English language transcription as well as one in Spanish), Sub-series 4.6: South Carolina, Sub-series 4.7: Tennessee and Sub-series 4.8: Virginia and Sub-series 4.9: Miscellaneous and Duplicates, within the sub-series tapes are arranged alphabetically by subject.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into four series:

Series 1, Oral History Transcript

Series 2, Project Files

Series 3, Photographic Prints and Slides

Series 4, Original Oral History Interview Tapes and Reference Compact Discs (CDs) are the original interview tapes and the accompanying reference copy cds.
History:
The history of the American South is intricately entwined with the history of agriculture in North America. Until very recently, post 1950, the South was predominately rural and agricultural in both its production and culture. By the 1980s American agriculture, and particularly agriculture in the south, was under attack on various fronts especially cultural, financial, and technological. This assault threatened the very existence of the small and family farm. Many small farming operations went bankrupt and the face of American agriculture was becoming more corporate. It was amidst these troubling times that the Agricultural Division of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History undertook a massive project to document southern agriculture through oral history.

Through the efforts of NMAH staff, Pete Daniel, curator and project director, LuAnn Jones, researcher, and with countless support from staff photographers and personnel, Jones conducted approximately 159 interviews of individual persons, couples and sometimes small groups, in eight southern states over a five year period, 1986-1991. The project was funded by a series of grants from various sources. Not only were oral histories taken but also substantial documentary photographs and slides of the many interviewees. The interviews ranged from individual farmers to individuals at companies and corporations involved with agriculture. The range of crops discussed included tobacco, cotton and rice. The project interviewed a wide range of subjects: male, female, black, white, and Mexican. The project has contributed to at least two books, Mama Learned Us to Work: Farm Women in the New South by LuAnn Jones and Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall and others of which Jones was a contributing author.
Related Collections:
Materials in the Archives Center

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana (NMAH.AC.0060)

Kulp Collection of Account Books, 1755-1904 (NMAH.AC.0149)

Robinson and Via Family Papers (NMAH.AC.0475)

William C. Kost Farm Records (NMAH.AC.0481)

Timothy B. Bladen, Southern Maryland Photoprints (NMAH.AC.0767)
Provenance:
A transfer from the Division of History of Technology (Agriculture), NMAH, July 2001
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Unprotected photographs must be handled with gloves.
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.
Topic:
Farm life -- 20th century  Search this
Farmers -- Arkansas  Search this
Agricultural laborers  Search this
Agriculture -- History  Search this
Periodicals  Search this
Farmers -- Georgia  Search this
Farmers -- Louisiana  Search this
Farmers -- Mexico  Search this
Farmers -- Mississippi  Search this
Farmers -- North Carolina  Search this
Farmers -- South Carolina  Search this
Farmers -- Tennessee  Search this
Farmers -- Virginia  Search this
Genre/Form:
Project files
Questionnaires
Black-and-white photographic prints -- Silver gelatin -- 1950-2000
Citation:
Southern Agriculture Oral History Project Records, 1985-1992, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0773
See more items in:
Southern Agriculture Oral History Project Records
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8d5503365-fe60-4501-9a93-da8df9a4bb7e
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0773
Online Media:

Nordic Ware records

Topic:
Bundt Brand Bakeware
Creator:
Nordic Ware Division, Northland Aluminum  Search this
Donor:
Dalquist, H. David  Search this
Dalquist, Dorothy  Search this
Extent:
28 Cubic feet (53 boxes and 25 oversize folders )
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Correspondence
Photographs
Legal records
Catalogs
Financial records
Design drawings
Place:
Minneapolis (Minn.)
Date:
1940-2006
Summary:
Records of a family-owned manufacturing firm, best known for kitchenware products including the Bundt Pan and Micro-Go-Round. The collection richly documents the entrepreneurial spirit of the Minnesota firm and its history of product innovation through technical files, marketing materials, and administrative and financial records.
Scope and Contents:
The Nordic Ware collection consists of approximately twenty-eight cubic feet of records from the Northland Aluminum Company, most dealing with its Nordic Ware business. The Dalquist family recognized the importance of record keeping, and this collection documents very well the evolution of an entrepreneurial, family-owned American business from its earliest years.

Of particular interest for researchers may be the Pillsbury and Bundt Cake Pan dual marketing strategies, showcased mainly in Series 3, Marketing and Sales Records, 1948-2004, the introduction of ethnic cookware into American Culture through such dishes as the Rosettes and Timbales set and Taco dinner kit, the segmentation of product lines by price level to target consumers of differing incomes, and the issue of a trademarked term like "Bundt" becoming generic as seen in Series 6, Legal Records, 1962-1978. Series 4, Engineering Department Records, 1950-1994, provide in-depth documentation of the technical development of several of Nordic Ware's innovative products.

Series 1: Historical and Background Materials, 1940s-2006

These materials provide a history of Dave Dalquist as an entrepreneur and how this led to his ownership of Northland Aluminum Products and the Nordic Ware brand. There are histories put together by the company as well financial summaries for some years. The series contains The Nordic Ware Saga, a book edited and produced by the Dalquist family, and America at Home: A Celebration of Twentieth-Century Housewares. Both books have valuable background information on the company and how it fits into the housewares industry. There also are materials from the original business, Plastics for Industry. An undated marketing booklet, published about 1990, briefly describes the company's history and its product line and corporate structure. Additional company history is found in six installments written by Dave Dalquist under the title "From the Skipper" and covering the years 1946 to l985.

Series 2: David Dalquist Files, 1963-1993

David Dalquist, the president and founder of the company, kept these files in his office and home. Dalquist had no formal filing system and preferred to group records together as he used them. This order has been maintained as much as possible to the folder level. Several files contain information and notes from Dalquist's attendance at the National Housewares Shows and the meetings held there with his sales representatives. The annual Housewares Shows in Chicago were key events in this industry and Nordic Ware made them a high priority. The sales meetings materials include speeches Dalquist delivered. This series reveals Dalquist's involvement with every aspect of the company. It portrays an entrepreneur who began with an engineering degree, very limited capital, and no business experience. Dalquist built a multi-million dollar company while insisting on high ethical and business standards.

The several companies owned by the Dalquist family are documented in these files. There is a merger agreement between Northland Metal Finishers and Northland Aluminum. The records show the company went through several phases and had several brands besides Nordic Ware, including Minnesota Ware, DuNord, and Norcast.

Series 3: Marketing and Sales Records, 1948-2004 The Marketing and Sales Records focus mainly on the promotion of the Nordic Ware Brand and the sale and distribution of products, especially to the retail trade industry. There is evidence of how Nordic Ware presented its products to the industry and of other types of promotions to build brand awareness. These records are divided into three subseries: Subseries 1, General and Department Records, 1967-1995; Subseries 2, Promotional and Trade Sales Materials, 1958-2004; and Subseries 3, Public Relations, 1948-1992

Subseries 3.1: General and Department Records, 1967-1995

Dave Dalquist initially handled most of the company's marketing and sales, but as the company grew, a separate department was created. Among other things, this department created sketches of new product ideas that employees submitted as part of the New Product Idea meetings periodically scheduled by Dave Dalquist. Several files contain this artwork and a design notebook. There are also the files of Doug White, a Vice President of Marketing and Sales. Other art renderings, such as line art used in catalogs, are in this series.

Subseries 3.2: Promotional and Trade Sales Materials, 1958-2004

This subseries consists both of advertising geared towards the trade industry and that aimed at the consumer to promote brand image and sales. A 1970s scrapbook is a record of cross-promotional offers in which Nordic Ware and other firms advertised their products together in a single advertisement. The scrapbook also documents Nordic Ware products offered as sales premiums. The advertisements are organized by the brand co-featured in the advertisement. The Bundt Pan was the predominant Nordic Ware product in these advertisements. The Pillsbury file is especially important as it shows the building of the dual marketing arrangement which allowed Bundt Pans to be packaged with Pillsbury mixes. Nordic Ware received national publicity that it would otherwise have been difficult to generate. The Bundt Pan was integrated into magazine recipes and articles and included in mentions of other brands. These records document the remarkably brief time in which the Bundt Pan achieved national recognition.

The trade market was critical to Nordic Ware. The Sales Guides, 1982-2004, were given to regional sales representatives with information on sales promotions and incentives to representatives for sales of Nordic Ware products in specific markets. The Guides also have product descriptions, so that each representative was fully familiar with the products. Along with these guides, Nordic Ware put out trade catalogs, also found in this subseries. Although there is no master list of the catalogs, many have been hand-dated by Nordic Ware employees. Many of the models in the catalogs and the advertisements were members of the Dalquist family, neighbors, and other acquaintances.

Subseries 3.3: Public Relations, 1948-1992

These materials mainly document a series of campaigns created by Sara Jean Thomas, a public relations contractor. She worked with the marketing and sales department to build the Nordic Ware brand and to create a series of television and radio product promotions in the form of household hints. Several scripts are included here along with details of the overall campaigns. There also are files documenting the reach of these promotions. Other materials include a press kit for Chef Tell, a celebrity chef who represented Nordic Ware products for several years and who made appearances at its booth at the National Housewares Shows. New product press releases (with photographs) and general public relations files (1986-1989), along with the Marketing Communication Plans (1987-1989), give details on the planning of other public relations efforts. The trade press clippings scrapbook documents mentions of Nordic Ware and its products, competitors' advertising, and general developments in the house wares industry. Trade press clippings also are found in Series 8, subseries 4.

Series 4: Engineering Department Records, 1950-1994

The Engineering Department was vital to the success of Nordic Ware. Records in this series reveal the process by which a new product idea was developed, built, tested, and turned into a saleable product. Museum staff members selected the records in this series, occupying about five cubic feet, from a much larger group of files, roughly twenty-five feet in extent. The criteria for selection included substantive information on the design development of new products, especially those requiring substantial engineering work, and on product re-design to create cost efficiencies and resolve product problems.

Subseries 4.1: General Records, 1969-1992

These records deal with general departmental business and include incoming and outgoing correspondence and general files kept by individual engineers. They also provide operational information such as source for production materials, work orders processing, and treatment of employee issues in the department.

Subseries 4.2: Laboratory Notebooks, 1972, 1984-1993

Engineers in the department kept these notebooks mainly for developing design ideas and working out the technical logistics of bringing the designs into production. The notebooks also served as evidential records for patent disputes. The engineers signed and dated the pages of their notebooks as proof of when ideas were conceptualized and who recorded them.

Subseries 4.3: Product Files, 1976-1993, undated

These records originally were organized by product number, but no index to the numbering system accompanied the records so files of like products were grouped together. The Micro-Go-Round, Oven-Aire, and Wok are the most thoroughly documented. The records include blueprints at various stages of the products development, work orders for research and development, outside quotations, invoices, quality control tests and guidelines, memoranda to and from other company offices about product development, and other types of operational materials. Most of these products had multiple versions, and evidence of ongoing testing and modification is seen in the records.

These records document some of the innovation that made Nordic Ware an important presence in the housewares industry. The Micro-Go-Round was a particularly revolutionary product at the time, and the records show how the company recognized a need for the product and did what was necessary to develop it, although it had little or no experience with microwave technology. Micro-Go-Round records also are found in Subseries 5 of this series. The Oven-Aire required extensive development efforts to bring to fruition. The idea behind this product was to make conventional ovens cook more evenly and operate like a convection oven. The records include photographs of the original working model, tests done in some of the engineers' home kitchens, and comparison photographs of foods cooked with and without the device. Though the product never took off in the market, the invention and development process is documented here from the perspective of the several parties who worked on it. To a much more limited degree, records for some of the other products -- like the Popgun Popcorn Popper and the Supremer Ice Creamer --demonstrate the design and development process. There is even information about packaging design for some of the products.

Subseries 4.4: New Product Ideas Files, 1976-1993

These records document Nordic Ware's efforts to identify and develop a stream of new products and to involve employees in that process. They include product ideas submitted from outside the firm but primarily relate to New Product Meetings at which employees shared their own ideas. The meetings often included voting for the best ideas and for those that would be most feasible to manufacture. Most of the files contain original artwork, usually brought to the meeting by the marketing department. They also include lists of product ideas and who submitted them, ballots for the voting on the best ideas, and notes taken at the meetings. Several files have memoranda to the employees encouraging submission of ideas outside the annual meeting cycle. Related materials are found in Series 3, Marketing and Sales Records, 1948-2004, Subseries 1, General and Department Records, 1967-1995.

Subseries 4.5: General Research and Development, 1976-1993

This subseries mainly contains files on the development of microwave cookware products and the Micro-Go-Round. Dr. T.K. Ishii, a leading researcher in microwave technologies from Marquette University, served as a consultant to Nordic Ware. He advised on technical problems and explained processes to the Nordic Ware engineers to enable them to develop products. Other materials deal with the application and certification process for Underwriters Laboratories, an independent organization that tested products and certified them as meeting its safety standards.

Subseries 4.6: Patent Materials, 1950-1994

Many records in this subseries deal with the patent application process. An outside legal firm submitted Nordic Ware's applications and negotiated with the Patent Office. The records include correspondence surrounding patent disputes and sworn affidavits by engineers submitted as proof of their work. Several reference files of non-Nordic Ware patents are in this subseries. Many were sent by the law office to Nordic Ware engineers to keep them current on new developments.

Subseries 4.7: Trade Associations, 1977-1994

These records reflect the participation of Engineering Department staff in trade associations, especially The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. Lloyd Keleny and several others were involved with the Microwave Oven Cookware Committee. The Society was concerned with the absence of standards for microwave ovens and the resulting problem that cookware used in these ovens was not always effective. The Committee gathered data and encouraged the microwave industry to recognize that consistency was needed. There also are files from the Frankfurt International Housewares Fair, 1994. Nordic Ware tried to build its presence internationally, and fairs such as this were opportunities to meet foreign manufacturers and distributors. They also enabled the company to see what was happening on a global level.

Series 5: Financial Records, 1948-1982

These records include financial information for Nordic Ware and other Dalquist interests, including Maid of Scandinavia Company, when it was still joined with Northland Aluminum Products, and the Minnesota Brand of Cookware. The intermixing of financial reports, invoices and receivables, petty cash receipts, and bank statements for the various enterprises demonstrates the close relationship of all of the beginning operations of the Dalquist family. There are many examples of consolidated financial information in the records including the balance sheets, combined financial reports, income statements, and the audit reports. Of particular interest is the accounting ledger (1949-1950) for Plastics for Industry, the Dalquist brothers' original company. It has handwritten entries and shows the company's simplified bookkeeping system. It also provides important financial data on the startup capital and the progress in the first year of business.

Reports created by the research firm Dunn and Bradstreet contain information submitted by the Dalquists to prove their credit worthiness to lenders. Several loan agreements document the company's practice of borrowing money on future earnings in order to meet operating expenses and finance innovation. Machinery owned by Nordic Ware is listed in several factory inventories. The firm also leased machinery instead of buying in order to save money. Inventory summaries (1950-1978) detail the numbers and value of the unsold product then on hand.

Though Nordic Ware stock was never traded publically, there was an employee shareholder plan that included profit sharing. Records in this subseries document the evolution and operation of the plan, including one employee's case for a public offering of the company stock. At some point Dave Dalquist did consider making the company public but decided to maintain private ownership. The emphasis on taking pride and ownership in the company was often repeated in memoranda that Dalquist wrote to employees about stock options. The records show that he was very conscious of morale and high standards of work within the company.

Series 6: Legal Records, 1962-1978

The bulk of these records deals with trademark issues, especially Nordic Ware's creation, licensing, and protection of the "Bundt" mark. Included are copies of correspondence with the law firms that handled applications to the Patent and Trademark Office and correspondence from that office. Correspondence and legal papers document licensing negotiations with Pillsbury and others. In several instances Nordic Ware took legal steps when the Bundt Pan trademark was being misused.

Series 7: Recipes and Cookbooks, 1966-2004, undated

This series is comprised of a large selection of cookbooks and recipe files maintained by Dotty Dalquist and reflect her active role in business activities. She did much of her cooking and experimenting in a test kitchen in her own home and was integral to the preparation of foods to be photographed in Nordic Ware products. These photographs demonstrated the use of the products and were included in the advertisements, catalogs, and product or recipe brochures.

Subseries 7.1: Dotty Dalquist Recipe Files, bulk 1950s-1970s, mainly undated

Dotty Dalquist kept recipes, product booklets, notes, and other materials to aid in the development of her own recipes. She organized much of the material by food type, but she also had several files for specific Nordic Ware products. The Bundt Pan was a major product, and the files on it reflect that. As Nordic Ware sought new ways to promote the use of its products, Dalquist's development of new and inventive recipes was a major part of that effort.

Subseries 7.2: Bundt Pan Cookbooks, 1966-2004

Nordic Ware published several books by Dotty Dalquist to promote use of the Bundt Pan. Pillsbury and other firms also published their own books. Pillsbury incorporated its products into the recipes to promote the dual product relationship between the Bundt Pan and the Pillsbury brand of cake mixes. These books were sold in stores and added as premiums to go along with the purchase of the other products.

Subseries 7.3: Other Recipe and Public Relations Materials, 1970-1996, undated

Recipe contests and a cookbook were among the efforts to involve employees with the Nordic Ware products and to generate new recipes and ideas. These files include photographs and entries and correspondence about these employee activities.

A file of correspondence, mainly to and from Dotty Dalquist, concerns problems consumers encountered using specific recipes that she had published. Consumers also wrote about recipes they had tried on their own and could not get satisfactory results with a Nordic Ware product. Dalquist's problem-solving efforts were an example of the personal customer service in which Nordic Ware took pride.

Series 8: Non-Nordic Ware Reference Materials, 1940-2001, undated

The materials in this series were used by Nordic Ware as reference resources. They have been organized into subseries by type.

Subseries 8.1: Sponsored Cookbooks, 1943-1996, undated

Dotty Dalquist collected cookbooks published by a wide range of manufacturers and trade organizations. The cookbooks are arranged in alphabetical order by the name of the sponsor. Many companies, such as Pillsbury and General Foods, put out these kinds of books to promote their own brands. This may have influenced Dalquist's creation of her own Bundt Pan cookbook.

Subseries 8.2: Product Guides (some with recipes), 1940-1992, undated

These product guides, for appliances and other items used in Dotty Dalquist's kitchen, include use instructions and, often, recipes. Nordic Ware often included recipes in the print materials packaged with its products and associated with its advertising.

Subseries 8.3: Home and Food Related Ephemera, 1950-1980, undated

These materials include booklets of general household hints, recipe cards published by various organizations, and information on food processes.

Subseries 8.4: Periodicals, 1967-2001

Several scrapbooks in this subseries contain clippings from various trade publications. Some focus on Nordic Ware and Northland Aluminum Products in articles or advertisements while others contain industry, including competitors', product advertisements. There are several issues of trade periodicals with Nordic Ware related stories. Trade press clippings also are found in Series 3, Marketing and Sales Records, 1948-2004, Subseries 3, Public Relations, 1948-1992.

Subseries 8.5: Newsletters, 1961, 1973-1987, undated

Most of these newsletters were for reference use with Nordic Ware's microwave cookware projects. With its extensive line of these microwave products, there was an active effort to stay up to date with the field. The firm also tried to find different kinds of foods and recipes that could be prepared using a microwave oven.

Series 9: Photographs, 1940s-2006, undated

This series consists of a wide range of photographic prints re-housed in archival sleeves and assembled into a single binder. The photographs are arranged roughly by image content and document the Dalquist family and employees; factory and offices scenes, including a series of black and white images by Mel Jacobsen, a commercial photographer; and product displays at trade shows and other locations. The photographs also include a few images of Nordic Ware products and of baked foods and black and white images of plastic molds created by Plastics for Industry. Most of the photographs are undated and many are unidentified. There is a View Master viewer with one viewing card containing photographs assembled for Nordic Ware's sixtieth anniversary in 2006. Series 2, David Dalquist Files, includes five photographs of foods baked in Bundt Pans. Series 3, Marketing and Sales Records, Subseries 1, General and Department Records, 1967-1995, has photographs of a factory outlet store and product displays.
Arrangement:
The collection is divided into nine series.

Series 1: Historical and Background Materials, 1940s-2006

Series 2: David Dalquist Files, 1963-1993

Series 3: Marketing and Sales Records, 1948-2004

Subseries 1, General and Department Records, 1967-1995

Subseries 2, Promotional and Trade Sales Materials, 1958-2004

Subseries 3, Public Relations, 1948-1992

Series 4: Engineering Department Records, 1950-1994

Subseries 1, General Records, 1969-1992

Subseries 2, Laboratory Notebooks, 1972, 1984-1993

Subseries 3, Product Files, 1976-1993, undated

Subseries 4, New Product Ideas Files, 1976-1993

Subseries 5, General Research and Development, 1950-1994

Subseries 6, Patent Materials, 1950-1994

Subseries 7, Trade Associations, 1977-1994

Series 5: Financial Records

Series 6: Legal records

Series 7: Recipes and Cookbooks

Subseries 1, Dotty Dalquist Recipe Files, 1950s-1970s, undated

Subseries 2, Bundt Pan Cookbooks, 1966-2004

Subseries 3, Other Recipe and Public Relations Materials, 1970-1996, undated

Series 8, Non-Nordic Ware Reference Materials

Subseries 1, Sponsored Cookbooks, 1943-1996, undated

Subseries 2, Product Guides (with some recipes), 1940-1992, undated

Subseries 3, Home and Food Related Ephemera, 1950-1980, undated

Subseries 4, Periodicals, 1967-2001

Subseries 5, Newsletters, 1961, 1973-1981, undated

Series 9: Photographs, 1940s-2006, undated
Biographical / Historical:
In 1946, the year he returned from Navy service in the Pacific, H. David (Dave) Dalquist (1918-2005) joined his brother Mark to launch a new manufacturing firm, Plastics for Industry, in Minneapolis. The two University of Minnesota graduates soon were making foundry patterns and industrial plastic products for area businesses, as well as aluminum consumer cookware. Among their earliest products were ebelskiver pans, krumkake irons, and rosette irons, essential kitchen tools for the area's large Scandinavian population. Their first employee, Donald Nygren, remained as head designer for many decades.

In 1950, the brothers bought Northland Aluminum Products, a small firm with a line of "Nordic Ware" products including griddles and steak platters. The same year, Dave Dalquist created a cast aluminum, fluted cake pan at the request of two local women, members of the Hadassah organization. The women sought to replicate a heavy mold used in Europe. Northland Aluminum registered the trademark "Bundt" for the new product and began to sell it to local department stores. (The women sold manufacturing "seconds" as a fund raiser for their group.) Mark Dalquist created a firm, Maid of Scandinavia, to market products by mail. It separated from Northland Aluminum in 1963. Over the years, Northland Aluminum increasingly used "Nordic Ware" to identify itself for marketing and public relations purposes.

Northland Aluminum created a subsidiary finishing and coating firm, Northland Color Anodizing Company, in 1962. In 1964, Northland became one of the first to license the use of Teflon from its inventor, DuPont, and non-stick products became an important part of the company's line. Northland also did coating work for many industries including medical, computer, and commercial food processing. For many years Northland also had a division to produce heads for video recording machines. Product sales reached $1,000,000 in 1964.

During the 1960s, Nordic Ware grew slowly, gradually increasing its product line to include specialty baking and cookware items and stove-top cookware. The company also expanded its production capacity and built its sales and marketing capabilities, including a national network of sales representatives working on commission. Dorothy Dalquist, Dave's wife, played a vital role in the company's history. She joined him at crucial annual sales conventions to demonstrate products, tested new products, and developed recipes for them in her home kitchen. Additionally, she represented the firm in public relations activities.

Although the Bundt Pan was only one of many Nordic Ware products, it became a national celebrity in 1966 when a Texas woman used it for her prize-winning Tunnel of Fudge Cake in the immensely popular Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest. In 1970, Nordic Ware licensed the Bundt trademark to Pillsbury for use with a line of cake mixes. Customers received a cake pan at a small additional price with the purchase of the packaged mix. Although this pan was spun of light aluminum, not cast like the original models, the Pillsbury promotion was very successful. In addition to the classic Bundt design, the company began producing special designs, including a cathedral, a castle, a rose, a heart, and, in 2006, a stadium shaped pan. The Bundt Pan continues to be the most popular cake pan in America, and the company estimates it has sold sixty million pans over the past six decades.

Despite the steady popularity of the Bundt Pan, Dalquist and his firm knew that the spike in Bundt Pan sales resulting from the Pillsbury promotion was temporary, and they continued their strategy of seeking new products to buoy overall sales revenues. In 1978 Nordic Ware developed a "new thermoset plastic molding technology to create an extensive line of cookware designed to work in both conventional and microware ovens." In these same years, as microwave oven use rapidly spread, Nordic Ware developed its second celebrity product. Designed by the company's own engineers, the Micro-Go-Round was promoted in print and television advertising and is still its most successful product. Since then, Nordic Ware has introduced a wide range of new products, some of them successful (for example, nonstick Barbecue Grill Cookware), others not (including a device to create convection currents in a baking oven and a bicentennial cake platter). Northland Aluminum holds at least twenty-five patents for its products.

Today David Dalquist (born 1949) -- son of founder "Dave Dalquist" and, like his father, an engineer -- heads Nordic Ware. He has been involved with the company for his entire working life with major executive responsibilities since the early 1980s. David Dalquist's mother, Dotty, is on the Board of Directors and serves as Corporate Secretary. David's three sisters—Corrine, Linda, and Susan—are also involved in the business. The firm employs between 200 and 400 people and continues, as a point of pride, to manufacture its products in the United States. The family has refused numerous buyout offers. Nordic Ware has managed to design and market products for the large, low price retailers, including Wal-Mart, and for the upscale, specialty gourmet market. Williams-Sonoma, a leader in the latter field, has exclusive sales for a small number of new Nordic Ware products each year.

For its sixtieth anniversary, Nordic Ware produced a company history, H. David Dalquist, The Nordic Ware Saga: An Entrepreneur's Legacy (Kirk House Publishers, Minneapolis, 2006). The volume provides edited recollections of "Dave," many family members, and other employees drawn from oral history interviews. This finding aid is based largely on that information, other historical sources within the collection, and visits to Nordic Ware offices by National Museum of American History staff members Paula Johnson and Nanci Edwards (June 2006) and Paula Johnson and John Fleckner (August 2006).
Related Materials:
The Division of Work and Industry holds thirty-six objects from Nordic Ware (Accession # 2007.0034), including Bundt Pans in a variety of shapes, foundry patterns and molds for Nordic Ware products, a wood panel display of products manufactured by Plastics for Industry, three versions of the Micro-Go-Round, and other kitchenware products.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Dorothy M. Dalquist and H. David Dalquist in 2007.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Ethnic food industry  Search this
Cookery, American  Search this
Kitchen utensils  Search this
Aluminum  Search this
Kitchen utensil industry  Search this
Baked products  Search this
Bakery equipment and supplies industry  Search this
Baking pans  Search this
Baking  Search this
Genre/Form:
Correspondence -- 1950-2000
Photographs -- 2000-2010
Legal records
Catalogs
Correspondence -- 2000-2010
Financial records
Photographs -- 20th century
Design drawings -- 1950-2000
Citation:
Nordic Ware Collection, 1942-2006, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0980
See more items in:
Nordic Ware records
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep894dc31f0-f3a9-457d-9097-4906863295b5
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0980
Online Media:

Herb Grosch Papers

Creator:
Grosch, Herbert R. J.  Search this
Names:
General Electric Company  Search this
International business machines corporation  Search this
Extent:
5 Cubic feet (15 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Personal papers
Passports
Lantern slides
Drawings
Correspondence
Clippings
Audiotapes
Diaries
Date:
1938-1998
Summary:
The Herb Grosch Papers, 1948-1998, cover the life and career of an early computer professional. It consists of correspondence, clippings, photographs, computer disks, reports, and other printed materials.
Scope and Contents:
The Herb Grosch Papers, 1948-1998, cover the life and career of an early computer professional. It consists of correspondence, clippings, photographs, computer disks, reports, and other printed materials. The collection is approximately 5 cubic feet and is divided into six series: Series 1, Personal Materials, 1938-1998; Series 2, General Electric (GE), 1955-1968, 1993-1995; Series 3, Control Data Corporation, 1961-1966; Series 4, Other Employment, 1945-1997; Series 5, Professional Interests, 1954-1993; and Series 6, Computer History, 1945-1996. The largest and most comprehensive series within the collection focuses on Grosch's employment, in various capacities, by General Electric. The Control Data material is of special interest due to its in-depth studies of the European computer market in the early 1960s.

Series 1, Personal Materials, 1938-1998, illustrates Grosch's personal life and consists of biographical sketches, identification and business cards, vaccination certificates, daily planners/diaries, flight logs, diplomas, a dissertation, correspondence, articles by and about him, photographs, and the manuscript of his autobiography, Computer,Bit Slices of a Life. The manuscript is of special interest, in that it is a description of Grosch's life up to the 1960s. Also providing personal descriptions of Grosch's life is an extensive chronology of employment written by Grosch. The bulk of the materials date from the mid 1950s through the mid 1960s, with another smaller concentration of correspondence in the early 1990s.

Series 2, General Electric (GE), 1953-1968, 1993-1995, contains correspondence, clippings, photographs and printed materials related to Grosch's two tenures at GE. The series is divided into four subseries: General GE Materials, GE's Evandale plant, GE's Computer Department at Arizona State University, and GE's TEMPO think tank in Santa Barbara. The subseries about the Evandale plant and the Arizona Computer Department are most comprehensive, describing the projects from their inception until Grosch's departure. Also of interest to those studying GE history is the collection of letters between Grosch and his Arizona boss, H.R. Oldfield, discussing Oldfield's book about GE and its failure in the computer business.

Series 3, Control Data Corporation, 1961-1966, contains correspondence, reports and printed materials covering Grosch's consulting work with Control Data. The bulk of the material has to do with a survey of the European computer industry and market, undertaken by Grosch for Control Data. Included are over forty reports that Grosch composed from plant visits he made to various European computer companies. Also included is the overall summary of these individual reports.

Series 4, Other Employment, 1945-1994, contains correspondence, printed materials, clippings and photographs related to other employment pursued by Grosch. The series covers Grosch's work at IBM, the Corporation for Economic and Industrial Research (CEIR), and his editorial reign at Computerworld magazine. Of interest to IBM researchers are the photos of early IBM gatherings at Endicott, New York and early IBM machines at the Watson Scientific Computer Laboratory.

Series 5, Professional Interests, 1954-1996, consists of articles and other printed materials related to Grosch's scientific and technical interests. The majority of the series deals with Grosch's interest in computers, their applications and their effects upon society. A smaller set of material relates to other Grosch interests, notably astronomy and scientific standards.

Series 6, Computer History, 1949-1996, consists of clippings, reports, and correspondence illustrating Grosch's interest in the history of computing. Of special interest is a report from U.S. Department of Commerce that lists the technical specifications of a number of old computers. Also, in addition to many more famous computing pioneers, Grosch collected information on English mathematician, L.J. Comrie, including a biographical sketch, photographs and correspondence carried on with Comrie's widow and son.
Arrangement:
Collection is arranged into six series.

Series 1, Personal Materials, 1938-1998

Subseries 1.1, Biographical Materials, 1938-1996

Subseries 1.2, Correspondence, 1948-1998

Subseries 1.3, Travel and Chronology, 1959-1985

Subseries 1.4, Assorted Materials, 1947-1995, undated

Series 2, General Electric (GE), 1953-1968, 1993-1995

Subseries 2.1, General GE Materials, 1953-1966

Subseries 2.2, GE Evandale Plant, 1952, 1955-1956

Subseries 2.3, GE Computer Department, 1954-1958, 1993-1995

Subseries 2.4, GE TEMPO, 1963-1968

Series 3, Control Data Corporation, 1961-1966

Subseries 3.1, General Materials, 1961-1962, 1964, 1966

Subseries 3.2, European Computer Industry Survey, 1961-1963

Series 4, Other Employment, 1945-1997

Series 5, Professional Interests, 1954-1996

Series 6, Computer History, 1945-1996
Biographical / Historical:
Herb Grosch (1918-2010) was born in Saskatoon, Canada and became a United States citizen with his father's naturalization. He attended grade school in Ontario and Ohio and high school in Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan from 1934 to 1941, receiving his B.S. in 1938 and his PhD in 1942, both in astronomy. An outspoken and controversial figure, Grosch's professional career was marked with numerous jobs. In 1941-1942 he was an astronomer for the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. and later during World War II worked on fire control and optical engineering. Grosch's astronomical work required many calculations to be done by hand, thus he was well qualified to deal with the computational issues involved in early computer work. In 1945 he was hired by IBM for the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory in New York, first to do backup calculations for the Manhattan Project and then to help run the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC), an early computer. Grosch was fired in 1951 and moved on to MIT where he worked as a part of the design group for the WHIRLWIND II computer. In 1952 he joined General Electric (GE) and set up and oversaw computer operations in Ohio, Massachusetts, and Arizona. In 1958 he returned to IBM and was the manager of their space program, before being fired again in 1959. Following IBM he moved to Europe and began consulting, notably a survey of the European computer industry for Control Data in 1962-1963. He returned to the United States to work again for GE in 1965, heading the DEACON project at GE's TEMPO think tank. Grosch left GE again in 1967. From 1967 through 1970 he directed the Center for Computer Sciences and Technology for the National Bureau of Standards. From 1973 to 1976 he was the editor of Computerworld magazine. Since then Grosch has lived in both Europe and America and done both consulting work and writing. He wrote and published a autobiography, Computer: Bit Slices of a Life, that describes his rather tempestuous relationships with GE and IBM. Grosch is perhaps best known for Grosch's Law which says the computing power increases as a square of the cost, or more concretely, in order to perform a computation twice as cheaply you must do it four times as fast.
Related Materials:
Grosch was interviewed as a part of the Smithsonian computer oral history project and the taped interviews exist in Collection AC0196, the Computer Oral History Collection, in the Archives Center.
Provenance:
The materials in the collection were donated by Herb Grosch on October 13, 1999.

The Archives Center received an addendum of .50 cubic feet in March 2010 from Ella Doyle.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
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.
Topic:
Computers  Search this
Computer industry  Search this
Computation laboratories  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs -- 20th century
Personal papers -- 1950-2000
Passports
Lantern slides
Drawings -- 20th century
Correspondence -- 20th century
Clippings -- 20th century
Audiotapes
Diaries -- 20th century
Citation:
Herb Grosch Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0703
See more items in:
Herb Grosch Papers
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep804182831-cd76-4bfa-8fc7-04b947f7727c
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0703
Online Media:

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