This collection documents the District Curators Jazz Arts Festivals held in Washington, D.C. between 1993 and 1998 and the Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams' Women in Jazz Series, 1996-2000. The subjects of the District Curators Festivals include the Steve and Iqua Colson Sextet, Sonny Sharrock Band, Don Bryon Quartet, David Sanchez, David Murray, Danilo Perez Trio, Reggie Workman, Andrew White, Wayne Shorter, Roy Hargrove, Sonny Sumter, and the Roy Haynes Quartet. Subjects of the Kennedy Center's Series include Jerri Allen, Dorothy Donogan, Dottie Dodgion, the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, Shirley Scott, Ann Patterson and the all-women band "Maiden Voyage," Roberta Piket, Vanessa Reuben, Jamie Baum, Chris Connor, Claire Dale, Sherrie Maricle and "Diva," and Marian McPartland.
The collection is organized into four series: Series One, District Curators Jazz Arts Festival Contact Sheets (1993-1998); Series Two, District Curators Jazz Arts Festival Prints (1993-1998), and Series Three, Kennedy Center's Women in Jazz Series (1996-2000).
Series 1, Contact Sheets (1993-1998), is comprised of seventy-one 11x14-inch black-and-white contact sheets of 10 photo shoots of the District Curators Jazz Arts Festivals, 1993-1998. The contact sheets provide an overall context for the shoots. Each contact sheet has been numbered by the photographer, indicating its place among the contact sheets for the shoot, e.g., 1/7, 2/7, etc. The contact sheets are arranged chronologically by event date. N.B.: The photographer has numbered the contact sheets for the "Jazz Arts, July 1997" shoot 1/17 through 16/17. The contact sheets for the "Trane was Spiritual, September 1997" shoot are numbered 1/8 through 7/8.
Series 2, Prints (1993-1998, undated), is comprised of fifty-one 5x7-inch black-and-white images printed on 8x10-inch paper. The prints in Series Two are largely of frames from the contact sheets in Series One. A small number of prints in this series are not taken from the contact sheets and are undated. Each print in the series has been numbered by the photographer. For each print, the container list gives the photographer's number in brackets as well as the contact sheet from which the image is taken. The series is arranged chronologically.
Series 3, Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams' Women in Jazz Series Contact Sheets (1996-2000), contain fifty-six 8x10-inch black-and-white contact sheets of photo shoots of the Women in Jazz series. The photographs focus on female performers both on and off stage. All contact sheets are arranged chronologically by year.
Arrangement:
Collection arranged into four series.
Series 1:District Curators Jazz Arts Festivals Contact Sheets, 1993-1998
Series 2: District Curators Jazz Arts Festivals Prints, 1993-1998, undated
Series 3: Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams "Women in Jazz" Contact Sheets, 1996-2000
Series 4: Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams "Women in Jazz" Exhibition Prints, 1994-2001
Series 5: Kennedy Center Jazz Programming, 1996-2000
Biographical / Historical:
Jeffrey Kliman was born in Everett, Massachusetts, March 5, 1942, son of Harry Kliman, one half of the Herschel & Lewis tap-dancing, roller skating team that worked on Broadway and the "Metro Circuit" between 1930 and 1937. Jeffrey Kliman's mother was Janette "Netty" Harris. Reared in middle-class Massachusetts, Jeffrey encountered an eclectic range of music that included opera -- his grandfather sang in the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera in the 1920s—the "race music" of Wolfman Jack, and the Symphony Syd Turin gospel radio show where he first heard the music of Dizzy Gillespie. In 1956 he took a job in the record department of Boston's Lechmere Department Store and listened to the music of Count Basie, Gerry Mulligan, Duke Ellington, and Stan Kenton.
Between 1959 and 1963 Kliman attended the University of Massachusetts as a pre-veterinary major. In 1960 he hosted a two-hour jazz radio show for WMUA, the university's radio station. Failing grades forced him to withdraw from the veterinary program. Eventually Kliman completed a degree as a film and TV major. He left for New York City in February, 1964, to begin a career in television advertising. In 1965 he borrowed a 35mm camera and began taking photographs of various musicians who played at the Fillmore. Kliman did free-lance work by night as a photographer for Rolling Stone, Family Circus, and Zigot while he continued to work by day as a producer for Dolphin Productions.
Kliman worked predominantly in advertising until 1986, when he relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, to start a new career as photographer of jazz musicians. "Anytime I saw jazz I would go and shoot -- Left Bank, DC Jazz Curators, street events." Currently he works as a free-lance photographer for Jazz Times and Down Beat. His primary interest is photographing up-and-coming jazz musicians performing in the Baltimore/Washington region.
Provenance:
The first portion of this collection was donated to the Archives Center by Jeffrey Kliman on December 22, 1997.
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use on site by appointment. Unprotected photographs must be handled with cotton gloves.
Rights:
Jeffrey Kliman retains copyright. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Jazz musicians -- American -- 1990-2000 Search this
The Fred Martin papers measure 10.8 linear feet and 0.886 gigabytes and date from circa 1949-2022. Martin's career as a painter, author, arts administrator, and educator are highlighted in biographical material, correspondence, writings, personal business records, exhibition and gallery files, teaching files, printed material, photographic material, and artwork.
Scope and Contents:
The Fred Martin papers measure 10.8 linear feet and 0.886 gigabytes and date from circa 1949-2022. Martin's career as a painter, author, arts administrator, and educator are highlighted in biographical material, correspondence, writings, personal business records, exhibition and gallery files, teaching files, printed material, photographic material, and artwork.
Biographical material includes school records and transcripts, resumes and membership materials, and personalized astrological charts, as well as signature books related to award ceremonies and birthday celebrations. Correspondence is a combination of personal and professional, and is organized by year. The writings series is comprised of Martin's studio notes, travel journals, and general writings including manuscript drafts and lecture notes. Personal business records include daily planners, employment records with a particular emphasis on the San Francisco Art Institute, itineraries and travel documents, mailing lists, painting lists, conference documentation, and shipping documents.
Exhibition and gallery files include documents related to galleries and museums Martin had exhibited or sold artwork with, as well as files related to select shows from Martin's career. Teaching files includes course outlines and lesson notes as well as curriculum planning documents for the San Francisco Art Institute. Printed material includes exhibition announcements and invitations, exhibition catalogs, and clippings related both to Fred Martin and his Art Week article series, as well as printed copied of select publications by Martin. Photographic material includes photographs of Martin's artwork as well as that of other artists, slides of artwork for certain years, and some photographs of friends and family. Artwork includes works on paper including watercolors created in Rome.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as nine series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1949-2014 (0.3 Linear feet; box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1955-2022 (1 Linear foot; boxes 1-2)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1950-2013 (6.2 Linear feet; boxes 2-8; 0.008 Gigabytes: ER0001)
Series 4: Personal Business Records (1 Linear foot; Boxes 8-9)
Series 5: Exhibition and Gallery Files, circa 1958-2012 (0.5 Linear feet; Boxes 9-10; 0.53 Gigabytes: ER0002-ER0006)
Series 6: Teaching Files, circa 1967-2011 (0.7 Linear feet; Box 10; 0.348 Gigabytes: ER0007)
Series 7: Printed Material, circa 1951-2016 (0.5 Linear feet; Boxes 10-11)
Series 8: Photographic Material , circa 1950s-2000s (0.2 Linear feet; Box 12)
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1960s-1990s (0.2 Linear feet; Box 12)
Biographical / Historical:
Fred Martin (1927-2022) was a painter, author, arts administrator, and educator in San Francisco, California.
Born in San Francisco on June 13, 1927, Martin's family relocated to the East Bay when he was a child, and he was raised in Alameda and Oakland primarily. Focusing on art early in his life, Martin received his bachelor's degree in 1949 and master's degree in 1954, both from the University of California at Berkeley. Soon after graduation Martin began working as a registrar at the Oakland Art Museum for four years before joining the San Francisco Art Institute (then known as the California School of Fine Arts) as a gallery director and faculty member. He served as the director of the San Francisco Art Institute from 1965 until 1975, after which he continued teaching and was later named the Emeritus Dean of Academic Affairs.
Martin had his first solo exhibition in 1949 at the Contemporary Gallery in Sausalito, California, and his work was included that same year in a group exhibition of painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The Oakland Museum of California organized a retrospective exhibition in 2003.
Martin's writing was key to his practice and shaped his artistic and teaching careers. He served as a contributing editor to Artweek from 1976-1992. He also authored a number of artists' books including Beulah Land, published by Crown Point Press in 1966; A Travel Book, published by Arion Press in 1977; and From an Antique Land, published in 1979 by Green Gates Press. His work is represented in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Oakland Art Museum, the Richmond Art Center, the Crocker Art Museum, the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Martin continued to teach until his retirement in 2016. He passed away at his home in Berkeley, California on October 8, 2022.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds an interview of Fred Martin conducted 1980 Aug. 27-Sept. 19, by Terry St. John, for the Archives of American Art.
Provenance:
A small portion of the collection was donated in 1975 by Fred Martin. The bulk of the collection was donated in 2023 by Demian Martin, Fred Martin's son.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
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:
Painters -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Educators -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Arts administrators -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Authors -- California -- Santa Barbara Search this
Genre/Form:
Sketchbooks
Drawings
Interviews
Citation:
Fred Martin papers, circa 1949-2022. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Three frames, enlarged from a 35mm film strip, showing Ellington at the piano. Title under image at left, signed at lower right. Film is Ansco Super Hypan.
Arrangement:
In box 9.
Local Numbers:
00044509.tif (AC Scan)
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
The Archives Center does not own the rights to the Leonard photographs. All requests for permission to use these photographs for non‑museum purposes must be addressed to: Herman Leonard Photography, LLC, 530 South Lake Avenue #503, Pasadena, CA 91101 (818) 509-8987.
Documentary materials relating to the construction and operation of the 80-inch hydrogen bubble chamber at Brookhaven National Laboratory: a 16mm film of the construction of the bubble chamber; 6 reels of audiotapes from the operation of the bubble chamber, 8 rolls of 70mm film of particle tracks; 3 rolls of 35mm film of particle tracks; a log book of the bubble chamber, recording the discovery of the Omega-minus particle; an operations manual for the chamber; and a "user package" for the chamber. Some of the film records the discovery of the Omega-minus particle.
Arrangement:
1 series. Unarranged.
Separated Materials:
The bubble chamber itself is in the Division of Medicine and Science. See Accession No. 1978.2309.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Brookhaven National Laboratory, through Bernard J. McAlary, December 15, 1994.
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 copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
This collection includes slides (photographic) and audio-cassettes created by James Jones during research trips to San Ingnacio de Moxos, Beni, Bolivia in 1977-1979 and 1988. Jones was conducting research to complete his dissertation in anthropology and photographed many indigenous Moxo (Mojo) community members he interviewed during the course of his research, as well as local festivals and agricultural activities.
Scope and Contents:
The James C. Jones collection includes photographic slides (35mm) and two audio-cassettes made by Jones in San Ignacios de Moxis, Beni, Bolivia in 1977-1979 and in 1988. The majority of the photographic slides in this collection were taken by Jones during his 1977-1979 research trip for his PhD dissertation. There are a small number of slides that were shot in 1988 on a return trip to Beni, Bolivia. The slides from 1977-1979 were shot in 25 rolls with 36 slides per roll. The majority of the photographs were shot in and near San Ignacio de Moxos in Beni, Bolivia an indigenous village in Norther Bolivia, though additional locations in Bolivia visited include Trinidad and La Paz. Jones interviewed around 70 local Moxo (Mojo) men and women in and near San Ignacio. During and in between interviews Jones shot photographs that documented daily life for his interviewees with a particular focus on agricultural activities such as farming and cooking. Many of the photographs include images of the Rivero family (Ignacito and Yolanda) with whom Jones stayed for extended periods of time. Jones also took a special interest in the many celebrations and festivals that occurred during his stay in Bolivia and took photographs of dancers, musicians and processions. He also shot many landscape views of the village, farms, "pampas," as well as aerial views of roads and rivers and close up images of the local flora and fauna.
The two audio-cassettes, recorded by Jones in 1977-1978, includes music played by local Moxo musicians during special occasions, such as Christmas, Independence Day as well as music played in the local church. There are also interviews with Juan Bautista Savala and Chaco war veteran Horacio Semani.
Arrangement:
Arranged chronologically and by slide roll or sound-cassette.
Biographical / Historical:
James C. Jones was born in Harlan, Kentucky in 1944. He graduated from University of Kentucky in 1966 with a B.A. in Science in Mathematics. Jones spent two years teaching math in Columbia (1969-1970) and developed an interest in Latin American studies while traveling around South America. Due to this interest, he pursued and received a Master's degree and later PhD in anthropology at the University of Florida. Jones first visited San Ignacio/Beni in 1976 for three months to define his topic for his PhD thesis with funding from the University of Florida's Tropical South American Program. He returned to Bolivia with funding from the Inter-American Foundation in 1977 (September) and stayed through the first quarter of 1979. Returning to Florida, Jones finished his dissertation in 1980 titled "Conflict between Whites and Indians on the Llanos de Moxos, Beni Department" (PhD diss., University of Florida, 1980).
After completing his degree, Jones left the field of anthropology and received a Master's degree in agricultural economics, entering the world of development for the next 15 years. During this time Jones worked on development and security issues across the globe. Jones resumed research on Bolivia in the late 1980's and 1990s and published an essay, "Development: Reflections from Bolivia" in the Society for Applied Anthropology's Human Organization, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Spring 1997), pp.111-120. Since then, Jones has worked as an independent contractor.
Separated Materials:
Jones took copious notes that describe that photographic and audio materials but these are still in the possession of Jones himself. The Archive Center has copies of these notes for reference purposes only.
Provenance:
Gift of James Jones, 2017.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); James Jones collection from Bolivia, Item Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution
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.
Photographer Leonard Nadel's supplemental material relating to and photographs of the Mexican braceros (manual laborers). They were photographed in California, Texas, and Mexico for the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Republic during the late 1950s and early 1960s in support of a report entitled Strangers in Our Fields by Dr. Ernesto Galarza.
Scope and Contents:
The collection is divided into three series. Each series is arranged chronologically.
Series 1: Scrapbooks, 1950-1968, contains scrapbooks of clippings of magazine articles and newspaper stories written by Nadel and others as well as magazines and newspaper articles making use of his photographs. The material is from a variety of specialty and mainstream publications and varies in subject matter. The scrapbooks are not only focused on Nadel's work for the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Republic but also offer a broad sampling of his work throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Material in the scrapbooks are arranged in rough chronological order. There is also a sample custom cover from one of the scrapbooks.
Series 2: Photographs, 1956-1960, undated, contains photographs printed from his negatives of the braceros. This series also contains a complete run of 8" x 10" contact sheets from his negatives of the bracero. The negatives themselves are in this series but not available for research per donor request. There are photographs ranging in size from 8" x 10" to large format photographs (10 1/2" x 13 1/2") that are keyed to frames on the contact sheets for easy reference. Negatives are arranged chronologically and captions are keyed to the negative numbers. These images have been digitized and may be found by searching "Nadel" on the collections section of the National Museum of American History website or by contacting the Archives Center.
Series 3: Publications and Supplemental Materials, 1956-2006, undated, contains correspondence, copies of Strangers in Our Fields, the publication making use of Nadel's bracero photographs, and other publications citing Nadel's work or based on it. This series also contains correspondence and written material from Evelyn De Wolfe Nadel, wife of Leonard Nadel; material relating to Nadel's photographic archive and captions for a selection of the bracero photographs. There is a selection of assorted loose news clippings.
Arrangement:
This collection is divided into three series:
Series 1: Scrapbooks, 1950-1968
Series 2: Photographs, 1956-1960, undated
Series 3: Publications and Supplemental Materials, 1956-2006, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Primarily known as a freelance photographer and photojournalist, Leonard Nadel (1916-1990) was born in Harlem, New York to Austro-Hungarian immigrant parents. He attended the City College of New York. Entering the Army during World War II, he trained at the Army Signal Corps Photographic Center. During the war he served in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines. After the war he returned to New York and received his master's degree in education from Teachers College, Columbia University. He moved to Los Angeles, California and studied at the Art Center College of Design.
In Los Angeles, Nadel photographed both the Pueblo del Rio and Aliso Village housing projects. He was also hired by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) to document living conditions in the city's slums and their new post-World War II housing projects. Nadel continued his employment with HACLA until 1953, when he resigned because his HACLA colleague, Frank Wilkinson, was blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and forced to resign.
Between 1953 and 1980 Nadel worked as a freelance photographer for such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Harvester News, Life, Business Week, and other major publications. His work with the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Republic resulted in his work documenting the bracero program. These photographs were taken by Leonard Nadel in connection with a survey of braceros done by Ernesto Galarza for the Fund for the Republic in 1956 in support of the publication, Strangers in Our Fields. During World War II, the United States and Mexico entered an agreement to alleviate the US labor shortage created by the war by importing Mexican workers. This arrangement outlasted the end of the war and by the time of Nadel's photographs nearly half a million Mexican contract workers, in the common vernacular of the time known as "drybacks," were legally imported to the United States annually working on short term labor contracts predominately in agriculture. These workers were also known as braceros, in Spanish translated as "manual laborer".
Nadel wrote of his work with the braceros, "I covered 5,000 miles during a circuit that took me from California to Mexico to Texas. It would have been easy enough just to turn over to the Fund the finished collection of photographs from the 2,000 images I took in attempting to accurately document the story of Strangers in Our Fields. But the conditions I had witnessed stirred me deeply. I felt that it was as much my responsibility to help 'sell' the picture story."
Nadel's photographs were the subject of the National Museum of American History (NMAH) exhibition, "Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964" in 2009-2010. Nadel's photographs are featured in NMAH's "America on the Move" exhibit. This quote from the "America on the Move" exhibition website gives the history of the photographs as well as the bracero program.
"In 1956, Leonard Nadel was hired by the Fund for the Republic, an anti-McCarthy liberal spin off of the Ford Foundation, to document the Bracero Program. In the 1990s, the Smithsonian Institution acquired the Nadel images. The collection contains 64 captioned photographic prints and 1730 original 35mm negatives (with corresponding contact sheets). The images document life in Mexico, men's experiences of crossing the border, and work and life in the US.
"The Bracero Program came into existence in 1942. Growers argued that labor shortages in the United States resulting from World War II required the recruitment of Mexican nationals. Mexico saw the program as a contribution to the war effort. Although the program began as a temporary war measure, it became a fixture of agricultural work landscape until it was finally terminated in 1964.
"Over the course of its lifetime, the Bracero Program became the largest and most significant U.S. labor guest worker program of the 20th century. In all, over 4.5 million contracts were awarded through the twenty-two years of the program. Despite the well-intentioned contracts, the program did not escape controversy. Some point out the widespread abuses of many of the contract's protective provisions and the violation of the legal rights and civil liberties of the braceros while others describe the program as an opportunity for Mexican nationals to make a living and improve the conditions of their families. Regardless of one's opinion of the program, it had a profound effect on Mexican American settlement patterns in the U.S. and numerous Latino families have ancestors who were involved in the Bracero Program."
Nadel married Los Angeles Times staff writer Evelyn De Wolfe in August 1961. She was Brazilian by birth and after their marriage she resigned from the Times and collaborated with Nadel on many projects that covered both national and international subjects. Nadel died in 1990.
Related Materials:
Materials in Other Organizations
The collections of the Los Angeles Public Library and the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research each contain photographic images made by Leonard Nadel during the time he worked for The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA). The Photo Collection of the Los Angeles Public Library contains approximately 290 copy negatives and corresponding black-and-white copy prints made from original materials held by HACLA. The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles Photograph Collection, held at the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, contains 225 black-and-white photographs produced by HACLA, forty-two of which were taken by Nadel.
The Getty Research Institute, Special Collections, Los Angeles, California, contain 8.75 linear feet (14 boxes) of Leonard Nadel photographs and other material relating to housing and urban redevelopment in Los Angeles, 1947-1998. The collection is described as, "Consisting primarily of photographic material by Leonard Nadel from 1947 to 1957, the collection records early efforts by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) to promote integrated public housing for the city's growing multi-ethnic population, and also documents several areas of the city that the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) had targeted for commercial revitalization. Nadel's black-and-white negatives, contact prints and two unpublished photographic books form the bulk of the collection, supplemented by handwritten notes and related documents."
Provenance:
The collection was purchased with funds from the Jackson Fund in 2000. All rights were transferred to the National Museum of American History in 2000-2001.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research use. Photographic negatives are not available for research at the donor's request, but contact sheets of the negatives are available in the collection. Some images are restricted for publication, but may be viewed in the Archives Center's reading room.
Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs, negatives, and slides.
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.
The photographs in this collection span from 1930s, 1946 --2003 and include negatives, slides,
and prints. The majority of the photographs relate to a film or video project. Only a few
were taken by John Marshall; most were photographed by colleagues. The photographs
have been organized by year of creation, except for a few groups of images which do not
relate to any film or video project and which were given to Marshall for reference. When
known, copyright and/or creator information has been included in the container list
below. Some of the photographs and negatives are restricted and have been separated.
Arrangement:
The series is arranged in 5 boxes with the following contents:
Box 1
35mm slides
Box 2 + 3
Color and Black & White Prints
Box 4
35mm negatives and large format negatives
Box 5
Small color prints from 35mm negatives
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.
Sponsor:
Finding aid has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
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.
Sponsor:
Finding aid has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
21 Negatives (photographic) (frames, black & white, 35mm negatives)
Container:
Box 4
Type:
Archival materials
Slides
Negatives (photographic)
Date:
1954 October 7
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.
Sponsor:
Finding aid has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
Samuel Yellin was an American master blacksmith. In 1910, he built the Arch Street Metalworker's studio.
Scope and Contents:
The collection is divided into three series:
Series 1: Motion pictures, 1928, 1930
Series 2: Documents, 1971
Series 3: Photographs, 1975
Arrangement:
Collection divided into three series.
Series 1: Motion Picture Films, 1928
Series 2: Documents, 1971
Series 3: Photoprints
Biographical / Historical:
Yellin, born in Poland, began learning ironwork at seven. He migrated to America in 1906 and taught at the Pennsylvania Museum and the school of Industrial Art. In 1910, he built the Arch Street Metalworker's studio, which eventually employed more than 200 craftsmen. Yellin was also an avid collector of fine examples of ironwork.
Provenance:
The collection was donated Harvey Z. Yellin in 1975.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Access and use of audiovisual materials available in the Archives Center reading room or by requesting copies of audiovisual materials at RightsReproductions@si.edu.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees regarding intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Photographs taken by Carol Bier and Lionel Bier, comprising two binders of black and white 35mm negatives and contact sheets as well as a collection of images cut out from contact sheets and organized by site, documenting both pre-Islamic and Islamic Iranian architectural monuments, taken 1975-1976. Focus primarily on the Sasanian sites of Fars province, focusing on built monuments, rock reliefs, and rock-cut monuments. Sites include: Firuzabad, Naqshi-Rustam, Naqshi-Rajab, Bishapur, Sarvistan, and Taq-i Bustan. Also includes a small number of ethnographic images by Carol Bier, predominanly of the Qashqai and Mamasani. Some of these images have been used previously in publications by both the authors themselves as well as other scholars.
Arrangement:
Organized into two series:
Series 1: Contact Sheets and Negatives
Series 2: Contact Prints
Biographical / Historical:
Carol Bier is an historian of Islamic art who is Research Associate at The Textile Museum in Washington, DC, where she served as Curator for Eastern Hemisphere Collections from 1984-2001. Her research focuses on Islamic patterns as intersections of art and mathematics.
The late Lionel D. Bier, art historian and archaeologist, taught art history at Brooklyn College for more than 30 years. He was primarily active in researching the archaeological record of pre- and early-Islamic Iran. Among his noted publications are: Sarvistan: A Study in Early Iranian Architecture (1986) and The Sassanian Palaces and their Influence in Early Islam, from Ars Orientalis (Vol. 23, 1993)
Local Numbers:
FSA A2008.01
Related Materials:
Lionel Bier Collection. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the Estate of Lionel Bier.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Restricted: Bishapur images, until permission by granted by Iranian authorities.
Carol Bier and Lionel Bier Collection. FSA.A2008.01. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Carol Bier.
Papers relating to Duke Ellington, once owned by Ellington's publicist Joe Morgen: Morgen's correspondence, much of it relating to appearances by Ellington; photographs; some financial records; some music manuscripts of Ellington's; concert and theater programs; a film of Ellington at the White House in 1969 when he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Nixon; and press releases and newspaper and magazine articles.
Scope and Contents note:
The collection consists of material compiled by Joe Morgen as an employee of Duke Ellington from 1957 to 1979. This includes correspondence, some of Morgen=s personal financial records, photographs, magazine articles, and newspaper clippings about Ellington. In addition there are public relations and biographical sketches about Ellington, a 35mm film of Ellington at the White House when he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Nixon, and an acetate reference recording of AAfro-Bossa.@ There are also materials not related to Ellington that include miscellaneous sheet music from the AJudy Garland Show,@ documents for the 1960s program AYouth Wants to Know,@ some 45 rpm commercial and test sound recordings of Mary Lou Williams performing some of her music, broadsides of various jazz musicians printed on black cloth, and other unidentified documents.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into eleven series:
Series 1: Joe Morgen Correspondence and Personal Papers
Series 2: Photographs, Slides, and Negatives
Series 3: Judy Garland Show Sheet Music
Series 4: Ellington Materials
Series 5: Sound Recordings
Series 6: Biographical and Press Related Materials
Series 7: Programs, Invitations, and Flyers
Series 8: Publications
Series 9: Magazine and Newspaper Clippings
Series 10: Film Reel, Duke Ellington at the White House
Series 11: Miscellaneous
Biographical/Historical note:
Rev. John Garcia Gensel, a Lutheran minister at St. Peter's church in New York City, 1956-1993, was a close confidant and spiritual presence within the New York jazz community. Conducting evening jazz vespers from 1965 until 1993, Gensel was able to develop close ties with New York's jazz musicians and their families. He believed that jazz was the best music for worship because it spoke to the existential nature of the person playing it. Along with conducting his jazz vespers, Gensel also officiated at weddings, baptisms, and funerals for much of the jazz community, including those of Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie. Duke Ellington, a close friend and confidant, dedicated part of his Second Sacred Concert, The Shepard (Who Watches Over the Night Flock) to Gensel.
Joe Morgen, described as a fast talking Broadway-beat publicist, was hired by Ellington in 1957 to manage his public relations. Although he was disliked by Billy Strayhorn and perceived by others as graceless and aggressive, Ellington nonetheless overlooked Morgen's weaknesses. In his memoir Music Is My Mistress Ellington wrote, "I think he does a great job. He is an extraordinary individual, and I always say he is a man who doesn't have the tiniest facet of the devious in his makeup". Regardless of his reputation, Morgen proved highly adept at regaining media attention for Duke Ellington's music through features published in publications such as Look, the New York Times, and Newsweek. Phoebe Jacobs, head of promotion for the Basin Street Nightclub, said, "Joe Morgen made all of that happen. He sold everybody on Ellington." Morgen remained loyal to Ellington long after his death by working with his foundation to produce a benefit show and tribute to Duke to help raise money for the Ellington Cancer Foundation.
Sources
Fuller Up: The Dead Musicians Directory. Rev. John Gensel, 80, Pastor of Jazz Community'
www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/7219/revjohngensel.html.
Ellington, Edward Kennedy Duke. Music is My Mistress. New York: Double Day, 1978. 435.
Hajdu, David. Lush Life, A Biography of Billy Strayhorn. New York: Farrar, Strauss,& Giroux, 1996. 166-169.
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1993 by John Gensel. The collection was turned over to the Archives Center in October 2000, with the Deed of Gift being signed in January 2001 by Gensel's widow. It is unknown clear how the materials came into the possession of Father Gensel from Joe Morgen.
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.
Genre/Form:
Clippings
Black-and-white photographic prints -- Silver gelatin -- 1950-2000
Theater programs -- 1950-1990
Correspondence -- 1950-2000
Music -- Manuscripts
Programs -- Concerts
Programs
Press releases
Citation:
John Gensel Collection of Duke Ellington Materials, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Art Thieme was a noted folk singer who recorded many traditional ballads and folk songs from midwestern states. This collection is a series of 459 color slides documenting folk musicians and folk music, in both concert settings and informal portraiture, all taken by the donor.
Scope and Contents:
459 35mm color slides documenting folk musicians and folk music, in both concert settings and informal portraiture, all taken by the donor, Art Thieme, a noted folksinger. Subjects include such well-known performers as Stephen Wade, the New Lost City Ramblers, Mike Seeger, Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Jack Elliott, Ike Everly, B.B. King, Dave Edmonson, Ray Harris, Kenny Baker, Tom Paxton, John Hammond, Bill Monroe, Justin Bishop, Steve Goodman, Cathy Fink, Wes Asbury, Ron F. Kirkpatrick, Doc Watson, Jim Kweskin, and Lightnin' Hopkins, and other notables such as oral historian Studs Terkel. The collection also contains a CD with Thieme's recordings and a folder of newspaper clippings, a program, and a map of local folk singers across the country. The slides are unarranged, but most slides have names, places, and dates.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Art Thieme was born on July 9, 1941 in Chicago, Illinois. He becamea noted folk singer. He launched his career at a Hyde Park, Chicago club, the Limelight, in 1959 and went on to perform for many years at a coffeehouse called No Exit, also in Chicago. Touring all over the country, he photographed and recorded many folk singers and concerts, documented in this collection. At the end of his career, he performed on the steamboats Julia Belle Swain, Twilight on the Mississippi, and Illinois Rivers. He has recorded traditional folk songs rendered by himself for Folk Legacy Records. Thieme died on May 26, 2015.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Art Thieme in 2012.
Restrictions:
The 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.
Unrestricted research use on site by appointment. Photographs must be handled with cotton gloves unless protected by sleeves.
Collection 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.
Unrestricted research use on site by appointment. Photographs must be handled with cotton gloves unless protected by sleeves.
Collection 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.
Fourteen color photographic prints by Christina Patoski, depicting front-lawn and front-porch holiday displays (primarily Christmas) in various U.S. cities.
Scope and Contents:
The fourteen photographs in this group are Cibachrome prints from 35mm. Kodachrome slides, documenting front-lawn and front-porch holiday displays (primarily Christmas) in various U.S. cities, including a variety of economic, ethnic, and regional groups, architectural genres, and decorating styles, documenting a "unique seasonal custom found only in America." Several images suggest attempts to broaden the cultural/religious basis of the celebration, combining Jewish traditions with the Christmas decorating tradition. Cities documented are Denver, Fort Worth, Minneapolis, Sun Valley (Idaho), Manhattan and Brooklyn, N.Y., Corpus Christi, Dallas, Ft. Lauderdale, New Orleans, and Santa Fe.
The Cibachrome prints are horizontal on 16" x 20" paper, with 22" x 28" mats, except for "Holiday Spectacular," which was used on an introductory panel in ta national Museum of American History exhibition, without a mat.
Arrangement:
Collection is unarranged.
Biographical / Historical:
Photographer, documentary producer, and journalist, Christina Patoski began photographing front-lawn and front-porch Christmas displays in 1973, in Fort Worth, Texas, beginning with a house on Diaz Street in the Como neighborhood. She called the photograph "Red Extravaganza," and it inspired her to photograph other houses. Driving up and down Fort Worth Streets at Christmastime with her saxophonist husband Johnny Reno, she worked exclusively at night. Concentrating at first on the most elaborate displays, she later sought simpler, more personal decorations, and became more discriminating. She repeated in many areas of the country as part of an ongoing project spread over many years. She is interested in documenting "unusual" elements of popular culture within a variety of topical fields.
She told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "I've seen so much, that for me to stop and take a photo now, it has to be something special… I've noticed, though, that there are a lot of houses decorated this year. And to me, that indicates a sense of optimism… when people decorate, there's a sense of good feeling."
Her photographic technique is simple, employing two fifteen-year-old 35mm cameras and low-speed Kodachrome film, using commercial processing. She has been photographing since she was a child, when her father encouraged her. Graduating from the University of Minnesota School of Journalism, she spent several years in Minneapolis as a dancer, choreographer, and television editor. She returned to Fort Worth in 1976 to work in television news, but since 1979 has been a free-lance writer, radio reporter (contributing to National Public Radio's "All Things Considered), and a producer and writer.
She is interested in documenting unusual elements of popular culture (what she calls "weirdness"), such as her Texas Monthly story, illustrated with her portraits, on Texas women with "big" hair. She maintains files on longhorn steer, pyromaniacs, tornadoes, and cheerleading, and considers herself a "Margaret Mead of popular culture."
Sources
Jackie Koszczuk and Janet Tyson, "A Sense of the festive: Photographer captures home-grown Christmas Art," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Section E, December 25, 1993, pp. 1, 4.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Christina Patoski, December 14, 1994.
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:
Christina Patoski retains copyright. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Christianity and other religions -- Judaism -- Holiday decorations -- 1970-2000 Search this
[Photograph title], Christina Patoski Holiday Photoprints, 1973-1992, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Copyright Christina Patoski. Gift of the artist.
The Farber collection documents images of celebrated American buildings by photographer Joseph C. Farber.
Scope and Contents note:
The Farber collection is filled with well-crafted and often very beautiful images of celebrated American buildings. Many of the images, which for the most part take the form of 11" x 14" black-and-white photoprints, explore the European Renaissance origins of American architecture. The collection is also very rich in color transparencies. Nearly all the images are directly related to published projects, specifically photo-essays in the shape of articles , many of which appeared in the magazine Antiques or newspapers. Farber probably would have wished for all of his photographs to have been published. Many were shown in exhibitions, as evidenced by the large proportion of the photoprints that are mounted and also the existence of correspondence files relating to such matters. There are also files related to the processes of conceiving, executing, and publishing his photographic work.
The images for the books are nearly all black-and-white, whereas magazine work, especially the commissions from Antiques, generated the most transparencies. In addition to the images in print and transparency form, and the associated proof sheets and negatives, there is also a great quantity of slides related to travel in the collection, which predate Farber's second career as a professional photographer. A tiny sampling of earlier photographs, mostly with artistic or family-and-personal themes, is also included.
Black-and-white negatives, black-and-white prints, and color transparencies, mostly created for specific book projects, articles in Antiques magazine, etc. Generally, color was used for magazine articles, while black-and-white images were intended for books. Collection also includes photographs of personal or family significance, and some early artistic efforts. Non-pictorial portion consists primarily of material related to Farber's publications: correspondence, galley proofs, reviews, etc.
Photographs include projects related to Thomas Jefferson (e.g., Monticello), classical architecture, Essex, Connecticut, etc. Buildings photographed include Raleigh's Tavern, Williamsburg, Va.; Independence Hall, Philadelphia; Maison Carree, Nimes, France; St. Paul's Chapel, Boston, Mass.; White House, Washington; New York City landmarks; sites in Springfield and New Salem, Ill., associated with Abraham Lincoln; historic buildings in Boston and Cambridge,Mass.; Hannibal, Mo.; Deerfield, Mass.; New England churches and meetinghouses; and buildings and objects from ancient Greece, which were published with excerpts from Herodotus' History of the Pelopponesian Wars (Farber called this group of images "Herodotus"); and Italian villas designed by Andrea Palladio, such as the Villa Rotunda. Some pictures relating to themes of democracy were inspired by the U.S. Bicentennial celebration.
Arrangement:
Divided into five series.
Series 1: Photographs
Series 2: Photonegatives and Contact Sheets
Series 3: Textual Materials
Series 4: Color Slides and Transparencies
Series 5: Books
Biographical/Historical note:
Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1902, Joseph C. Farber he attended the New York Military Academy, and later Columbia College, where his formal studies included chemistry and art composition. While these were excellent preparation for subsequent employment in the family business, Friedman Blau Farber, Manufacturers of Knitted Outerwear, at Columbia he discovered the true love of his life, the art and craft of photography. He became involved in the New York Camera Club. For the rest of his life he would consider himself a protégé of the Club's resident guru, famed photographer Edward Steichen. Farber's work was first shown in the Fifth Annual Exhibition of Work by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen at the Cleveland Museum of Art in late spring 1923, and he taught photography to summer campers. Later, throughout 39 years of employment in the garment business, he continued to enjoy and practice photography, especially in making portraits of good friends. He married Caroline Feiss, also a Cleveland native and a promising watercolor artist. In 1939 the Farber's moved to New York.
According to his daughter, Dr. Joan Farber, her father purchased a large format Linhof field camera during a 1958 visit with his son Thomas in Germany. The Linhof camera front can be shifted to provide corrections for architectural photography which are not possible with smaller cameras. After Joan headed to college the Farbers had time for increased travel. They were accompanied by their daughter on a trip to Greece in summer 1960 which included photographs of herself, an attractive, sophisticated college coed, stylishly dressed and coifed for the occasion, posed on the steps of the Parthenon. A trip to Spain the following year resulted in many dozens of 35mm color images, part of a large group of travel slides.
This was also the period in Farber's life that a whirlwind round-the-world trip was undertaken, with visits to Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Hawaii, and California. By the end of the next year, the Farbers were renting as a vacation home a converted button factory in Essex, Connecticut, a former shipbuilding town on the Connecticut River, as a vacation home. Within months Farber had retired from his design and executive responsibilities at the Campus Sweater and Sportswear Company in Manhattan to live for a year in Essex. There were also trips more abroad, particularly to Greece and Egypt, while the Farbers continued to maintain an apartment in New York. Climbing a mountain in Greece in summer 1967, Farber suffered a heart attack, from which he fully recovered.
In 1969 his new career was launched by the publication of Portrait of Essex by Barre Publishers. Local historian Marie Moore supplied the text to accompany Farber's evocative photographs of the ships, shops, shores, streets, and historic structures of this seafaring town. His brother-in-law Carl Feiss, F.A.I.A., furnished the Introduction.
In 1971, Farber and Wendell Garrett published his first Jefferson book, The Worlds of Thomas Jefferson followed by their second, Thomas Jefferson Redivivus Garrett, who edited the Adams Papers wrote the text, with the help of excerpts from the writings of Jefferson himself. The following summer one of Farber's Monticello views was featured on the cover of Antiques. In 1973 Farber was credited with three covers and a frontispiece for the magazine, as well as three photographic essays. The subjects ranged from Sculpture at the Boston Atheneum to The Villas of Andrea Palladio to The Architecture of Lavius Fillmore Garrett introduced Farber to Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer who hired Farber as photographer to help illustrate his Prints of Abraham Lincoln, which appeared in the annual presidents' birthday number of Antiques the next year, February 1974. Some Contemporary Paintings of Abraham Lincoln appeared twelve months later. Three more Lincoln-themed articles appeared in February issues of Antiques in 1978, 1979, and 1980: Sculptures of Abraham Lincoln From Life, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and Here Lincoln Lived: New Salem and Springfield, Illinois.
Two more books of Farber's photographs were published in 1975. Democracy's First Struggle was an account of the Peloponnesian Wars in the words of Herodotus, as edited from the Aubrey de Selincourt with translation by Farber. The photographic images dated back to the family trips to Greece in the early 1960s. Native Americans: 500 Years After was published by Thomas J. Crowell in 1975 with text by Michael Dorris. Following Native Americans came a series of exhibitions of photographs from the book including shows at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution), Dartmouth College, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History .
Also in the mid -1970s a cover story in Antiques entitled "The Architectural Heritage of New York City" led to an exhibition at the Abigail Adams Smith House. In the late '70s two more exhibitions were staged, featuring scenes of local color at the dedication of the East Haddam (Connecticut) Historical Society in the summer of 1979 and showing buildings by Palladio at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (New York City.)
In 1980 Farber's interior view of a basilica, Palladio's Redentore church in Venice, was featured on the cover of Antiques. The photographs became the subject of a book, Palladio's Architecture and Its Influence authored by architectural historian, Henry Hope Reed.
Harold Holzer organized many joint photographic trips revolving around Holzer's career in the public relations department of Channel 13, New York's public television station. Each summer for four years in succession they set off to diverse spots to make publicity shoots for upcoming special programming. First was Missouri to photograph Mark Twain sites for a dramatization of "Life Along the Mississippi". The next summer they headed to the Berkshires to document The Mount, the home of Edith Wharton in Lenox, Massachusetts, around whose life and work a mini-series in three parts was planned. The summer trip of 1982 was a return visit to Massachusetts to photograph The Street, Deerfield's historic thoroughfare, combined with a side trip across the border to the Robert Todd Lincoln home, Hildene, in Manchester, Vermont.
In 1982 Farber was commissioned by Architectural Digest magazine to photograph the Mark Twain residence in Hartford. Farber and Holzer succeeded in the early to mid-1980s in getting Farber's out-takes from their Channel 13 trips published together with his carefully worded scripts in such periodicals as American History Illustrated and in Antiques & The Arts Weekly. Many of Farber's pictures were printed in articles in Antique Trader, to which Holzer was a regular contributor. In 1983, when Farber turned 80, his color images of the interior spaces of the Metropolitan Club of New York were published in a book by the same name, written by Paul Porzelt. In his travels in the last decade of his life he was often accompanied by family friend Ethel Phillips, including a tour of Great Britain in the summer of 1987. With Mrs. Phillips he at one time had contemplated publishing a book on the historic mansions of the Hudson River. Two other unrealized projects, upon his death in 1994 at the age of 91, were books on the classical architecture of New York City and on the history and daily lives of Hispanic Americans in the United States.
Biographical Time Line:
Biographical Time Line for Joseph C. Farber
Biographical Time Line
1903 -- Born Cleveland, Ohio
1910s -- At New York Military Academy
1920s -- At Columbia College, studying chemistry, art composition; studies photography with Edward Steichen in Camera Club; teaches photography as camp counselor
1923 -- Participates in Fifth Annual Exhibition of Work by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen at Cleveland Museum of Art (May 1-June 3)
1926 -- Takes job as "salesman and experimental worker" at Friedman Blau Farber, Mfg. Knitted Outerwear," Cleveland; Marriage to Caroline Feiss, Cleveland native and watercolor artist
1933 -- Son Thomas Feiss born at Cleveland
1936 -- Daughter Joan born
1930s -- Family moves to New York
1958 -- Visit to son in Germany; purchase of Linhof camera; daughter off to college
1960 -- Trip to Greece, daughter along
1961 -- To Spain
1963 -- Death of son in mountaineering accident; to Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Hawaii, California
1964 -- Rents former button factory in Essex, Connecticut as vacation home
1965 -- Retirement from Campus Sweater & Sportswear Company; Living in Essex
1966 -- To Greece
1967 -- To Egypt and Greece; heart attack ; Essex (summer?)
1969 -- Portrait of Essex published, text by Marie Moore; into by Carl Feiss, AIA (Barre)
1970 -- Trip to Bermuda
1971 -- Thomas Jefferson Redivus published, text by Wendell Garrett, Editor of The Magazine Antiques (Barre); Farber introduced to "Jefferson circle"; Vacations in Essex and Florida
1972 -- Monticello images published in Antiques
1973 -- Photographs of sculpture at the Boston Atheneum, the Maison Carree at Nimes (France): the villas of Andrea Palladio in Vicenza and environs (Italy) and the architecture of Lavius Fillmore (Connecticut and Vermont) published in Antiques
1974 -- Images of Abraham Lincoln prints published in Antiques: accompanying article is by Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer; beginning of ten-year collaboration
1975 -- Photographs of Lincoln portraits in Antiques, Holzer text Democracy's First Struggle published, based on Herodotus' Histories of Greece (Crown); Native Americans: 500 Years Afterpublished (Thomas Crowell)
1976 -- Exhibitions of photographs of Native Americans at National Museum of Natural History, Dartmouth College, and Cleveland Museum of Natural History; Images of historic New York City buildings in Antiques, text by Elizabeth Donaghty Garrett; Exhibition of photographs of New York City landmarks at Abigail Adams House, New York City.
1978 -- Photographs of Lincoln sculptures, with Holzer, in Antiques
1979 -- Images of Lincoln and George Washington, sculpture of John Rogers, and sculpture of U.S. Capitol published in Antiques, with Holzer; Exhibition of photographs at East Haddam Historical Society; Exhibition of Palladio photographs at Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York City.
1980 -- Palladio's Architecture and Its Influence published, with Henry Hope Reed (Dover) ; Venice image (church interior) published on Antiques cover; Death of wife; "Caroline Fund" established at Cooper Union; Teaches photography in local high school; To Missouri with Holzer to photograph Mark Twain sites for Channel 13
1981 -- Images of Lincoln sites published in black and white in Antiques with Holzer (should have been in color); Summer trip to Berkshires with Holzer to photograph Edith Wharton home
1982 -- Commissioned to photograph Mark Twain house in Hartford for Architectural Digest; Images of The Mount, Edith Wharton's home in Lenox, Mass., published in American History Illustrated with Holzer; Summer trip to Massachusetts and Vermont with Holzer to photograph "The Street," Deerfield (Channel 13) and Hildene, Robert Todd Lincoln home in Manchester
1983 -- Images of Mark Twain sites in Hannibal, Missouri published in American History Illustrated with Holzer; Summer trip to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia with Holzer (Channel 13); Harper's Ferry images published in Antique Trader with Holzer Deerfield, Massachusetts images published in Antiques & The Arts Weekly with Holzer; The Metropolitan Club of New York published, with Paul Porzelt (Rizzoli)
1984 -- Images of Hildene published in Antique Traderwith Holzer
1985 -- Images of Rebecca Nurse Homestead, Old Salem, Massachusetts published in Antique Traderwith Holzer
1987 -- Tour of Great Britain with Ethel Phillips (summer?)
1994 -- Died, New York City, New York
Related Archival Materials:
Other Materials at the Smithsonian Institution
National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
Joseph C. Farber photographs of American Indian life, circa 1970-1975
Photographs made as part of Joseph C. Farber's project to document modern American Indian everyday life. Represented tribes include the Acoma, Apache, Blackfoot, Chehalis, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Cocopa, Dakota, Eskimo, Haida, Kiowa, Kutenai, Lummi, Mohave, Mohawk, Navaho, Northern Athabascan, Onandaga, Pima, Pueblo, Quinalt, Seminole, Taos, Tlingit, and Zuni. Subject coverage is broad and varies from tribe to tribe. Included are portraits, as well as totem poles, carving, weaving, pottery, painitng, landscapes, boats and canoes, ceremonial regalia, camps, classes and vocational training, homes and traditional dwellings, construction projects, rodeos and powwows, dances, industries (including lumber), herding and ranching, agriculture, stores and storefronts, cliff dwellings, parades, crab cleaning, fishing, games, health care, legal processes, music, office work, sewing, vending, and a funeral. There are also photographs of R. C. Gorman (and a letter from Gorman to Farber) and Fritz Shoulder (some in color).
Provenance:
Collection donated by Dr. Joan Farber, 1994.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Photographs published in Joseph C. Farber's books are still under copyright. Reproduction permission from the Joseph C. Farber's estate is required. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
1 Item (35mm slide on film in paper mount., 2" x 2".)
Container:
Box 16
Type:
Archival materials
Proofs
Date:
1961
Scope and Contents:
Slide of color proof sheet (reproduction of photograph) of model dressed as a cowboy; photographer unidentified.
Local Numbers:
AC0198-0000006 (AC Scan)
Restrictions:
Unrestricted research use on site by appointment. Photographs must be handled with cotton gloves unless protected by sleeves.
Collection Rights:
In making these materials available for research, the Smithsonian Institution makes no claims of ownership of the copyrights or related rights. All responsibility for infringement of legal authorship rights and or copyright is assumed by the user of the materials. In addition, the user indemnifies and holds harmless the Smithsonian Institution for all claims, actions, damages, judgments and expenses that may result from use of these materials.
In addition, the donor has imposed restrictions on reproduction or broadcast of collection materials by third parties. The reproduction or broadcast of print ads and television commercials in the collection is subject to prior written consent from: Nancy Lund, Vice President, Marketing,Philip Morris International, 120 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017;(917) 663-5000
