Search Results

Creator:

Terrell, James W.  Search this

Collector:

Mooney, James, 1861-1921  Search this

Names:

Smith, Sibbald  Search this

Extent:

51 Pages

Culture:

Cherokee  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Date:

May 1, 1864

Scope and Contents:

Includes preliminary correspondence, 9 pages. Census of Cherokee Indians who remained in the state of North Carolina at the time of the ratification of the Treaty of New Echota, May 23, 1836, comprising 1517 names.

Photostat copy, 60 sheets, approximately 11 x 14 in., plus 1-page copy of letter of C. G. Abbot, Secretary, Smithsonian Institution to the Hon Zebulon Weaver, United States House of Representatives.

Local Numbers:

NAA MS 1926

Topic:

Census -- Cherokee  Search this

Citation:

Manuscript 1926, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NAA.MS1926

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw3557c0ef9-732d-4514-a45a-7d57e07b6a2a

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-ms1926

Collector:

Swanton, John Reed, 1873-1958  Search this

Creator:

Walker, John  Search this

Harrison, Fairfax, 1869-1938  Search this

Addressee:

Jennings, Edmund  Search this

Bushnell, David I., Jr. (David Ives), 1875-1941  Search this

Names:

Lamhatty  Search this

Walker, John  Search this

Culture:

Tawasa  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Date:

undated

Scope and Contents:

Contents: Letter of John Walker [to Edmund Jennings] concerning Lamhatty, a Tawasa Indian refugee, enclosing a vocabulary obtained from him. January 16, 1707/8. Photostat copy of Autograph letter signed and A. enclosure in Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia. 2 pages. Letter of John Walker [to Edmund Jennings] concerning military commissions. June 12, 1707. Photostat copy of Autograph letter signed in Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia. 1 page. Letter of Fairfax Harrison to D. I. Bushnell, Jr. enclosing transcripts of these two letters and a brief biographical note on John Walker. August 10, 1928. Typescript letter signed. 1 page. Enclosures: Typescript Document with A. notations. 3 pages.

Local Numbers:

NAA MS 4164

Topic:

U. S. Army -- military commissions  Search this

Language and languages -- Documentation  Search this

Indians of North America -- Southern states  Search this

Citation:

Manuscript 4164, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NAA.MS4164

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw3e84330b2-e40e-4171-8cb2-6abc62dfce3d

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-ms4164

Collector:

Mooney, James, 1861-1921  Search this

Correspondent:

Coulter, John M.  Search this

Fisher, C. H.  Search this

Marques, Don  Search this

Rithwick, J. T. ?  Search this

Simmins, C. S.  Search this

Gordon, R. H.  Search this

Barker, B. F.  Search this

Briggs, J. R.  Search this

Ewell, E. E.  Search this

Fuchs, Ernesto  Search this

Hadley, J. W.  Search this

McGee, W J, 1853-1912  Search this

Prentiss, D. Webster  Search this

Creator:

Parker, A. C.  Search this

Meeker, Louis P.  Search this

Addressee:

Morgan, Francis P., Dr.  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Newsclippings

Photographs

Date:

undated

Scope and Contents:

Letters from the Department of Interior, Office of Indian Affairs, Letters from the Department of Agriculture. One letter each from the following: Coulter, John M.- University of Chicago. Fisher, C. H.. Chihuahua. Marques, Don, Pueblo, New Mexico. Parker, A. C., University of the State of New York. Rithwick (?), J. T., West Chester, Pennsylvania. Three letters from Simmons, C. S., Cache, Oklahoma. One letter from R. H. Gordon to Dr Francis P. Morgan, Washington, D. C. Copies of letters from the following: Barker, B. F., Ojueles, Texas. (1) Briggs, J. R., M.D., Dallas, Texas. (1) Ewell, E. E., Washington, D. C. (2) Fuchs, Ernesto, Guadalajara, Mexico (1). Hadley, J. W., Lawton, Oklahoma. (1). McGee, W. J., Ethnologist-in-Charge (1). Prentiss, D. Webster, Bermuda, inclosing reports of effect of Peyote on various individuals. (1)

16 cards 4 1/2 x 6 1/2"- with Peyote notes. 1 list of Peyote reference books. 14 sheets from stenographer's note book containing Peyote notes. 11 sheets, 7 x 4 1/4", containing Theodate Smith notes. 58 pages- 11 x 8 1/2"- Manuscript of "The Peyote Road", by C. S. Simmons. [ca. 1912 +] [dated by Mooney] One letter and account of the Mescal Bean, from Louis P. Meeker, Darlington, Oklahoma. 8 pages total. Article on "Huskanawing"- Virginia," Beverly, History of Virginia, 175- 80, 1722, "Huskanawing- North Carolina", and Yaupon Myth.-Lawson, History of Carolina, 1714. "Peyote", by (?) Mitchell. Peyote Parallels, Brazil- Extract from Southey's History of Brazil. Extracts from Heffter- Ueber Pellote- 10 pages. Extract from Havelock's article "A new Artificial Paradise". Extract from Historia de la Compania de Jesus en Nueva Espana, by Francisco Jan'er Alegre. Extract from Rudo Ensayo (1760)- translation. Extract from Mexican Institute Medico Nacional.-translation. Extract from Lumholz, in Journal de la Societe Des Americanistes de Paris, 1899. 5 pages in Spanish. (article). Extract from Prentiss Morgan "Mescal Buttons", Medical Rec., New York 1896. Article in regard to the prejudice against Peyote as shown by the newspapers. Author's name not given. Pages 3, 4, and 5 of an article on Peyote (carbon copy). (Pages 1 and 2 and final sheets missing). One small pasteboard box containing specimens of Peyote. Printed Song, (Tam Hoscua). Extract from Current Literature (1895) on Hasheesh Eating. Extract from Medical Record (October 1895) on Mescal Buttons. Newspaper clippings. House Bills regarding Peyote. Copies of Congressional Record. 1 copy of "Apuntes Para la Historia de la Medicina en Michoacan, por El Dr. Nicolas Leon.

Copies of the following publications: "Mescal Buttons", pamphlet by D. W. Prentiss. Mescal Buttons, Reprint from the Theraputic Gazette, January 1896. Anhalonium Lewinii (Mescal Buttons)- Reprint from the Theraputic Gazette, September 1895. Contributions from ther U. S. National Herbarium, 1892-94 and -96. (3 copies) Theraputic Gazette, January 1896 (one copy) Samoan Kava Custom, by William Churchill (Extract from Holmes Anniversary Volume). Ethnos, Mexican Medical publican- April 1920 (1 copy). Cahoba, Indentity of- the narcotic snuff of ancient Haiti, Reprint from Jounal of Was. Acad. of Sc. 1916. Photostat copies from various publications, regarding Peyote (in sizes varying from 10 x 8 1/2" to 1 1/2 x 3 1/2"). 5 photos showing Peyote plant. 2 small boxes of peyote transferred to United States National Museum 2/11/55. (Letter of Stirling to Kellogg.)

List of Contents by David F. Aberle, May 2, 1952. Bureau of American Ethnology File 2537. Peyote. James Mooney. Miscellaneous material regarding Peyote. Also see File 1887. Manila envelope containing various bibliographical leads and so on, and notes regarding congressional hearings on peyote. I have taken the considerable liberty of sorting some of the remainder of the material into manila folders. These are grouped as follows: Chemistry and Botany. Therapeutic uses (by this is meant therapeutic use in Western medicine, not Indian), and Effects- visions, etc. (Accounts of experiences, etc.) Ethnology, bibliography, and miscellaneous. Accounts of use in various areas, bibliographical leads, mainly Spanish, comprise the bulk of this-only 2 items of Miscellaneous, in fact. Legislation and agitation: congressional hearings, newspaper article, etc. "Peyote Parallels": Marijuana and other drugs. Mooney apparently tried to cover Marijuana, Kava, some South American drugs, etc. In addition to the manila envelope and these manila folders, the following are in this file: 5 sheets of photographs of peyote plants. A manuscript on peyote by C. S. Simmons, Cache, Oklahoma: The Peyote Road. There are also letters to, from, and about the author. The manuscript is not complete. It includes: poetry, preface; Chapter I, Fight on the Indian Religion; II, the Missionary; III, the Rites of the Road; IV, The Drum; VI, Medicine Smoking; VII, healing the sick; XI, Unity; VIII, Physical and Psychical Phenomena; XIII, the Awakening; XIV, the Means to Power; XV, Psychometry-the awakening of the spiritual senses; XVI, the peyote in science and medicine; XVII, The explanation; XVIII, Indian Singing; Appendix- correspondence with congressmen, etc, re Peyote. Chapters 5, 9, 10, 12 are missing. Typescript of chapters 9, 10, 12 received 1968 from Simmons' granddaughter and correspondence, 6 pages. Author, a white man, an ardent peyotist, friend of Quanah Parker, his accounts of his own experiences have considerable interest, and there is also some valuable information in it. He was a complete mystic. Apparently Mooney planned to publish this. A notebook bound in olive cloth, 5 x 8, with 39 pages filled, and 2 bibliographic notes in the very back. The notebook seems to contain, among other things, detailed notes on actual meetings, but hard to read.

Local Numbers:

NAA MS 2537

Topic:

Botany -- Peyote  Search this

Drugs -- Peyote  Search this

Drugs -- mescal  Search this

Drugs -- Kava  Search this

Drugs -- marijuana  Search this

Medicine -- peyote, therapeutic uses  Search this

Religion -- peyote visions  Search this

Genre/Form:

Newsclippings

Photographs

Citation:

Manuscript 2537, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NAA.MS2537

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw3479402e9-16b5-4a7f-9b76-527977315254

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-ms2537

Creator:

Harrington, John Peabody, 1884-1961  Search this

Names:

Geronimo, 1829-1909  Search this

Extent:

683 Linear feet

Culture:

Indians of Central America  Search this

Indians of North America  Search this

Indians of South America  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sound recordings

Maps

Stats (copies)

Newspaper clippings

Printed material

Photographs

Botanical specimens

Field notes

Correspondence

Financial records

Personal records

Poetry

Writings

Date:

1907-1959 (some earlier)

Summary:

Harrington was a Bureau of American Ethnology ethnologist involved in the study of over one hundred American tribes. His speciality was linguistics. Most of the material concerns California, southwestern, northwestern tribes and includes ethnological, archeological, historical notes; writings, correspondence, photographs, sound recordings, biological specimens, and other types of documents. Also of concern are general linguistics, sign language, writing systems, writing machines, and sound recordings machines. There is also some material on New World Spanish, Old World languages. In addition, there are many manuscripts of writings that Harrington sketched, partially completed, or even completed but never published. The latter group includes not only writings about anthropological subjects but also histories, ranging from a biography of Geronimo to material on the history of the typewriter. The collection incorporates material of Richard Lynch Garner, Matilda Coxe Stevenson, and others. In his field work, Harrington seems sometimes to have worked within fairly firm formats, this especially being true when he was "rehearing" material, that is in using an informant to verify and correct the work of other researchers. Often, however, the interviews with informants (and this seems to have been the case even with some "rehearings") seem to have been rather free form, for there is a considerable intertwining of subjects. Nevertheless, certain themes frequently appear in his work, including annotated vocabularies concerning flora and fauna and their use, topography, history and biography, kinship, cosmology (including tribal astronomy), religion and philosophy, names and observations concerning neighboring tribes, sex and age division, material culture, legends, and songs. The fullness of such materials seems to have been limited only by the time Harrington had to spend with a goup and the knowledge of his informants.

Arrangement:

(Some of the titles are tentative). Papers relating to Alaska/Northwest Coast, including (1) Aleut; (2) Tlingit/Eyak; (3) Northern Athapascan (Beaver, Carrier, Chipewyan, Sarsi, Sekani, Cree); (4) Nicola/Thompson; (5) Lummi/Nespelem; (6) Duwamish; (7) Chimakum/Clallam; (8) Makah/Quileute; (9) Quinault/Chehalis/Cowlit; (10) Chinook/Chinook Jargon; (11) "Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanai"; (12) Tillamook, (13) Alsea/Siuslaw/Coos; (14) Southwest Oregon Athapascan (Chasta Costa, Chetco, Upper Coquille, "Gold Beach", Smith River, Tolowa, Tutini, Upper Umpqua), (14) Galice/Applegate; (15) Takelma, general and miscellaneous; (16) Klamath; (17) Wiyot/Yurok/Mattole; (18) Coast Yuki/Northern and Central Pomo/Kato; (19) Coast Miwok; (20) Lake and Coast Miwok/Southeastern Pomo/Wappo; (21) Nisenan/Northern Sierra Miwok; (22) Southern Pomo/Central Sierra Miwok; (23) Karok/Shasta/Konomihu; (24) Chimariko/Hupo; (25) Achomawi/Atsugewi/Wintu/Yana; (26) Chamariko/Achomawi/Atsugewi/Wintu/Yana; (27) Costanoan (Chocheno, Mutsun, Tumsen); (28) Salinan (Antoinano, Migueleno); (29) Yokuts (Chunut, Tachi, Wikchamni, Yawdanchi, Yawelmani, Koyeti); (30) general and miscellaneous; papers relating to southern California and the Basin area,

including (31) Chumash (Barbareno, Cruzeno, Ineseno, Obispeno, Purisimeno, Ventureno); (32) Chauilla; (33) Chemehuevi; (34) Gabrielino; (35) Juaneno; (36) Kitanemuk; (37) Luiseno; (38) Serrano; (39) Tubatulabal; (40) Diegueno; (41) Mohave/Yuma; (42) general and miscellaneous; papers relating to the Southwest, including (43) Apache; (44) Hopi; (45) Jemez; (46) Acoma/Laguna; (47) Cochiti; (48) Navaho; (49) Pima/Papago; (50) Illeta; (51) Taos; (52) Picuris; (53) Tewa; (54) Zuni; (55) general and miscellaneous; papers relating to the Plains, including (56) Comanche; (57) Caddo/Pawnee/Wichita; (58) Dakota/Lakota; (59) Hidatso/Mandan/Crow;

(92) general and miscellaneous; notes and writings on special linguistic studies, including (93) correspondence; (94) financial records; (95) personal records; (96) poetry; (97) newspaper clippings; (98) printed material/reprints/photostats/microfilm; (99) maps; (100) photographs (101) sound recordings; (102) botanical specimens

Joseph S. Danner, Edward S. Davis, Ella C. Deloria, Frances Densmore, Paul Desiardins, Lydia Dornherr, Harry W. Dorsey, Frederick Huntington Douglas, David C. Dozi, Edward P. Dozi, Robert Drak Aitken), Rose S. Gaffney, David E. Gales, S. H. Gapp, Clark M. Garber, Lucrlson Fenton, Jesse Walter Fewkes, Reginald G. Fisher, Barbara Freire-Marreco (see also Barbara Aitken), Rose S. Gaffney, David E. Gales, S. H. Gapp, Clark M. Garber, Lucretia Garcia, Maria Garcia, Paul Garcia, Walter C. Garwick, William Gates, Ja Gapp, Clark M. Garber, Lucretia Garcia, Maria Garcia, Paul Garcia, Walter C. Garwick, William Gates, James A Geary, Otto William Geist,

Richard H. Geoghegan, Harold S. Gladwin, Pliny Earle Goddard, T. R. Goodwin, Howard W. Gorman, Blanche C. Grant, George Grasty, Louis H. Gray, Alexander Grigolia, Alexandra Gromoff, F. A. Gross, Ruther Gruber, Erwin G. Gudde, Grace Guest, Ralph Gustafson, Berard Haile, Alfred Irving Hallowell, Howard M. Hamblin, Lucile Hamner, Adelaide Harrington, Arthur Harrington, Awona Harrington, Edmund Ross Harrington, Elliot Harrington, Mark Raymond Harrington, Robert Fleming Heizer, Marta Herrera (Orozoco), Melville Jean Herskovits, Edgar Lee Hewett, George Gustave Heye,

Thomas Willing Hicks, Willard Williams Hill, William B. Hill, Philip K. Hitti, Hulda R. Hobbs (Heidel), Frederick Webb Hodge, Robert Hofsinde, W. C. Holden, Nils Homer, R. B. Horsefield, James Hovey, Grace Hudson, John W. Hudson, William Hughes, Edward P. Hunt, George Hunt, Wayne Henry (Wolf Robe) Hunt, Arnold J. Jacobins, Jean Allard Jge, George M. Lamsa, William T. Linkins, Ralph Linton, Alan Lomax, Theodore R. Lonewolf, uis Kroeber, Benjamin T. Kurtz, Walter and Hilda Kurze, Oliver LaFarge, George M. Lamsa, William T. Linkins, Ralph Linton, Alan Lomax, Theodore R. Lonewolf,

Boas Long, Ivan Alexis Lopatin, Robert Harry Lowie, Charles F. Lummis, Phoebe Maddux, Frank Marashulo, Frank Marr, John Marr, Edna P. Marsh, Gordon H. Marsh, William B. Marye, Elizabeth Mason, John Alden Mason, Anna P. Mattinger, Wayne L. Mauzy, William Ralph Maxon, Parker McKenzie, F. Romero Mendez, Clinton Hart Merriam, E. Vigo Mestres, Truman Michelson, Harry E. Miller, Ralph L. Milliken, William S. Mills, Willie Miranda, Albert Mohr, Dionisia Mondragon, Manuel Mondragon, Lucy Montgomery, Harriet Moore, Mildred C. Moore, R. E. Moore, Rosalind Moore, Carlos Morales, Marion Moreno, Sylvanus Griswold Morley, Philip A. Munz, O. J. Murie,

Roy Nash, Mrs. W. J. Nichols, Eugene A. Nida, Frans M. Olbrechts, Cornelius Osgood, Asbjorn P. Ousdal, Charles F. Outland, Henry E. Parmenter, Elsie Clews Parsons, A. W. Payne, Ellen Peace, Elizabeth Wells Pearce, Arthur B. Perkins, Mrs. Rodolphe Petter, Kenneth L. Pike, Arnold R. Pilling, Nellie B. Pipes, I. J. Pitman, J. O. Prescott, Erik Kellerman Reed, Nathaniel Julius Reich, Jane Richardson, Arthur Stanley Riggs, Frank Harold Hanna Roberts, Jr., Helen H. Roberts, Clarence M. Ruth, Everett Sanders, Edward Sapir, Charles F. Saunders, F. H. Saville, Paul Schumacher, Donald Scott, Blanche Seeley, Ettie Seeley, Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant,

A. W. Setychell, Jessie Shaw, Anna O. Shepard, Frank T. Siebert, Rita Siedenberg, Albion M. Sitton, Nich Sivonen, H. D. Skinner, Mrs. N. P. Sloan, Clement Smith, Stella Smith, Jack Snow, Maria Soto, Frank Gouldsmith Speck, Robert F. Spencer, Marjorie Spinks, Waldo C. Spraque, Winifred Stamm, Moses Steinberg Marian Stirling, Matthew Williams Stirling, William Duncan Strong, Edgar Howard Sturtevant, Georgianna Barbara Such, John R. Swanton, Turkey Tayac, Douglass Taylor, Lincoln Thompson, Morjorie L. Tichy, Janet Tietjins, Bennie Tilden, J. R. R. Tolkien, W. Cameron Townsend, George L. Trager, Lovell B. Triggs, Edwin H. Tuttle,

Ruth Underhill, Richard Fowler Van Valkenburgh, Rosendo Vargas, Charles Frederick Voegelin, Paul Vogenitz, James W. Waldo, Paul A. F. Walter, Althea Warren, Fred Washington, Thomas Talbot Waterman, Edith White, Joseph J. White, Leslie A. White, Grace T. Whiting, Robert B. Whitsett, Benjamin Lee Whorf, H. E. Williams, William L. Wonderly, Arthur Woodward, Robert W. Young, and Father Zephyrin of the Santa Barbara Mission.

Restrictions:

The John Peabody Harrington papers are open for research

Access to the John Peabody Harrington papers requires an appointment.

Rights:

Contact the repository for terms of use.

Topic:

Linguistics  Search this

Indians of North America -- Languages  Search this

Ethnomusicology  Search this

Ethnobotany  Search this

Toponymy  Search this

Language and languages -- Documentation  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Maps

Stats (copies)

Newspaper clippings

Printed material

Photographs

Botanical specimens

Field notes

Correspondence -- 1930-1950

Financial records

Personal records

Poetry

Writings

Citation:

John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.

Identifier:

NAA.1976-95

See more items in:

John Peabody Harrington papers

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw31fe9575b-f7aa-4286-9787-0cfc495ab461

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-1976-95

Artist:

Cornell, Joseph  Search this

Names:

Benton, Elizabeth Cornell  Search this

Cornell, Robert  Search this

Extent:

196.8 Linear feet

186 Nitrate negatives

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Nitrate negatives

Photographic photoprints

Photographs

Place:

New York, New York

Date:

1750-1980, bulk 1930-1972

Summary:

The Joseph Cornell Study Center collection measures 196.8 linear feet and dates from 1750 to 1980, with the bulk of the material dating from 1930 to 1972. Documenting the artistic career and personal life of assemblage artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), the collection is primarily made up of two- and three-dimensional source material, the contents of the artists' studio, his record album collection, and his book collection and personal library. The collection also includes diaries and notes, financial and estate papers, exhibition materials, collected artifacts and ephemera, photographs, correspondence, and the papers of Robert Cornell (1910-1965) and Helen Storms Cornell (1882-1966), the artist's brother and mother.

Scope and Contents:

The Joseph Cornell Study Center collection measures 196.8 linear feet and dates from 1750 to 1980, with the bulk of the material dating from 1930 to 1972. Documenting the artistic career and personal life of assemblage artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), the collection is primarily made up of two- and three-dimensional source material, the contents of the artists' studio, his record album collection, and his book collection and personal library. The collection also includes diaries and notes, financial and estate papers, exhibition materials, collected artifacts and ephemera, photographs, correspondence, and the papers of Robert Cornell (1910-1965) and Helen Storms Cornell (1882-1966), the artist's brother and mother.

Correspondence is with collectors, museums, galleries, artists, friends, family, charity organizations, admirers and those admired by Cornell, and World War II European pen pals. Discussions about the appreciation, donation, sale, purchase, and exhibition of Cornell's works are frequent, with the inclusion of shipping and loan documentation or notices of payment installments. Galleries and museums frequently request that Cornell agree to an exhibition, which he often declines, and fans request free works be mailed or affordable works be sold to them. With friends, artists, and those he admired, Cornell discussed topics that fascinate him, included bits of poetry or philosophical musings, sent clippings or a collaged letter, and occasionally discussed a project or work in process. After World War II, when so many were displaced by the war in Europe, Cornell answered ads for pen pals in the "Christian Science Monitor," often responding to requests for clothing or other goods, and sometimes exchanging many letters over several years. Family correspondence is with his mother, sisters, brother, and others, and often notes activities of the day, foods eaten, and general musings, as well as occasionally mentioning a project or artwork. Correspondents of note include Stan Brakhage, Betty Freeman, Charles Henri Ford, Allegra Kent, Yayoi Kusama, Roberto Matta, Marianne Moore, Octavio Paz, Sonia Sekula, Pavel Tchelitchew, Parker Tyler, Dorothea Tanning, and Betsy von Furstenberg, among others.

Cornell was often preoccupied with his thoughts, feelings, memories, a project or thematic "exploration," and jotted notes on seemingly any surface available. Notes and musings are on napkins, the backs of envelopes, newspaper clippings, and paper bags from record and magazine stores. Frequently, an observation would trigger a lengthy nostalgic moment, or a "feé," fairy-like child or girl, would capture his imagination and lead him to thoughts of 18th-century ballerinas and silent film stars. Cornell wrote longer diary notes, sometimes expanding on an earlier notation or emotion, and often wrote when he experienced trouble sleeping or woke early. Drafted letters to imaginary muses or admired individuals are interspersed among diaries, often revealing Cornell's yearnings to find emotional intimacy and human connection. Over time, Cornell revisited his notes and occasionally made further notations about renewed thoughts on a topic, dating the note with "revisited" or "reviewed." Notes are often written in a stream-of-consciousness style, for example, jumping from the mention of a record album or composer, to a ballerina of the same period, a note about a French poet, the memory of childhood, or an observation made earlier in the day, all in the space of a few lines. Notes about artistic processes or meanings behind works or images do occasionally emerge from the tangled, poetic notations. Notes also often provide insights into Cornell's internal emotional state and give clues about his intentions behind an artwork or a particular thematic fixation.

Financial materials document Cornell's professional and personal business activities, including the sale of artworks, annual expenses for supplies and household incidentals, payments and schedules for personal assistants, receipts for donations to charities and nonprofits, and tax documents. There is also information about who worked as assistants, or "helpers," in his later years and where Cornell purchased art supplies. Additionally, specific details are documented through receipts and invoices, such as what kind of paint he purchased. Estate records include preparations made for Cornell's artworks after his death, and clippings about other deceased artist's estates show that he thought often about such arrangements in his later years.

Exhibition files highlight several select solo exhibitions for Cornell, as well as preparations and planning for the "Robert Cornell: Memorial Exhibition" in honor of his brother in 1966. Also included are several early exhibition catalogs and announcements, including "Surréalisme" (January 9-29, 1932) and "Exhibition of Objects (Bibloquet) by Joseph Cornell" (December 6-31, 1939) at the Julien Levy Gallery, and "Romantic Museum: Portraits of Women, Constructions and Arrangements by Joseph Cornell" (December 1946) at the Hugo Gallery.

Film projects and collected film materials consist of files related to Cornell's various experimental film projects: "Aviary," "Cappuccino," "Centuries of June," "Fable for Fountains," "Nymphlight," "Serafina's Garden," and unrealized film scenario "Monsieur Phot." Files include film-making notes, correspondence, and photographs. Cornell's interest in film also led him to collect film-related materials, such as film stills, film posters, and screening programs. Scattered correspondence documents the interest other institutions and individuals had in purchasing and viewing his collection. Though most of his collected film stills and movie posters were donated to the Anthology Film Archives, film stills from "Escape Me Never" (1935) and "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (1928) are still within the collection, as well as film-screening programs for Cornell's collection of films.

Writing and design projects document Cornell's work authoring articles and designing issues of specialty dance magazine "Dance Index," and his layouts for popular magazines like "Good Housekeeping," "House and Garden," and "Mademoiselle." Other writing projects include brochures dedicated to opera singers Maria Malibran and Giulia Grisi, "Maria" and "Bel Canto Pet." Materials used for these brochures, such as copper photo engraving plates, are also found. Design work includes a series of Christmas cards created with The Museum of Modern Art as well as traced patterns ("textile tracings") and design clippings from Cornell's time working as a "textile designer" for Traphagen Commercial Textile Studio.

Cornell acquired troves of source material from bookstalls, antique stores, sporting good and department stores, hardware stores, and magazine and record shops. He kept boxes and files of material on admired individuals, such as actresses, artists, dancers, and singers, as well as on art projects or thematic "explorations." Files are on general topics such as American history, scientific phenomena, animals, plants, and humankind, as well as on series of artworks, such as "Castles," "Homage to the Romantic Ballet," and "Medici Slot Machines." Focused "exploration" projects include "Celestial Theatre," "Colombier," "GC 44," and "Switzerland," among others. Materials include photographs, photostats, maps, book fragments, autographed letters, notes, collage clippings and cutouts, collected prints and engravings, box and collage fragments, and scattered artifacts.

Collected ephemera includes large amounts of blank postcards and greeting cards, stamps, collected bus and train tickets, food labels and packaging, decals, and other materials. Artifacts are three-dimensional collected objects and source objects, which include found objects from the streets, dried flowers, and pieces of nature gathered from walks around his neighborhood. Cornell may have gathered materials because they inspired a memory or nostalgic feeling, or because they fit with a bin of other similar objects to select from for an artwork in progress.

Photographs found within the collection are of Cornell at work and as a child with family. Also found are assorted personal and family photographs, photographs of Cornell's attic and garage storage, and photographs of his Utopia Parkway house. Photographs of artwork include few installation photographs, in addition to photographs of Cornell's boxes and collages. Collected photographic materials include vintage photographs, such as tintypes, a cyanotype, stereoscopic glass slides, albumen prints, cabinet cards, and cartes-de-visite. Cornell also collected cased photographs, such as daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and one opalotype. Negatives and photostats were often produced from various prints and even other photographs and used in Cornell's boxes and collages. Images are of men and women, actors, authors, dancers, performers, well-known men and women, royalty, places, and artwork. Photographs of note include those by Hans Namuth of Willem and Lisa de Kooning and of Edward Hopper's bedroom; photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson; a photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron; photographs by Brassai; and a photogravure by Alfred Stieglitz from "Camerawork."

Also found in the collection are works of art by others, including a sketch by Pavel Tchelitchew, as well as artwork by Cornell, such as unfinished collages, Rorschach drawings or ink blots, and childhood artwork. Printed material includes assorted bulletins, flyers, exhibition materials for other artists, journals, and sent printed membership and charity materials. Magazines, including "View," are also included, and often have annotations by Cornell or a note to "cut" or "review" with page numbers. A large amount of magazine and newspaper clippings are in the collection, sometimes collected with a group of like material by Cornell, and at other times simply gathered in heaps. Occasional annotations are also found on the clippings.

Cornell's personal library and book collection includes over 2500 titles, ranging from fiction, poetry, and cinema, to history, science, and travel. Notable among the titles are "Baedeker's" travel guides that Cornell often sourced for his "Hotel" box series, as well as an influential publication by Max Ernst, "La Femme 100 têtes," which includes a typed letter and exhibition flyer tucked within. Books often have annotations, some fairly extensive, by Cornell, and assorted collected items, notes, and correspondence tucked between pages. Pages were often cut by Cornell, either to make photostats and use in a box, or to file with other thematic "explorations." A wide range of authors and topics provide insight into Cornell's interests and to ideas behind artwork and diary notes. Cornell's collection of record albums includes over 145 records. These contain inserted notes and clippings and are often referenced in diary notes Cornell made, noting a recent album or song listened to while at work in his studio.

The papers of Cornell's mother, Helen Storms Cornell, and his brother, Robert Cornell, are also included in the collection. Both lived with Cornell his whole life, spending the most time with him at their home at 3708 Utopia Parkway. Financial materials document shared responsibilities for billing, utilities, household fixes and chores, and expenditures, and Helen kept detailed financial records in a series of ledgers. Robert notes when he borrowed money from Cornell, or when he means to pay Cornell back for the purchase of a typewriter. Activities documented in diaries also occasionally cross paths with Cornell, noting his visitors or an exchange of letters continued after introductions through Cornell. Personal activities, such as Robert's interest in his train collection and his drawing projects and cartoon series, are also documented.

Arrangement:

The Joseph Cornell Study Center Collection is arranged into 15 series:

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1917-1972 (Boxes 1, 98, OV118; 0.9 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1813, 1934-circa 1973 (Boxes 1-8, 86; 6.5 linear feet)

Series 3: Diaries and Notes, 1940-1976 (Boxes 8-10, 98-99, 135, OV108, OV119; 3.5 linear feet)

Series 4: Personal Business and Estate Records, 1950-1978 (Boxes 10-14; 4.1 linear feet)

Series 5: Exhibition Files, 1932-1973 (Box 14; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 6: Film Projects and Collected Film Materials, circa 1924-1972 (Boxes 14-16, 100, 133; 1.6 linear feet)

Series 7: Writing and Design Projects, circa 1910s, 1936-1962 (Boxes 16-18, 86, 100, 131-132, OV109-OV111, OV120-OV122; 3.6 linear feet)

Series 8: Source Material, 1750-circa 1911, 1926-1972 (Boxes 19-49, 86-92, 96, 100-105, 126-130, 132-137, OV112-OV115, OV125; 42.2 linear feet)

Series 9: Artifacts and Ephemera, 1768, circa 1839-1972 (Boxes 49-52; 3.2 linear feet)

Series 10: Photographic Material, circa 1800s-1972 (Boxes 52-56, 80-86, 93, 106, 128, 133, OV116, OV123-OV124; 7.5 linear feet)

Series 11: Artwork, circa 1810-1972 (Boxes 56-57, 107, OV117; 1.2 linear feet)

Series 12: Printed Material, 1855-1972 (Boxes 57-76, 94-96, 107; 16 linear feet)

Series 13: Book Collection and Personal Library, 1722-1980 (99.8 linear feet)

Series 14: Record Album Collection, circa 1925-1974 (3.2 linear feet)

Series 15: Cornell Family Papers, 1910-1980 (Boxes 77-79, 97, 107; 3.2 linear feet)

Biographical / Historical:

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) was a self-taught assemblage and collage artist, and filmmaker, active in New York City. He was born in Nyack, New York on December 24, 1903, and died of heart failure at his home in Queens, New York on December 29, 1972. The oldest of four children, he was born Joseph I. Cornell to his mother, Helen Storms Cornell (1882-1966), and his father, Joseph I. Cornell (1875-1917). Cornell had two younger sisters, Elizabeth ("Betty") Cornell Benton (1905-2000) and Helen ("Sissy") Cornell Jagger (1906-2001), as well as one brother, Robert Cornell (1910-1965), who had cerebral palsy.

Cornell attended the Phillips Academy, a preparatory boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts, beginning shortly after his father's death in 1917. He attended for four years but did not receive a diploma, and soon began work as a textile salesman for the William Whitman Company in Manhattan. His work took him, by foot, through the city, visiting secondhand bookshops on Fourth Avenue, browsing music stores and magazine shops, and catching early shows at the Metropolitan Opera House. He would occasionally wait outside the stage doors for favorite singers and dancers to emerge, requesting signatures on photographs or bits of costumes.

Around 1926, Cornell joined the Christian Science Church, joined by his brother Robert shortly thereafter, and both continued to be lifelong members. Cornell kept a number of books in his personal library on Christian Science teachings and regularly subscribed to "The Christian Science Monitor."

After living in several rental houses in Bayside, New York, Cornell's mother purchased a house for the family in 1929 in Flushing, Queens. Cornell, along with his mother and brother, would live at 3708 Utopia Parkway, for the rest of their lives. His two sisters soon married and moved away, eventually settling in Westhampton, Long Island and in the poultry-farming business.

With no formal art training to speak of, Cornell's first work was a Max Ernst-inspired collage, "Untitled (Schooner)," created in 1931. He was especially inspired by Ernst's collage novel, "La Femme 100 têtes," published in 1929. French artist Odilon Redon was also among the few artists Cornell named as an influence on his art. His first sculptural works were small, cardboard pill boxes with bits of ephemera, costume adornments, and nature hidden inside. Cornell also created a series of glass bell jar works, placing small trinkets and Victorian-era-like compositions within. It was these early collages and bell jar works that were included in Cornell's debut exhibition, "Surréalisme" (January 9-29, 1932), a group show at the Julien Levy Gallery. Cornell designed the announcement for the show and exhibited alongside Max Ernst, Man Ray, Pierre Roy, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Eugène Atget, George Platt Lynes, Jean Cocteau, and Salvador Dalí. Months later, Cornell was invited to have his first solo show, "Objects by Joseph Cornell: Minutiae, Glass Bells, Shadow Boxes, Coups d'Oeil, Jouets Surréalistes" (November 26-December 30, 1932), also at the Julien Levy Gallery.

In 1932, after eleven years of work, Cornell was laid off from the William Whitman Company due to the Great Depression. Soon after, he took on more responsibility in the church, working part-time as an attendant in the Christian Science Reading Room in Great Neck, New York. Beginning in 1933, he taught Sunday school classes for three years and in 1935, became the Sunday school librarian. However, his religious activities and artistic ventures continued to remain separate.

In the early 1930s, Cornell progressed from movie lover to filmmaker. When Julien Levy began his New York Film Society in 1933, holding screenings of various experimental films in the gallery, Cornell began buying and collecting films and film stills in earnest. He set up a 16-millimeter projector in his home to screen favorites, such as those by Georges Méliès, D.W. Griffith, and Louis Feuillade. His collection quickly grew to over 2,500 film stills and several hundred films, and included silent era films, such as nature documentaries, goofy newsreels, travelogues, early cartoons, and slapstick comedies, as well as several feature films. In 1933, Cornell wrote a screenplay, or "scenario," entitled "Monsieur Phot." Between 1935 and 1937, Cornell also occasionally created publicity photomontages for Universal and Columbia studios. Of the nearly thirty films Cornell created, periods of activity can generally be separated into two areas: collage films of the late 1930s, consisting of combined elements from films in his own collection, and films he directed in the 1950s, which were collaborations with other filmmakers set in New York City. "Rose Hobart," Cornell's most celebrated collage film, was created and shown in the Julien Levy Gallery in 1936 and includes clipped footage from "East of Borneo." Later films were directed and filmed with cinematographers Stan Brakhage, Rudy Burckhardt, and Larry Jordan.

In 1934, Cornell began a job at the Traphagen Commercial Textile Studio as a "textile designer," a job he held for six years. Continuing to work at his kitchen table in the evenings, Cornell completed his first assemblage box construction, "Untitled (Soap Bubble Set)," in 1936. It was first exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art's show, "Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism" (December 9, 1936-January 17, 1937). This work was also the first to be acquired by a museum, purchased for $60.00 by the Wadsworth Atheneum in Massachusetts in 1938. Cornell's European debut was also in 1938, as one of three Americans represented in the "Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme" (January 17-Febuary 24, 1938) at the Galerie Beaux-Arts in Paris, alongside Man Ray and Anne Clark.

At the end of 1939, Cornell began corresponding with poet Charles Henri Ford, founder of avant-garde magazine "View," Pavel Tchelitchew, and Parker Tyler. After his "Soap Bubble Sets," this period saw the development of Cornell's homages to singers and actresses, including "Untitled (Fortune-Telling Parrot for Carmen Miranda)," the destroyed "Garbo (Greta Garbo in the Legendary Film 'The Crystal Mask,' c. 1845)," and "Dressing Room for Gilles." He also began using photostats of art reproduction prints, as with the print of Jean Antoine-Watteau's painting, "Pierrot" (circa 1719), used in his "Gilles" box.

In the 1940s, the Romantic ballet emerged as Cornell's new topic of interest. Through his friend Pavel Tchelitchew, Cornell was introduced to the School of American Ballet and New York City Ballet founders, Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine. Cornell collected dance memorabilia and had a great love of the Romantic ballet. His favorite dancers were primarily ballerinas of the nineteenth century, including Fanny Cerrito, Marie Taglioni, Fanny Elssler, Lucille Grahn, and Carlotta Grisi. Cornell's "Homage to the Romantic Ballet" works largely took the shape of jewel-box style wooden boxes with glass overlays and included bits of velvet, tulle, sequins, crystals, and chiffon, occasionally collected from dancers themselves. His most well-known work of this series is "Taglioni's Jewel Casket" (1940). Cornell also admired several living ballet dancers, including Tamara Toumanova, Zizi Jeanmaire, and Allegra Kent, who would all make their way into Cornell's box works and/or collages. Collecting for the "exploration," "Portrait of Ondine," Cornell's cased portfolio dedication to Fanny Cerrito and her role in the ballet "Ondine," began in the 1940s, though not completed until around 1960.

In late 1940, Cornell quit his job at Traphagen to concentrate on freelance commercial magazine design and editorial work during the day and his artwork at night. That same year, Charles Henri Ford started "View" magazine to promote Surrealists and Neo-Romantics in New York City and often asked Cornell to contribute. Published in the December 1941-January 1942 issue, one of his early contributions was a collage dedication to stage actress Hedy Lamarr: "Enchanted Wanderer: Excerpt from a Journey Album for Hedy Lamarr" (1941). Along with writing the accompanying text, he created a photomontage of Lamarr with her face overlaying the painted portrait of a Renaissance boy by Italian painter Giorgione. Peggy Guggenheim, at the advice of Marcel Duchamp, purchased multiple Cornell works prior to opening her new gallery, Art of This Century. Cornell also befriended Roberto Matta Echaurren, another Surrealist living in exile, who introduced him to Robert Motherwell.

After deciding to fully dedicate his time to his art in early 1940, he set up a studio in his basement. Complete with floor-to-ceiling wooden shelving, he kept his large collection of boxed source material stacked with handwritten labels in cardboard boxes. Themed folders of materials such as "Stamps" or "Maps" were kept in stacks and works in progress and finished works were stored in the basement, garage, and attic. Entering a renewed period of productivity, Cornell embarked on many new and important box projects in 1942. One of the first boxes created in his new basement studio, and the first of the "Penny Arcade" or "Medici Slot Machine" series, was "Medici Slot Machine" (1942), which includes a photostat of "Portrait of Marquess Massimiliano Stampa" (1557) by Sofonisba Anguissola. Another work from this time is the first of his "Castle" or "Palace" series, "Setting for a Fairy Tale" (1942), which uses a photostat of a French building from Jacques Androuet du Cerceau's book, "Les Plus excellents bastiments de France" (1576). "Untitled (Pharmacy)" (circa 1942) was the first of his "Pharmacy" series and included twenty-two apothecary jars. Cornell tended to work in series and created thirteen "Palace" boxes between 1942 and 1951, and ultimately created six "Pharmacy" works.

In 1943, Cornell began working at an electronics company, the Allied Control Company, Inc., to do his part to contribute to the defense effort during the war. He also sent correspondence and care packages to displaced Europeans, who listed their needs in "The Christian Science Monitor." Influenced by World War II, one of his strongest works to emerge in 1943 was "Habitat Group for a Shooting Gallery." Another notable work to come out of this period, "The Crystal Cage (Portrait of Berenice)," was an excerpt from one of his album "explorations" that was published in the January 1943 issue of "View."

Cornell left his job at Allied Control in 1944, but soon began working at the Garden Centre in Flushing, owned by a fellow Christian Scientist. Cornell was often nostalgic for this time in his life, devoting an entire "exploration" of material fondly remembered as "GC 44." He rode a bicycle to work and enjoyed collecting trips gathering dried grasses, driftwood, shells, and other relics of nature on the same bicycle as he rode through the streets of Queens. During this time, he continued to tend to his projects for "Dance Index," a magazine founded in 1942 by Lincoln Kirstein, but taken over by Donald Windham in 1944. Cornell designed several covers for the magazine and was given control of the entire summer 1944 issue, which he devoted to the Romantic ballet. He also devoted a special 1945 issue to Hans Christian Andersen, making great use of the New York Public Library Picture Collection.

Throughout the 1940s, Cornell continued to support himself with commercial design work for magazines like "Vogue," "Good Housekeeping," "Harper's Bazaar," "Town & Country," and "Mademoiselle." In 1946, after thirteen years at the Julien Levy Gallery, he joined the Hugo Gallery. In December 1946, Cornell's solo exhibition, "Romantic Museum at the Hugo Gallery: Portraits of Women by Joseph Cornell," celebrated his favorite movie stars, singers, and ballet dancers, and included his work created for the show, "Untitled (Penny Arcade Portrait of Lauren Bacall)." Cornell's "Greta Garbo" box, as well as "Souvenir for Singleton," an homage to Jennifer Jones and her role in the film "Love Letters," were also included in the show. In late 1948, his West Coast debut was in the exhibition, "Objects by Joseph Cornell," held at the Copley Gallery. The end of the 1940s saw the final issue of "View" magazine in 1947, the closure of the Julien Levy Gallery in April 1949, and Cornell's departure from the Hugo Gallery after his last show in November 1949.

In late 1949, Cornell joined the Charles Egan Gallery, known primarily for showing Abstract Expressionists. At this time, Cornell was working on a new series of boxes known as his "Aviary" works, most of which include a white-painted box with cutouts of birds mounted on wood. Though he had worked on bird-related boxes before, including an "Owl" series in the mid-1940s, his "Fortune Telling Parrot" (1939), and "Object 1941" (1941), these newer works were stripped of French elements and left "clean and abstract" by design. His first show at the Egan Gallery, "Aviary by Joseph Cornell" (December 7, 1949-January 7, 1950), included twenty-six "Aviary" works, nearly all created in 1949. Donald Windham agreed to write the foreword for the exhibition catalog, a single folded sheet, and Cornell gave him one of the boxes in the show, "Cockatoo: Keepsake Parakeet," in appreciation. Through the Egan Gallery, Cornell became friends with a new group of artists, including Franz Kline, Jack Tworkov, and Willem de Kooning. Cornell also held two screenings of a selection of his collected films at Subjects of the Artist, an art school founded by Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, David Hare, and William Baziotes.

In 1950, Cornell's second show at the Egan Gallery, "Night Songs and Other New Work" (December 1, 1950-January 13, 1951), introduced his new "Observatory" series. These works are largely defined by stark, whitewashed spaces with astronomical charts and constellations replacing colorful birds. The Museum of Modern Art purchased its first Cornell work from this show in early 1951, "Central Park Carrousel, in Memoriam" (1950).

For three months in 1951, Cornell was beset by various ailments and had trouble finding the energy to create new work. He worried more for his aging mother and the health of his brother. After a monthlong vacation with his sisters in Westhampton, he returned with renewed interest in Emily Dickinson's poetry. His whitewashed boxes took on a new form in his newest "Dovecote" series, using grids and circular cutouts. The works then transformed into homages to Dickinson, notably "Toward the Blue Peninsula: For Emily Dickinson" (circa 1953), and then to his "Hotel" series. Cornell's "Hotel" boxes include photostats of vintage European ads for hotels collected from vintage travel guides, especially "Baedeker's," adhered to the back walls of the boxes. Another new series of work, his "Juan Gris" series, was dedicated to Cubist artist Juan Gris. Between 1953 and the mid-1960s, Cornell created at least fifteen "Juan Gris" boxes, which often include a cutout of a white cockatoo in a Cubist-collage habitat. Cornell's third and last show at Egan Gallery, "Night Voyage" (February 10-March 28, 1953), included some of these newest works. After leaving Egan Gallery, his work was introduced to Chicago collectors in a solo show at the Frumkin Gallery, "Joseph Cornell: 10 Years of His Art" (April 10-May 7, 1953), which included nearly thirty pieces. Cornell's first museum retrospective was this same show held at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (July 12-August 30, 1953).

As New York City continued to change, Cornell grew more nostalgic for the city he had explored since the 1920s. The impending closure of the Third Avenue El train prompted him to dream up a film project to capture its last days, resulting in "Gnir Rednow," a reworking of Stan Brakhage's 1955, "Wonder Ring." During this time, Cornell joined the Stable Gallery, run by Eleanor Ward, interacting often with Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, and Joan Mitchell, remaining there until the end of the 1950s. His astronomy-themed exhibition, "Winter Night Skies" (December 12, 1955-January 13, 1956), included his "Night Skies" series of work with celestial chart fragments, Greek mythological figures, and paint-splattered "windows" representative of star-filled night skies. In 1956, he became aware of ballerina Allegra Kent, and began a series of work devoted to her, the first of which was "Via Parmigianino (Villa Allegra)" (1956), which included a photostat of a painting by Parmigianino, "The Madonna of the Long Neck" (circa 1540). In late 1957, after two years, Cornell had his last show at Stable Gallery, "Joseph Cornell: Selected Works" (December 2-31, 1957), consisting of a series of "Sand Fountain" boxes and "Space Object" or "Celestial Navigation" works. The "Sand Fountain" boxes included different colors of sand meant to flow within, often from the tops into cordial glasses. His "Celestial Navigations" included galaxy-like compositions set within the boxes, with rolling, painted cork balls, metal rings, and constellation charts, sometimes hovering over cordial glasses or clay pipes. This last Stable Gallery show earned him his first published profile, written by Howard Griffin for the December 1957 issue of "Art News." Also in 1957, he won the Kohnstamm Prize for Construction at the Art Institute of Chicago's 62rd Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture.

Towards the end of the 1950s, Cornell spent less time creating new bodies of work, and focused more on revisiting previous series and reviewing piles of collected source material. In 1959, Cornell returned to making collages, frequently sourcing popular magazines. In December 1959, Cornell was awarded $1,500 for his "Orion" collage, entered in the Art Institute of Chicago's "63rd American Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture." Also in December, he was offered a show at Bennington College in Vermont, which he titled, "Bonitas Solstitialis: Selected Works by Joseph Cornell and an exploration of the Colombier" (November 20-December 15, 1959). The show included one of his newest "explorations" of collected material related to "colombier," or pigeon houses.

By 1962, Cornell was working diligently on new collages, using Masonite boards and colorful magazine clippings. He also began creating collages using nude images interspersed with constellation clippings or hazy blue dyes. As in previous decades and art movements, Cornell became acquainted with new artists, spending less time in the city and more time hosting visitors at his Utopia Parkway home. Visitors included artists Walter De Maria, Robert Whitman, Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, and Robert Indiana. Tony Curtis also became a frequent visitor and friend, introduced by Richard Feigen in 1964. The early 1960s was also the first time Cornell put out an advertisement for assistants in the "Long Island Star-Journal," employing a number of young men and women who helped organize clippings and run errands. Cornell also met Joyce Hunter, a young runaway waitress at a city coffee shop, who would occupy his thoughts and diary notes for the next several years. When she was murdered at the end of 1964, Cornell paid for her funeral. He went on to make several "Penny Arcade" collages in memoriam to her, including, "Penny Arcade (re-autumnal)" (1964).

In 1964, Cornell began friendships with several women including artist Carolee Schneeman, who was his first assistant in the early 1960s. He also met artist Yayoi Kusama through art dealer Gertrude Stein. After becoming friends, she visited him often and they exchanged letters and notes. As he did with other artist friends, Cornell supported her by purchasing several of her early watercolor paintings, and they stayed connected until his death in 1972.

Cornell's life greatly changed in 1965 with the death of his brother, Robert. By this time, his mother lived with his sister in Long Island, and Cornell was alone in the Utopia Parkway house for the first time. He exchanged frequent letters and phone calls with his mother and devoted much time to thinking about Robert and Joyce, often aligning them in his diary notations. Cornell also created a series of collages dedicated to his brother's memory, incorporating photostats of Robert's hundreds of drawings into Cornell's work, as with the later collage, "The Heart on the Sleeve" (1972). Cornell's "Time Transfixed" series of collages were also dedications to Robert's memory, referencing Magritte and Robert's love of trains. He mounted an exhibition, "Robert Cornell: Memorial Exhibition" (January 4-29, 1966), at the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, where he showed Robert's artwork alongside his newly created collage dedications.

After Robert's death, Cornell relied more heavily on assistants, going through many part-time "helpers." In October 1966, Cornell's mother died, adding her to his constant thoughts and diaries. Though he was still grieving, he was given two major retrospectives in 1967. The first was at the Pasadena Art Museum, put on by James Demetrion and Walter Hopps, "An Exhibiton of Works by Joseph Cornell" (January 9-February 11, 1967). The second retrospective was at the Guggenheim Museum just three months later, "Joseph Cornell" (May 4-June 35, 1967), organized by Diane Waldman. After these shows, he was highlighted in the December 15, 1967 issue of "Life" in the article, "The Enigmatic Bachelor of Utopia Parkway."

In 1968, Cornell was given an "award of merit," which included a medal and $1,000, by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He was also given a medal and $1,000 by the Brandeis University Creative Arts Awards in the painting category, along with an exhibition. Days later, "The New York Times" announced Cornell the winner, along with Donald Judd, of India's first Triennale of Contemporary World Art. The Brandeis exhibition, "Boxes and Collages by Joseph Cornell" (May 20-June 23, 1968), was organized by William Seitz and concentrated on Cornell's more recent 1960s collages. Cornell was also included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's hundredth anniversary show, "New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940 to 1970" (October 18, 1969-February 1, 1970), where twenty-two of Cornell's boxes were shown in their own gallery. At the end of 1970, Cornell was given a solo show at the Metropolitan, "Collages by Joseph Cornell" (December 10, 1970-January 24, 1971), which included forty-five of his newest collages.

Now preferring to stay closer to his home in Flushing, Cornell was more interested in sharing his art with young adults and children, than an adult audience. He hosted a group of high school students, sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's education department, at his home in conjunction with his collage show (1970-1971). He also showed his work in the art department of Queens College of the City University of New York. Cornell still hosted visitors on occasion, having Yoko Ono and John Lennon at his home at least once. Leila Hadley, Betsy von Furstenberg, and Anne Jackson also made frequent visits. With his deteriorating health, Cornell worried about what would happen to his work after his death and hired lawyer Harry Torczyner to help him plan his estate and get his affairs in order.

In 1972, Cornell had a show at the Cooper Union, a college in New York, specifically for children. He displayed his boxes and collages at child-height and had cherry soda and brownies at the opening reception on February 10. He then held a show at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, also for children: "Children's Preview of the Exhibition of Joseph Cornell – Collages and Boxes (April 18-June 17, 1972). In the winter of 1972, at the request of the Phoenix House drug treatment and prevention program, Cornell contributed to a charity project compiling limited-edition lithographic prints for a portfolio, which included artists like David Hockney, James Rosenquist, and Ellsworth Kelly.

On December 29, 1972, a week after turning sixty-nine, Cornell died of heart failure at his home. He was cremated and interred near the graves of his mother, father, and brother, overlooking the Hudson River in Nyack, New York.

Works Cited:

1. Hartigan, Lynda Roscoe. "Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination." New Haven, Connecticut and London: Yale University Press, 2007. Exhibition Catalog.

2. McShine, Kynaston. "Joseph Cornell." New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1980.

3. San Francisco Cinematheque and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Joseph Cornell: Films." 2007. Exhibition Program. (Presented in conjunction with SFMOMA's exhibition of "Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination").

4. Schaffner, Ingrid and Lisa Jacobs. "Julien Levy: Portrait of an Art Gallery." Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The MIT Press, 1998.

5. Solomon, Deborah. "Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell." New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997.

Separated Materials:

The Smithsonian Archives of American Art houses the Joseph Cornell papers, 1804-1986, bulk 1939-1972.

Provenance:

The Joseph Cornell Study Center collection was donated to the Smithsonian American Art Museum by Joseph Cornell's sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth Cornell Benton and John A. Benton, in 1978, which prompted the creation of the Joseph Cornell Study Center. Additional materials were donated in installments by the artist's estate, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, from 1985 to 1997. Elizabeth and John A. Benton originally donated 66 linear feet of three-dimensional and non-textual source material and 50 linear feet of books to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, which were subsequently transferred to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Joseph Cornell Study Center in 1994 and 1995.

Restrictions:

Access to the collection requires an advanced appointment. Contact collection staff at least two weeks prior to preferred date, at AmericanArtCornellStudy@si.edu.

Series 9: Artifacts and Ephemera, Series 13: Personal Library and Book Collection, and Series 14: Record Album Collection, are still undergoing processing and preservation and may not be available for research use. Record albums are unavailable for playback. Contact collection staff for full lists of publications and record albums.

Rights:

Unpublished materials are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.

Occupation:

Collagists -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

Art, Modern -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

Assemblage (Art)  Search this

Assemblage artists -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Found objects (Art)  Search this

Works of art  Search this

Celebrities  Search this

Filmmakers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographic photoprints -- Silver gelatin -- 1900-1950

Photographs -- 1860-1870 -- Black-and-white photoprints -- Silver albumen -- Cartes-de-visite

Photographs -- Daguerreotypes -- 1840-1860

Citation:

Joseph Cornell Study Center collection, 1750-1980, bulk 1930-1972. Joseph Cornell Study Center, Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was generously provided by the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.

Identifier:

SAAM.JCSC.1

See more items in:

Joseph Cornell Study Center Collection

Archival Repository:

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Research and Scholars Center

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ih7d97fc249-474d-41bf-953d-5305df1e4c06

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-saam-jcsc-1

Collection Creator:

Holt, Nancy, 1938-2014  Search this

Container:

Box 44

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

The bulk of 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.

Some papers remain closed to researchers including some rolled documents in the unprocessed papers, financial files, and Nancy Holt's annotated library of books.

Collection 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.

Items created by Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson copyright held by Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Requests for permission to reproduce should be submitted to ARS.

Collection Citation:

Nancy Holt Estate records, circa 1900-2014. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

See more items in:

Nancy Holt Estate records

Nancy Holt Estate records / Series 4: Unprocessed Papers / Correspondence/Subject/Other

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9a6cec29f-ed55-4d33-8cce-6d2424346fe1

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aaa-holtnanc-ref542

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:

Outside of roll is labeled "Chart of Bands".

Type:

Archival materials

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.

Identifier:

HSFA.1983.11, Item 2008.10.77-1

See more items in:

John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman film and video collection

John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman film and video collection / Series 13: Maps and Kinship diagrams / Kinship Diagrams

Archival Repository:

Human Studies Film Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pc9987542a6-de23-490a-84d3-7bd8c7c6b01d

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-hsfa-1983-11-ref1064

Creator:

Cornell, Joseph  Search this

Names:

Benton, Elizabeth Cornell  Search this

Cornell, Robert  Search this

Extent:

24.9 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Date:

1804-1986

bulk 1939-1972

Summary:

The papers of Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) measure approximately 24.9 linear feet and date from 1804 to 1986 with the bulk of the material dating from 1939-1972. The collection documents the life, work, interests, and creative activities of the self-taught artist, who was best known for his shadow box constructions, assemblages, and collages. Papers include correspondence, diaries, source material, notes, writings, photographs, printed material, two- and three-dimensional ephemera, art works, and books, as well as a limited amount of legal and financial records, and some miscellaneous personal and family papers. The collection also includes the papers of his sister, Betty Cornell Benton, relating to the handling of Cornell's estate and the personal papers of his brother, Robert Cornell.

Scope and Content Note:

The Joseph Cornell papers measure approximately 24.9 linear feet and date from 1804 to 1986, with the bulk of the material dating from 1939-1972. The collection documents the life, work, interests, and creative activities of the self-taught artist, who was best known for his shadow box constructions, assemblages, and collages. Papers include correspondence, diaries, source material, notes, writings, photographs, printed material, two- and three-dimensional ephemera, art works, and books, as well as a limited amount of legal and financial records, and some miscellaneous personal and family papers (which comprise a series of biographical material). The collection also includes the papers of his sister, Betty Cornell Benton, relating to the handling of Cornell's estate and the personal papers of his brother, Robert Cornell.

Cornell's correspondence is typically with family, friends, artists, dealers, collectors, galleries, museums, admirers, individuals whom he admired, "helpers," and various charitable institutions. Correspondence generally concerns the creation, exhibition, sale, and reception of Cornell's art work; his "explorations" and other research and collecting activities; his preoccupations with certain individuals and motifs; his usual practices of giving gifts of art work to those he liked or admired and making donations to charities in aid of those less fortunate; and his relationships and shared interests with family, friends, and colleagues. Also found is correspondence between and amongst various other members of the Cornell family, including, most notably, Robert Cornell's letters to his sisters, Elizabeth (typically addressed as Nell) and Helen.

Dating from 1941 to 1972, Cornell's diaries span almost the entirety of his career as an artist, which began in earnest when he left his job at the Traphagen textile studio in 1940 to pursue art full-time and ended with his death in 1972. The diaries record his day-to-day experiences (usually comprising his thoughts, feelings, impressions, and ideas); and reflect on his various art projects (boxes, films, and collages) and creative activities ("explorations," and various other research, collecting, and publishing ventures). They also explore many of the themes and underlying concerns of his art work; and document his intense preoccupations with certain individuals, his wide-ranging interests, and the interconnectedness of his ideas and activities. Cornell's style of writing in the diaries tends to be stream-of-conscious with entries being composed of phrases, rather than complete sentences and with the progression of passages being more poetic and associative than either logical or narrative. He tended to compose by hand, occasionally typing up his notes into more formal entries, and also to use abbreviations for oft-repeated words and initials for individuals. At times, his handwriting can be difficult to read, and his references can be difficult to decipher. It was also common practice for him to review or revisit previous entries at various points in time, often making revisions or comments on them with dated annotations in the margins or on the reverse side of a page.

Cornell's source material is largely comprised of files of newspaper and magazine clippings, cutouts, notes, writings, book excerpts, photostats (or stats), prints, postcards, art reproductions, and other printed material. Some files are devoted to people (ballerinas, actresses, singers, artists, and writers) and topics (astronomy, romantic and modern ballet, birds, films, literature, music, plants, and science, among others). Other files relate to specific art works, "explorations," publishing projects, and exhibitions. Source material documents Cornell's preoccupation with certain individuals (past and present), events, subjects, and motifs; the development of some of his major "explorations" and their influence on his various artistic and commercial projects; and his work on certain box constructions and collages, publishing ventures, and exhibition catalogues. Source material also sheds light on Cornell's efforts to gain access to the past; his interest in the symbolism of images and objects; the linkages he found between seemingly unrelated things; and the connections between his many creative endeavors.

Ephemera and artifacts include various objects, mementos, and items of memorabilia, some of which were accumulated by Cornell (in much the same way that he collected his source material) and some of which are of uncertain origin. For Cornell, items such as these were not merely inanimate objects, but were instead evocative of past worlds and capable of bringing the past into the present (an idea which he often expressed in his diaries as the "metaphysique d'ephemera"). He seems to have used some of these items in a layout he designed for Good Housekeeping. Other items may have been used as source material for some of his box constructions.

The collection also houses photographs of Cornell, his family, art work, other artists, and friends, as well as photographs taken by various individuals and publicity photographs from the New York City Ballet. Also found are scattered works of art, including collage fragments and Rorschachs (or ink blot drawings) by Cornell, collages by Cornell's sister, Betty Cornell Benton, on which he collaborated, and a box by Christine Kaufman, which was a gift to Cornell. The books in the collection most likely comprise the remainder of Cornell's library, which was transferred to the Joseph Cornell Study Center, and include some that seem to have belonged to his sister, Betty. Printed material includes various publications and clippings collected by Cornell apart from that which he collected as source material. Writings about Cornell include an article by the poet, Mina Loy, and copies of various theses, presentations, and articles by graduate students in art history received by Benton (who assisted them in their research).

The Joseph Cornell Estate Papers consist of correspondence relating to Betty Cornell Benton's administration of the part of Cornell's estate for which she was responsible and legal documents relating to her various legal disputes with the executors of the estate, as well as a limited amount of printed material, some of which was originally accumulated by Cornell and subsequently shared with Benton, and miscellaneous papers belonging to Benton and their mother, Helen S. Cornell. Estate Papers provide insight on the exhibition and sale of Cornell art works after his death; the disposition of his belongings (including art work, papers, books, records, and source material); and Benton's efforts to foster and safeguard the memory and legacy of Cornell. The Robert Cornell Papers include correspondence, writings, art works, photographs, printed material, and scattered financial and personal records, documenting the full and creative life Robert led despite being confined to a wheelchair. Their inclusion in the collection suggests the family's effort to foster Robert's memory.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into eleven series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1918-1972, 1975 (Box 1; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1909-1982 (Boxes 1-5, OV 31; 4.3 linear feet)

Series 3: Diaries, 1941-1973 (Boxes 6-10; 5 linear feet)

Series 4: Source Material, 1804-1972 (Boxes 11-18, 25-28, OV 29; 8.5 linear feet)

Series 5: Ephemera and Artifacts, 1858-1946 (Boxes 18, 23; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 6: Photographs, circa 1905-1972 (Boxes 18, 28, OV 30; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 7: Art Works, circa 1966-1971 (Boxes 19, 23; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 8: Books and Printed Material, 1806-1968 (Boxes 19, 23; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 9: Writings about Cornell, 1950, circa 1975-1980 (Box 19; 0.3 linear feet)

Series 10: Joseph Cornell Estate Papers, circa 1911, 1944-1986 (Boxes 19-22; 3.5 linear feet)

Series 11: Robert Cornell Papers, 1924-1965 (Boxes 24, 28; 0.4 linear feet)

Biographical Note:

Joseph Cornell, assemblagist, collagist, and filmmaker, was born on December 24, 1903 in Nyack, New York. He was the oldest son of Joseph I. Cornell, a textile salesman and designer, and Helen Storms Cornell, and had two younger sisters, Elizabeth (b. 1905), nicknamed Nell and later Betty, and Helen (b. 1906), and a younger brother, Robert (b. 1910), who suffered from cerebral palsy. Cornell shared close relationships with his siblings, and was especially attached to his brother whom he took care of as an adult. His fondest childhood memories included family Christmas celebrations, outings to Manhattan where he saw vaudeville shows and strolled around Times Square, and trips to Coney Island where he encountered penny arcade machines. These childhood memories, among others, inspired some of the themes later explored in his art work.

After his father's death in 1917, Cornell was sent to study at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He remained there for four years, but left without receiving a diploma. During this time, the family moved from Nyack to Bayside, Queens, where they lived in a series of rented houses. Cornell rejoined his family in 1921, at which time he went to work as a salesman in the Manhattan office of a textile wholesaler, the William Whitman Company. He joined the Christian Science church in the mid-1920s, and in 1929, the family bought a house at 37-08 Utopia Parkway in Flushing, where he resided for the rest of his life, living there with his mother and brother after both his sisters married and moved away.

During the 1920s, Cornell developed his passion for walking the city streets and taking in their sights, sounds, and impressions; browsing in the secondhand bookshops along Fourth Avenue; and collecting material such as books, prints, postcards, and printed and three-dimensional ephemera. He cultivated his growing interest in culture and the arts by attending opera and ballet performances, seeing plays (the 1922 play Rain, which starred Jeanne Eagels, was among his favorites), visiting galleries and museums, reading, and going to the movies.

In 1931, Cornell began to frequent the Julien Levy Gallery, where he encountered Surrealist art for perhaps the first time. Around this time, he created his first works of art - a series of black-and-white collages composed from cutouts of nineteenth-century engravings - inspired by Max Ernst's collages, in particular his collage-novel, La Femme 100 tetes (1929). Cornell went on to create three-dimensional works of art such as pill boxes and a glass bell series (consisting of objects arranged under a bell jar). His work, including several collages and a glass bell, was first exhibited as part of the groundbreaking "Surrealisme" show at the Levy Gallery in January 1932. He also designed the cover of the show announcement. His first one-man show at the gallery, "The Objects of Joseph Cornell," followed in the fall of 1932. (It was seven years before his next solo show.) By this time, Cornell had been laid off from his job at Whitman's. He was out of work for several years before getting a job as a textile designer at the Traphagen Commercial Textile Studio in 1934. During the next several years, he continued to work on his art at night.

Around this time, Cornell began collecting movies and movie stills, and embarked upon various film-related projects. In 1933, he wrote a scenario for a silent movie, Monsieur Phot. A few years later, he made his first film, Rose Hobart (1936), comprised of re-edited footage from the B-movie, East of Borneo (1931), which starred the actress, Rose Hobart. And he began work on a trilogy of collage-films - The Children's Party, Cotillion, and The Midnight Party (circa 1937). He then took a break from making films until the mid-1950s, but continued to collect film-related material, which he began to incorporate into his other art work.

In 1936, Cornell constructed his first glass-fronted shadow box, Untitled (Soap Bubble Set), which was included that same year in the "Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, along with a cabinet box and several glass bells. In creating some of his other early boxes, he began the practice of using photo reproductions of images which he located in books and magazines, or in the Picture Collection at the New York Public Library, among other places. In his tribute boxes to actresses (1930s), he made use of publicity shots, and in the box, Dressing Room for Gilles (1939), he employed a photostat (or stat) of a reproduction of Jean-Antoine Watteau's painting, Gilles (1718).

Over the years, Cornell came into contact with various figures of the art, dance, and literary worlds. In the 1930s and 1940s, he met the artists, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and Salvador Dali, and befriended the artists, Lee Miller and Dorothea Tanning. His formative friendships during 1940s were with the artist, Pavel Tchelitchew, the writers, Charles Henri Ford (founder of the avant-garde periodical, View), Parker Tyler, and Donald Windham, and the balletomane, Lincoln Kirstein (founder of Dance Index). His other friends included the artists, Roberto Matta Echaurren and Robert Motherwell, the dancer and actress, Tilly Losch, and the poets, Mina Loy and Marianne Moore. In the 1950s, he associated with artists from the Abstract Expressionist movement, including Willem de Kooning, Jack Tworkov, and Mark Rothko. Beginning in the mid-1950s, he befriended many young artists, including Lee Bontecou and Carolee Schneeman, and young actresses, including Lois Smith, Gwen Van Dam, and Suzanne Miller, whom he sought to appear in his films. And in the early 1960s, he met the Pop artists, Robert Indiana, James Rosenquist, and Andy Warhol.

Beginning in 1940, Cornell developed a keen interest in dance, particularly ballet. Ballerinas from the Romantic era, such as Marie Taglioni and Fanny Cerrito, especially captured his imagination, inspiring such works as the box, Taglioni's Jewel Casket (1940), and the Portrait of Ondine "exploration," which comprised a portfolio of material relating to Cerrito and her famous role in the ballet, Ondine. Cornell was also fascinated with the modern counterparts of the Romantic ballerinas. In 1940, he befriended the Russian ballet dancer, Tamara Toumanova, and over the years produced many works in homage to her, including swan boxes (inspired by her role in Swan Lake), boxes made with scraps from her costumes, and scrapbooks of clippings, stats, and memorabilia. In 1949, he became enamored of the French dancer, Renee "Zizi" Jeanmarie, after seeing her perform in Carmen and meeting her backstage, and he created several dance-related boxes in her honor. In 1957, he met the ballerina, Allegra Kent. After meeting again in 1964, they became friends, and she served as the subject of several works based on images reproduced from a Parmigianino painting.

In December 1940, Cornell left his job at the Traphagen textile studio to pursue art full-time. He set up a workshop in the basement of the house on Utopia Parkway, which served as a combination studio and storage space. While he spent most days at home, he continued to make regular trips into Manhattan to wander around the city, visit with friends, and hunt for material. Around this time, he began to keep a diary, recording his day-to-day experiences (usually comprising his thoughts, feelings, impressions, ideas) on scraps of paper (including used envelopes, paper bags, napkins, and ticket stubs, among other fragments). He would then type up some of these notes into more formal diary entries, but most of them remained, in his word, "scribblings." Diary keeping eventually became one of his primary activities, along with box construction, collage, research, and collecting.

By this time, his art work was beginning to sell, yet he was not able to live from these sales alone. During the 1940s, he primarily supported himself by doing freelance work for magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Good Housekeeping, supplying illustrations from his picture collection and designing covers and layouts. He also regularly contributed pieces to View and Dance Index. His notable contributions to View included "Enchanted Wanderer: Excerpt from a Journey Album for Hedy Lamarr" (December 1941), "Story Without a Name - for Max Ernst" (April 1942), and "The Crystal Cage [portrait of Berenice]" (January 1943). His projects for Dance Index included various collage-covers, essays, and thematic issues, such as the Summer 1944 issue, which comprised a 22-page tribute to the Romantic ballerinas, Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, Cerrito, and Fanny Elssler. To supplement his income, Cornell also held brief positions at an electronics plant, the Allied Control Company, Inc. (in 1943), and at a nursery, the Garden Centre (in 1944).

In 1942, Cornell created one of his more memorable works, Medici Slot Machine, embarking upon a large series of Medici boxes in which he utilized reproductions of portraits by Italian Renaissance artists, such as Sofonisba Anguissola and Pinturicchio. His other boxes from this time period explored themes ranging from ballet, as in A Pantry Ballet (for Jacques Offenbach) (1942), to doomed love, as in Paolo and Francesca (1943-48), to nature, as in the Sand Boxes (1940s) and Sand Fountains (1950s). Cornell often created boxes in series, producing variations on a theme with variants that differed significantly or only slightly. Over the years, series included: Pink Palaces, Pharmacies, Habitats, Aviaries, Dovecotes, Hotels, Observatories, and Night Skies, among others.

In late 1945, Cornell joined the Hugo Gallery, which was run by Alexander Iolas, and a year later mounted the show, "Romantic Museum at the Hugo Gallery: Portraits of Women by Joseph Cornell" (December 1946). He designed the exhibition catalog for this show, which consisted of portraits - box constructions, objects, and "dossiers" - of the opera singers, Giuditta Pasta and Maria Malibran, the ballerinas, Taglioni and Cerrito, and the actresses, Eleanora Duse, Jeanne Eagels, Greta Garbo, and Jennifer Jones, and which also featured one of his most famous boxes, Untitled (Penny Arcade Portrait of Lauren Bacall) (1945-46).

In 1949, Cornell joined the Egan Gallery, which was run by Charles Egan. Around this time, he began creating his series of Aviary boxes, which explored the symbolism of birds and birdcages. He showed twenty-six of these box constructions in his first exhibition at the Egan Gallery, "Aviary by Joseph Cornell" (December 1949-January 1950). He created other series of whitewashed boxes, including the Dovecote series and a small group relating to the poet, Emily Dickinson. He then went on to explore the themes of astronomy and celestial navigation in the Observatory, Night Skies, and Hotel series. Works from these series were featured in his two remaining shows at the Egan Gallery, "Night Songs and Other Work" (December 1950-January 1951) and "Night Voyage" (February-March 1953). In the fall of 1953, sparked by seeing the painting, Figure Seated in a Cafe (1914), Cornell embarked upon a major series of bird constructions dedicated to the Cubist artist, Juan Gris. Notably, these were the only boxes he explicitly dedicated to another artist.

Over the next couple of years, Cornell's work was exhibited across the country. In 1955, he joined the Stable Gallery, which was run by Eleanor Ward. His first one-man show there, in the winter of 1955-56, was "Winter Night Skies," which featured various box constructions based on constellations. During the mid-1950s, he embarked upon a series of Sand Fountains (vertical standing boxes featuring a broken glass and sand that flowed through it when turned upside down), elaborating upon his earlier Sand Boxes (1940s). These boxes along with some of his other latest works, including the Bleriot boxes and the Space Object boxes (which comprised his final box series), were exhibited in his second and last show at the Stable Gallery, "Selected Works" (December 1957).

After leaving the Stable Gallery, Cornell had several dealers handle his work rather than allowing any one to assume too much control. Dealers included Richard Feigen (in Chicago and then in New York) and Irving Blum (in California), among others. Throughout his career, Cornell never liked selling his boxes. He was always reluctant to let his work go and became increasingly uneasy about the growing status of his work as a commodity. He preferred instead to make gifts of his art work to friends and individuals he admired (especially female ones).

In the mid-1950s, Cornell returned to making films. Rather than just splicing together found images as he had in his films of the 1930s, he began to collaborate with others to shoot original footage. He worked with the experimental filmmaker, Stan Brakhage, on two films, one about the Third Ave El which was about to be torn down ( Wonder Ring or Gnir Rednow) and the other about an old house in Cornell's neighborhood that was slated for demolition ( Centuries of June). Cornell then went on to make nine films with the filmmaker, Rudy Burckhardt, including Aviary, A Legend for Fountains, and Nymphlight, among others. In the late 1960s, he enlisted the help of Larry Jordan, who was also a filmmaker, in completing the trilogy of collage-films that he had begun in the 1930s.

Along with creating works of art and making films, Cornell was involved in a host of other creative endeavors throughout his career as an artist. These included: keeping a diary, which was for him another medium for exploring and expressing the themes, ideas, and concerns recurrent in his art work; carrying out "explorations," which typically involved conducting research, collecting material, and compiling files on persons or topics of interest to him; and other projects, such as publishing pamphlets (or brochures) dedicated to the nineteenth-century opera singers, Malibran and Giulia Grisi. Cornell's "explorations" clearly informed his artwork, but they were also works of art in and of themselves. He continually sought to share this work with an audience and twice had the opportunity to do so, when he exhibited versions of his Portrait of Ondine "exploration" at the Museum of Modern Art in 1945 and at the Wittenborn Bookstore in 1956.

Around the mid-1950s, Cornell returned to making collages as independent works of art. Unlike his earlier ones, which were composed from cutouts of black-and-white engravings, his latest collages were made with color images cut out of contemporary magazines and books. In these collages, he explored many of the same themes and preoccupations of his box constructions, including birds, as in Couleur de Peche (1967) and Untitled (Vierge Vivace) (1970), children's games, as in the Penny Arcade series (1960s), and actresses, as in The Sister Shades (1956). Towards the end of his career, collage became his principal medium.

By this time, Cornell was taking fewer trips into Manhattan. Instead, he spent more time at home or traveled only so far as downtown Flushing, where he frequented the public library, hunted for material in stores, such as Woolworth's, and passed time in the coffee-shops on Main Street. From this time on, he kept his diary with increasing regularity, taking down notations with more frequency and creating entries of greater length.

In 1961, fourteen of Cornell's boxes, including Medici Slot Machine, were exhibited as part of the "The Art of Assemblage" show at the Museum of Modern Art. As his biographer notes, Cornell came to view this show "as a turning point in his creative life," marking the "[fall] off in his work" that took place in the sixties (Solomon 271-2). He continued to work on boxes that he had begun long before, but, after this time, rarely if ever constructed new ones. Instead, he focused on making collages and became increasingly concerned with other projects, such as organizing his basement workshop, for which he hired various "helpers" or assistants (mostly young women) over the years. He also became more and more prone to obsessions (or preoccupations, as he called them) with various young women that he encountered both in fantasy (actresses on stage or in films) and in real life (working girls in the city, "teeners" on Main Street, or his female visitors and "helpers" at home). These preoccupations infused his diary writings, and inspired the keeping of "dossiers" on particular individuals and the creation of various collages dedicated to others, including most notably the Penny Arcade series dedicated to Joyce Hunter (or "Tina," as he referred to her in his writings).

After Robert's death in February 1965, Cornell created a series of collages in his memory, many of which incorporated his brother's drawings of animal characters. In January 1966, he exhibited some of these collages, alongside a selection of Robert's drawings, in a show at the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, "Robert Cornell: Memorial Exhibition." In 1967, there were two retrospective exhibitions of Cornell's work, "An Exhibition of Works by Joseph Cornell" at the Pasadena Art Museum and "Joseph Cornell" at the Guggenheim Museum. By now, Cornell was receiving considerable public recognition for his work. He had received his first profile (by Howard Griffin) in the December 1957 issue of Art News and, ten years later, was treated to a 12-page spread (by David Bourdon) in the December 1967 issue of Life magazine. He was also the recipient of various prizes for his art work, including the M.V Kohnstamm Prize at the Art Institute of Chicago's "62nd American Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture" in 1957 and the winning prize in India's first Triennale of Contemporary World Art in 1968.

In the last years of his life (especially from the time of his mother's death in the fall of 1966), Cornell suffered from severe depression and loneliness, and withdrew even further from the outside world. However, he still maintained relationships with various young friends and artists, who frequently visited Utopia Parkway and/or served as one of his assistants. He became more and more interested in sharing his work with a younger audience and his last two exhibitions in 1972 were expressly for children, "A Joseph Cornell Exhibition for Children" at the Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture and "Joseph Cornell - Collages and Boxes" at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York.

Cornell continued to work until the end of his life, "refurbishing" earlier boxes and creating memorial collages. Following prostate surgery in June 1972, he spent several months recuperating with family in Westhampton before returning to Utopia Parkway in November. He died of heart failure at home on December 29, 1972.

The biographical note draws heavily from Deborah Solomon's biography, Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell (New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1997), and Diane Waldman's book, Joseph Cornell: Master of Dreams (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2002).

Related Material:

The Archives holds several collections of different provenance that relate to Joseph Cornell, including the small collections of Allison Delarue (comprised of two letters from Cornell, available on reel 2803), Muriel Streeter Schwartz (comprised of two letters from Cornell, available on reel 4283), Wayne Andrews (comprised of letters from Cornell and printed material), and Marion Netter (comprised of items received from Cornell). In addition, photographs of Cornell can be found amongst the Hans Namuth photographs and papers. Also found within the Archives is a transcribed interview of Cornell's sister, Elizabeth Cornell Benton, conducted on April 21, 1976 as part of the oral history program.

Separated Material:

The bulk of Cornell's source material resides in the Joseph Cornell Study Center, Smithsonian American Art Museum, along with his library and record collection. Cornell's sister, Betty Cornell Benton, donated a portion of this material directly to SAAM (then known as the National Museum of American Art), occasioning the creation of the Study Center circa 1978. The bulk of the source material and library that she donated to AAA, including approximately 66 linear feet of three-dimensional and non-textual source material and 50 linear feet of books, was transferred to the Study Center in 1994 and 1995.

Originals of loaned material returned to the donor after microfilming include: some unidentified and miscellaneous correspondence; significant correspondence between Joseph Cornell and Helen S. Cornell; significant correspondence between Helen S. Cornell, family members and others; and some of Joseph Cornell's family correspondence and general correspondence from the Robert Cornell papers. The loaned material is available on microfilm reels 1055-1058 but is not described further in the Series Descriptions/Container Listing of this finding aid.

Provenance:

The Joseph Cornell papers were donated and microfilmed in several installments from 1974 to 1989 by Joseph Cornell's sister, Betty Cornell Benton. Most, but not all, of the correspondence, which was loaned for microfilming in 1974, was subsequently donated in 1989. Additional material was donated in 2004 by the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.

Restrictions:

Use of the original papers requires an appointment.

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.

Topic:

Celebrities  Search this

Assemblage (Art)  Search this

Found objects (Art)  Search this

Art, Modern -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

Assemblage artists -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Works of art  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Citation:

Joseph Cornell papers, 1804-1986, bulk 1939-1972. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Getty Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Identifier:

AAA.cornjose

See more items in:

Joseph Cornell papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9ff67e8a6-6a88-40f0-9df4-537c9826eed7

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-cornjose

Collection Creator:

Cornell, Joseph  Search this

Container:

Box 18, Folder 5

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

undated

Collection Restrictions:

Use of the original papers requires an appointment.

Collection 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.

Collection Citation:

Joseph Cornell papers, 1804-1986, bulk 1939-1972. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Getty Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

See more items in:

Joseph Cornell papers

Joseph Cornell papers / Series 4: Source Material / 4.3: Subject Source Files

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw91ad54be6-4b1c-4ca0-bb91-ce6cb97285f1

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aaa-cornjose-ref2163

Collection Creator:

Cornell, Joseph  Search this

Container:

Box 18, Folder 4

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

undated

Collection Restrictions:

Use of the original papers requires an appointment.

Collection 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.

Collection Citation:

Joseph Cornell papers, 1804-1986, bulk 1939-1972. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Getty Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

See more items in:

Joseph Cornell papers

Joseph Cornell papers / Series 4: Source Material / 4.3: Subject Source Files

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9ecd6663b-76b1-4506-af24-477308fa4b4f

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aaa-cornjose-ref943

Creator:

Swanton, John Reed, 1873-1958  Search this

Culture:

Caddo  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Date:

undated

Scope and Contents:

Extracts from printed historical sources and photocopies of manuscripts. [Assembled before 1941.] Typescript document with annotations. Approximately 332 pages. Photostat copies of manuscript document approximately 68 pages. Speck, Frank G. Letter to John R. Swanton enclosing Caddo terms from a manuscript in the [American] Philosophical Society Library. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 16, 1940. Autographed letter signed, 2 pages. Enclosure, 2 pages.

Arrangement:

Alphabetically arranged by author or other source.

Local Numbers:

NAA MS 4120

Topic:

Indians of North America -- Southern states  Search this

Citation:

Manuscript 4120, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NAA.MS4120

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw3788d18f4-c21d-4ebe-96eb-77e767ace8fa

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-ms4120

Collector:

Gauntt, James G.  Search this

Extent:

16 Pages

Culture:

Muskogee (Creek)  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Date:

undated

Scope and Contents:

Also includes copy of Swete's ratification and President's endorsement.

Biographical / Historical:

Treaty dated March 24, 1832, Washington, D.C.; ratification, April 2, 1832. President Andrew Jackson's endorsement dated April 4, 1832.

Local Numbers:

NAA MS 3170

Local Note:

Photostat copy

Topic:

Federal-Indian relations -- Creek  Search this

Treaties -- Creek  Search this

Indians of North America -- Southern states  Search this

Citation:

Manuscript 3170, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NAA.MS3170

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw3862503c7-9bdb-4a80-9a4c-e9562695532c

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-ms3170

Creator:

Swanton, John Reed, 1873-1958  Search this

Bailey, Joseph H.  Search this

Names:

Cooacooche  Search this

Wild Cat  Search this

Extent:

3 Folders

Culture:

Seminole Indians  Search this

Seminole  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Negatives

Photographs

Date:

undated

Scope and Contents:

Folder 1: Notes on Cooacooche or Wild Cat and other personalities and events of the Seminole War. 9 pages. Photostat and typed transcript of 9 page manuscript by Joseph H. Bailey, 1841, and 1 map; originals in possession of F. H. Douglas, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado. (Almost entirely duplicated in Sprague; John T., Origin, Progress, and Conclusion of the Florida War, New York, 1848, pages 90-91, 325-329.) Folder 2: Five negatives (and prints) of 1 drawing, 2 maps, and 1 letter relating to the Dade massacre and other incidents of the 2nd Seminole War; originals in possession of David I. Bushnell, Jr (later willed to Peabody Museum, Harvard University ?). To have been published by W. P. Marchman, Secy, Florida Historical Society. Folder 3: Notes by Swanton from various published sources of the 1820's and 1830's. 23 pages.

Local Numbers:

NAA MS 4161

Topic:

War -- Seminole War  Search this

War -- Dade massacre  Search this

Indians of North America -- Southern states  Search this

Genre/Form:

Negatives

Photographs

Citation:

Manuscript 4161, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NAA.MS4161

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw3416768c9-fcab-404a-be43-93bd6c8def7c

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-ms4161

Creator:

Tuggle, William Orrie, 1841-1884  Search this

Names:

Chufee  Search this

Istepahpah  Search this

Extent:

173 Pages

Culture:

Muskogee (Creek)  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Date:

March 1, 1887

Scope and Contents:

Filed with the manuscript are papers describing it and relating to its history (566-c) as follows: Folder 1-Bureau of American Ethnology correspondence, 1883-87, relating to history of Tuggle manuscript. 3 pages original and 15 photostats, with typed abstract covering all correspondence, 1 page typed. Folder 2-Description and comparison of the 2 copies of the Tuggle manuscript in Bureau of American Ethnology, by William C. Sturtevant, 1956, 9 pages typed. Folder 3-Miscellaneous notes and correspondence relating to search for information on Tuggle manuscript, 1932, 1956-57.

Contents: Myths of the Creeks: 1-The Tar Person, 9 pages. 2-The King of the Tie-snakes, 5 pages. 3-How day and night were divided, 2 pages. 4-The rabbit and wolf go courting, 3 pages. 5-How the rabbit deceived the other animals, 7 pages. 6-How the rabbit won the widow's beautiful daughter, 6 pages. 7-Rabbit pulling against the tie-snake, 13 pages ?. 8-Sharp breast and good snake, 1 page. 9-How Chufee deceived the tie-snake and the lion, 2 pages. 10-Origin of the tiger clan, 2 pages. 11-How the rabbit lost his long tail, 3 pages. 12-Why the possum has no hair on his tail, 1 page. 13-Disease, 1 page. 14-Medicine songs, 15 pages. 15-Snake sickness, 1 page. 16-Race between the crane and the humming bird, 1 page. 17-Creation of the earth, 6 pages. 18-Chufee discontented, 3 pages.

19-The Big Rock man, 1 page. 20-The Big Terrapin, 2 pages. 21-The Widow's son, 6 pages. 22-There are three worlds, 1 page. 23-How Chufee stole fire, 2 pages. 24-About the wind, 1 page. 25-How the terrapin got his back broken, 1 page. 26-The rainbow, Eclipse of the moon, 1 page. 27-Lightning, 1 page. 28-The terrapin runs a race with the deer, 1 page. 29-Baby songs, 5 pages. 30-Took-a-batche tradition, 1 page. 31-The sacred vessels, 3 pages. 32-Origin of Indian corn, 7 pages. 33-The lion and the little girl, 8 pages. 34-The origin of the turkey breast-lock; The wolf races with the terrapin; Istepahpah (man-eater) and Chufee; How the alligator's nose was broken, 8 pages.

35-Origin of the Bear clan, 2 pages. 36-Why the 'possum has no hair on his tail, 1 page. 37-Why the 'possum looks so ashamed, 1 page. 38-The Sar-ee-yah or Great Charm, 1 page. 39-The Turkey, turtle and rattlesnake, 2 pages. 40-How the mark was caused on the Phe-tuk-kee's tail, 1 page. 41-The bat, 3 pages. 42-The panther and coon fool the deer, 3 pages. 43-How Chufee the rabbit won his wife's sister for his second wife, 4 pages. 44-The rabbit and alligator. 45-Why the rabbit steals. 46-How the terrapin outran the deer. 47-The daughter of Tullopee-Tustenuggee-How the terrapin's eyes became red. 48-How the terrapin's back came to lie in checks. 49-The Buffalo girls. 50-The monkey girl.

Local Numbers:

NAA MS 566-a-c

Other Title:

The Tar Person

The King of the Tie-snakes

How day and night were divided

The rabbit and wolf go courting

How the rabbit deceived the other animals

How the rabbit won the widow's beautiful daughter

Rabbit pulling against the tie-snake

Sharp breast and good snake

How Chufee deceived the tie-snake and the lion

Origin of the tiger clan

How the rabbit lost his long tail

Why the possum has no hair on his tail

Disease

Medicine songs

Snake sickness

Race between the crane and the humming bird

Creation of the earth

Chufee discontented

The Big Rock man

The Big Terrapin

The Widow's son

There are three worlds

How Chufee stole fire

About the wind

How the terrapin got his back broken

The rainbow, Eclipse of the moon

Lightning

The terrapin runs a race with the deer

Baby songs

Took-a-batche tradition

The sacred vessels

Origin of Indian corn

The lion and the little girl

The origin of the turkey breast-lock; The wolf races with the terrapin; Istepahpah (man-eater) and Chufee; How the alligator's nose was broken

Origin of the Bear clan

Why the 'possum has no hair on his tail

Why the 'possum looks ashamed

The Sar-ee-yah or Great Charm

The Turkey, turtle and rattlesnake

How the mark was caused on the Phe-tuk-kee's tail

The bat

The panther and coon fool the deer

How Chufee the rabbit won his wife's sister for his second wife

The rabbit and alligator

Why the rabbit steals

How the terrapin outran the deer

The daughter of Tullopee-Tustenuggee-How the terrapin's eyes became red

How the terrapin's back came to lie in checks

The Buffalo girls

The monkey girl

Topic:

Folklore -- Creek  Search this

Language and languages -- Documentation  Search this

Indians of North America -- Southern states  Search this

Citation:

Manuscript 566-a-c, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NAA.MS566AC

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw36be6d443-c7e0-46e2-93b4-7319fc71cfe9

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-ms566ac

Collector:

Tuggle, William Orrie, 1841-1884  Search this

Names:

Chufee  Search this

Istepahpah  Search this

Extent:

117 Pages

Culture:

Muskogee (Creek)  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Date:

undated

Scope and Contents:

Stories Numbers 32 and 40 are not included in these copies.

Contents: Myths of the Creeks: 1-The Tar Person, 9 pages. 2-The King of the Tie-snakes, 5 pages. 3-How day and night were divided, 2 pages. 4-The rabbit and wolf go courting, 3 pages. 5-How the rabbit deceived the other animals, 7 pages. 6-How the rabbit won the widow's beautiful daughter, 6 pages. 7-Rabbit pulling against the tie-snake, 13 pages ?. 8-Sharp breast and good snake, 1 page. 9-How Chufee deceived the tie-snake and the lion, 2 pages. 10-Origin of the tiger clan, 2 pages. 11-How the rabbit lost his long tail, 3 pages. 12-Why the possum has no hair on his tail, 1 page. 13-Disease, 1 page. 14-Medicine songs, 15 pages. 15-Snake sickness, 1 page. 16-Race between the crane and the humming bird, 1 page. 17-Creation of the earth, 6 pages. 18-Chufee discontented, 3 pages.

19-The Big Rock man, 1 page. 20-The Big Terrapin, 2 pages. 21-The Widow's son, 6 pages. 22-There are three worlds, 1 page. 23-How Chufee stole fire, 2 pages. 24-About the wind, 1 page. 25-How the terrapin got his back broken, 1 page. 26-The rainbow, Eclipse of the moon, 1 page. 27-Lightning, 1 page. 28-The terrapin runs a race with the deer, 1 page. 29-Baby songs, 5 pages. 30-Took-a-batche tradition, 1 page. 31-The sacred vessels, 3 pages. 33-The lion and the little girl, 8 pages. 34-The origin of the turkey breast-lock; The wolf races with the terrapin; Istepahpah (man-eater) and Chufee; How the alligator's nose was broken, 8 pages.

35-Origin of the Bear clan, 2 pages. 36-Why the 'possum has no hair on his tail, 1 page. 37-Why the 'possum looks so ashamed, 1 page. 38-The Sar-ee-yah or Great Charm, 1 page. 39-The Turkey, turtle and rattlesnake, 2 pages. 41-The bat, 3 pages. 42-The panther and coon fool the deer, 3 pages. 43-How Chufee the rabbit won his wife's sister for his second wife, 4 pages. 44-The rabbit and alligator. 45-Why the rabbit steals. 46-How the terrapin outran the deer. 47-The daughter of Tullopee-Tustenuggee-How the terrapin's eyes became red. 48-How the terrapin's back came to lie in checks. 49-The Buffalo girls. 50-The monkey girl.

Local Numbers:

NAA MS 566-b

Other Title:

The Tar Person

The King of the Tie-snakes

How day and night were divided

The rabbit and wolf go courting

How the rabbit deceived the other animals

How the rabbit won the widow's beautiful daughter

Rabbit pulling against the tie-snake

Sharp breast and good snake

How Chufee deceived the tie-snake and the lion

Origin of the tiger clan

How the rabbit lost his long tail

Why the possum has no hair on his tail

Disease

Medicine songs

Snake sickness

Race between the crane and the humming bird

Creation of the earth

Chufee discontented

The Big Rock man

The Big Terrapin

The Widow's son

There are three worlds

How Chufee stole fire

About the wind

How the terrapin got his back broken

The rainbow, Eclipse of the moon

Lightning

The terrapin runs a race with the deer

Baby songs

Took-a-batche tradition

The sacred vessels

The lion and the little girl

The origin of the turkey breast-lock; The wolf races with the terrapin; Istepahpah (man-eater) and Chufee; How the alligator's nose was broken

Origin of the Bear clan

Why the 'possum has no hair on his tail

Why the 'possum looks ashamed

The Sar-ee-yah or Great Charm

The Turkey, turtle and rattlesnake

The bat

The panther and coon fool the deer

How Chufee the rabbit won his wife's sister for his second wife

The rabbit and alligator

Why the rabbit steals

How the terrapin outran the deer

The daughter of Tullopee-Tustenuggee-How the terrapin's eyes became red

How the terrapin's back came to lie in checks

The Buffalo girls

The monkey girl

Topic:

Folklore -- Creek  Search this

Language and languages -- Documentation  Search this

Indians of North America -- Southern states  Search this

Citation:

Manuscript 566-b, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NAA.MS566B

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw3ab5c036c-8110-4835-b911-abd31169000a

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-ms566b

Creator:

Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida  Search this

Extent:

41 Pages

Culture:

Seminole  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Maps

Date:

undated

Scope and Contents:

Includes their petition to the President of the U.S. for rights and privileges, other correspondence, and a map of the Indian lands in the state of Florida.

Local Numbers:

NAA MS 4528

Topic:

Federal-Indian relations -- Seminole  Search this

Government and politics -- Seminole  Search this

Indians of North America -- Southern states  Search this

Genre/Form:

Maps

Citation:

Manuscript 4528, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NAA.MS4528

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw30cf0bd53-11b5-473d-a96c-fdf413b911a2

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-ms4528

Collector:

Swanton, John Reed, 1873-1958  Search this

Creator:

Payne, John Howard, 1791-1852  Search this

Padilla, Augustin Davila  Search this

Catesby, Mark, 1683-1749  Search this

Culture:

Muskogee (Creek)  Search this

Choctaw  Search this

Cherokee  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Date:

undated

Scope and Contents:

Contents: John Howard Payne's account of the Green Corn Dance of the Cherokee ?, from the Continental Monthly, Volume I, 1862, reprinted in the Journal of the Oklahoma Historical Society with notes by Dr J. R. Swanton. Father Augustin Davila Padilla's account of the De Luna expedition. Spanish census of the Indians in some villages of Indian refugees in Florida. The Indians of Chicora, from Latin edition of Peter Martyr's "De Orbe Novo." A section of Mark Catesby's "Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands" bearing on Indians. A "Relation a La Louisiane" by an unidentified French author, in the Ayer Collection of Americana at the Newberry Library, Chicago. The Choctaw section and some minor portions have been printed in Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association and elsewhere. George Stiggins' Creek History from the Manuscript in the Draper Collection in the Library of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Ca. 100 sheets. Title: "A Historical narration of the Genealogy traditiona and downfall of the Ispocoga or Creek tribe written by one of the tribe." "Photocopies of parts of the Memorias of Juan A. de Morfi, the original of which is in the Library of Congress. Parts on Indians translated and printed by Chabot and used from his translation by Myself. May 25, 1944." --John R. Swanton.

Local Numbers:

NAA MS 4282

Topic:

Dance -- Cherokee ?  Search this

Censuses -- American Indian -- Florida  Search this

Florida -- census of Indians  Search this

Indians of North America -- Southern states  Search this

Citation:

Manuscript 4282, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NAA.MS4282

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw39f1d5819-370c-44d9-a750-8662d193da83

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-ms4282

Collection Landscape architect:

Wheeler, Perry H., 1914-1989  Search this

Collection Photographer:

Stengle, James M., Dr.  Search this

Collection Creator:

University of Georgia  Search this

Garden Club of America  Search this

Emory University  Search this

American Society of Landscape Architects  Search this

Extent:

2 Photographs (Photostat of image from House & Garden in Box 5; Photograph in Box 12)

Container:

Box 5

Box 12

Type:

Archival materials

Photographs

Photographs

Date:

circa 1955-1965

Collection Restrictions:

Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Rights:

Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Perry H. Wheeler collection.

See more items in:

Perry H. Wheeler collection

Perry H. Wheeler collection / Project Files / Unknown Location / Unidentified Gardens (possibly Perry Wheeler designs)

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb66d013f0b-46d0-4517-b6ec-fc05d30c9480

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-whe-ref1533

Creator:

Byington, Cyrus, 1793-1868  Search this

Nye, Anselm T.  Search this

Author:

Inman, Henry, 1801-1846  Search this

Depicted:

Byington, Cyrus, 1793-1868  Search this

Byington, Sophia Nye  Search this

Names:

Pitchlynn, Peter Perkins, 1806-1881  Search this

Extent:

14 Pages

5 Photographs

Culture:

Choctaw  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Photographs

Clippings

Date:

1845 and 1870

Scope and Contents:

Contents: Byington, Cyrus. Letter to Anselm T. Nye, Marrietta, Ohio. Stockbridge, Choctaw Nation (Indian Territory) October 20, 1845. 2 pages and cover. Photostat carbon of Autograph document. Concerns Peter Pitchlynn, who is to carry the letter. Byington, Cyrus. "A Pioneer Missionary," account of early mission work of Cyrus Byington. Bible House, New York, N.Y. October 1867. Photostat Carbon of newsclipping. 2 pages. Photographs of Cyrus Byington and Sophia Nye Byington: individual portraits painted 1827; individual photographs, photographs of both together, (ca. 1860-1868). 5 prints. Inman, Henry. "A Great Choctaw Chief (Peter Pitchlynn)." No date. Published document (News clipping) 1 column. Anonymous. "Peter Pitchlynn, Chief of the Choctaws." Atlantic Monthly, volume 25, Number 150, April, 1870, pages 486-497; in whole volume with anonymous Manuscript note on cover concerning Peter Pitchlynn and "Grandfather Byington."

Local Numbers:

NAA MS 4484-c

Local Note:

Printed document

Other Title:

A Pioneer Missionary

A Great Choctaw Chief (Peter Pitchlynn)

Peter Pitchlynn, Chief of the Choctaws

Topic:

Indians of North America -- Southern states  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Clippings

Citation:

Manuscript 4484-c, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NAA.MS4484C

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw3e792f49c-a734-4bd3-9b5d-b0002d49ab3a

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-ms4484c

Extent:

3 Pages

Culture:

Caddo  Search this

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Pages

Maps

Date:

1818-1828

Scope and Contents:

Includes transmittal correspondence.

Local Numbers:

NAA MS 4315

Local Note:

Photostat

Topic:

Texas  Search this

Copy of a document from the Charles Ragnet papers  Search this

Indians of North America -- Southern states  Search this

Genre/Form:

Maps

Citation:

Manuscript 4315, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NAA.MS4315

Archival Repository:

National Anthropological Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nw3e2fcd95f-f5a9-420b-ae12-cc90af0218a0

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-naa-ms4315