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Creator:

United Telegraph Workers.  Search this

Western Union Telegraph Company  Search this

Extent:

452 Cubic feet (871 boxes and 23 map folders)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Administrative records

Articles

Books

Clippings

Contracts

Drawings

Photographs

Patents

Newsletters

Photograph albums

Scrapbooks

Specifications

Technical documents

Date:

circa 1820-1995

Summary:

The collection documents in photographs, scrapbooks, notebooks, correspondence, stock ledgers, annual reports, and financial records, the evolution of the telegraph, the development of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and the beginning of the communications revolution. The collection materials describe both the history of the company and of the telegraph industry in general, particularly its importance to the development of the technology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The collection is useful for researchers interested in the development of technology, economic history, and the impact of technology on American social and cultural life.

Scope and Contents:

The collection is divided into twenty-six (26) series and consists of approximately 400 cubic feet. The collection documents in photographs, scrapbooks, notebooks, correspondence, stock ledgers, annual reports, and financial records, the evolution of the telegraph, the development of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and the beginning of the communications revolution. The collection materials describe both the history of the company and of the telegraph industry in general, particularly its importance to the development of the technology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The collection is useful for researchers interested in the development of technology, economic history, and the impact of technology on American social and cultural life.

Arrangement:

The collection is divided into twenty-seven series.

Series 1: Historical and Background Information, 1851-1994

Series 2: Subsidiaries of Western Union, 1844-1986

Series 3: Executive Records, 1848-1987

Series 4: Presidential Letterbooks and Writings, 1865-1911

Series 5: Correspondence, 1837-1985

Series 6: Cyrus W. Field Papers, 1840-1892

Series 7: Secretary's Files, 1844-1987

Series 8: Financial Records, 1859-1995

Series 9: Legal Records, 1867-1968

Series 10: Railroad Records, 1854-1945

Series 11: Law Department Records, 1868-1979

Series 12: Patent Materials, 1840-1970

Series 13: Operating Records, 1868-1970s

Series 14: Westar VI-S, 1974, 1983-1986

Series 15: Engineering Department Records, 1874-1970

Series 16: Plant Department Records, 1867-1937, 1963

Series 17: Superintendent of Supplies Records, 1888-1948

Series 18: Employee/Personnel Records 1852-1985

Series 19: Public Relations Department Records, 1858-1980

Series 20: Western Union Museum, 1913-1971

Series 21: Maps, 1820-1964

Series 22: Telegrams, 1852-1960s

Series 23: Photographs, circa 1870-1980

Series 24: Scrapbooks, 1835-1956

Series 25: Notebooks, 1880-1942

Series 26: Audio Visual Materials, 1925-1994

Series 27: Addenda

Biographical / Historical:

In 1832 Samuel F. B. Morse, assisted by Alfred Vail, conceived of the idea for an electromechanical telegraph, which he called the "Recording Telegraph." This commercial application of electricity was made tangible by their construction of a crude working model in 1835-36. This instrument probably was never used outside of Professor Morse's rooms where it was, however, operated in a number of demonstrations. This original telegraph instrument was in the hands of the Western Union Telegraph Company and had been kept carefully over the years in a glass case. It was moved several times in New York as the Western Union headquarters building changed location over the years. The company presented it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1950.

The telegraph was further refined by Morse, Vail, and a colleague, Leonard Gale, into working mechanical form in 1837. In this year Morse filed a caveat for it at the U.S. Patent Office. Electricity, provided by Joseph Henry's 1836 "intensity batteries", was sent over a wire. The flow of electricity through the wire was interrupted for shorter or longer periods by holding down the key of the device. The resulting dots or dashes were recorded on a printer or could be interpreted orally. In 1838 Morse perfected his sending and receiving code and organized a corporation, making Vail and Gale his partners.

In 1843 Morse received funds from Congress to set-up a demonstration line between Washington and Baltimore. Unfortunately, Morse was not an astute businessman and had no practical plan for constructing a line. After an unsuccessful attempt at laying underground cables with Ezra Cornell, the inventor of a trench digger, Morse switched to the erection of telegraph poles and was more successful. On May 24, 1844, Morse, in the U.S. Supreme Court Chambers in Washington, sent by telegraph the oft-quoted message to his colleague Vail in Baltimore, "What hath God wrought!"

In 1845 Morse hired Andrew Jackson's former postmaster general, Amos Kendall, as his agent in locating potential buyers of the telegraph. Kendall realized the value of the device, and had little trouble convincing others of its potential for profit. By the spring he had attracted a small group of investors. They subscribed $15,000 and formed the Magnetic Telegraph Company. Many new telegraph companies were formed as Morse sold licenses wherever he could.

The first commercial telegraph line was completed between Washington, D.C., and New York City in the spring of 1846 by the Magnetic Telegraph Company. Shortly thereafter, F. O. J. Smith, one of the patent owners, built a line between New York City and Boston. Most of these early companies were licensed by owners of Samuel Morse patents. The Morse messages were sent and received in a code of dots and dashes.

At this time other telegraph systems based on rival technologies were being built. Some companies used the printing telegraph, a device invented by a Vermonter, Royal E. House, whose messages were printed on paper or tape in Roman letters. In 1848 a Scotch scientist, Alexander Bain, received his patents on a telegraph. These were but two of many competing and incompatible technologies that had developed. The result was confusion, inefficiency, and a rash of suits and counter suits.

By 1851 there were over fifty separate telegraph companies operating in the United States. This corporate cornucopia developed because the owners of the telegraph patents had been unsuccessful in convincing the United States and other governments of the invention's potential usefulness. In the private sector, the owners had difficulty convincing capitalists of the commercial value of the invention. This led to the owners' willingness to sell licenses to many purchasers who organized separate companies and then built independent telegraph lines in various sections of the country.

Hiram Sibley moved to Rochester, New York, in 1838 to pursue banking and real estate. Later he was elected sheriff of Monroe County. In Rochester he was introduced to Judge Samuel L. Selden who held the House Telegraph patent rights. In 1849 Selden and Sibley organized the New York State Printing Telegraph Company, but they found it hard to compete with the existing New York, Albany, and Buffalo Telegraph Company.

After this experience Selden suggested that instead of creating a new line, the two should try to acquire all the companies west of Buffalo and unite them into a single unified system. Selden secured an agency for the extension throughout the United States of the House system. In an effort to expand this line west, Judge Selden called on friends and the people in Rochester. This led, in April 1851, to the organization of a company and the filing in Albany of the Articles of Association for the "New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company" (NYMVPTC), a company which later evolved into the Western Union Telegraph Company.

In 1854 there were two rival systems of the NYMVPTC in the West. These two systems consisted of thirteen separate companies. All the companies were using Morse patents in the five states north of the Ohio River. This created a struggle between three separate entities, leading to an unreliable and inefficient telegraph service. The owners of these rival companies eventually decided to invest their money elsewhere and arrangements were made for the NYMVPTC to purchase their interests.

Hiram Sibley recapitalized the company in 1854 under the same name and began a program of construction and acquisition. The most important takeover was carried out by Sibley when he negotiated the purchase of the Morse patent rights for the Midwest for $50,000 from Jeptha H. Wade and John J. Speed, without the knowledge of Ezra Cornell, their partner in the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company (EMTC). With this acquisition Sibley proceeded to switch to the superior Morse system. He also hired Wade, a very capable manager, who became his protege and later his successor. After a bitter struggle Morse and Wade obtained the EMTC from Cornell in 1855, thus assuring dominance by the NYMVPTC in the Midwest. In 1856 the company name was changed to the "Western Union Telegraph Company," indicating the union of the Western lines into one compact system. In December, 1857, the Company paid stockholders their first dividend.

Between 1857 and 1861 similar consolidations of telegraph companies took place in other areas of the country so that most of the telegraph interests of the United States had merged into six systems. These were the American Telegraph Company (covering the Atlantic and some Gulf states), The Western Union Telegraph Company (covering states North of the Ohio River and parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Minnesota), the New York Albany and Buffalo Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company (covering New York State), the Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph Company (covering Pennsylvania), the Illinois & Mississippi Telegraph Company (covering sections of Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois), and the New Orleans & Ohio Telegraph Company (covering the southern Mississippi Valley and the Southwest). All these companies worked together in a mutually friendly alliance, and other small companies cooperated with the six systems, particularly some on the West Coast.

By the time of the Civil War, there was a strong commercial incentive to construct a telegraph line across the western plains to link the two coasts of America. Many companies, however, believed the line would be impossible to build and maintain.

In 1860 Congress passed, and President James Buchanan signed, the Pacific Telegraph Act, which authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to seek bids for a project to construct a transcontinental line. When two bidders dropped out, Hiram Sibley, representing Western Union, was the only bidder left. By default Sibley won the contract. The Pacific Telegraph Company was organized for the purpose of building the eastern section of the line. Sibley sent Wade to California, where he consolidated the small local companies into the California State Telegraph Company. This entity then organized the Overland Telegraph Company, which handled construction eastward from Carson City, Nevada, joining the existing California lines, to Salt Lake City, Utah. Sibley's Pacific Telegraph Company built westward from Omaha, Nebraska. Sibley put most of his resources into the venture. The line was completed in October, 1861. Both companies were soon merged into Western Union. This accomplishment made Hiram Sibley leader of the telegraph industry.

Further consolidations took place over the next several years. Many companies merged into the American Telegraph Company. With the expiration of the Morse patents, several organizations were combined in 1864 under the name of "The U.S. Telegraph Company." In 1866 the final consolidation took place, with Western Union exchanging stock for the stock of the other two organizations. The general office of Western Union moved at this time from Rochester to 145 Broadway, New York City. In 1875 the main office moved to 195 Broadway, where it remained until 1930 when it relocated to 60 Hudson Street.

In 1873 Western Union purchased a majority of shares in the International Ocean Telegraph Company. This was an important move because it marked Western Union's entry into the foreign telegraph market. Having previously worked with foreign companies, Western Union now began competing for overseas business.

In the late 1870s Western Union, led by William H. Vanderbilt, attempted to wrest control of the major telephone patents, and the new telephone industry, away from the Bell Telephone Company. But due to new Bell leadership and a subsequent hostile takeover attempt of Western Union by Jay Gould, Western Union discontinued its fight and Bell Telephone prevailed.

Despite these corporate calisthenics, Western Union remained in the public eye. The sight of a uniformed Western Union messenger boy was familiar in small towns and big cities all over the country for many years. Some of Western Union's top officials in fact began their careers as messenger boys.

Throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century the telegraph became one of the most important factors in the development of social and commercial life of America. In spite of improvements to the telegraph, however, two new inventions--the telephone (nineteenth century) and the radio (twentieth century)--eventually replaced the telegraph as the leaders of the communication revolution for most Americans.

At the turn of the century, Bell abandoned its struggles to maintain a monopoly through patent suits, and entered into direct competition with the many independent telephone companies. Around this time, the company adopted its new name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T).

In 1908 AT&T gained control of Western Union. This proved beneficial to Western Union, because the companies were able to share lines when needed, and it became possible to order telegrams by telephone. However, it was only possible to order Western Union telegrams, and this hurt the business of Western Union's main competitor, the Postal Telegraph Company. In 1913, however, as part of a move to prevent the government from invoking antitrust laws, AT&T completely separated itself from Western Union.

Western Union continued to prosper and it received commendations from the U.S. armed forces for service during both world wars. In 1945 Western Union finally merged with its longtime rival, the Postal Telegraph Company. As part of that merger, Western Union agreed to separate domestic and foreign business. In 1963 Western Union International Incorporated, a private company completely separate from the Western Union Telegraph Company, was formed and an agreement with the Postal Telegraph Company was completed. In 1994, Western Union Financial Services, Inc. was acquired by First Financial Management Corporation. In 1995, First Financial Management Corporation merged with First Data Corporation making Western Union a First Data subsidiary.

Many technological advancements followed the telegraph's development. The following are among the more important:

The first advancement of the telegraph occurred around 1850 when operators realized that the clicks of the recording instrument portrayed a sound pattern, understandable by the operators as dots and dashes. This allowed the operator to hear the message by ear and simultaneously write it down. This ability transformed the telegraph into a versatile and speedy system.

Duplex Telegraphy, 1871-72, was invented by the president of the Franklin Telegraph Company. Unable to sell his invention to his own company, he found a willing buyer in Western Union. Utilizing this invention, two messages were sent over the wire simultaneously, one in each direction.

As business blossomed and demand surged, new devices appeared. Thomas Edison's Quadruplex allowed four messages to be sent over the same wire simultaneously, two in one direction and two in the other.

An English automatic signaling arrangement, Wheatstone's Automatic Telegraph, 1883, allowed larger numbers of words to be transmitted over a wire at once. It could only be used advantageously, however, on circuits where there was a heavy volume of business.

Buckingham's Machine Telegraph was an improvement on the House system. It printed received messages in plain Roman letters quickly and legibly on a message blank, ready for delivery.

Vibroplex, c. 1890, a semi-automatic key sometimes called a "bug key," made the dots automatically. This relieved the operator of much physical strain.

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

Additional moving image about Western Union Telegraph Company can be found in the Industry on Parade Collection (AC0507). This includes Cable to Cuba! by Bell Laboratory, AT & T, featuring the cable ship, the C.S. Lord Kelvin, and Communications Centennial! by the Western Union Company.

Materials at Other Organizations

Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware.

Western Union International Records form part of the MCI International, Inc. Records at the First Data Corporation, Greenwood Village, Colorado.

Records of First Data Corporation and its predecessors, including Western Union, First Financial Management Corporation (Atlanta) and First Data Resources (Omaha). Western Union collection supports research of telegraphy and related technologies, and includes company records, annual reports, photographs, print and broadcast advertising, telegraph equipment, and messenger uniforms.

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Western Union Telegraph Expedition, 1865-1867

This collection includes correspondence, mostly to Spencer F. Baird, from members of the Scientific Corps of the Western Union Telegraph Expedition, including Kennicott, Dall, Bannister, and Elliott; copies of reports submitted to divisional chiefs from expedition staff members; newspaper clippings concerning the expedition; copies of notes on natural history taken by Robert Kennicott; and a journal containing meteorological data recorded by Henry M. Bannister from March to August, 1866.

Separated Materials:

Artifacts (apparatus and equipment) were donated to the Division of Information Technology and Society, now known as the Division of Work & Industry, National Museum of American History.

Provenance:

The collection was donated by Western Union in September of 1971.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but Series 11 and films are stored off-site. Special arrangements must be made to view some of the audiovisual materials. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

Communications equipment  Search this

Communication -- International cooperation  Search this

Electric engineering  Search this

Electric engineers  Search this

Electrical equipment  Search this

Electrical science and technology  Search this

Telegraphers  Search this

Telegraph  Search this

Genre/Form:

Administrative records

Articles

Books

Clippings

Contracts

Drawings

Photographs -- 19th century

Patents

Photographs -- 20th century

Newsletters

Photograph albums

Scrapbooks -- 19th century

Scrapbooks -- 20th century

Specifications

Technical documents

Citation:

Western Union Telegraph Company Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0205

See more items in:

Western Union Telegraph Company Records

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8b72e8493-288c-4bd0-84d5-011155da30a7

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0205

Author:

Garrett, John W. (John Work), 1820-1884  Search this

Latrobe, Benj. H. (Benjamin Henry), 1807-1878  Search this

Creator:

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company  Search this

Collector:

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of History of Technology  Search this

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering  Search this

Extent:

33 Cubic feet (76 boxes, 46 map-folders)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Tracings

Correspondence

Drawings

Date:

1827-1987

Summary:

The collection consists of correspondence, invoices, drawings, photographs, and negatives and other printed literature documenting the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from its inception in 1827 to its merger with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in the 1960s.

Scope and Contents:

The collection consists of correspondence, engineering drawings, notes, photographs, transparencies, negatives, glass plate negatives, printed materials, and newspaper clippings documenting the Baltimore and Ohio railroad from its inception in 1827 to its merger with the Chesapeake and Ohio in the 1960s.

Arrangement:

The records are arranged into ten series.

Series 1, Historical Background, 1827-1987

Series 2, Bridge Histories, 1867-1966

Series 3, President's Office, 1826-1880

Series 4, Correspondence, 1826-1859

Series 5, Business Records, 1894-1914, and undated

Series 6, Agreement, 1870

Series 7, Drawings, 1858-1957, and undated

Subseries 7.1, Indices and Lists, 1924-1943, undated

Subseries 7.2, Bailey's Station, 1887; 1899; 1901

Subseries 7.3, Baltimore Belt Railroad, 1895, undated

Subseries 7.4, Bay View and Canton Bridges, 1884-1885

Subseries 7.5, Big Seneca Creek Viaduct, 1905

Subseries 7.6, Bollman Bridges, undated

Subseries 7.7, Boyds, Maryland Station, 1886; 1927

Subseries 7.8, Bridewell Station, undated

Subseries 7.9, Bridges (general), 1893-1917

Subseries 7.10, Brunswick, Maryland, 1890-1907

Subseries 7.11, Building Materials List, undated

Subseries 7.12, Building Signs, 1911-1912

Subseries 7.13, Camden Station, 1881-1942 (not inclusive)

Subseries 7.14, Camden Station (related), 1881-1915

Subseries 7.15, Centenary Bridge Models, 1927

Subseries 7.16, Central Office Building, undated

Subseries 7.17, Chestnut Street Station, 1925-1952

Subseries 7.18, Coaling facilities, water tanks, turntables, and miscellaneous structures, 1888-1912

Subseries 7.19, Cumberland Station, 1910-1955

Subseries 7.20, Curtis Bay Branch, 1900-1911

Subseries 7.21, Frederick Station, 1908-1915

Subseries 7.22, Hyattsville Station, 1913

Subseries 7.23, Keedysville Station, undated

Subseries 7.24, Laurel Station, undated

Subseries 7.25, Ledger, undated

Subseries 7.26, Lieperville Station, 1889

Subseries 7.27, Locust Point, 1881-1957

Subseries 7.28, Maps, 1862; 1918

Subseries 7.29, Martinsburg, West Virginia, 1913-1927

Subseries 7.30, Miscellaneous Buildings, 1875-1956

Subseries 7.31, Miscellaneous Large Photographs, undated

Subseries 7.32, Miscellaneous Structures, 1890-1916

Subseries 7.33: Mt. Clare (general)

Subseries 7.34, Mt. Clare New Blue Line Stable, 1899; 1905

Subseries 7.35, Mt. Clare New Car Shops, undated

Subseries 7.36, Mt. Royal Station, undated

Subseries 7.37, Newton Falls and Fairpoint, Ohio, 1909

Subseries 7.38, Patapsco River Bridge, 1883

Subseries 7.39, Plans for house no. 1846 (N. Gay Street, Baltimore, Maryland), undated

Subseries 7.40, Point of Rocks Station, 1951

Subseries 7.41, Scales, 1903

Subseries 7.42, Signal towers, 1900-1908

Subseries 7.43, Stations (general), 1866-1907

Subseries 7.44, Sykesville Station, undated

Subseries 7.45, Untitled, undated

Subseries 7.46, Warnings, 1894-1911

Subseries 7.47, Woodstock Station, undated

Subseries 7.48, Miscellaneous (rolled), 1858-1930 (not inclusive)

Series 8, Photographs and Copy Prints, 1872-1980s (not inclusive)

Subseries 8.1, Photographs, 1872-1980s

Subseries 8.2, Copy prints, 1901-1931, undated

Subseries 8.3, Indices and Lists, 1909-1920

Series 9, Negatives, 1850-1983 (bulk 1920s-1930s)

Subseries 9.1, Glass plate negatives (unidentified), undated

Subseries 9.2, Glass plate negatives (numbered), 1850-1957 (bulk 1920s-1930s)

Subseries 9.3, Negatives by number, undated

Subseries 9.4, Negatives by location, 1870; 1978-1983

Subseries 9.5, Negatives by subject, 1922-1930s, undated

Series 10, Stations and Buildings, 1884-1982

Biographical / Historical:

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) was the nation's first extensive steam powered railroad. It was founded by Baltimore merchants in 1827 as a means of promoting trade and making Baltimore competitive with other east coast ports. The original intent of the founders was to provide direct and fast access to the Ohio River, and the markets that the river reached. The railroad, however, went beyond the Ohio River and its lines went as far west as St. Louis and Chicago. The B&O was also known for its use of an electric locomotive in the mid 1890s. It also had a completely air conditioned train, and it was a forerunner in the use of diesel-electric locomotives. Company activities paralleled those of other American railroads and over the course of its life included expansion, near bankruptcy, innovations, regulations, and finally buy out. In February 1963, the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) completed its purchase of the B&O. Today, B&O is part of the CSX Transportation (CSX) network.

John Work Garrett president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 1858-1884, was born in Baltimore, Maryland July 31, 1820. He was the second son of Elizabeth Stouffer and Robert Garrett. He married Rachel Ann Harrison, the daughter of Thomas Harrison, a Baltimore merchant. They had one daughter, Mary and two sons Robert and Thomas Harrison Garrett.

After attending Lafayette College (Pennsylvania) for two years John W. Garrett left in 1836 to become associated with his father's commission business in Baltimore. The commission house which dealt in wholesale groceries, produce, forwarding and a commission business expanded to establish direct connections with Latin America, seek outlets in Europe and develop its own banking operations. In time its financial operations overshadowed the commission and shipping business.

When John W. Garrett began to invest heavily in Baltimore and Ohio Railroad stock, the road was in competition with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the stock was not popular. Its value rose steadily over the years. Mr. Garrett was elected a director of the railroad in 1855. His report as chairman of a subcommittee on the need for additional funds to complete the line to the Ohio River led to his election to the presidency of the road on November 17, 1858, a position he held for 26 years. New policies with emphasis on economy, personal supervision and gradual expansion were inaugurated and consistently maintained, in spite of a general financial crisis, Mr. Garrett's first year in office showed a net gain in earnings.

Sympathetic to his southern friends during the Civil War, Mr. Garrett nevertheless supported the Union. He recognized the inevitability of Confederate defeat by superior northern resources. Confederate leaders blamed him for their inability to seize Washington and he received warm appreciation for his services to the Union cause from President Lincoln. The railroad stretched along the theater of war and twice crossed Confederate territory. It was, therefore, a main objective for southern attack. Branches were frequently damaged by Confederate raids, but the main line to Washington became important for the transport of troops and supplies. The Baltimore and Ohio carried out the first military rail transport in history and the transfer of 20,000 men from the Potomac to Chattanooga in 1863 was a major triumph for its president.

With the advent of peace Mr. Garrett turned to rebuilding and strengthening the railroad. He replaced equipment and track damaged by the war, then extended the system by securing direct routes to Pittsburgh and Chicago and arranging an independent line into New York. Wharves were built at Locust Point for ocean liners and a system of elevators erected. The B&O. built its own sleeping and dining cars, established hotels in the mountains and created its own express company. By 1880, after battles over rates with other trunk lines, a costly rivalry with the Pennsylvania Railroad over the eastern route and charges of discrimination against local shippers Mr. Garrett was at the height of his success. He cooperated in establishing the B. and 0. Employees Relief Association for accident and life insurance, a hospital system, saving and building funds, and arrangements for improving sanitation in the work place. He was on friendly terms with Johns Hopkins, a trustee of John Hopkins Hospital, and with George Peabody, founder of the Peabody institute of which he was also a trustee. Garrett County, Maryland was named in his honor.

John W. Garrett died on September 26, 1884 within a year of his wife's death in a carriage accident. During his connection with the railroad the stock increased from $57 to $200; at the outbreak of the Civil War the railroad was operating 514 miles of rail, gross earnings were $4,000,097 and net per mile was $4246.1 By 1864 gross earnings were $10,138,876 and net per mile, $7113.2 By the end of his presidency mileage had increased to 1711 miles and net earnings were $4535 per mile.3

References

1 -- National Cyclopedia of American Biography -- Vol. 18:3

2 -- National Cyclopedia of American Biography -- Vol. 18:3

3 -- National Cyclopedia of American Biography -- Vol. 18:3

Related Materials:

Materials at Other Organizations

Maryland Historical Society

Baltimore and Ohio Museum

Provenance:

This collection was donated to the National Museum of American History by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the 1960s.

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research use. Researchers must handle unprotected photographs and glass plate negatives with gloves.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Topic:

Railroads  Search this

Engineering -- 19th century  Search this

Repairing -- Railroads  Search this

Railway engineering -- 1860-1890  Search this

Bridges  Search this

Construction  Search this

Genre/Form:

Tracings

Correspondence -- 19th century

Drawings -- 1860-1890

Citation:

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.1086

See more items in:

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Records

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8e652d903-bb57-46a8-a205-c7cbfe89f444

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1086

Series Collector:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History  Search this

Series Donor:

Becker, John M.  Search this

Gay Officers Action League. GOAL  Search this

Heritage of Pride (HOP)  Search this

Rohrbaugh, Richard  Search this

Atlantic States Gay Rodeo Association (ASGRA)  Search this

Series Creator:

Hirsch, Leonard  Search this

Guest, Barbara  Search this

Barna, Joseph T.  Search this

Guest, Michael E.  Search this

Cruse, Howard, 1944-2019  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

1982-2016, undated

Scope and Contents:

This series contains correspondence, ephemera, news letters, HIV and AIDS information, programs, flyers, photographs and publications related to the Gay Officers Action League. This series also includes with its correspondence hate mail received by the GOAL and material related to a harassment incident that took place during the Pride march of 1990 in New York City. This series also contains a portrait of Sargeant Charles H. Cochrane, Jr. (1943-2008) founder of GOAL, painted by Chris Morano. The portrait was presented to Cochrane's family at the naming of Charles H. Cochrane Way, Greenwich Village, New York City, New York in 2016. The Cochrane family then donated it to GOAL who donated it to the Archives Center.

Series Restrictions:

The collection is open for research use.

Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audio-visual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.

Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.

Series Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Series Citation:

Archives Center Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.1146, Series 22

See more items in:

Archives Center Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep80635709d-fcb9-4bca-82b1-7f511fc5907c

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-1146-ref1759

Series Collector:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History  Search this

Series Donor:

Becker, John M.  Search this

Gay Officers Action League. GOAL  Search this

Heritage of Pride (HOP)  Search this

Rohrbaugh, Richard  Search this

Atlantic States Gay Rodeo Association (ASGRA)  Search this

Series Creator:

Hirsch, Leonard  Search this

Guest, Barbara  Search this

Barna, Joseph T.  Search this

Guest, Michael E.  Search this

Cruse, Howard, 1944-2019  Search this

Container:

Box 37, Folder 52

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

undated

Series Restrictions:

The collection is open for research use.

Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audio-visual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.

Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.

Series Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Series Citation:

Archives Center Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

See more items in:

Archives Center Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Collection

Archives Center Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Collection / Series 7: Mattachine Society / 7.4: Councils, Chapters, and Committees

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep87935a3bb-2329-41bb-b221-02d1ecb61bc5

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-1146-ref820

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Container:

Box 18, Folder 4

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Brownie Wise Papers / Series 3: Tupperware Home Parties / 3.6: Publicity

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep885943447-8724-43f8-a95b-053ae34eb285

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref239

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Container:

Box 18, Folder 5

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Brownie Wise Papers / Series 3: Tupperware Home Parties / 3.6: Publicity

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep810695733-74c7-42bd-8212-54c9b7dbd0fa

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref240

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Container:

Box 18, Folder 6

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Brownie Wise Papers / Series 3: Tupperware Home Parties / 3.6: Publicity

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep86c53c17f-98f5-4700-93e6-126d0a4e2a4c

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref241

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Container:

Box 18, Folder 7

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Brownie Wise Papers / Series 3: Tupperware Home Parties / 3.6: Publicity

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8205d6f86-a47b-4249-bfef-e4c04b2a40e7

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref242

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Container:

Box 18, Folder 8

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Brownie Wise Papers / Series 3: Tupperware Home Parties / 3.6: Publicity

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8d340cd02-986d-4313-aa5d-891f7e54a322

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref243

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Container:

Box 17, Folder 3

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Brownie Wise Papers / Series 3: Tupperware Home Parties / 3.6: Publicity

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8ed2845b8-4f1b-4597-9461-c296fd469571

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref231

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Container:

Box 17, Folder 4

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Brownie Wise Papers / Series 3: Tupperware Home Parties / 3.6: Publicity

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8d935ad3e-28a2-412a-abd2-d2e37862fb96

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref232

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Container:

Box 17, Folder 6

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Brownie Wise Papers / Series 3: Tupperware Home Parties / 3.6: Publicity

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep88d841bdf-47e4-42af-a907-3f2adffa282a

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref234

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Container:

Box 17, Folder 7

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Brownie Wise Papers / Series 3: Tupperware Home Parties / 3.6: Publicity

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8a643be33-6d92-4b35-ba6d-30f61bd5bd28

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref235

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Container:

Box 18, Folder 1

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Brownie Wise Papers / Series 3: Tupperware Home Parties / 3.6: Publicity

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8d51ef780-7687-422d-8116-53557ee8fce9

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref236

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Container:

Box 18, Folder 2

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Brownie Wise Papers / Series 3: Tupperware Home Parties / 3.6: Publicity

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8b0a1692c-2b02-4d01-a683-00f572b134f1

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref237

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Container:

Box 18, Folder 3

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Brownie Wise Papers / Series 3: Tupperware Home Parties / 3.6: Publicity

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8d02d61fd-ec32-406c-940a-23d9c96ba90d

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref238

Collection Inventor:

Wise, Brownie Humphrey, 1913-1991  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

circa 1951-1959, undated

Scope and Contents:

This series includes files of Wise's business correspondence, notes and memoranda, and speeches. There is some business correspondence with Earl Tupper, who remained at the firm's manufacturing plants in the Northeast. Also included are publicity reprints and newsclippings, as well as public relations scrapbooks from 1951 to 1958. There are nearly complete runs of Tupperware Sparks and the Tupperware Sentinel, company publications prepared for the sales force, as well as catalogs, recruitment publications and other company literature. The series is divided into six subseries as follows:

Subseries 3.1: Business Files and Correspondence, 1951-1959; 1988-1989

Subseries 3.2 Speeches to Tupperware Sales Force, 1951-1957

Subseries 3.3: Speeches to outside groups and Sales Organizations, 1952-1957

Subseries 3.4: Tupperware publications, 1949-1966 (not inclusive)

Subseries 3.5: Brownie Wise "Idea" files, undated

Subseries 3.6: Publicity, 1951-1957

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

Brownie Wise Papers, 1938-1968, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0509, Series 3

See more items in:

Brownie Wise Papers

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8cb8032a8-643c-4be8-ae64-362d2c3e1e92

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0509-ref72

Creator:

Anacostia Community Museum  Search this

Type:

Conversations and talks

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2023-05-25T18:59:16.000Z

YouTube Category:

Nonprofits & Activism  Search this

Topic:

African Americans  Search this

See more by:

SmithsonianAnacostia

Data Source:

Anacostia Community Museum

YouTube Channel:

SmithsonianAnacostia

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_LXY8-8j65pY

Creator:

Davis, Gene, 1920-1985  Search this

Names:

White House (Washington, D.C.)  Search this

Baro, Gene  Search this

Colby, Carl  Search this

Davis, Douglas  Search this

Davis, Florence  Search this

Greenberg, Clement, 1909-1994  Search this

McGowin, Ed, 1938-  Search this

Naifeh, Steven, 1952-  Search this

Nordland, Gerald  Search this

North, Percy, 1945-  Search this

Seitz, William C. (William Chapin)  Search this

Thomas, Alma  Search this

Wall, Donald  Search this

Extent:

17.7 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Sound recordings

Transcripts

Photographs

Interviews

Video recordings

Date:

1920-2000

bulk 1942-1990

Summary:

The papers of the artist Gene Davis measure 17.7 linear feet and date from 1920-2000, with the bulk of materials dating from 1942-1990. Papers document Davis's personal life and his career as an artist and educator, as well as his career as a journalist in the 1940s and 1950s, through biographical materials, correspondence, interviews, business records, estate records, writings by and about Gene Davis, printed materials concerning Davis's art career, personal and art-related photographs, and artwork by Davis and others.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of the artist Gene Davis measure 17.7 linear feet and date from 1920-2000, with the bulk of materials dating from 1942-1990. Papers document Davis's personal life and his career as an artist and educator, and to a lesser degree his early career as a journalist in the 1940s and 1950s, through biographical materials, correspondence, interviews, business records, estate records, writings by and about Gene Davis, printed materials concerning Davis's art career, personal and art-related photographs, and artwork by Davis and others.

Biographical materials include birth and death certificates, awards, biographical narratives by Gene Davis and others, CVs, résumés, personal documents from Davis's family and childhood, documents related to his work as a White House correspondent, documentation related to his death and memorial service, and papers for the family pets. A video documentary about Davis by Carl Colby is found on one videocassette.

Correspondence is mainly of a professional nature, and correspondents include gallery and museum curators, private art collectors, publishers, fellow artists, art educators, academics, and students. Letters document exhibitions, sales, book projects, teaching jobs, visits to studios, local art community events in the Washington, D.C. area, and other projects. Significant correspondents include Gene Baro, Douglas Davis, Clement Greenberg, Gerald Nordland, William Seitz, Alma Thomas, and Donald Wall. Interviews and lectures include sound recordings and transcripts. Many of the interviews were broadcast or published. Also found is a single lecture by Davis given in 1969 at the National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, entitled "Contemporary Painting." Sound recordings are found for three of the interviews and for the lecture, on 4 sound reels and 1 sound cassette.

Business records include artwork documentation, price lists, sales records, contracts, financial and legal records, gallery and museum files documenting sales and exhibitions, records related to the construction of Davis's home studio in 1970, and a few teaching records. Estate records mainly reflect Florence Davis's efforts to document the works of her husband, and to manage their exhibition, promotion, and sale after his death in April 1985. Estate records include an inventory of artworks, documentation of gifts to museums, correspondence, legal, and financial records. Writings include notes, drafts of essays, artist statements, and articles by Davis, and many articles by others about Davis. Several of Davis's articles reflect specifically on the Washington, D.C. art scene. Also found are drafts of monographs on Davis including one by Donald Wall (1975) and one by Steven Naifeh (1982). Records of Naifeh's book also include photographs of all black and white and color plates from the published book. Among the writings are also notes and research files of Percy North, who worked on an update to Naifeh's 1982 bibliography after Davis's death.

Printed materials include annual reports of museums, published arts-related calendars, auction catalogs, brochures from organizations with which Davis had some affiliation, exhibition announcements and invitations, exhibition catalogs, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, newsletters, posters, press releases, and other published material. Photographs include personal photographs of Gene and Florence Davis and their families, portraits of Gene Davis, photographs of Gene Davis with artworks and working in the studio, Davis' art classes and students, installations of site-specific works, conceptual and video works, exhibition openings, and photographs of artwork, both installed in exhibitions and individually photographed. Found among the photographs are also four videocassettes documenting the Gene Davis retrospective as installed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art in 1987.

Artwork includes photographs, drawings, moving images, and documentation of conceptual art. Works by Davis include documentation of the 1969 "Giveaway" with Douglas Davis and Ed McGowin, "The Artist's Fingerprints Except for One which belongs to someone else," documentation of his "Air Displacement" happening, a short film entitled "Patricia," and a video entitled "Video Puzzle." Other moving images include four reels of film of Davis's stripe paintings, and other experiments with motion picture film and photographs.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 8 series.

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1930-1987 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 1, 17)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1943-1990 (1.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-3)

Series 3: Interviews and Lectures, 1964-1983 (0.3 linear feet; Box 3)

Series 4: Business and Estate Records, 1942-1990 (1.6 linear feet; Boxes 3-5, 17, OV 20)

Series 5: Writings, 1944-1990 (2 linear feet; Boxes 5-6, 17, OV 19)

Series 6: Printed Material, 1942-1990 (5.5 linear feet; Boxes 7-11, 17-18, OV 20, FC 35-37)

Series 7: Photographs, 1920-2000 (3.8 linear feet; Boxes 11-15, 17, OV 19)

Series 8: Artwork, 1930-1985 (2.2 linear feet; Boxes 15-16, 18, FC 21-34)

Biographical / Historical:

Gene Davis (1920-1985) was a Washington, D.C.-based artist and educator who worked in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, collage, video, light sculpture, and conceptual art. Davis is best known for his vertical stripe paintings and his association with the Washington Color School.

Davis was born in 1920 in Washington, D.C. and began his career as a writer. In his twenties he wrote pulp stories and worked as a journalist, reporting for United Press International and serving as a White House correspondent for Transradio Press Service during the Truman administration. Later, he worked in public relations for the Automobile Association of America. A self-taught artist, Davis began painting while still working full-time as a writer, influenced by the prevailing abstract expressionist artists of the time, his frequent visits to the Corcoran Gallery and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and by his friend and mentor, Jacob Kainen. His first one-man show was held in the lobby of the Dupont Theater in Washington in 1952. He had a drawing accepted in the Corcoran Area Show in 1953, and won several local art prizes in the 1950s. He began showing work regularly in galleries around Washington, such as the Watkins Gallery at American University, the Gres Gallery, and the Henri Gallery, and had solo exhibitions at Jefferson Place Gallery in 1959 and 1961. Many of the painters who made up what became known as the Washington Color School also showed there, including Kenneth Noland, Howard Mehring, and Sam Gilliam. In 1965, the Washington Gallery of Modern Art held a seminal exhibition entitled Washington Color Painters, which included Davis, Noland, Mehring, Morris Louis, Thomas Downing, and Paul Reed.

Davis began showing outside of Washington regularly in the 1960s, including the Poindexter and Fischbach galleries in New York City, and in several important group shows at museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He had three works shown in the 1964 exhibition Post-Painterly Abstraction, organized by the influential art critic Clement Greenberg at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In the late 1960s, he began teaching art classes at the Corcoran School, and spent the summer of 1969 as artist in residence at Skidmore College's "Summer in Experiment" program.

Davis experimented with form continuously throughout his career, including a period of conceptual work in the late 1960s. In 1969 he participated in the "Giveaway," organized by Douglas Davis and Ed McGowin, in which multiple copies of a Davis painting were given away to invited guests in a gesture intended to subvert the art market. Davis also began experimenting with scale, creating a series of tiny paintings he called "Micro-paintings," which were exhibited at Fischbach Gallery in 1968. Around this time he also began working with film and video, recruiting models from his art classes to enact tightly choreographed movement pieces that played with rhythm and interval. Convinced by a lawyer that his videos were a liability without having obtained releases from the models, Davis destroyed all but one of his video works. The surviving video, "Video Puzzle," shows a foreshortened view of a model on the floor of a gallery spelling out a statement by Clement Greenberg at predetermined intervals.

Davis made several large-scale site-specific works using the stripe motif in public places. The first of these was created in the Bal Harbour, Florida, Neiman Marcus department store in 1970. Later works included Franklin's Footpath, executed in the road leading to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1972, and Niagara (1979) at ArtPark in Lewistown, NY, promoted at the time as the largest painting in the world. Interior large-scale works were created twice at the Corcoran Gallery, with Magic Circle (1975) and Ferris Wheel (1982), both executed in the museum's rotunda. Black Yo-Yo was created for the Cranbrook Academy in 1980, and Sun Sonata (1983), an illuminated wall of colored liquid-filled tubes, was created as an architectural feature of the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, Virginia. Plans for an unexecuted work called "Grass Painting," for a site near the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., were exhibited in the 1974 "Art Now" festival.

In the late 1970s and 1980s Davis consistently exhibited his work in several solo gallery shows a year, and also had numerous solo exhibitions in major museums. A major exhibition, Recent Paintings, was organized by the Walker Art Center in 1978, and traveled to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1979. A drawing retrospective was held at the Brooklyn Museum of art in 1983, and the same year the Washington Project for the Arts organized an exhibition entitled Child and Man: A Collaboration, featuring drawings Davis made in response to childrens' drawings. Davis died suddenly in April 1985 at the age of 65, and a major retrospective of his work was held at the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art in 1987.

Related Materials:

Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Gene Davis conducted by Estill Curtis Pennington on April 23, 1981. A transcript is available on the Archives of American Art website.

Provenance:

Donated 1981 by Gene Davis and 1986 by his wife, Florence. Additional material donated 1991 and 1993 from Smithsonian American Art Museum via a bequest to them from the Gene and Florence Davis estate. Much of the 1993 addition was assembled by art historian Percy North at the request of Florence Davis. An additional folder of photographs of Davis taken in 1969 but printed in 2000 was later added to the collection.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Rights:

The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.

Occupation:

Reporters and reporting -- Washington (D.C.)  Search this

Video artists -- Washington, D.C.  Search this

Conceptual artists -- Washington, D.C  Search this

Painters -- Washington (D.C.)  Search this

Collagists -- Washington (D.C.)  Search this

Topic:

Color-field painting  Search this

Art -- Study and teaching  Search this

Artists' studios -- Photographs  Search this

Genre/Form:

Sound recordings

Transcripts

Photographs

Interviews

Video recordings

Citation:

Gene Davis papers, 1920-2000, bulk 1942-1990. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Hidden Collections grant program.

Identifier:

AAA.davigene

See more items in:

Gene Davis papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw90a230f67-650f-483a-acdf-50b6ca91fe59

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-davigene

Creator:

Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974  Search this

Names:

Duke Ellington Orchestra  Search this

Washingtonians, The.  Search this

Ellington, Mercer Kennedy, 1919-1996 (musician)  Search this

Strayhorn, Billy (William Thomas), 1915-1967  Search this

Collector:

National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Musical History  Search this

Extent:

400 Cubic feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Phonograph records

Papers

Photographic prints

Posters

Sound recordings

Scrapbooks

Music

Clippings

Awards

Audiotapes

Place:

New York (N.Y.) -- 20th century

Harlem (New York, N.Y.) -- 20th century

Washington (D.C.) -- 20th century

Date:

1903 - 1989

Summary:

The collection documents Duke Ellington's career primarily through orchestrations (scores and parts), music manuscripts, lead sheets, transcriptions, and sheet music. It also includes concert posters, concert programs, television, radio, motion picture and musical theater scripts, business records, correspondence, awards, as well as audiotapes, audiodiscs, photographs, tour itineraries, newspaper clippings, magazines, caricatures, paintings, and scrapbooks.

Scope and Contents:

Dating approximately from the time Duke Ellington permanently moved to New York City in 1923 to the time the material was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1988, the bulk of the material in the Duke Ellington Collection is dated from 1934-1974 and comprises sound recordings, original music manuscripts and published sheet music, hand-written notes, correspondence, business records, photographs, scrapbooks, news clippings, concert programs, posters, pamphlets, books and other ephemera. These materials document Ellington's contributions as composer, musician, orchestra leader, and an ambassador of American music and culture abroad. In addition, the materials paint a picture of the life of a big band maintained for fifty years and open a unique window through which to view an evolving American society.

The approximate four hundred cubic feet of archival materials have been processed and organized into sixteen series arranged by type of material. Several of the series have been divided into subseries allowing additional organization to describe the content of the material. For example, Series 6, Sound Recordings, is divided into four subseries: Radio and Television Interviews, Concert Performances, Studio Dates and Non-Ellington Recordings. Each series has its own scope and content note describing the material and arrangement (for example; Series 10, Magazines and Newspaper Articles, is organized into two groups, foreign and domestic, and arranged chronologically within each group). A container list provides folder titles and box numbers.

The bulk of the material is located in Series 1, Music Manuscripts, and consists of compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and other composers. Series 6, Sound Recordings also provides a record of the performance of many of these compositions. The materials in Series 2, Performances and Programs, Series 3, Business Records, Series 8, Scrapbooks, Series 9, Newspaper Clippings, Series 11, Publicity and Series 12, Posters provide documentation of specific performances by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. Ellington was a spontaneous and prolific composer as evidenced by music, lyrical thoughts, and themes for extended works and plays captured on letterhead stationery in Series 3, Business Records, in the margin notes of individual books and pamphlets in Series 14, Religious Materials and Series 15, Books, and in the hand-written notes in Series 5, Personal Correspondence and Notes.

During its fifty-year lifespan, Duke Ellington and His Orchestra were billed under various names including The Washingtonians, The Harlem Footwarmers and The Jungle Band. The soloists were informally called "the band", and Series 3 includes salary statements, IOU's, receipts and ephemera relating to individual band members. Series 1, Music Manuscripts contains the soloists' parts and includes "band books" of several soloists (for example; Harry Carney and Johnny Hodges) and numerous music manuscripts of Billy Strayhorn. The changing role of Strayhorn from arranger hired in 1938 to Ellington's main collaborator and composer of many well-known titles for Duke Ellington and His Orchestra including "Take The A' Train" and "Satin Doll" can be traced in these music manuscripts. Series 7, Photographs and Series 2, Performances and Programs contain many images of the band members and Strayhorn. This Collection also documents the business history of Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. Series 3, Business Records contains correspondence on letterhead stationery and Series 11, Publicity contains promotional material from the various booking agencies, professional companies, and public relations firms that managed the Orchestra.

The materials in the Duke Ellington Collection provide insight into public and institutional attitudes towards African Americans in mid-twentieth-century America. The business records in Series 3 beginning in 1938 and published sheet music in Series 1 depict Duke Ellington's progression from an African-American musician who needed "legitimization" by a white publisher, Irving Mills, to a businessmen who established his own companies including Tempo Music and Duke Ellington, Incorporated to control his copyright and financial affairs. Programs from the segregated Cotton Club in Series 2, Performances And Programs and contracts with no-segregation clauses in Series 3: Business Records further illustrate racial policies and practices in this time period. The public shift in perception of Duke Ellington from a leader of an exotic "Jungle Band" in the 1930s to a recipient of the Congressional Medal Of Freedom in 1970 is evidenced in Series 2, Performances And Programs, Series 12, Posters, Series 7, Photographs and Series 13, Awards. Reviews and articles reflecting Ellington's evolving status are also documented in Series 8, Newspaper Clippings, Series 9, Scrapbooks, Series 10, Newspaper and Magazine Articles.

The materials in the Duke Ellington Collection reflect rapid technological changes in American society from 1923-1982. Sound recordings in Series 6 range from 78 phonograph records of three minutes duration manufactured for play on Victrolas in monaural sound to long-playing (LP) phonograph records produced for stereo record players. Television scripts in Series 4, programs in Series 2 and music manuscripts (for example, Drum Is A Woman) in Series 1 demonstrate how the development of television as a means of mass communication spread the Orchestra's sound to a wider audience. The availability of commercial air travel enabled the Ellington Orchestra to extend their international performances from Europe to other continents including tours to Asia, Africa, South America and Australia and archival material from these tours is included in every series.

Series 4, Scripts and Transcripts and Series 6, Audio Recordings contain scripts and radio performances promoting the sale of United States War bonds during World War II, and Series 7, Photographs includes many images of Duke Ellington and His Orchestra's performances for military personnel revealing the impact of historic events on Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. Series 2: Programs and Performances, Series 9, Newspaper clippings and Series 8, Scrapbooks document the 1963 Far East tour aborted as a result of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

The Duke Ellington Collection contains works by numerous twentieth-century music, literature, and art luminaries. Series 1, Music Manuscripts contains original music manuscripts of William Grant Still, Eubie Blake, Mary Lou Williams, and others. Series 4, Scripts and Transcripts contains a play by Langston Hughes, and Series 12, Posters contains many original artworks.

Arrangement:

Series 1: Music Manuscripts, circa 1930-1981, undated

Series 2: Performances and Programs, 1933-1973, undated

Series 3: Business Records, 1938-1988

Series 4: Scripts and Transcripts, 1937-1970

Series 5: Personal Correspondence and Notes, 1941-1974, undated

Series 6: Sound Recordings, 1927-1974

Series 7: Photographs, 1924-1972, undated

Series 8: Scrapbooks, 1931-1973

Series 9: Newspaper Clippings, 1939-1973, undated

Series 10: Magazine Articles and Newspaper Clippings, 1940-1974

Series 11: Publicity, 1935-1988

Series 12: Posters and Oversize Graphics, 1933-1989, undated

Series 13: Awards, 1939-1982

Series 14: Religious Material, 1928-1974

Series 15: Books, 1903-1980

Series 16: Miscellaneous, 1940-1974

Biographical / Historical:

A native of Washington, DC, Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29, 1899. Edward was raised in a middle-class home in the Northwest section of Washington described by his sister Ruth--younger by sixteen years--as a "house full of love." Ellington himself wrote that his father J.E. (James Edward) raised his family "as though he were a millionaire" but Edward was especially devoted to his mother, Daisy Kennedy Ellington. In 1969, thirty-four years after his mother's death, Ellington accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom with these words, "There is nowhere else I would rather be tonight but in my mother's arms." Both his parents played the piano and Ellington began piano lessons at the age of seven, but like many boys he was easily distracted by baseball.

In his early teens, Ellington sneaked into Washington clubs and performance halls where he was exposed to ragtime musicians, including James P. Johnson, and where he met people from all walks of life. He returned in earnest to his piano studies, and at age fourteen wrote his first composition, "Soda Fountain Rag" also known as "Poodle Dog Rag." Ellington was earning income from playing music at seventeen years of age, and around this time he earned the sobriquet "Duke" for his sartorial splendor and regal air. On July 2, 1918, he married a high school sweetheart, Edna Thompson; their only child, Mercer Kennedy Ellington, was born on March 11, 1919. Duke Ellington spent the first twenty-four years of his life in Washington's culturally thriving Negro community. In this vibrant atmosphere he was inspired to be a composer and learned to take pride in his African-American heritage.

Ellington moved to New York City in 1923 to join and eventually lead a small group of transplanted Washington musicians called "The Washingtonians," which included future Ellington band members, Sonny Greer, Otto Hardwicke and "Bubber" Miley. Between 1923 and 1927, the group played at the Club Kentucky on Broadway and the ensemble increased from a quintet to a ten-piece orchestra. With stride pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith as his unofficial guide, Ellington soon became part of New York's music scene; Smith proved to be a long-lasting influence on Duke's composing and arranging direction. At the Club Kentucky, Ellington came under the tutelage of another legendary stride pianist, "Fats" Waller. Waller, a protege of Johnson and Smith, played solos during the band's breaks and also tutored Ellington who began to show progress in his compositions. In November 1924, Duke made his publishing and recording debut with "Choo Choo (I Got To Hurry Home)" released on the Blu-Disc label. In 1925, he contributed two songs to Chocolate Kiddies, an all-black revue which introduced European audiences to black American styles and performers. By this time Ellington's family, Edna and Mercer, had joined him in New York City. The couple separated in the late 1920's, but they never divorced or reconciled.

Ellington's achievements as a composer and bandleader began to attract national attention while he worked at the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City, from 1927 to 1932. The orchestra developed a distinctive sound that displayed the non-traditional voicings of Ellington's arrangements and featured the unique talents of the individual soloists. Ellington integrated his soloists' exotic-sounding trombone growls and wah-wahs, their high-squealed trumpets, their sultry saxophone blues licks and Harlem's street rhythms into his arrangements. In the promotional material of the Cotton Club, the band was often billed as "Duke Ellington and His Jungle Band." With the success of compositions like "Mood Indigo," and an increasing number of recordings and national radio broadcasts from the Cotton Club, the band's reputation soared.

The ten years from 1932 to 1942 are considered by some major critics to represent the "golden age" for the Ellington Orchestra, but it represents just one of their creative peaks. These years did bring an influx of extraordinary new talent to the band including Jimmy Blanton on double bass, Ben Webster on tenor saxophone, and Ray Nance on trumpet, violin and vocals. During this ten year span Ellington composed several of his best known short works, including "Concerto For Cootie," "Ko-Ko," "Cotton Tail," "In A Sentimental Mood," and Jump For Joy, his first full-length musical stage revue.

Most notably, 1938 marked the arrival of Billy Strayhorn. While a teenager in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Strayhorn had already written "Lush Life," "Something To Live For" and a musical, Fantastic Rhythm. Ellington was initially impressed with Strayhorn's lyrics but realized long before Billy's composition "Take the A' Train" became the band's theme song in 1942 that Strayhorn's talents were not limited to penning clever lyrics. By 1942, "Swee' Pea" had become arranger, composer, second pianist, collaborator, and as Duke described him, "my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine." Many Ellington/Strayhorn songs have entered the jazz canon, and their extended works are still being discovered and studied today. Strayhorn remained with the Ellington Organization until his death on May 30, 1967.

Ellington had often hinted of a work in progress depicting the struggle of blacks in America. The original script, Boola, debuted in Carnegie Hall in November of 1943, retitled Black, Brown and Beige. The performance met with mixed reviews, and although Ellington often returned to Carnegie Hall the piece was never recorded in a studio, and after 1944 was never performed in entirety again by the Ellington Orchestra. Nonetheless, it is now considered a milestone in jazz composition.

After World War II the mood and musical tastes of the country shifted and hard times befell big bands, but Ellington kept his band together. The band was not always financially self-sufficient and during the lean times Ellington used his songwriting royalties to meet the soloists' salaries. One could assign to Ellington the altruistic motive of loyalty to his sidemen, but another motivation may have been his compositional style which was rooted in hearing his music in the formative stage come alive in rehearsal. "The band was his instrument," Billy Strayhorn said, and no Ellington composition was complete until he heard the orchestra play it. Then he could fine tune his compositions, omit and augment passages, or weave a soloist's contribution into the structure of the tune.

In 1956, the American public rediscovered Duke and the band at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. The searing performances of tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves on "Diminuendo and Crescendo In Blue," his premiere soloist, alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges on "Jeep's Blues", and the crowd's ecstatic reaction have become jazz legend. Later that year Duke landed on the cover of Time magazine. Although Ellington had previously written music for film and television (including the short film, Black and Tan Fantasy in 1929) it wasn't until 1959 that Otto Preminger asked him to score music for his mainstream film, Anatomy of a Murder, starring Jimmy Stewart. Paris Blues in 1961, featuring box-office stars Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier in roles as American jazz musicians in Paris, followed.

Ellington's first performance overseas was in England in 1933, but the 1960s brought extensive overseas tours including diplomatic tours sponsored by the State Department. Ellington and Strayhorn composed exquisite extended works reflecting the sights and sounds of their travels, including the Far East Suite, 1966. They wrote homages to their classical influences; in 1963, they adapted Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and celebrated Shakespeare's works with the suite Such Sweet Thunder in 1957. With Ella Fitzgerald, they continued the Norman Granz Songbook Series. Ellington also began to flex his considerable pianist skills and recorded albums with John Coltrane (1963), Coleman Hawkins (1963), Frank Sinatra, and Money Jungle (1963) with Charles Mingus and Max Roach. The First Sacred Concert debuted in San Francisco's Grace Cathedral in 1965. In his final years, Ellington's thoughts turned to spiritual themes and he added a Second (1968) and Third (1973) Concert of Sacred Music to his compositions.

In his lifetime, Duke received numerous awards and honors including the highest honor bestowed on an American civilian, the Congressional Medal Of Freedom. In 1965, Ellington was recommended for a Pulitzer Prize to honor his forty years of contribution to music but the recommendation was rejected by the board. Most likely he was disappointed, but his response at the age of sixty-six was, "Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be famous too young."

Ellington never rested on his laurels or stopped composing. Whenever he was asked to name his favorite compositions his characteristic reply was "the next five coming up," but to please his loyal fans Ellington always featured some of his standards in every performance. Even on his deathbed, he was composing the opera buffo called Queenie Pie.

Duke Ellington died on May 24, 1974 at seventy-five years of age. His funeral was held in New York's Cathedral of St. John The Divine; he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. His long-time companion Beatrice "Evie" Ellis was buried beside him after her death in 1976. He was survived by his only child, Mercer Kennedy Ellington, who not only took up the baton to lead the Duke Ellington Orchestra but assumed the task of caring for his father's papers and his legacy to the nation. Mercer Ellington died in Copenhagan, Denmark on February 8, 1996, at the age of seventy-six. Ruth Ellington Boatwright died in New York on March 6, 2004, at the age of eighty-eight. Both Mercer and Ruth were responsible for shepherding the documents and artifacts that celebrate Duke Ellington's genius and creative life to their current home in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

William H. Quealy Collection of Duke Ellington Recordings (AC0296)

Rutgers University Collection of Radio Interviews about Duke Ellington (AC0328)

Duke Ellington Oral History Project (AC0368)

Duke Ellington Collection of Ephemera and realated Audiovisual Materials (AC0386)

Annual International Conference of the Duke Ellington Study Group Proceedings (AC0385)

Robert Udkoff Collection of Duke Ellington Ephemera (AC0388)

Frank Driggs Collection of Duke Ellington Photographic Prints (AC0389)

New York Chapter of the Duke Ellington Society Collection (AC390)

Earl Okin Collection of Duke Ellington Ephemera (AC0391)

William Russo Transcription and Arrangement of Duke Ellington's First Concert of Sacred Music (AC0406)

Ruth Ellington Collection of Duke Ellington Materials (AC0415)

Music manuscripts in the Ruth Ellington Collection complement the music manuscripts found in the Duke Ellington Collection.

Carter Harman Collection of Interviews with Duke Ellington (AC0422)

Betty McGettigan Collection of Duke Ellington Memorabilia (AC0494)

Dr. Theodore Shell Collection of Duke Ellington Ephemera (AC0502)

Edward and Gaye Ellington Collection of Duke Ellington Materials (AC0704)

Andrew Homzy Collection of Duke Ellington Stock Music Arrangements (AC0740)

John Gensel Collection of Duke Ellington Materials (AC0763)

Al Celley Collection of Duke Ellington Materials (AC1240)

Materials at Other Organizations

Institute of Jazz Studies

Separated Materials:

Artifacts related to this collection are in the Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life) and include trophies, plaques, and medals. See accessions: 1989.0369; 1991.0808; 1993.0032; and 1999.0148.

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Provenance:

The collection was purchased through an appropriation of Congress in 1988.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but the original and master audiovisual materials are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

Rights:

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Copyright restrictions. Consult the Archives Center at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

Paul Ellington, executor, is represented by:

Richard J.J. Scarola, Scarola Ellis LLP, 888 Seventh Avenue, 45th Floor, New York, New York 10106. Telephone (212) 757-0007 x 235; Fax (212) 757-0469; email: rjjs@selaw.com; www.selaw.com; www.ourlawfirm.com.

Occupation:

Composers -- 20th century  Search this

Topic:

Big bands  Search this

Pianists  Search this

Bandsmen -- 20th century  Search this

Jazz -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

Musicians -- 20th century  Search this

Music -- Performance  Search this

African American entertainers -- 20th century  Search this

African Americans -- History  Search this

Popular music -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

Music -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

African American musicians  Search this

Genre/Form:

Phonograph records

Papers

Photographic prints

Posters

Sound recordings

Scrapbooks -- 20th century

Music -- Manuscripts

Clippings

Awards

Audiotapes

Citation:

Duke Ellington Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Sponsor:

Processing and encoding partially funded by a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0301

See more items in:

Duke Ellington Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep850a376a1-6b6d-48bc-9076-cffef76fea2c

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0301