Search Results

Creator:

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2018-07-23T13:57:38.000Z

YouTube Category:

Music  Search this

Topic:

Cultural property  Search this

See more by:

smithsonianfolkways

Data Source:

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

YouTube Channel:

smithsonianfolkways

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_mZ13g4L0Q-Y

Collection Performer:

Basie, Count, 1904-1984  Search this

Webster, Ben  Search this

Armstrong, Louis, 1901-1971  Search this

Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974  Search this

Fitzgerald, Ella, 1917-1996  Search this

Goodman, Benny (Benjamin David), 1909-1986  Search this

Jamal, Ahmad, 1930-  Search this

Robinson, Bill, 1878-1949  Search this

Davis, Miles  Search this

Collection Collector:

Smith, Ernie  Search this

Extent:

1 Motion picture film

Container:

Reel AC0491-OF003-1

Type:

Archival materials

Moving Images

Motion picture films

Date:

1903-1945

Scope and Contents note:

Descriptive Summary: 840f., b&w, a compilation reel created by Ernie Smith

1. Dance in Pajamas, silent

Copyright: 1903

Corporate Creator: American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.

2. 42nd St., excerpt

Copyright: 1933

Corporate Creator: Warner Brothers

Director: Lloyd Bacon

Performer(s): Ruby Keeler

3. Turn On the Red Hot Heat [probably from 52nd Street] Performance Date: 1937

Performer(s): Dorothy Salter, Maurice Rocco and dance company

4. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, excerpt

Copyright: 1938

Corporate Creator: 20th Century Fox

Producer: 20th Century Fox

Director: Allan Dwan

Performer(s): Bill Robinson and Shirley Temple

Song Title(s): "The Toy Trumpet"

5. Unidentified musical number and "Anchors Aweigh"

Copyright: 1945

Performer(s): Jean Aloise

6. Unidentified movie excerpt

Copyright: 1941

Performer(s): unidentified female dancer, Louis DaPron with Bill Wills and His Texas Playboys

7. "Truckin'"

Copyright: 1936

Performer(s): Ina Ray Hutton and Her All Girl Orchestra

8. "La Cucaracha"

Copyright: 1941

Performer(s): Rita Rio and Her All Girl Orchestra, vocals and dance by Rio

Video reference copy

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but the films 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.

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:

Ernie Smith Jazz Film Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Sponsor:

America's Jazz Heritage: A Partnership of the The Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Smithsonian Institution provided the funding to produce many of the video master and reference copies.

See more items in:

Ernie Smith Jazz Film Collection

Ernie Smith Jazz Film Collection / Series 1: Ernie Smith Presentation Reels

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep87049638f-b961-44c8-b5d4-10b4c483ae7b

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0491-ref1200

Creator:

Hadzi, Dimitri, 1921-2006  Search this

Names:

Harvard University -- Faculty  Search this

Foundry, Nicci  Search this

Extent:

37.2 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Drawings

Interviews

Sound recordings

Video recordings

Diaries

Motion picture film

Date:

1910s-2007

Summary:

The papers of Greek American sculptor and educator Dimitri Hadzi measure 37.2 linear feet and date from 1910s-2007, with the bulk of records dating 1936-2007. The collection documents Hadzi's career through biographical material such as education records, World War II files, and some interviews; correspondence with family, artists, art historians, architects, and professional organizations; diaries, notebooks, and other writings; exhibition, gallery and museum, teaching, and project files; personal business records; clippings, exhibition ephemera, invitations, and other printed material; photographs of Hadzi, events and exhibitions, installations, foundries, and studios; some artwork; and audio recordings and motion picture films.

Scope and Contents:

The papers of Greek American sculptor and educator Dimitri Hadzi measure 37.2 linear feet and date from 1910s-2007, with the bulk of records dating 1936-2007. The collection documents Hadzi's career through biographical material; correspondence; diaries, notebooks, and other writings; exhibition, gallery and museum, teaching, and project files; personal business records; printed material; photographs, some artwork, audio recordings, and motion picture films.

Biographical material includes files pertaining to Hadzi's education at Cooper Union (1946-1950) and Polytechnion in Athens, Greece (1950-1951) as well as his high school years at Brooklyn Technical High School (1936-1940); years enlisted in the Army Air Force (1942-1946); and his hobbies of music, mineral collecting, and geology. Also found are address books, honors and awards, interviews, and resumes. Hadzi's professional correspondents include artists, art historians, architects, and professional organizations. Also found is personal correspondence with family, friends, and acquaintances, most extensively during his years in the military.

Diaries and notebooks consist of memoranda books, travel logs, and annotated calendars. Writings include drafts, correspondence, and some printed material from Dimitri Hadzi (1996) by Peter Selz. Material gathered for his incomplete memoir, artist statements, and writings about Hadzi are also present.

Exhibition files shed light on various group and solo exhibitions of Hadzi's work. The files mostly consist of shipping records, correspondence, press releases and other printed matter, photographs, and loan documents. Gallery and museum files include loan and sale agreements, price lists, clippings, newsletters, shipping information, and some papers related to exhibitions.

Project files include sketches and blueprints, correspondence, legal documents, shipping information, and some audiovisual material regarding the installation of Hadzi's sculptures. The files also pertain to recasted sculptures, small-scale projects, and unexecuted commissions. Teaching Files include administrative correspondence, clippings, lecture and discussion notes, course descriptions, and correspondence from Hadzi's tenure as Visual and Environmental Studies professor at Harvard University. Papers related to instructor positions, employment opportunities, and lectures outside of Harvard are also present. Personal business records include sales, inventories, and other financial material; correspondence, shipping information, and price lists from foundries and material distributors; studio logs, correspondence, and notes.

Printed materials consist of exhibition invitations, announcements, post cards, and books; news clippings and articles; printed matter from special events, exhibitions of other artists, press releases, and newsletters. Photographs include portraits and snapshots of Hadzi, depicting him working in studios and foundries, at installation sites and events, and with his family. Also included are photographs of other artists, Hadzi's travel in Japan, and his artwork. Artwork found in this collection consists of six sketchbooks, several small drawings, and one woodblock.

Audiovisual material is extensive and includes documentation of the creation, installation, and exhibition of some of Hadzi's work. The majority of the footage centers on the creation and installation of the Thermopylae sculpture in front of the JFK Federal Building in Boston, Massachusetts in 1968.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged as 13 series.

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1910s, bulk 1936-2004 (Box 1-3, 33; 2.7 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1943-2007 (Box 3-6; 3 linear feet)

Series 3: Diaries and Notebooks, 1939-2006 (Box 6-9; 3 linear feet)

Series 4: Writing Files, 1945-2003 (Box 9; 10 folders)

Series 5: Exhibition Files, 1958-2002 (Box 9-10; 1.2 linear feet)

Series 6: Project Files, 1957-2002 (Box 11-15, 33; 4.7 linear feet)

Series 7: Teaching Files, 1955-2000 (Box 15-16; 12 folders)

Series 8: Museum and Gallery Files, 1947-2008 (Box 16-17; 1.8 linear feet)

Series 9: Personal Business Records, 1949-2007 (Box 17-20; 2.5 linear feet)

Series 10: Printed Material, 1949-2007 (Box 20-24, 33; 3.7 linear feet)

Series 11: Photographs, circa 1930s-2006 (Box 24-25, 33; 1.5 linear feet)

Series 12: Artwork, circa 1939-1998 (Box 25; 11 folders)

Series 13: Audiovisual Material (Box 26-40; 11.1 linear feet)

Biographical / Historical:

Dimitri Hadzi (1921-2006) was an Greek American sculptor who lived and worked in Rome from the 1950s to 1975, and then in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1975 to 2006. Born to Greek immigrants, Hadzi attended Brooklyn Technical High School before enlisting in the Army Air Force in 1942. After the World War II, Hadzi studied painting and sculpture at Cooper Union and graduated with honors in 1950. He was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to study at the Polytechnion, Athens, Greece, and subsequently moved to Rome where he remained until the mid-1970s. Hadzi worked mostly with stone and bronze, from which he created semi-abstract shapes and structures drawn from his Greek heritage. His work was selected for the Venice Biennale in 1956, and and his first solo-exhibition came two years later at the Galeria Schneider, Rome, Italy. Throughout his career, Hadzi held solo exhibitions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Philips Collection, Athens Gallery in Greece, Rikugie Gallery in Japan, and many others. His group exhibitions include Recent Sculptor USA (1959), Museum of Modern Art, New York; Annual Exhibition, The Whitney Museum (1961); Seven Sculptors at Harvard, Harvard University (1983); and American Academy of Arts & Letters Centennial Portfolio, Pace Prints, New York (1998). Hadzi's public commissions include those at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1963), St. Paul's Church, Rome, Italy (1966-1976), Dallas Center, Texas (1980). His artwork is held in permanent collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Scultpure Garden, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Hakone Museum of Sculpture in Japan, and the Montreal Museum of Art, among others. Hadzi was professor of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University from 1975-1989, and was named Professor Emeritus in 1989.

Provenance:

Donated 1989 and 1998 by Dimitri Hadzi and in 2008 and 2011 by Cynthia Hadzi, Dimitri Hadzi's widow.

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research. Archival audiovisual recordings must be digitized for research access. Researchers may access digitized audiovisual materials in the Archives' Washington, D.C. or New York, N.Y. Research Centers by appointment. 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:

Educators -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge  Search this

Sculptors -- Italy -- Rome  Search this

Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Cambridge  Search this

Topic:

Sculpture, Modern -- 20th century  Search this

World War, 1939-1945  Search this

Genre/Form:

Drawings

Interviews

Sound recordings

Video recordings

Diaries

Motion picture film

Citation:

Dimitri Hadzi papers, 1910s-2003. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.

Identifier:

AAA.hadzdimi

See more items in:

Dimitri Hadzi papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9cee20746-bba7-4f55-9b4d-68aa26f19cc0

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-hadzdimi

Container:

Box 1 of 1

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 08-057, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Curatorial Office, Exhibition Records (Declined)

See more items in:

Exhibition Records (Declined)

Exhibition Records (Declined) / Box 1

Archival Repository:

Smithsonian Institution Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-sia-fa08-057-refidd1e1144

Artist:

Willem de Kooning, American, b. Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1904–1997  Search this

Medium:

Oil and charcoal on paper mounted on canvas

Dimensions:

25 5/8 x 19 5/8 in. (64.9 x 49.8 cm)

Type:

Painting

Date:

1953

Credit Line:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966

Accession Number:

66.1199

See more items in:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

School:

Abstract Expressionism (First Generation)

Data Source:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/py216a6b37f-8d63-43a4-b632-fd5999892ecf

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:hmsg_66.1199

Creator:

Cotton Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange  Search this

National Cotton Council  Search this

Extent:

38 Cubic feet (91 boxes)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Videocassettes

Slides (photographs)

Scrapbooks

Reports

Programs

Photographs

Photograph albums

Audiotapes

Place:

Memphis (Tenn.)

Date:

1939-1994, undated

Summary:

The Maid of Cotton (MOC) beauty pageant was sponsored by the National Cotton Council, Memphis Cotton Carnival, and the Cotton Exchanges of Memphis, New York, and New Orleans from 1939-1993. The contest was held annually in Memphis, Tennessee until the National Cotton Council and Cotton Council International moved to Dallas, Texas. Beginning with the 1985 pageant (held December 1984) the competition was held in Dallas. The pageant was discontinued in 1993 due to lack of funds, a sponsor, and changes in marketing strategies. The records include files on contestants, photographs, and scrapbooks.

Scope and Contents:

The collection contains the records for the Maid of Cotton pageant (1939-1993) sponsored by the National Cotton Council (NCC), Memphis Cotton Carnival, and the Cotton Exchanges of Memphis, New York, and New Orleans. The collection consists of approximately 38 cubic feet of records created by the NCC in the course of operating the Maid of Cotton contest from 1939 to 1993. The records form the complete archive of this fifty-four year program. The records include administrative files, scrapbooks, photographs, slides, and videotapes.

"One of the main values of the Maid of Cotton collection is its completeness. These are all of the official records of the program, documenting all of its activities throughout its entire existence from 1939 to 1993. As such, it represents a truly unique documentary record and opportunity for research.

Beauty contests have been the subject of serious scholarly study for many years. A search of WorldCat reveals over fifty books on the topic. Scholars have found the subject to be a fruitful springboard from which to study a wide variety of topics, primarily centered around issues of beauty, femininity, culture values, national identity, racism, and feminism.

Beauty pageants serve as symbols that reflect the values of American culture. For example, pageant winners have symbolized the advances made by formerly disenfranchised groups. Vanessa Williams, the first African American to win the Miss America crown (1983), rewrote the definition of beauty in America, and Heather Whitestone, the first deaf Miss America (1995), proved that physical handicaps need not hold anyone back from their dreams. Pageants can provide a focus for the re-examination of our society and culture. The tragic murder of six-year-old Jonbenet Ramsey in 1996 provided a window into what author Susan Anderson calls "the extravagant world of child beauty pageants," that led to public debate about issues of motherhood and adolescence.

In addition, beauty pageants can be viewed in advertising terms: they are the ultimate expression of the tried and true adage that sex sells. All pageants have sponsors and all sponsors want their products to be seen in a positive light. Some sponsors are content to contribute goods and services to the contestants --a new car, a trip to the Caribbean, a fur coat, etc. --so that their generosity can be noted in the publicity surrounding the contest. Others prefer to sponsor the entire program. The Miss Universe contest, for example, was created in 1952 by the Jantzen Company specifically to enable the company to showcase pretty girls wearing its swimsuits. Jantzen abruptly withdrew its previous support of the Miss America pageant when Yolande Betbeze refused to wear a bathing suit during her reign as Miss America 1951. The Maid of Cotton pageant is a highly organized, year-long, very visible public relations program that allows the National Cotton Council to showcase the wonders of cotton through the wonders of young beauty queens. Attractive young women are the perfect vehicle for promoting fashionable fabrics made from cotton.

Cotton --the product at the heart of the Maid of Cotton program --has been central to American economic and political history. NMAH's collecting and research interests reflect this. The Division of Work & Industry contains numerous cotton-related objects and much documentation on the subject. The Archives Center holds several cotton-related collections, including the Peter Paul Haring Papers, 1897-1935, documenting Haring's development of cotton picking machinery; the Lockwood Greene collection of thousands of engineering drawings, many of which were for textile mills; the Robert L. Shurr Script and Scrapbook for a 1939 biographical motion picture on Dr. George Washington Carver; and the Southern Agriculture Oral History Project Records, 1985-1992, which documents modern cotton farming through photography and oral history interviews. In addition, all aspects of cotton production, from farm to factory to finished goods, are documented in several hundred photos in the Underwood & Underwood Agricultural Photonegative Collection, the Underwood & Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection, the Division of Work & Industry Lantern Slide Collection, and the Donald Sultner-Welles Photograph Collection. Cultural aspects of cotton can be discovered in both the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana and in the DeVincent Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music." (Orr, Craig. "NMAH Collections Committee", memorandum, 2009)

Series 1, Organizational and Pageant Files, 1939-1993, undated., is arranged chronologically by year. Files may contain correspondence, photographs, news clippings, radio commercial scripts, tear sheets, itineraries, trip reports, sheet music, legal documents, waivers, and permissions, and other material related to the Maid of Cotton pageant for that year. Files may also contain subsequent personal information on the Maid of Cotton for that year, for example change of address, news clippings, and the like. This series contains finalist files, trip files and tour report files.

Series 2, Photographs, Slides, and Transparencies, 1939-1994, undated., is arranged chronologically by year. This series contains photographs, slides, and transparencies related to the Maid of Cotton and her travels throughout the United States and overseas. It also contains photographs of the fashions worn by each Maid.

Series 3, Scrapbooks, 1951-1988, contains the scrapbooks created by the National Cotton Council office as well as scrapbooks created by the Maids themselves or others for her. Scrapbooks most often contain news clippings, ephemera, and sometimes correspondence.

Series 4, Audio-Visual, 1991-1993. This series contains video and audio related to the Maid of Cotton. It is currently unprocessed.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into four series.

Series 1: Organizational and Pageant Files, 1939-1993, undated

Subseries 1.1: Maid of Cotton files, 1939-1993

Subseries 1.2: Little Miss Cotton, 1956-1963, undated

Series 2: Photographs, Slides, and Transparencies, 1939-1994, undated

Subseries 2.1: Photographic Negatives and Transparencies, 1939-1993, undated

Subseries 2.2: Slides, 1939-1993, undated

Series 3: Scrapbooks, 1951-1988

Series 4: Audio-Visual, 1991-1993, undated

Biographical / Historical:

The Maid of Cotton pageant began in 1939. The annual pageant was sponsored by the National Cotton Council (NCC), Memphis Cotton Carnival, and the Cotton Exchanges of Memphis, New York, and New Orleans. The pageant was held in Memphis, Tennessee, in conjunction with the Carnival until the 1980s.

In mid-December every year the NCC released a list of contestants. Contestants were required to have been born in one of the cotton-producing states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North and South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas or Virginia. They might have also been born in the cotton-producing counties of Alexander, Jefferson, Massac, Pulaski, Williamson or Madison, Illinois or in Clark or Nye counties of Nevada. There were usually twenty contestants each year.

Contestants were judged on personality, good manners, intelligence, and family background as well as beauty and an ability to model. A Top Ten were chosen and then a Top Five, and finally second and first runners up and a winner. Winners served as goodwill and fashion ambassadors of the cotton industry in a five-month, all-expense tour of American cities. In the mid-1950s the tour expanded globally. In the late 1950s a Little Miss Cotton pageant was begun but lasted only until 1963 before being discontinued. In the mid-1980s Dallas,Texas took over the pageant, in conjunction with the NCC and its overseas division, Cotton Council International. In 1986, to bolster interest and participation, the NCC eliminated the rule requiring contestants to be born in a cotton-producing state. The pageant was discontinued in 1993, one of the reasons being that Cotton Inc. stopped contributing scholarship money as well as waning public interest and changing marketing strategies. (pageantopolis.com website accessed April 2012.)

"The National Cotton Council is the official trade association of the cotton industry. The NCC was founded in 1939 to promote the interests of cotton farmers, ginners, brokers, and manufacturers from the Southern, cotton-growing states. Its mission evolved over the years as new uses for cotton and its byproducts have been found; as competition from synthetic fibers developed; as fashion tastes changed; as government regulation increased; and in response to foreign competition in both farming and manufacturing . The NCC website states that its modern-day mission is "to ensure the ability of all U.S. cotton industry segments to compete effectively and profitably in the raw cotton, oilseed and U.S.-manufactured product markets at home and abroad." Throughout its existence, the NCC has been the contact point for issues affecting its members, legislators in Congress, allied agribusiness, and consumers.

One of the first NCC programs undertaken by to promote the versatility and value of cotton to consumers was the Maid of Cotton program, begun in 1939. This consisted of a beauty pageant open to young women born in one of the seventeen southern cotton growing states. The contestants were evaluated on the basis of beauty, personality, poise, good manners, and intelligence; a family background in cotton production was especially helpful. The girls had to apply for selection to compete in the program. At first this was done directly to the Memphis-based program but eventually a system of state Maid of Cotton programs were established, whose winners went on to compete in the national Maid of Cotton contest. The Maid of Cotton received numerous prizes, whose value and variety tended to increase over the years. In the late 1940s, the program added a scholarship prize, probably in emulation of the Miss America contest. The Maid of Cotton pageant was held each December in Memphis as part of that city's Cotton Carnival festivities. The winner was featured prominently on her own float in the Cotton Carnival parade, was feted at prestigious Carnival events, and was treated as royalty wherever she went. Selection as the Maid of Cotton carried a high degree of status and mature ladies in the South to this day proudly identify themselves as such.

The Maid of Cotton's main function, once crowned, was to serve as a goodwill and fashion ambassador for cotton; any publicity she gained was automatically positive publicity for the cotton industry. Accompanied by an NCC-appointed manager, the Maids embarked on an all-expenses-paid tour. The Maids appeared in full regalia at public events such as county fairs, parades, and holiday events; starred in fashion shows featuring all-cotton outfits; gave speeches to local chambers of commerce and other groups; and in general were the attractive personification of the cotton industry wherever they went. At first, the tours concentrated on the cotton states but they were later extended to major cities outside the cotton belt and came to include visits to legislators on Capitol Hill. Beginning in the mid-1950s, the Maids began touring internationally and in the 1970s and 1980s they frequently headed up fashion shows in Asia.

Over time, however, the publicity value of an industry-anointed beauty queen lost its attraction both to the public and --more importantly --to the press. In addition, the role of cotton in the South, particularly in Memphis, declined. In 1986 the contest was moved from Memphis to Dallas. Eventually the cotton industry withdrew its support for the program's scholarships; the 1993 Maid of Cotton was the last to be crowned." (Orr, Craig. "NMAH Collections Committee", memorandum, 2009)

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

National Cotton Council Records, circa 1960s-1980s (AC1177)

Southern Agriculture Oral History Project Records, 1986-1991 (AC0773)

Provenance:

This collection was donated by the Cotton Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange on October 14, 2009.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research but the negatives 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.

Topic:

Beauty contestants  Search this

Cotton textile industry  Search this

Cotton industry  Search this

Beauty contests -- United States  Search this

Genre/Form:

Videocassettes

Slides (photographs)

Scrapbooks -- 20th century

Reports

Programs -- 20th century

Photographs -- 20th century

Photograph albums -- 20th century

Audiotapes

Citation:

Maid of Cotton Records, 1939-1993, undated, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Sponsor:

This collection was processed with a generous donation from Mr. and Mrs. Steven L. and Michelle Pitcher Trulaske, 2010.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.1176

See more items in:

Maid of Cotton Records

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8f53d73b9-ea20-46d7-a006-fb4122e3ad71

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1176

Creator:

Bridgewater, Herbert Ford, 1908-1970  Search this

Bridgewater, Leon Archibald, 1905-1968  Search this

Harrell, Charles Henry, 1878-1948  Search this

Harrell, Mary Bridgewater, 1893-1981  Search this

Harrell, Arthur Samuel, 1916-1963  Search this

Harrell, Charles Henry, Jr., 1914-1948  Search this

Harrell, Arthur Samuel, Jr., 1948-1981  Search this

Harrell, Mary Trahan, 1927-2000  Search this

Harrell, Cornelius Eckart  Search this

Bridgewater  Search this

Bridgewater, Octavia Marie, 1903-1985  Search this

Harrell, Richard Francis  Search this

Darby, Sophia Bridgewater, 1894-1990  Search this

Bridgewater, Samuel, 1862-1912  Search this

Bridgewater, Mamie Anderson, 1872-1950  Search this

Donor:

Campbell, Janet Harrell  Search this

Harrell, Jules  Search this

Names:

Lincoln School for Nurses  Search this

Pleasant Hour Club (Helena, Mont.)  Search this

Society for the Relief of Worthy Aged Indigent Colored Persons  Search this

United States. Army Nurse Corps  Search this

United States. Army. Cavalry, 9th  Search this

Extent:

21 Cubic feet (64 document boxes, one oversize folder)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Baptismal certificates

Scrapbooks

Marriage certificates

Diplomas

Photographs

Place:

Montana

Louisiana

United States -- Race relations

Date:

1880-2017

undated

Summary:

Papers and photographs documenting the lives and descendants of Samuel and Mamie Anderson Bridgewater of Helena, Montana.

Scope and Contents:

The collection documents the lives of the family and descendants of Samuel and Mamie Anderson Bridgwater. The papers primarily belonged to the family and descendants of their daughter Mary Emma (1893-1981), who married Charles H. Harrell (1878-1948), a Pullman porter. The collection includes materials from collateral relatives and from those who married into the Bridgewater and Harrell families. The women of these families were extensively involved in community, religious, and social organizations. The collection contains materials about social and religious life in the relatively small African-American communities surrounding Helena, Montana. It also contains family papers including Samuel and Mamie's marriage certificate from 1892; educational memorabilia and school diplomas; scrapbooks and photogaphs documenting family members, vacations, life events and friends; baptismal records; hand-written birth and death entries; and correspondence between family members and friends living in other states.

The collection includes records of many of Montana's social and religious organizations from the 1890s to the 1950s, including the Colored Women's Clubs of America; the Pleasant Hour Club in Helena; the Helena Negro Chorus; the local chapter of the Society for the Relief of Worthy, Aged, Indigent Colored Persons, Pleasant House Club; and numerous Baptist and Roman Catholic congregations. Generations of women in the Bridgewater and Harrell families were members or officers of these organizations. The collection contains records and photographs relating to several African-American and integrated churches in Helena. Friends and community members, primarily other African-American Montanans, are represented in the collection as well.

Photographs and other documents record the lives of nearby neighbors and friends as well as lives of more distant family members and friends. Subjects covered in the collection are: the formerly enslaved parents of Samuel and Mamie Bridgwater; Samuel Bridgwater and his fellow Buffalo soldiers; Octavia Bridgewater's experiences at the Lincoln School of Nursing in New York City; Octavia Bridgewater's service with a segregated unit of the Army Nurse Corps in World War II while stationed at the Tuskegee Air Base, Alabama and her later life after returning to civilian life in Helena when she worked mostly as a midwife.

Some of the arrangement of the collection was done by family members prior to its donation to the Archives Center. The families had a vigorous and wide ranging network of family and friends in Montana and elsewhere in the United States, and materials related to all family members and friends may be found across multiple series.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into five series.

Series 1: Bridgewater Family, 1880-2013, undated

Subseries 1.1: Bridgewater, Samuel, 1880-1908, undated

Subseries 1.2: Bridgewater, Mamie Anderson, 1888-1990, undated

Subseries 1.3: Darby, Sophia Bridgewater, 1911-2005, undated

Subseries 1.4: Bridgewater, Octavia Marie, 1922-2013, undated

Subseries 1.5: Bridgewater, Leon Archibald, 1912-1968, undated

Subseries 1.6, Bridgewater, Herbert Ford, 1925-1970, undated

Subseries 1.7: Photographs, 1920-1955, undated

Subseries 1.8: Family Memorabilia, 1903-2007, undated

Subseries 1.9: Family Friends, 1930-2001, undated

Series 2, Harrell Family, 1914-2005, undated

Subseries 2.1: Harrell, Mary Bridgewater, 1914-1981, undated

Subseries 2.2: Harrell, Charles Henry, 1914-1977, undated

Subseries 2.3: Harrell, Arthur Samuel, 1930-1973, undated

Subseries 2.4: Harrell, Mary Trahan, 1925-2002, undated

Subseries 2.5: Harrell, Arthur Samuel, Jr., 1948-1981, undated

Subseries 2.6: Campbell, Janet Harrell, 1951-2005, undated

Subseries 2.7: Harrell, Jules Parker, 1950-1980, undated

Subseries 2.8: Harrell, Richard Francis, 1960-1996, undated

Subseries 2.9: Harrell, Cornelius Eckart, 1940-2001

Subseries 2.10: Harrell, Jr., Charles Henry, 1925-2005

Subseries 2.11: Family Memorabilia, 1960-1990, undated

Subseries 2.12: Photographs, 1929-1996, undated

Series 3, Trahan Family, 1923-1995, undated

Series 4, Family Friends, 1912-1979, undated

Series 5, Photographs, 1907-1992, undated

Biographical / Historical:

The Bridgewater family is a multi-generation African American family descended from Samuel (1862-1912) and Mamie Anderson Bridgwater (1872-1950) (note: later family members spelled the name with an "e"). The son of slaves, Bridgwater was born in Dixon Springs, Smith County, Tennessee, on February 25, 1862. He later enlisted in the all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment, USCI (United States Colored Infantry), one of the famous "Buffalo Soldier" regiments. The 24th Infantry served in the Department of Texas from 1869-1889, Indian Territory from 1880-1888 and following 1888 in the Department of Arizona. In 1892 he married Mamie E. Anderson the daughter of Levi Anderson and Emma Lucy in Fort Huachuca, in what later became the state of Arizona.

Bridgwater fought in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, where he was wounded. He retired from the United States Army at Fort Harrison, Montana, after twenty years of service on August 22, 1906. The family remained in Helena, Montana purchasing a home at 502 Peosta Avenue. The 1910 United States Census lists Samuel has having retired from the United States Army and lists Mamie as being a matron in the US Army hospital. They raised five children, three boys and two girls.

Samuel died on June 9, 1912. His widow and family remained in Montana becoming active in community affairs. Their descendants continued their parents' involvement in community and religious affairs as well as their fathers' tradition of military service. Their daughter Octavia served in an all-black unit of the Army Nurse Corps during World War II and then served her community as a nurse-midwife for the rest of her life. Members of the family continued to live in the home at 502 Peosta well into the twentieth century.

Provenance:

Donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian by Janet Harrell Campbell and Jules Harrell, descendants of Samuel and Mamie Anderson Bridgewater, 2016.

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Unrestricted research access on site by appointment. Unprotected photographs must be handled 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.

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:

Spanish-American War, 1898  Search this

Midwives  Search this

Community activists  Search this

United States Army  Search this

African American families -- Montana  Search this

Churches -- Montana  Search this

African American churches -- Montana  Search this

African Americans -- History -- 20th century -- Montana  Search this

Genre/Form:

Baptismal certificates

Scrapbooks

Marriage certificates

Diplomas

Photographs -- 20th century

Citation:

Bridgewater Family Papers, 1880-2013, undated, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.1385

See more items in:

Bridgewater Family Papers

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8adebbef0-f17f-4a82-884b-9005f6f66cad

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1385

Author:

Burdan, Amanda C (Amanda Cathryne) 1973-  Search this

Contributor:

Burns, Emily C  Search this

Host institution:

San Antonio Museum of Art  Search this

Brandywine River Museum of Art  Search this

Dixon Gallery and Gardens  Search this

Subject:

Universidad Sergio Arboleda  Search this

Physical description:

208 pages illustrations (chiefly color) 28 cm

Type:

Exhibitions

Expositions

Exhibition catalogs

Catalogues d'exposition

Place:

United States

États-Unis

19th century

20th century

Date:

2020

19th century

20th century

19e siècle

20e siècle

United States

Topic:

Impressionism (Art)  Search this

Impressionism (Art)--French influences  Search this

Painting, American  Search this

Impressionnisme (Art)  Search this

Peinture américaine  Search this

Impressionismus  Search this

Malerei  Search this

Nachimpressionismus  Search this

Data Source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_sil_1154469

Author:

Noriega, Chon A. 1961- To dwell on this matrix of places  Search this

Ramírez, Mari Carmen 1955- Political agency and/or strategies of autoconstrucción?  Search this

Tompkins Rivas, Pilar Establishing and destabilizing notions of home in the Americas  Search this

Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA (Project)  Search this

Issuing body:

Los Angeles County Museum of Art  Search this

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston  Search this

University of California, Los Angeles Chicano Studies Research Center Press  Search this

Physical description:

288 pages illustrations (chiefly color), portraits 31 cm

Type:

Exhibitions

Art

Expositions

Exhibition catalogs

Illustrated books

Illustrated works

Catalogues d'exposition

Ouvrages illustrés

Date:

2017

20th century

21st century

20e siècle

21e siècle

Topic:

Home in art  Search this

Hispanic American art--Themes, motives  Search this

Art, Latin American--Themes, motives  Search this

Spanish Americans--Themes, motives  Search this

Foyer dans l'art  Search this

Américains d'origine espagnole--Thèmes, motifs  Search this

Art latino-américain--Thèmes, motifs  Search this

Art latino-américain (États-Unis)--Thèmes, motifs  Search this

Spanish Americans  Search this

Data Source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_sil_1157200

Collection Creator:

André Emmerich Gallery  Search this

Container:

Box 61, Folder 36

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

1975, 1992-1993

Collection Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Access of diaries and appointment books required written permission.

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:

André Emmerich Gallery records and André Emmerich papers, circa 1929-2009. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Leon Levy Foundation.

See more items in:

André Emmerich Gallery Records and André Emmerich Papers

André Emmerich Gallery Records and André Emmerich Papers / Series 6: Artists Files

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9cec61759-0e88-4287-8858-77efd96179fe

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aaa-andremmg-ref3054

Collection Creator:

Ybarra-Frausto, Tomás, 1938-  Search this

Container:

Box 5, Folder 28

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

1965-1989, undated

Scope and Contents note:

(catalogs; exhibition announcements; clippings; artist biography; photocopy of "Art of the Southwest...Art on the Border" [booklet?])

Collection Restrictions:

The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.

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:

Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

See more items in:

Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material on Chicano art

Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material on Chicano art / Series 1: Subject Files

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw950a9cdb9-528d-4fd8-af13-d3e4ffb897a7

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aaa-ybartoma-ref345

Creator:

Anacostia Museum  Search this

Anacostia Community Museum  Search this

Extent:

936 Photographs (1 Binder, 35mm slides, negatives, and photographic prints.)

0.5 Linear feet

10 Video recordings (VHS, 1/2" )

1 Sound recording (audio cassette)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Video recordings

Sound recordings

Slides (photographs)

Place:

Anacostia (Washington, D.C.)

Date:

1989-1998

Scope and Contents:

This collection consists of the records of Anacostia Community Museum's Juneteenth program held by the museum from 1989-1999. The material consists primarily of event programs, photographs, and audiovisual recordings of the various celebrations held on the grounds of the museum. video and audio recordings of the program events.

Biographical / Historical:

Juneteenth is the celebration of the emancipation of Texas slaves, who were formally notified of their freedom on June 19, 1865. Although Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia in April and the territories in June of 1862, it took over two years for the news to reach Texas. The celebration of freedom demonstrates the richness of African American culture and a strong spirit of community. Since 1865, Juneteenth has been celebrated in communities throughout the country with a variety of activities, including picnics, parades, music, speeches, dancing, rodeos and baseball. In 1989, the Anacostia Museum began hosting a Juneteenth celebration, which typically included speeches, musical and dance performances, children's activities, and arts and crafts demonstrations.

Restrictions:

Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.

Topic:

Juneteenth  Search this

Public Programs  Search this

Celebrations  Search this

Sound recordings  Search this

Genre/Form:

Video recordings

Slides (photographs) -- 20th century

Photographs -- Color negatives -- Acetate film

Citation:

Juneteenth Program Records, 1989-1998, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

ACMA.01-007.13

See more items in:

Juneteenth Program Records, 1989-1998

Archival Repository:

Anacostia Community Museum Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/qa723473f08-19ed-409d-80a7-6a0e4bc4f8fa

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-acma-01-007-13

Provenance:

Founders Garden Club of Dallas  Search this

Collection Creator:

Garden Club of America  Search this

Type:

Archival materials

Place:

United States of America -- Texas -- Dallas County -- Dallas

The Dana and Lee Moore Garden (Dallas, Texas)

Scope and Contents:

21 digital images (2021) and 1 file folder.

General:

The six garden rooms-one enclosed in an Orangerie-were designed and built in conjunction with the architect of the house from 2013 to 2019 within an urban quarter acre property. The gardens employ classic principals of symmetry, axial relationship, scale and proportion and are inspired by French, Italian and 20th century American examples. Tall hedges define the space of each garden, starting with nine-foot laurel in the arrival court that is paved with Belgian limestone cobbles. Lions set on antique limestone bases mark the entrance to the fountain promenade. The fountain, an amalgamation of styles, sits between three-foot wide pathways to the front stairs, bordered by boxwood hedges and azalea.

The terrace at the back of the house overlooks the pool and a tall magnolia hedge at the perimeter of the property. The same laurel hedging, prunus caroliniana bright and tight, is used along the sides of the pool court, and allows glimpses of the flower garden and the Orangerie. The square flower garden has checkered paving of limestone and synthetic grass with four large Versailles boxes holding limelight hydrangea standards and seasonal flowers. Azalea adds color and a carved stone bench sits on the axis of the Orangerie and pool court hedge opening. The pool court can be entered from the flower garden or the Orangerie between tall laurel topiary columns. The slate gray plaster of the pool blends with crushed oyster shell and limestone paving. Two circa 1920 lion statues have been fitted with water jets that feed into the pool.

The Orangerie has Paladian style glazing, full spectrum UV lighting and automated watering for the heirloom citrus trees in Versailles boxes. Jasmine vines wrap the building that is surrounded by laurel hedges. All aspects of the gardens and the buildings were the result of close coordination between the landscape designers, Matthew and Heather Murray, and the architect Alex Eskenasy.

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.

Topic:

Formal gardens  Search this

Orangeries  Search this

Gardens -- Texas -- Dallas  Search this

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.

Sponsor:

A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.

Identifier:

AAG.GCA, File TX209

See more items in:

The Garden Club of America collection

The Garden Club of America collection / Series 1: United States Garden Images / Texas

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Gardens

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/kb69240f9f8-c25b-4c14-991e-826e88c9d6fb

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aag-gca-ref33298

Creator:

United States. Army. Signal Corps  Search this

Names:

Swann, Don, 1889-1954  Search this

Extent:

0.25 Cubic feet (One slim legal document case)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Date:

1910-1942

bulk August 31, 1917 to December 31, 1918

Summary:

This accession is a collection of military records, including orders, travel papers, memos, equipment lists, and other correspondence concerning Don Swann while he was stationed in Paris in 1918.

Scope and Contents:

This accession is a collection of military records, including orders, travel papers, memos, equipment lists, and other correspondence concerning Don Swann while he was stationed in Paris in 1918. Also included are: a souvenir program from the International Jacques Schneider Cup Races, dated October 24, 1925, and annotated by Swann with notes about the pilots of the day; an American Expeditionary Forces Headquarters Tentative Equipment Manual for Supply Squadron; April 20, 1918 propaganda leaflets in German regarding President Wilson's speech; and miscellaneous notes by Swann written about early aviation in Baltimore, MD, his hometown.

Arrangement:

Materials in this collection are grouped into two series by type: Documents (Series 1) and Photographs (Series 2).

In 1998, the six photographs in this collection were reproduced on the second side (Side B) of National Air and Space Museum Archival Videodisc 7, a LaserDisc CAV format 12-inch (30 cm) optical disc published by the Smithsonian Institution. Print numbers applied during videodisc production are used as item-level image numbers (print numbers NASM 7B06404 to NASM 7B06409, videodisc frame capture numbers VD-7B06404 to VD-7B06404) and the images are stored in videodisc number order.

Biographical / Historical:

Samuel Donovan "Don" Swann (1899–1954) was a World War I aviator and an American artist. Fascinated by aviation from the time he was 17, Swann attended St. John's College in Annapolis as a cadet. In November 1917, Swann was sent to Kelly Field, Texas, to attend Ground Officer's Training School, where he graduated as a first lieutenant. During World War I Swann was an officer in the Signal Reserves Corps, Aviation Section, until January 1918, at which point he was assigned to the 62nd Squadron with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. During his service overseas, Swann was placed in charge of supplying Air Service material for all aviation training schools in France. As he was interested in flying, he petitioned to be switched over to piloting and by the beginning of October 1918, he was received dispensation to be allowed to make flights. After his discharge at the end of the war, Swann was employed as the superintendent of the American Propeller Manufacturing Company of Baltimore which was a primary source of aeronautical propeller supplies. He later also worked at the Monumental Aircraft Company at College Park, Maryland, which consisted entirely of aeronautical supplies. As an artist, Swan studied in Germany and Italy, and was known for historic Americana; his art was exhibited in many United States cities and is part of many permanent collections, including the Metropolitan Museum and the Smithsonian Institution.

Provenance:

Mr. S. Donovan Swann, Jr., Gift, 1987, NASM.1987.0062

Restrictions:

No restrictions on access

Rights:

Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.

Topic:

Aeronautics  Search this

World War, 1914-1918 -- Aerial operations  Search this

United States. Army. American Expeditionary Forces  Search this

Military records -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

Citation:

Samuel Donavan "Don" Swann Collection, NASM.1987.0062, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

NASM.1987.0062

See more items in:

Samuel Donavan "Don" Swann Collection

Archival Repository:

National Air and Space Museum Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pg2ae814321-0602-434e-a35b-f0848d68589f

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nasm-1987-0062

Creator:

National Museum of African American History and Culture  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2021-07-02T20:38:43.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

African Americans  Search this

See more by:

WatchNMAAHC

Data Source:

National Museum of African American History and Culture

YouTube Channel:

WatchNMAAHC

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_h2VmwgBlnRM

Creator:

Bray, Anne Thompson  Search this

Names:

United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration  Search this

Extent:

0.58 Cubic feet (One letter document case and one flat box.)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Press releases

Scrapbooks

Date:

1960s, 1992, 2009

Summary:

This collection consists of three binders containing science news releases and a scrapbook containing photographs of Anne Thompson Bray and other the staff at the the Space News Roundup .

Scope and Contents:

This collection consists of three binders containing science news releases: "The Fledging Science Writer Vol 1" October 1965 through March 1966, containing astronaut by-liners and non-space topics; "The Fledging Science Writer Vol. 2," April 1966 through September 1966, containing spouse and family astronaut families topics; and [Vol. 3], containing flight technical topics. These folders include both the releases by World Book Encyclopedia Science Services (including ones written by Anne Thompson Bray) as well as the accompanying black and white photographs, some from NASA and some taken by World Book staff photographers. The collection also includes a scrapbook containing photographs of Anne Thompson Bray and other the staff at the Space News Roundup .

Arrangement:

No arrangement.

Biographical / Historical:

Anne Thompson Bray (1934–2009) graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Journalism. Bray then went to work for the Fayetteville Observer before joining the NASA's Public Affairs staff first as a staff writer and then as the editor of the Space News Roundup , the official newspaper of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center (now Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center). From April 1962 until July of 1963 Bray covered the Mercury Space Program from Houston, Texas. After the Mercury Space Program was completed, she left the civil service and worked for Cornet Magazine and Ford Aerospace, the Aerospace and Defense Division of Ford Motor Company. Bray also worked with World Book Encyclopedia Science Services.

Provenance:

Jessica Moyd Smith, Gift, 2020, NASM.2021.0004

Restrictions:

No restrictions on access

Rights:

Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.

Topic:

Astronautics  Search this

Mercury Project  Search this

Astronauts  Search this

Genre/Form:

Press releases -- 20th century

Scrapbooks -- 1950-2000

Citation:

Anne Thompson Bray Papers, NASM.2021.0004, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:

NASM.2021.0004

See more items in:

Anne Thompson Bray Papers

Archival Repository:

National Air and Space Museum Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pg2d079e4f7-444a-4cda-95b7-523b25601133

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nasm-2021-0004

Photographer:

Nadel, Leonard, 1916-1990  Search this

Author:

Galarza, Ernesto  Search this

Extent:

3 Cubic feet (10 boxes)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographic prints

Photographs

Black-and-white photographs

Scrapbooks

Place:

Mexico

Texas -- 20th century

Texas

California

Date:

1950-2006

bulk 1956-1960

Summary:

Photographer Leonard Nadel's supplemental material relating to and photographs of the Mexican braceros (manual laborers). They were photographed in California, Texas, and Mexico for the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Republic during the late 1950s and early 1960s in support of a report entitled Strangers in Our Fields by Dr. Ernesto Galarza.

Scope and Contents:

The collection is divided into three series. Each series is arranged chronologically.

Series 1: Scrapbooks, 1950-1968, contains scrapbooks of clippings of magazine articles and newspaper stories written by Nadel and others as well as magazines and newspaper articles making use of his photographs. The material is from a variety of specialty and mainstream publications and varies in subject matter. The scrapbooks are not only focused on Nadel's work for the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Republic but also offer a broad sampling of his work throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Material in the scrapbooks are arranged in rough chronological order. There is also a sample custom cover from one of the scrapbooks.

Series 2: Photographs, 1956-1960, undated, contains photographs printed from his negatives of the braceros. This series also contains a complete run of 8" x 10" contact sheets from his negatives of the bracero. The negatives themselves are in this series but not available for research per donor request. There are photographs ranging in size from 8" x 10" to large format photographs (10 1/2" x 13 1/2") that are keyed to frames on the contact sheets for easy reference. Negatives are arranged chronologically and captions are keyed to the negative numbers. These images have been digitized and may be found by searching "Nadel" on the collections section of the National Museum of American History website or by contacting the Archives Center.

Series 3: Publications and Supplemental Materials, 1956-2006, undated, contains correspondence, copies of Strangers in Our Fields, the publication making use of Nadel's bracero photographs, and other publications citing Nadel's work or based on it. This series also contains correspondence and written material from Evelyn De Wolfe Nadel, wife of Leonard Nadel; material relating to Nadel's photographic archive and captions for a selection of the bracero photographs. There is a selection of assorted loose news clippings.

Arrangement:

This collection is divided into three series:

Series 1: Scrapbooks, 1950-1968

Series 2: Photographs, 1956-1960, undated

Series 3: Publications and Supplemental Materials, 1956-2006, undated

Biographical / Historical:

Primarily known as a freelance photographer and photojournalist, Leonard Nadel (1916-1990) was born in Harlem, New York to Austro-Hungarian immigrant parents. He attended the City College of New York. Entering the Army during World War II, he trained at the Army Signal Corps Photographic Center. During the war he served in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines. After the war he returned to New York and received his master's degree in education from Teachers College, Columbia University. He moved to Los Angeles, California and studied at the Art Center College of Design.

In Los Angeles, Nadel photographed both the Pueblo del Rio and Aliso Village housing projects. He was also hired by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) to document living conditions in the city's slums and their new post-World War II housing projects. Nadel continued his employment with HACLA until 1953, when he resigned because his HACLA colleague, Frank Wilkinson, was blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and forced to resign.

Between 1953 and 1980 Nadel worked as a freelance photographer for such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Harvester News, Life, Business Week, and other major publications. His work with the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Republic resulted in his work documenting the bracero program. These photographs were taken by Leonard Nadel in connection with a survey of braceros done by Ernesto Galarza for the Fund for the Republic in 1956 in support of the publication, Strangers in Our Fields. During World War II, the United States and Mexico entered an agreement to alleviate the US labor shortage created by the war by importing Mexican workers. This arrangement outlasted the end of the war and by the time of Nadel's photographs nearly half a million Mexican contract workers, in the common vernacular of the time known as "drybacks," were legally imported to the United States annually working on short term labor contracts predominately in agriculture. These workers were also known as braceros, in Spanish translated as "manual laborer".

Nadel wrote of his work with the braceros, "I covered 5,000 miles during a circuit that took me from California to Mexico to Texas. It would have been easy enough just to turn over to the Fund the finished collection of photographs from the 2,000 images I took in attempting to accurately document the story of Strangers in Our Fields. But the conditions I had witnessed stirred me deeply. I felt that it was as much my responsibility to help 'sell' the picture story."

Nadel's photographs were the subject of the National Museum of American History (NMAH) exhibition, "Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964" in 2009-2010. Nadel's photographs are featured in NMAH's "America on the Move" exhibit. This quote from the "America on the Move" exhibition website gives the history of the photographs as well as the bracero program.

"In 1956, Leonard Nadel was hired by the Fund for the Republic, an anti-McCarthy liberal spin off of the Ford Foundation, to document the Bracero Program. In the 1990s, the Smithsonian Institution acquired the Nadel images. The collection contains 64 captioned photographic prints and 1730 original 35mm negatives (with corresponding contact sheets). The images document life in Mexico, men's experiences of crossing the border, and work and life in the US.

"The Bracero Program came into existence in 1942. Growers argued that labor shortages in the United States resulting from World War II required the recruitment of Mexican nationals. Mexico saw the program as a contribution to the war effort. Although the program began as a temporary war measure, it became a fixture of agricultural work landscape until it was finally terminated in 1964.

"Over the course of its lifetime, the Bracero Program became the largest and most significant U.S. labor guest worker program of the 20th century. In all, over 4.5 million contracts were awarded through the twenty-two years of the program. Despite the well-intentioned contracts, the program did not escape controversy. Some point out the widespread abuses of many of the contract's protective provisions and the violation of the legal rights and civil liberties of the braceros while others describe the program as an opportunity for Mexican nationals to make a living and improve the conditions of their families. Regardless of one's opinion of the program, it had a profound effect on Mexican American settlement patterns in the U.S. and numerous Latino families have ancestors who were involved in the Bracero Program."

Nadel married Los Angeles Times staff writer Evelyn De Wolfe in August 1961. She was Brazilian by birth and after their marriage she resigned from the Times and collaborated with Nadel on many projects that covered both national and international subjects. Nadel died in 1990.

Related Materials:

Materials in Other Organizations

The collections of the Los Angeles Public Library and the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research each contain photographic images made by Leonard Nadel during the time he worked for The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA). The Photo Collection of the Los Angeles Public Library contains approximately 290 copy negatives and corresponding black-and-white copy prints made from original materials held by HACLA. The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles Photograph Collection, held at the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, contains 225 black-and-white photographs produced by HACLA, forty-two of which were taken by Nadel.

The Getty Research Institute, Special Collections, Los Angeles, California, contain 8.75 linear feet (14 boxes) of Leonard Nadel photographs and other material relating to housing and urban redevelopment in Los Angeles, 1947-1998. The collection is described as, "Consisting primarily of photographic material by Leonard Nadel from 1947 to 1957, the collection records early efforts by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) to promote integrated public housing for the city's growing multi-ethnic population, and also documents several areas of the city that the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) had targeted for commercial revitalization. Nadel's black-and-white negatives, contact prints and two unpublished photographic books form the bulk of the collection, supplemented by handwritten notes and related documents."

Provenance:

The collection was purchased with funds from the Jackson Fund in 2000. All rights were transferred to the National Museum of American History in 2000-2001.

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research use. Photographic negatives are not available for research at the donor's request, but contact sheets of the negatives are available in the collection. Some images are restricted for publication, but may be viewed in the Archives Center's reading room.

Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs, negatives, and slides.

Rights:

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

Topic:

Farmers -- Mexico  Search this

Agriculture -- Research  Search this

Agriculture -- Photographs -- 20th century  Search this

Labor  Search this

Agricultural laborers  Search this

Labor and laboring classes -- Photographs  Search this

Documentary photography -- United States  Search this

Photographers -- 1950-1980  Search this

Bracero Program  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographic prints

Photographs -- 1950-1960 -- Black-and-white photoprints -- Silver gelatin

Photographs -- 1950-2000

Black-and-white photographs

Scrapbooks -- 20th century

Citation:

Leonard Nadel Photographs and Scrapbooks, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.1313

See more items in:

Leonard Nadel Photographs and Scrapbooks

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8b054fe8c-7f40-4865-9b3d-b623e3e5ac43

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1313

Creator:

Rivers, Charles, 1904-1993  Search this

Names:

Chrysler Building (New York, N.Y.) -- Pictorial works  Search this

Empire State Building -- Construction--1929-1930  Search this

Pathe News  Search this

Bates, Ruby  Search this

Extent:

0.5 Cubic feet (4 boxes )

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Albums

Place:

New York (N.Y.) -- 1920-1930

Washington (D.C.) -- 1960-1970

Date:

1929-1963

bulk 1929-1930

Scope and Contents:

The collection contains: twenty-nine silver gelatin photoprints mounted on Fome-Core, Masonite, and cardboard, ranging in size from 5-1/2" x 9-1/4" to 10-11/16" x 13-13/16"; three 5" x 7" unmounted silver gelatin photoprints; a scrapbook which originally contained 56 silver gelatin photoprints, ranging in size from 2" x 3" to 7-1/2" x 9-1/2"; and silver gelatin film negatives (presumably acetate) for the prints. The scrapbook includes a New York Daily News clipping about Rivers: "Builds a Bridge to Students" by Anthony Burton (dated May 12, 1970 by Rivers) with a photograph showing him speaking to a crowd, Most of the photographs depict the construction of the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings--iron workers on the job and relaxing during breaks, and pictures of the buildings at various stages of completion. Other subjects are: a demonstration to prevent World War II (1935), a color photoprint of the Civil Rights March and Demonstration in Washington, D.C. (1963), and two magazine clippings from a Soviet publication, New Times, in which Rivers's prize-winning "Self Portrait" (1930) was reproduced.

Most of these prints were made by Charles Rivers many years after the creation of the original negatives, probably ca.1970s 1980s. The collection is in generally good condition, except that many of the print surfaces are scratched.

Biographical / Historical:

Charles Rivers created a certain amount of confusion about his origins, whether accidentally or intentionally. Born Constantinos Kapornaros[1] (or Kostandinos Kapernaros)[2] in the small town of Vahos in Mani, an isolated area in the southern Peloponnesian region of Greece, on May 20, 1904, he emigrated to the United States as a child of five or six with his parents. His school record showed that he was enrolled in 1911 at the age of seven.[3] The family lived in Maine or New Hampshire, then Massachusetts, and later other locations in New York state. It is believed that his new name was derived from the Charles River in Boston.[4] The change may have been occasioned by a need to conceal his deep involvement in left-wing political and union activities.[5] Mr. Rivers settled in New York City in 1950 and resided there until 1993.[6] He sometimes identified his birthplace as Denver, Colorado,[7] but this may have been a fabrication or simplification, based on the fact that Greek church baptismal records were kept in Denver.[8] His sons James and Ronald believe that he never became an official American citizen. Late in life, in order to visit his birthplace, he was issued a passport, based on his school records, which stated that he was born in Denver. Rivers photographed the construction of the Chrysler Building (1929) and the Empire State Building (1930) in New York City. He was inspired to take up photography by seeing the work of the influential documentary photographer Lewis Hine, whose famous images of working children helped win passage of protective child labor laws. Rivers and Hine both photographed the Empire State Building and the men building it, yet Rivers apparently was unaware until years later that his idol had been present. Employed as an iron worker, Rivers traded his pail of tools for a Zeiss Ikon[9] camera during his lunch hour or when photographic opportunities arose. While the workers depicted in some of the photographs clearly are aware of the photographer's presence, Rivers's project presumably was conducted more or less surreptitiously. It is not known for certain if the paths of Rivers and Hine ever crossed, but his son Ron considers it unlikely: Hine photographed only the Empire State Building in connection with his "Men at Work" project,[10] not the earlier Chrysler Building, and Rivers did not work on the Empire State Building for a very long period. His self-portrait on the Empire State Building, "The Bolter-Up," may have been intended as a memento during one of his last days on that job.[11]

Rivers became unemployed in the Depression and consequently became involved in national efforts to create Social Security, unemployment insurance, and housing programs. These experiences apparently encouraged his active participation in politically leftist activities, as coverage about him in Soviet publications attests. A pacifist, in 1935 he was involved in demonstrations aimed at preventing World War II, and in the 1960s he took part in anti-Vietnam demonstrations and encouraged young people to continue such resistance.

In the 1950s Rivers worked in steel fabrication, in a chemistry lab as a technician, and briefly as a legislative aide for a New York state senator.

In 1986 Rivers submitted his 1930 self-portrait, posed on the Chrysler Building, to the International Year of Peace art contest sponsored by the New Times, published in Moscow: it was awarded a prize and diploma.

Mr. Rivers died in 1993, only two weeks after moving to Arlington, Texas to enter a nursing home near his sons' homes.

1. The page on Rivers in New York University=s Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives web site (http://laborarts.org/collections/item.cfm?itemid=82) --noted 5 June 2002), claims Rivers was born in 1905 and changed his name Ato resemble those of the Mohawk Indians working on the high steel of New York City=s skyscrapers and bridges".

2. This spelling is given in an e-mail from James Rivers to Helen Plummer, Aug. 19, 2002.

3. Ibid.

4. Telephone conversation between Ron Rivers and the author, 6 June 2002. Additional information was provided by Ron Rivers in electronic mail messages, 5 June and 12 June 2002.

5. James Rivers, op. cit.

6. Telephone conversation with Ron Rivers, 6 June 2002.

7. In a biographical statement for the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art (copy supplied by Helen Plummer), Charles Rivers called Denver his birthplace. The George Eastman House photographer database also included this apparently erroneous information, probably derived from the Amon Carter statement (telephone conversation with Helen Plummer, 3 June 2002).

8. Ron Rivers, telephone conversation, 6 June 2002.

9. Identified by Charles Rivers as the camera used in the skyscraper photographs: interview by Carol Sewell, "Photographer looked at U.S. from high view," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dec. 27, 1986. Rivers also used a Rolleiflex, according to Ron Rivers (see note above), but the folding Zeiss Ikon camera would have been a more convenient addition to a lunchbox than the bulkier Rolleiflex. The collection negatives are not in the Rolleiflex square format, moreover.

10. See Judith Mara Gutman, Lewis W. Hine and the American social conscience. New York: Walker, 1967.

11. Ron Rivers, telephone conversation, 6 June 2002.

Related Materials:

Materials at the Smithsonian Institution

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Included Rivers's self-portrait, "The Bolter Up," in its summer 2002 exhibition, "Metropolis in the Machine Age," in the form of a new print made from a digital copy of the Archives Center's original negative. The author discussed the new print from the Rivers negative and other photographs in this exhibition in an invited gallery lecture, "The Skyscraper Photographs of Lewis Hine and Charles Rivers," Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, June 6, 2002.

Materials at Other Organizations

Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

See Barbara McCandless and John Rohrbach, Singular moments: photographs from the Amon Carter Museum, with select entries by Helen Plummer. Reproduction of a Rivers photograph, with description and analysis, p. 30. Additional information has been generously supplied by Ms. Plummer, curatorial associate, and Barbara McCandless, curator of photography, Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth Texas.

Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University

Museum of the City of New York

Some of his photographs were included in the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art exhibition, "Looking at America: Documentary Photographs of the 1930s and 1940s," December 1986.

Provenance:

The collection is a gift from Mr. Charles Rivers, 1989.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Archives Center claims copyright. Rights were conveyed to the Archives Center through a Deed of Gift signed by the donor.

Topic:

Self-portraits, American  Search this

Iron and steel workers -- 1920-1930 -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Construction workers -- 1900-1950 -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Structural steel workers -- 1920-1930 -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Labor unions  Search this

Civil rights demonstrations -- 1960-1970  Search this

Skyscrapers -- 1920-1930 -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Civil rights  Search this

Peace movements -- 1960-1970  Search this

Peace movements -- 1930-1940  Search this

Scottsoro boys case  Search this

Fires  Search this

Scottsboro Trial, Scottsboro, Ala., 1931  Search this

Self-portraits  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs -- 1900-1950

Scrapbooks -- 20th century

Albums

Photographs -- Black-and-white photoprints -- Silver gelatin -- 1970-1990

Citation:

Charles Rivers Photographs, 1929-1963, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0360

See more items in:

Charles Rivers Photographs

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep82c2fc0d6-34f9-422b-b6e3-c1d1072e975f

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0360

Creator:

Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas  Search this

Names:

Belvedere, DeKalb, and Southern Railway  Search this

Chicago Traction and Subway Commission  Search this

Detroit Rapid Transit System  Search this

Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority  Search this

San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (Calif.)  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:

5 Film reels

5 Cubic feet (11 boxes)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Film reels

16mm films

Motion pictures (visual works)

Reports

Place:

Detroit (Mich.)

Texas

Brooklyn Bridge (New York, N.Y.)

Fremont (Neb.)

Columbus (Neb.)

New York

Boston (Mass.)

Chicago (Ill.)

Death Valley

Date:

1906-2003

bulk 1906-1918

Summary:

Collection documents the engineering firm of Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas through reports prepared for a variety of clients.

Scope and Contents:

These records contain reports (some containing photographs and full size drawings folded) from the New York engineering firm of Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas. Included are typewritten and printed reports for a variety of clients. The bulk of the reports relate to power and transportation. The collection includes five 16mm motion picture films, relating to the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into three series.

Series 1: Background Materials, 1960-2003

Series 2: Reports, 1906-1918

Series 3: Moving Image, 1960 and undated

Biographical / Historical:

On January 1, 1885, William Barclay Parsons (1859-1932) and his younger brother Henry de Berkeley Parsons founded a consulting engineering firm in New York City. The brothers combined their talents as civil and mechanical engineers to create a firm that would making a lasting mark on designing and constructing infrastructure. Among the firm's most notable projects were the original IRT line of the New York City Subway, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART), the Cape Cod Canal, and the charting the course of a railway in China from Hankow (Wuhan) to Canton (Guangzhou). The firm also designed and built large water supply systems, railroads, hydro-electric dams, refrigeration warehouses, marine terminals, and conducted survey work. Through the years, the firm diversified its engineering competence and knowledge by adding partners: Eugene A. Klapp (b. 1867), chief engineer and bridge specialist; Henry M. Brinckerhoff (b. 1868), a traction engineer; Walter J. Douglas (b. 1872), structural engineer and bridge specialist; and Maurice Quade (1900-1966), structural engineer. The firm had several name changes and became known as Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas with both domestic and foreign offices. Today the company operates in the fields of strategic consulting, planning, engineering, construction management, infrastructure and community planning. Parsons Brinckerhoff was acquired by WSP Global in 2014.

Sources

Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas Notes, December 1960.

Bobrick, Benson. Parsons Brinckerhoff The First 100 Years. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1985.

Petroski, Henry. "William Barclay Parsons," American Scientist, Volume 96, No. 4, July-August 2008, pp. 280-283.

Related Materials:

Materials in the Archives Center

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Series: Streetcars and Subways (AC0060)

Materials at Other Organizations

New York Public Library

William Barclay Parsons papers, 1880-1939

Collection consists of correspondence, lecture notes, and materials used in preparation of Parsons's book, Engineers and Engineering in the Renaissance, published in 1939. Correspondence, 1881-1900, relates to his student days at the Columbia University School of Mines, appointments to various railroads, and activity as Columbia trustee. Notes on lectures about mining at Columbia, 1880-1881, are illustrated with drawings and plates. Materials used in the preparation of Parsons's book include final typescript, proofs, illustrations, maps, notebooks, and other source materials.

Columbia University

Papers, 1899-1915

Correspondence including letters from Grover Cleveland, Gilbert Parker, and printed monographs and magazine articles. Mr. Parsons' diaries of Panama Canal years and World War I have been catalogued as book manuscripts.

Provenance:

The initial collection was donated in 1967, presumably by the firm of Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas, to the Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, National Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History).

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

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

Topic:

Wharves  Search this

Subways -- New York (N.Y.)  Search this

Tunnels  Search this

Subways  Search this

Subways -- Boston (Mass.)  Search this

Dams  Search this

Railroads  Search this

Bridges  Search this

Genre/Form:

16mm films

Motion pictures (visual works) -- 20th century

Reports

Citation:

Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas Records Collection, 1905-ca. 1970s, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0969

See more items in:

Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas Records

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8230e4602-bf03-4ee0-b6f3-2b448d7e950a

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0969

Creator:

Ledley, Robert S.  Search this

National Biomedical Research Foundation. Georgetown University  Search this

Names:

Automatic Computerized Transverse Axial Scanner  Search this

Computer-Assisted Tomography Scanner  Search this

National Biomedical Research Foundation. Georgetown University  Search this

Extent:

3 Cubic feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Manuals

Patents

Photographs

Design drawings

Correspondence

Articles

Diagrams

Slides (photographs)

Notes

Motion pictures (visual works)

Albums

Date:

1972-1990

Summary:

The Robert Ledley Papers document the development of the first whole-body diagnostic imaging system, the Automatic Computerized Transverse Axial (ACTA) X-ray Scanner by Ledley in 1973. Also included is material relating to Ledley's company, Digital Science Information Corporation (DISCO), as well as the public and medical communities' reactions to the scanner.

Scope and Contents:

The Robert Ledley Papers document the development of the Automatic Computerized Transverse Axial (ACTA) X-ray Scanner, Ledley's company Digital Science Information Corporation (DISCO), as well as the public and medical communities' reactions to the scanner. The collection is arranged into nine series.

Series 1, ACTA Scanner I Schematics, 1973-1975; Series 2, ACTA Scanner I [Computer and Electronics], 1973; and Series 3, ACTA Scanner Tomograph Mechanics, 1973-1974 document the development and design of the ACTA scanner through drawings, notes, memoranda, and product information. More detailed information about these materials is located in the control file. All oversize drawings have been moved to flat storage for preservation concerns.

Series 4, ACTA Scanner Operating Instructions, 1975, is the operating manual created for the scanner used in Ledley's Georgetown lab.

Series 5, ACTA Articles, Clippings, and Press Releases, 1973-1979, is comprised of the aforementioned materials relating to the ACTA Scanner. Newspaper clippings illuminate the public's perception of the scanner, and scientific pieces highlight the medical community's reaction. Ledley's published articles on the scanner and related topics are included.

Series 6, Digital Information Science Corporation (DISCO) material, 1973-1981, documents Ledley's career and his company. A biographical sketch, list of articles, textbooks, and patents highlight Ledley's achievements. Invoices, receipts, contracts, and correspondence illuminate the financial situation at DISCO and the relationship between the company and Pfizer.

Series 7, Computer manuals, 1972-1975, documents the computer systems and software that were used with the ACTA Scanner.

Series 8, Photographic material, 1973-1978, includes an album of photographs depicting the ACTA Scanner and images of the scans it created. This album was disassembled due to preservation concerns. This series also includes a collection of slides featuring the scanner and related equipment in use and images of the scans it created. A detailed description of each photograph and slide is included in the control file.

Series 9, ACTA Scanner film, [1974?], is a 16mm narrated film describing the creation of the scanner, its components, the way they work, the scanner in use, and images of the scans produced.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into nine series.

Series 1, ACTA Scanner I Schematics, 1973-1975

Series 2, ACTA Scanner I [Computer and Electronics], 1973

Series 3, ACTA Scanner Tomograph Mechanics, 1973-1974

Series 4, ACTA Scanner Operating Instructions, 1975

Series 5, ACTA Articles, Clippings, and Press Releases, 1973-1979

Series 6, Digital Information Science Corporation (DISCO) material, 1973-1981, undated

Series 7, Computer manuals, 1972-1975

Series 8, Photographic material 1973-1978

Subseries 1, Photographs, 19731978

Subseries 2, Slides, 1974

Series 9, ACTA Scanner film [1974?]

Biographical / Historical:

Robert Steven Ledley was born in Flushing Meadows, New York in 1926. He received a D.D.S. degree from New York University College in 1948. While attending dental school, he simultaneously studied at Columbia University; he earned a M.A. in Theoretical Physics in 1949. He volunteered for the army and was sent to the U.S. Army Medical Field Service School in Fort Sam Houston, Texas.1 After completing his service, Ledley held a wide variety of research and academic positions in physics, electrical engineering, and medicine.

Ledley was a physicist within the External Control Group of the Electronic Computer Laboratory of the National Bureau of Standards from 1953-1954. He was an operations research analyst within the Strategic Division of the Operations Research Office at Johns Hopkins University from 1954-1956. Ledley went on to become an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at The George Washington University from 1956-1960 while also serving as a consultant mathematician at the National Bureau of Standards Data Processing Systems Division, 1957-1960. At this time, Ledley also worked part time at the National Research Council's National Academy of Sciences from 1957-1961. Ledley became the president of the National Biomedical Research Foundation in 1960, a position he still holds today. He was an instructor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1960-1963. He returned to The George Washington University's Department of Electrical Engineering in 1968 where he was a professor until 1970. He then became a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1970. In 1974, Ledley also became a professor in the Radiology Department at the Georgetown University Medical Center. In 1975, he became the director of the Medical Computing and Biophysics Division at Georgetown University Medical Center.

In 1972, the British company Electric and Musical Industries Limited (EMI) released a medical imaging machine for use on smaller areas of the body that were positioned under a water tank. In 1973, Ledley developed the Automatic Computerized Transverse Axial (ACTA) X-ray Scanner (US Patent #3,922,552). This machine was a whole-body diagnostic medical imaging system. He was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health for an engineering equipment project, but the money was never received due to budget cuts. Ledley looked elsewhere for funding. He consulted with Georgetown staff and discovered a neurosurgeon had asked to buy a head scanning machine from EMI. Ledley did not think the images in EMI's brochure appeared clear, and he offered to create a similar machine for half the price. Georgetown agreed to fund this project for $250,000. Ledley secured the services of a machinist at a local machine shop, an electronic engineer, and a programmer/mathematician to assist in the project.2 The ACTA Scanner debuted in February, 1974 and did not require the use of a water tank.

Following the creation of the ACTA Scanner, Ledley organized Digital Information Science Corporation (DISCO) in order to manufacture the system. DISCO began producing scanners as orders were received. Due to financial constraints, DISCO was forced to request $100,000 upon receipt of the order, $100,000 when the scanner was halfway completed, and the final $100,000 payment upon delivery3. In 1975, Pfizer purchased the rights to manufacture the ACTA Scanner from DISCO for $1.5 million.

Ledley is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He has earned numerous awards and honors for his work. In 1997, he received the National Medal of Technology from President William Jefferson Clinton for his pioneering work on the whole-body CT diagnostic X-ray scanner. He also founded the Pattern Recognition Society and Computerized Tomography Society.

Sources

1 Ash, J., D. Sittig, and R. Ledley. "The Story Behind the Development of the First Whole-body Computerized Tomography Scanner as Told by Robert S. Ledley." Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2006 Sep-Oct (2006), 465-469, http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1561796. (accessed June 24, 2009).

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

Separated Materials:

An ACTA Scanner and numerous accessories were donated to the Division of Medicine and Science in 1984.

Provenance:

This collection was donated by Robert S. Ledley on September 18, 1984.

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Rights:

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

Topic:

Medical innovations  Search this

Inventors  Search this

Inventions -- 20th century  Search this

Biology  Search this

History of science and technology  Search this

Digital Information Science Corporation  Search this

Diagnostic imaging  Search this

Medicine  Search this

Medical technology  Search this

Medical radiology  Search this

Whole body imaging  Search this

Tomography  Search this

Radiology  Search this

Genre/Form:

Manuals -- 1970-1990

Patents

Photographs

Design drawings

Correspondence -- 20th century

Articles -- 20th century

Diagrams

Slides (photographs) -- 1950-2000

Notes

Motion pictures (visual works) -- 20th century

Albums

Citation:

Robert Ledley Papers, 1972-1984, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.1135

See more items in:

Robert Ledley Papers

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8b394c960-d574-4b92-a59f-83868a5cd581

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-1135