The papers of art historian and Monuments Man S. Lane Faison measure 5.1 linear feet and date from 1922 to 1981, bulk from 1950-1976. Faison was an art history professor at Williams College, Massachusetts and, during World War II, he was a member of the Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services. The collection includes scattered correspondence; writings; teaching files; subject files on exhibitions and projects; artists files; and printed materials. There are two folders of documents and photographs related to Faison's World War II work in the U.S. Art Looting Intelligence Unit.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art historian and Monuments Man S. Lane Faison measure 5.1 linear feet and date from 1922 to 1981, bulk from 1950-1976. Faison was an art history professor at Williams College, Massachusetts and, during World War II, he was a member of the Art Looting Intelligence Unit (ALIU) of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services. The collection includes scattered correspondence; writings; teaching files; subject files on exhibitions and projects; artists files; and printed materials. There are two folders of documents and photographs related to Faison's World War II work in the U.S. Art Looting Intelligence Unit.
Six folders of scattered correspondence relate to Faison's teaching, lectures, and writings.
Writings include bound student notebooks, lecture notes, typescript drafts, published articles, and material related to his book Handbook of the Collection: Williams College Museum of Art. Eighteen bound notebooks are filled with Faison's college class notes. There are typescript drafts of Faison's articles and speeches, as well as printed versions. Papers relating to Faison's book Handbook of the Collection: Williams College Museum of Art include several drafts, a correction copy, and a folder of illustrations to accompany the text.
Teaching files consist of course files containing miscellaneous notes for classes taught by Faison. The syllabi for classes he taught are filed separately.
Subject files are arranged into three groups: Monuments Men/ALIU files; projects and exhibitions files, and general research files. There are only two folders relating to Faison's World War II work in the ALIU. They contain photographs of looted artwork and documents about the controversial decision to ship recovered artwork to the U.S. for storage in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Projects and exhibitions files document Faison's curatorial work on the Oberlin Project (a traveling exhibition of college art) and the Carnegie International Exhibition, and other miscellaneous collaborative projects. Research files contain documents organized according to Faison's original folder headings and include miscellaneous images and clippings loosely grouped together by topic: architecture, advertising, housing, poster design, etc.
Artist files are Faison's documents on specific artists that mostly contain images of artwork, clippings and articles. Artist files were mostly used for teaching and reference.
Printed materials include news clippings, exhibition catalogs, press releases, reports and other miscellaneous materials.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 6 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, 1949-1979 (0.1 linear feet; Box 1, 6 folders)
Series 2: Writings, 1928-1979 (1.7 linear feet; Box 1-2, 7)
Series 3: Teaching Files, 1935-1976 (0.7 linear feet; Box 2-3)
Series 4: Subject Files, 1923-1981 (0.6 linear feet; Box 3, 7)
Series 5: Artist Files, 1922-1976 (1.5 linear feet; Box 3-5, 7)
Series 6: Printed Materials, circa 1935-1980 (0.5 linear feet; Box 6-7)
Biographical / Historical:
Samson Lane Faison Jr. (1907-2006) was an art history professor at Williams College and director of the Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts. During World War II, Faison served in the Art Looting Investigation Unit of the Office of Strategic Services, an intelligence unit related to the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Division of the U.S. Army.
Samson Lane Faison Jr. was born in Washington, D.C. on November 16, 1907 to Samson Lane Faison Sr., a brigadier general in the United States Army, and Eleanor Sowers Faison. Faison graduated from Williams College in 1929, completed his M.A. at Harvard University in 1930, and a M.F.A. from Princeton in 1932. Shortly thereafter, he began teaching at Yale as an associate professor of art. In 1935, Faison married Virginia Gordon Weed (d. 1997) and they had four sons: Gordon, George, Christopher and Samson. Faison joined the Williams College faculty in 1936 and became head of the art department in 1940.
During World War II, Faison initially served as an instructor in U.S. Naval Air Force. From 1945-1946, however, Faison was a member of the Office of Strategic Services' Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU) responsible for investigating and interrogating Nazis and art dealers who were involved in the systematic looting of fine arts and antiquities across Europe. The ALIU investigated Karl Haberstock, Hitler's primary dealer and Hermann Voss, director of Hitler's Führermuseum in Linz, Austria where Hitler planned to house and display plundered art. Faison was the primary author of the report on the Führermuseum and also interrogated Göring's curator Walter Andreas Hofer. The ALIU issued twelve Detailed Interrogation Reports on Nazi looting activities which were used at the Nuremburg Trials.
During the recovery efforts, the U.S. government decided to ship 202 paintings that had been stolen by the Nazis from several Berlin museums in Germany (notably the Kaiser Friedrich Museum now known as the Bode Museum) to the U.S. for safekeeping at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The government argued that the storage conditions in Germany were poor. Twenty-five of the Monuments Men signed a petition, known as the Wiesbaden Manifesto, against moving the paintings out of Germany. The Berlin Paintings were transported to the U.S. anyway and went on display at the National Gallery of Art before being put in storage. Faison was one of ninety-five American art historians who signed a second resolution in protest, demanding the immediate return of the paintings. The artwork, however, was not returned until 1948.
After the war, Faison resumed his professorship and his position as art department chair at Williams College and became director of the Williams College Museum of Art in 1948. In 1950, Faison returned to Germany as the last Director of the Munich Central Collecting Point, one of several recovered artwork repositories in Europe established by the U.S. State Department for inventory, research, and repatriation. Faison's orders were to close down the Munich Collecting Point, which took nine months.
Faison continued to teach at Williams until his retirement. Faison and two of his colleagues, William H. Pierson Jr. and Whitney S. Stoddard, were the three art history professors at Williams College nicknamed the "Holy Trinity," due to their reputation for launching the careers of their students to stratospheric heights. Several of their students went on to become directors at prestigious museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the Art Institute of Chicago. The New York Times created the moniker "Williams Mafia" in reference to the Williams alumni that were taught by the "Holy Trinity" and whom went on to become prominent members of the art world.
Faison was made a Chevalier of French Legion of Honor in 1952. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship for 1960-1961 and Williams college awarded him a Doctor of Letters in 1971. He stepped down from his position as art department chair in 1969, and retired from his position as the director of the Williams College Museum of Art in 1976. Faison died in Williamstown, MA in 2006 at the age of 98.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds an oral history interview of S. Lane Faison conducted on December 14, 1981 by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art's oral history program.
Papers of S. Lane Faison, 1945-1986, are also located at the National Gallery of Art.
Provenance:
The S. Lane Faison papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by S. Lane Faison, Jr. in 4 installments from 1978 to 1982.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The papers of museum director, professor, writer, and post-World War II Monuments Men Andrew Carnduff Ritchie measure 10.3 linear feet and date from 1907 to 1983. Found within the papers are biographical material, including materials and photographs concerning his military service in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section of the U.S. Army; correspondence, including letters from numerous artists; writings; committee and organization files; exhibition and project files, teaching files; printed material; and photographs, including portrait images of Ritchie taken by Hans Namuth.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of museum director, professor, writer, and post-World War II Monuments Men Andrew Carnduff Ritchie measure 10.3 linear feet and date from 1907 to 1983. Found within the papers are biographical material, including materials and photographs concerning his military service in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section of the U.S. Army; correspondence, including letters from numerous artists; writings; committee and organization files; exhibition and project files, teaching files; printed material; and photographs, including portrait images of Ritchie taken by Hans Namuth.
Biographical materials include birth certificates, passports, academic records, biographical profiles, and awards. There are files documenting Andrew Carnduff Ritchie's post-World War II military service in 1945-1946 as a "Monuments Men" in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) section of the U.S. Army, including correspondence, forms, reports, photographs (including 7 of paintings looted from Holland), and awards. There is also a file on the Fogg conference on the emergency protection of artwork dated 1939-1942 and one file regarding the Frick Collection's orders for protecting art. There is also a folder of material on his wife Jane Ritchie.
Alphabetical and chronological correspondence is with artists, museums, galleries, universities, and colleagues. The bulk of the alphabetical correspondence consists of letters from artists such as Afro, Alexander Calder, Dimitri Hadzi, Russell Lynes, Eduardo Paolozzi, Theodore Roszak, and others. There are also condolence letters addressed to Jane Ritchie. Chronological correspondence includes Ritchie's correspondence on the subject of travels, lectures, projects, and exhibitions.
Writings include one disbound notebook, papers from college and graduate studies, lecture drafts, outlines, and notes. There are a few writings by others.
Committee and organization files document Ritchie's work on advisory panels, trustee boards, councils, board of directors, and committees. There are meeting minutes, bulletins, reports, studies, and correspondence. Some of the more voluminous files include the College Art Association's study on "The Visual Arts in Higher Education" as well as the Museum of Modern Art's committee on museum collections.
Exhibition and project files include correspondence, printed material, photographs, catalogs, and assorted documents. Among the projects and exhibitions in this series are Ritchie's work on the Alfred E. Burr Memorial in Connecticut and the Middelheim Sculpture exhibition.
Teaching files contain correspondence, program outlines, course materials, recommendations, and a few student papers from universities and programs where Ritchie taught, including Yale University Art Gallery.
Printed material consists of news clippings, some of which are arranged by subject, along with articles by Andrew Ritchie, press releases, magazines, bulletins, and a few exhibition catalogs.
Photographs are of Andrew Ritchie, and of friends and artists at various art openings and events.
There is one small album of photographs of a birthday party for Jane Ritchie. Also included are photographs of artwork.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 8 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1907-1978 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1, OV 11)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1928-1983 (2.2 linear feet; Boxes 1-3)
Series 3: Writings, 1927-1978 (2.9 linear feet; Boxes 3-6, OV 11)
Series 4: Committee and Organization Files, 1948-1971 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 6-7)
Series 5: Exhibition and Project Files, 1949-1978 (1.6 linear feet; Boxes 7-9, OV 12)
Series 6: Teaching Files, 1957-1974 (0.5 linear feet; Box 9)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1928-1978 (0.5 linear feet; Boxes 9-10)
Series 8: Photographs, 1935-1982 (O.9 linear feet; Box 10, OV 13)
Biographical / Historical:
Andrew Carnduff Ritchie (1907-1978) was a museum director, professor, and art historian based in New York and Connecticut. He served as director of the Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., director of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, and director of the Yale University Art Gallery.
Andrew Carnduff Ritchie was born in Bellshill, Scotland, in 1907 to Andrew and Jeanie Gilchrist Ritchie. The family immigrated to the United States when he was 15 and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended the University of Pittsburgh and received a bachelor's and master of arts degrees in medieval art, and his doctoral degree from the University of London in 1935. That same year, he married Jane Thompson.
From 1935 to 1942, Ritchie was a researcher and lecturer at the Frick Collection in New York City and faculty member at New York University, as well as a visiting lecturer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
In 1942, Ritchie was appointed director of the Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo, New York where he stayed until 1949 when he became the director of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art.
In 1945-1946, directly following World War II, Ritchie served with the U.S. Army's Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section in Austria and helped with the restitution of art looted by the Nazis, returning paintings and cultural artifacts back to their country of origin. He was later honored by France and the Netherlands for this work.
In 1957, Ritchie accepted the postion of director of the Yale University Art Gallery where he stayed until 1971. While there, he acquired notable works of art for the Gallery's collections by David Smith, Noguchi, and Maillol. Thanks to Ritchie's efforts and guidance, art collector and patron Paul Mellon donated his collection of British art and established the Yale Center for British Studies. In 1971, Ritchie also became the Clark Professor at Williams College, Massachusetts, and, in 1972, he was a visiting professor at the University of Sydney, Australia. Ritchie retired from Yale in 1973.
Ritchie was also awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Pittsburgh and the Royal College of Art in London. He wrote several books over the course of his career and passed away in Canaan, Connecticut, in 1978.
Related Materials:
Among the holding at the Archives of American Art is an interview of Andrew Carnduff Ritchie conducted in 1977 June 16-17 by Paul Cummings.
The Albright-Knox Gallery Archives in Buffalo, New York has a collection of Andrew Carnduff Ritchie papers, which include administrative records and correspondence.
Provenance:
This collection was donated in multiple installments in 1979 and 1981 by Andrew Ritchie's widow, Jane T. Ritchie, and by her estate in 1986. Five letters from Alfred Hamilton Barr to Andrew and Jane Ritchie were donated in 1974 by Andrew Ritchie through Russell Lynes.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. research facility.
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:
Arts administrators -- Connecticut -- Canaan Search this
Prendergast, Maurice Brazil, 1858-1924 Search this
Sachs, Paul J. (Paul Joseph), 1878-1965 Search this
Extent:
26 Linear feet
0.225 Gigabytes
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Gigabytes
Travel diaries
Articles
Interviews
Essays
Drafts (documents)
Transcripts
Photographs
Notebooks
Lectures
Scripts (documents)
Date:
1908-1998
Summary:
The papers of art historian and educator Milton Wolf Brown date from 1908 to 1998 and measure 26.0 linear feet and 0.225 GB. The collection documents Brown's career through scattered biographical material, correspondence with friends, publishers, colleagues, artists, museums, and art organizations, travel journals, files for the Prendergast Catalogue Raisonne Project, exhibition, research, teaching, and organization files, printed and digital material, and scattered photographs. A large portion of this collection consists of writings by Brown including notebooks, draft writings for books and other publications, lectures, and his writings as a student.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of art historian and educator Milton Wolf Brown date from 1908 to 1998 and measure 25.8 linear feet and 0.225 GB. The collection documents Brown's career through scattered biographical material, correspondence with friends, publishers, colleagues, artists, museums, and art organizations, travel journals, files for the Prendergast Catalogue Raisonne Project, exhibition, research, teaching, and organization files, printed and digital material, and scattered photographs. A large portion of this collection consists of writings by Brown including notebooks, draft writings for books and other publications, lectures, and his writings as a student.
Biographical material includes academic records, travel documents, financial documents, Brown's military records, and a transcript of a 1997 interview. Correspondence is with students, museums, universities, publishers, art organizations, and others. The bulk of these letters document Brown's professional activities, but also found are scattered letters from friends, artists, and colleagues such as Russell Lynes, Stanley Meltzoff, Louis Lozowick, Erwin Panofsky, and Paul Sachs.
This collection also contains 33 detailed travel journals written primarily by Milton Brown's wife, Blanche, documenting their travels in Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world. Within the writings series are notebooks from the period that Brown was a student and while traveling in Europe in 1959 and 1960; book project files, which include draft writings as well as related correspondence, research material, notes, photographs and other material. Files are found for American Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Decorative Arts, Photography (1979), American Painting, From the Armory Show to the Depression (1955), The Story of the Armory Show (1963, 1988 2nd ed.), and other books. Among the writings are files for lectures written by Brown; essays, articles, and scripts written for various publications; general research notes and student writings; and writings by others sent to Brown for review and feedback.
Brown maintained a set of files documenting his work on the Prendergast Catalogue Raisonne Project, which consist of correspondence, drafts, reports, and research materials, including notes on twenty meetings with Mrs. Prendergast. Exhibition files document Brown's work as curator on several major exhibitions, including a Jacob Lawrence exhibition at the Whitney Museum, and his contributions to others. Also found here are three interviews of Milton Brown and Marcel Duchamp concerning the 50th Anniversary of the Armory Show and anniversary exhibition. Research files include notes, research material, and printed material on various art-related subjects that were maintained by Milton and Blanche Brown for regular use for lectures, teaching, and writing projects. Brown's teaching files contain scattered lecture notes, syllabi, correspondence, faculty records, and other materials from his time at CUNY, Brooklyn College, and other visiting professorships. Organization Files contain correspondence, reports, planning documents, and event materials. These records document his membership or advisory role in various organizations such as the Archives of American Art and Century Association.
This collection also contains printed material, such as exhibition announcements, newsletters, brochures, journals, event programs, and magazine and newspapers clippings compiled by Brown. Scattered photographs include nine photographs of Milton Brown, a few photographs of friends, and photographs of artwork.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1932-1998 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1908, 1934-1998 (Boxes 1-3; 1.8 linear feet)
Series 3: Travel Journals, 1941-1996 (Boxes 3-4; 1.6 linear feet)
Series 4: Writings, circa 1929-1990s (Boxes 4-13, 25; 8.7 linear feet)
Series 5: Prendergast Catalogue Raisonne Project, circa 1952-1990 (Boxes 13-14, 25; 1.8 linear feet)
Series 6: Exhibition Files, 1962-circa 1997 (Boxes 14-16, 28; 2.0 linear feet, ER01; 0.225 GB)
Series 7: Research Files, circa 1930s-1986 (Boxes 16-19; 3.0 linear feet)
Series 8: Teaching Files, circa 1946-1993 (Boxes 19-21; 2.0 linear feet)
Series 9: Organization Files, 1959-1995 (Boxes 21-22; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 10: Printed Material, 1925-1990s (Boxes 22-24, 26, 27; 3.2 linear feet)
Series 11: Photographs, circa 1956-1990s (Boxes 25, 27; 0.2 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Milton Wolf Brown (1911-1998) was an art historian and educator in New York City.
Known to his friends as "Mainey," Brown was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1911. At a young age he intended to be a painter and studied with Louis Lozowick. However, instead of attending art school, he entered New York University to study education and eventually received his master's and doctorate in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts. While there he took courses with Walter Friedlander, Erwin Panofsky, and Mayer Schapiro. He also received fellowships to the Courtauld Institute of Art in 1934 and Brussels in 1937, and studied from 1938-1939 at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. In 1938 he married fellow student Blanche Levine. After serving in World War II, he began teaching in the art department at Brooklyn College in 1946. There he developed a specialization in American art history and his doctoral dissertation, American Painting from the Armory Show to the Depression, was published in 1955. In 1963 he participated in the fiftieth anniversary exhibition of the 1913 Armory Show. The publication of his book Story of the Armory Show coincided with this event.
In 1971 Brown established the graduate program in Art History at the City University of New York, which became preeminent in the areas of modern art and American art history. During the 1980s he remained a resident professor at CUNY, though he retired in 1979, and he held visiting professorships at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art. From 1983 to 1987 he had a senior fellowship at Williams College for the Prendergast Catalogue Raisonne Project.
Over the course of his career Brown curated exhibitions, including an exhibition on the works of Jacob Lawrence and The Modern Spirit: American Painting and Photography, 1908-1935, and wrote for numerous publications. He also served as an active member of several professional societies. Brown was close friends with art scholars and artists, such as Jack Levine, Moses and Raphael Soyer, Ad Reinhardt, and Paul Strand. In 1991 he returned to painting landscape watercolors, and had the opportunity to exhibit his work before his death in 1998.
Related Material:
Also at the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Milton Wolf Brown, conducted in 1976 by Paul Cummings.
Provenance:
The Milton Wolf Brown papers were donated in 2000 and 2001 by Blanche R. Brown, Brown's widow. Three reel-to reel sound recordings were lent for duplication to cassette and transcript in 1986 by Milton Brown. A cassette copy of the Martha Deane interview was donated in 2006 by Milton Brown's estate, via Naomi Rosenblum. Additional material was donated in 2002 and 2004 by Naomi Rosenblum, executor for the estate of Blanche R. Brown, who died in 2002.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Art museum curators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Personal and business correspondence; photographs; writings; biographical materials; and printed materials.
REELS N69/133-N69/136: Personal correspondence, including letters and postcards from friends Wayne Anderson, composer Richard Arnell, E. Leontief, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko and others; business correspondence, including letters from galleries and universities, regarding exhibitions, sculpture contracts and invitations for lecture, his donation of his paper to Syracuse University, and teaching positions; ground plans, estimates, and correspondence regarding Ferber's "environmental sculpture" for Harlow Carpenter and Bundy Gallery and the ensuing case against them;
contract and letters concerning the courtyard sculpture for the John F. Kennedy GSA building in Boston; letters regarding insurance and damage done to works lent for exhibition through the Walker Art Center; writings by Ferber for various journals including art journals and a scientific journal (using an pseudonym, Herbert F. Silver, D.D.S.); drafts of lectures given at art institutions and colleges; a catalog raisonne; transcript of an interview with Ferber; licenses, degrees and diplomas; a book, THREE AMERICAN SCULPTORS: FERBER, HARE, LASSAW, by E.C. Goossen, Robert Goldwater, and Irving Sandler; sketchbooks, 1933-1937; clippings; exhibition catalogs and announcements; scrapbook relating to his career and work at Midtown Galleries, New York.
REEL N/70-39: Photographs of Ferber at work and of his sculptures.
REEL 2804: A typescript, "Sculpture as Environment," by Ferber, January 1960.
ADDITION: Biographical materials; correspondence, 1979-1980; records concerning Williams College exhibition, 1975-1980; writings, 1970-1986; exhibition catalogs and announcements; photographs, including one of Ferber ca. 1935, one of Helen Frankenthaler and Andrew Heiskell, and one of a painting signed on back by Beck Balken. Additional records concerning his career as a dentist include diplomas and certificates, published articles on dental subjects by Dr. Silvers, and letters of appointment to the dental school faculty, Columbia University, 1980-1985.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter and environmental sculptor; New York, N.Y. d. 1991. Ferber was also a dentist, who practiced under the name Herbert Ferber Silvers.
Provenance:
Material on reels N69/133-136 and reel N70/39 lent by Herbert Ferber 1969-1970; the unmicrofilmed material was donated 1991 by Herbert Ferber. The donor of the typescript on reel 2804 is unspecified.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Dentists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Environmental artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
History of Smithsonian Folklife Oral History Interviews
Extent:
0.5 cu. ft. (2 half document boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Audiotapes
Transcripts
Date:
2005-2009
Introduction:
The Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) began its Oral History Program in 1973. The purpose of the program is to supplement the written documentation of the Archives'
record and manuscript collections with an Oral History Collection, focusing on the history of the Institution, research by its scholars, and contributions of its staff. Program
staff conduct interviews with current and retired Smithsonian staff and others who have made significant contributions to the Institution. There are also reminiscences and
interviews recorded by researchers or students on topics related to the history of the Smithsonian or the holdings of the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Smithsonian Institution predoctoral fellow, William S. Walker, of Brandeis University, conducted a series of oral history interviews on the history of folklife presentation
at the
Smithsonian, as part of his dissertation research.
Descriptive Entry:
The History of Folklife at the Smithsonian Oral History Interviews consist of 13.2 hours of analog and digital audio interviews and 369 pages of transcript.
Historical Note:
Folklife studies are carried on in several organizational units of the Smithsonian Institution: the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History
(NMNH), the Festival of American Folklife (FAF), and the National Museum of American History (NMAH), and the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). Dr. Walker began
his project on the study and exhibition of folklife at the Smithsonian, focusing on the Folklife Festival and then expanded his interview scope to include other Smithsonian
cultural scholars and solicit their views on the FAF and cultural studies, exhibition and public programming at the Smithsonian.
JoAllyn Archambault (1942- ), Director of the American Indian Program at the National Museum of Natural History, is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.
She earned her doctorate at the University of California in Berkeley in 1984. She was a faculty member of the Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukie,
Wisconsin (1983-86), and the Director of Ethnic Studies, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California (1978-83). As curator of Anthropology at the NMNH since
1986, she organized various exhibitions, including Plains Indian Arts: Change and Continuity, 100 Years of Plains Indian Painting, Indian Baskets and Their
Makers, and Seminole Interpretations.
Spencer Crew (1949- ) received the A.B. in history from Brown University in 1972 and holds a master's degree (1973) and a doctorate from Rutgers University (1979). He was
assistant professor of African-American and American History at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, 1978-1981; historian, 1981-1987, curator 1987-1989, Department
of Social and Cultural History, chair, 1989-1991, deputy director, 1991-1992, acting director, 1992-1994, director, 1994-2001 of NMAH. He then served as historical consultant
to the National Civil Rights Museum, in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1987-1991; consultant to the Civil Rights Institute, in Birmingham, Alabama, 1991-1994; and executive director
and chief executive officer for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center from 2001-2008; and was appointed Clarence Robinson Professor at George Mason University in
2008. At the Smithsonian, Crew curated several exhibitions, most notably Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940
William W. Fitzhugh (1943- ), an anthropologist, specialized in circumpolar archaeology, ethnology and environmental studies. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College
in 1964. After two years in the U.S. Navy, he attended Harvard University where he received his PhD in anthropology in 1970. He joined the Anthropology Department at NMNH
in 1970. As director of the Arctic Studies Center and Curator in the Department of Anthropology, NMNH, he has spent more than thirty years studying and publishing on arctic
peoples and cultures in northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia and Scandinavia. His archaeological and environmental research has focused upon the prehistory and paleoecology of
northeastern North America, and broader aspects of his research feature the evolution of northern maritime adaptations, circumpolar culture contacts, cross-cultural studies
and acculturation processes in the North, especially concerning Native-European contacts. He curated four international exhibitions, Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea
Eskimos; Crossroads of Continents: Native Cultures of Siberia and Alaska; Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People; and Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga.
Thomas W. Kavanagh (1949- ), an anthropologist, received the B.A. from the University of New Mexico in 1971, the M.A. from The George Washington University in 1980, and
the Ph.D. from University of New Mexico in 1986. He began his career at Indiana University and then joined the staff of the Smithsonian Institution. A scholar of Comanche
Indians of Oklahoma, he has published extensively on the Comanches and was appointed Consulting Anthropologist for the Comanche Nation. In the 2000s, he served as director
of the Seton Hall University Museum. His publications include Comanche Ethnography (2008), Comanche Political History (1996), North American Indian Portraits:
Photographs from the Wanamaker Expeditions (1996), and "Comanche" in the Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 13 (Plains), Smithsonian Institution (2001).
Roger G. Kennedy (1926-2011) graduated from Yale University in 1949 and the University of Minnesota Law School in 1952, and pursued a diverse career in banking, television
production, historical writing, foundation management, and museum administration. He was appointed Director of the National Museum of History and Technology (NMHT) in 1979,
renamed it the National Museum of American History, and left in 1992 to become Director of the National Park Service. He focused on social and cultural history, and oversaw
controversial exhibits including A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the American Constitution and Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940.
Keith E. Melder (1932- ) studied American history at Williams College (B.A. 1954) and Yale University (M.A. 1957; PhD, 1964). He was an intern at the NMHT in 1958 and returned
in 1961 as Curator of Political History until his retirement in 1996. His research focused on America political movements, especially the Women's Movement and the Civil Rights
era. Melder was also interviewed for two other Smithsonian Institution Archives projects, Record Unit 9603, African American Exhibits at the Smithsonian, and Record Unit 9620,
the American
Association of Museums Centennial Honorees Oral History Project, as well as for the Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project of the Capitol Hill Historical Society.
Clydia Dotson Nahwooksy (1933-2009), a Cherokee, and her husband Reaves, a Comanche Nation member, worked most of their lives to preserve American Indian tribal culture.
Originally from Oklahoma, they spent 20 years in Washington, D.C., as cultural activists. In the 1970s, Clydia was director of the Indian Awareness Program for the Smithsonian
Institution's Festival of American Folklife. In 1986 both Nahwooskys entered the seminary, and the Rev. Clydia Nahwooksy was an active pastor and a member of the Board of
National Ministries and the American Baptist Churches USA General Board.
Ethel Raim (1936- ), Artistic Director of New York's Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD), researched ethnic music and worked closely with community-based traditional
for almost five decades. Raim also had a distinguished career as a performer, recording artist, music editor, and singing teacher. In 1963 she co-founded and was musical director
of the Pennywhistlers, who were among the first to bring traditional Balkan and Russian Jewish singing traditions to the folk music world. Raim served as music editor
of Sing Out! magazine from 1965 to 1975. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she developed ethnic programs for the Newport Folklife Festival and the Smithsonian's Festival
of American Folklife. In 1975 Raim joined Martin Koenig as Co-Director of the Balkan Folk Arts Center, which developed into the CTMD in New York City.
Joanna Cohan Scherer (1942- ) received the B.A. from Syracuse University in 1963 and the M.A. from Hunter College, City University of New York in 1968. A specialist in
visual anthropology especially of Native Americans, historical photography, women and photography, North American Indian photography, and cultural anthropology. She joined
the staff of the Anthropology Archives of the National Museum of Natural History in 1966 and in 1975 advanced to served as anthropologist and illustrations editor for the
Smithsonian's multivolume series Handbook of North American Indians.
Robert D. Sullivan (1949- ) was educated at St. John Fisher College with a B.S. in anthropology in 1970, the M.A. in education management from the University of Rochester
in 1979, and pursued the Ph.D. in human studies (ABD) at The George Washington University until 2006. He served as Chief of Museum Education at Rochester Museum and Science
Center from 1970 to 1980, Director at the New York State Museum from 1980 to 1990, and Associate Director for exhibitions at National Museum of Natural History from 1990 to
2007.
Peter Corbett Welsh (1926-2010) was a curator and historian at the Museum of History and Technology, now known as the National Museum of American History. He was born on
August 28, 1926, in Washington, D.C. He received his B.A. from Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio, in 1950 and completed a post-graduate year of study at the University
of Virginia. He received his M.A. from the University of Delaware where he was the first recipient of the Hagley Fellowship in 1956. Welsh served in the United States Army,
1951-1954. Prior to coming to the Smithsonian Institution, he was Research Assistant and Fellowship Coordinator at the Eleutherian-Mills Hagley Foundation, 1956-1959. Welsh
was Associate Curator in the Smithsonian's Department of Civil History, 1959-1969, and served as editor of the Smithsonian's Journal of History in 1968. As Curator he played
a major role in the development of the Growth of the United States hall for the opening of the Museum of History and Technology which depicted American civilization
from the time of discovery through the mid-twentieth century. Welsh was Assistant Director General of Museums, 1969-1970, and assisted with the implementation of the National
Museum Act through seminars on improving exhibit effectiveness. He also served as Director of the Office of Museum Programs, 1970-1971. After Welsh's tenure at the Smithsonian,
he became the Director of both the New York State Historical Association and the Cooperstown Graduate Program, 1971-1974. He then served as Director of Special Projects at
the New York State Museum in Albany, 1975-1976; Director of the Bureau of Museums for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; President of The Welsh Group, 1984-1986;
and Curator (1986-1988) and Senior Historian (1988-1989) of the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York. In 1989, he became a full-time, independent museum consultant
and lecturer, and was a visiting professor of the State University of New York (SUNY) in 1992. Welsh was a contributor to numerous scholarly journals. He authored Tanning
in the United States to 1850 (1964), American Folk Art: The Art of the People (1967), Track and Road: The American Trotting Horse, 1820-1900 (1968), The
Art of the Enterprise: A Pennsylvania Tradition (1983), and Jacks, Jobbers and Kings: Logging the Adirondacks (1994).
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