Smithsonian Celebrates 40th Anniversary UNESCO World Heritage Convention

The Smithsonian Institution and United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) joined to celebrate the World Heritage Convention convened in 1972.  A mobile app and website produced by the Smithsonian showcases the Institution's archival and research collections that enhance knowledge of ten selected cultural and natural heritage sites around the world.  Moving images from the Human Studies Film Archives and still images and drawings from the National Anthropological Archives enrich several of these heritage sites including: 

Portrait of Alice Osceola, Mikasuki Seminole, Wife of
William McKinley Osceola, with their son
Photograph Frank A. Robinson, 1917
OPPS NEG 45838H

Everglades, United States, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2010.

Photograph is from the National Anthropological Archives

Film clip from the Human Studies Film Archives, Seminole, (1950) is by Ethel Cutler Freeman.
Ms. Freeman was a research associate with the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. Her papers are housed at the National Anthropological Archives.

Film clip from the Human Studies Film Archives, With Notebook in Hand (ca. 1959) is by Frank Kreznar.
This charming amateur film is structured around a family trip to Florida. The young daughter receives permission from her teacher to go with her family as long as she takes notes of her trip in order to tell the class on her return.  The daughter narrates the film and this clip shows the family camping in the newly opened Flamingo Campground and viewing wildlife in the Everglades.

Taos Pueblo Lady by Eloisa Benal, Eloisa 1937
NAA INV 08789000

Taos Pueblo, United States, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1992.

This drawing is from the National Anthropological Archives.

This Human Studies Film Archives film, Indian Rhythm (1939) is by Ernest Knee. Ernest Knee, a photographer of the southwest, was commissioned by the state of New Mexico to make this film.  The original sound track is no longer known to exist.

The homepage of the website also features a link to the Smithsonian Collections Search Center.

Blogs across the Smithsonian will give an inside look at the Institution’s archival collections and practices during a month long blogathon in celebration of October’s American Archives Month. See additional posts from our other participating blogs, as well as related events and resources, on the Smithsonian’s Archives Month website.