Remembering Pete Seeger (1919-2014): A Banjoist’s Archival Connections

Pete Seeger performs at the 1966 Newport Folk Festival. Photograph by Diana Davies.

Pete Seeger’s January 27th passing sparked a groundswell of stories and shared memories about the man, his music, and the many causes he supported and pioneered. Of the millions of people impacted by his works, I am one of the countless banjoists who identify Pete Seeger as the reason I became a banjo player. And like everyone else, I too have a Seeger story that I want to share. It moves beyond having had the chance to meet Pete, share a photo, ask for his autograph, and have a conversation. It is a personal story illustrated through archival connections found in the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections (RRFAC) at the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

While I now self identify as an archivist, ethnomusicologist, and a musician, I was in a very different place in the early months of 1994. I was at a personal crossroads. As a high-energy 19-year old who lacked any inspired direction, I had few places to meaningfully focus my artistic and service-oriented disposition. One day, I serendipitously tuned into my local PBS station and began watching the 1981 documentary The Weavers: Wasn’t That a Time!, which featured Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman, and Pete Seeger.

The Weavers - Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, and Fred Hellerman - perform at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, Illinois, January 13, 1958. Photograph by Robert C. Malone.

For me, the most moving parts of the documentary were those segments of The Weavers’ Carnegie Hall performance where the entire audience, not just the ensemble, participated actively in the music making. The projected sense of community I saw on my television screen—one that appeared to be inclusive and nurturing—moved me deeply. For whatever reason, the entire experience was embodied in Pete Seeger’s banjo and I knew I needed to get one. Perhaps it had something to do with the message written around the edge of his banjo head.

Pete Seeger plays his banjo at his home in Beacon, N.Y., November 3, 2005. Photograph by Bruce Mondschain, used by permission.

 After saving up a little money, in the fall of 1994 I bought my first banjo. Since that time, I have been working regularly to find ways of recreating that sense of community in as many contexts as I can muster. As I prepare to turn 40 this summer, I am beginning to see the last 20 years of my life as a chapter. It starts with the work of The Weavers and ends with having achieved one of my dreams of working at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Now, after two-and-a-half years in the Rinzler Archives, I consider it a privilege to work with a dedicated group of people who are charged with caring for materials whose content continue to shape my identity.

For example, I am part of a younger generation working to better understand the American experience. As I gain a longer view of my own history, my view of the past continues to evolve as well. I remain astonished by the lengths to which people have gone to selectively oppress individuals or entire groups because of who they are. Learning about Pete’s experiences confronting the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), I admire his personal resolve to stand up for his beliefs and the rights of others, which is something he did for his entire life.

Telegram from Pete Seeger to Sing Out! Magazine, 12 March 1962. From the Moses and Frances Asch Collection

Pete was also one of the many notable voices to sing out during the Civil Rights Movement. Pete and his banjo were part of a larger effort to confront the national traumas that began with slavery, whose violence continued through the institutional racism and segregation of the Jim Crow era, and whose legacy in many ways persists. In the 21st century, efforts that proclaim we are moving on to victory are still relevant to people working to overcome many forms of injustice here in the United States and around the world.



Ultimately, Pete Seeger will always be a cherished, essential figure in my life as I continue working as an archivist and an active member of the banjo community. It is reassuring to know that materials found in places such as the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections provide valued reminders of where we’ve been, where we’re going, and the things we should never forget. That consolation helps me to see how these archival connections can serve as living links to those loved ones who are no longer with us. Thinking about archival materials in this way makes it much easier to welcome the comfort, wit, and sincerity of Arlo Guthrie’s recent Facebook statement about Pete Seeger’s death, “Well, of course he passed away…but that doesn’t mean he’s gone.”

Greg Adams, Processing Archivist
Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections

People march in an anti-war rally in New York City, April 27, 1968. Pete Seeger can be seen center right, Seeger's daughter Tinya is at center, and Arlo Guthrie is center left. Photograph by Diana Davies.

This Catalog of Matchbook Cover Designs Should Strike Your Fancy!



Front cover of the Match Corporation of
America Catalog & Price List

The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Library in New York City recently acquired a promotional catalog issued by the Match Corporation of America that features sample designs for commercial advertisements printed on matchbook covers. The catalog, copyrighted in 1958, is billed as "the light way to profitable advertising." There are over 180 pages of color and black-and-white images, advertising everything from restaurants and bars to gas stations and political campaigns. The volume includes numerous samples of matchbook covers (without the matches, of course!). Browsing through the pages, you're catapulted mentally back into the days when a pack of cigarettes could be found in many Americans' pockets. For business owners, these simple little cardboard folders offered a big opportunity to advertise their services and build a bit of customer loyalty by supplying their patrons with the small, practical gift of a few matches.

Stock designs for match covers advertising
bars and restaurants

The catalog includes examples of standard matchbook sizes, ranging from 10 to 240 stems. Advertisers could use the hundreds of stock illustrations provided by the catalog, or commission a custom design for a special event. The lively graphic designs and snappy short texts ranging from utilitarian to mildly salacious attest to the visual appeal of commercial advertisements aimed at the American public during the boom years that followed World War II.

Stock designs for match covers
advertising political candidates

Match Corporation of America.
Advertising Book Matches: Catalog and Price List.
Chicago: Match Corporation of America, copyright 1958.
Call number qNC1890 .U6M38 1958 CHMRB
Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum Library

Diane Shaw, Special Collections Cataloger
Smithsonian Libraries

2014: Year of the Horse

This coming Friday (January 31st) marks the Chinese New Year. 2014 in the Chinese zodiac is the year of the Horse, which gives me a good excuse to round up (no pun intended) some equine materials from the collections of the Archives of American Art.

Paul Bransom with 'The Skeleton Horse', 1962 / unidentified photographer. Paul Bransom papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Paul Bransom was a wildlife painter who grew up right here in DC, and trained himself by sketching animals at the Smithsonian National Zoo. Later he acquired a summer home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he taught art classes for Teton Artists Associated. He is pictured here in Wyoming with a patient steed that assisted him in his classes, with a skeleton drawn on its hide to teach budding artists about a horse's anatomy.

Ray Johnson mail art to David Bourdon, not before 1962. David Bourdon papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Ray Johnson was a mail artist and collagist who founded a mail art collaborative known as the New York Correspondence School. Here he uses the silhouette of a horse to advertise the Correspondence School with very interesting anatomy--it's labeled parts are all names of famous artists, architects, actors, and other celebrities (Hugh Hefner occupies the front left leg while Petula Clark takes up the left flank).

Page 4 of Angelica Archipenko's photograph album documenting travels through the United States and Canada, 1925. Alexander Archipenko papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

I saved the best for last. Sculptor Angelica Archipenko compiled a photo album of her travels with her husband (fellow sculptor Alexander Archipenko) through the U.S. and Canada. In Iowa she encountered this teeny-tiny foal, conveniently standing next to a full-grown horse for scale (photo is annotated "Landwirtschaftl. Hochschule [Agricultural college]; Ames, Iowa, Juni 1925"). It is one of my dearest ambitions to get my friend Tiny Horse into the pantheon of Internet animals, right alongside Boo, the world's cutest dog, and Grumpy Cat. 

For more equestrian materials in the Smithsonian's vast collections, try the Collections Search Center.

Bettina Smith
Archives of American Art

Discovering Rev. Rhett H. James: A lesser known civil rights leader

Civil Rights Movement; Minister, Reverend.  You might think of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., or if you listened in school, Reverend Ralph Abernathy, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, or Reverend C.K. Steele. We know these iconic figures of the Civil Rights Movement, and even the dates, cities, and events associated with them. Abernathy and the Montgomery bus boycott in the late 1950’s, C.K. Steele in Tallahassee, Florida, and Shuttlesworth and the infamous series of events in 1960’s Birmingham, Alabama. However, there were many other courageous men and women who played important roles within their communities. As an intern with the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, I have been honored to process and produce a finding aid for the papers of one of these many courageous men:  Reverend H. Rhett James.

Reverend H. Rhett James was an ardent pastor, educator, and community activist, who played a role in Dallas during the Civil Rights era. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 1, 1928 and he received his early education in the public schools of Topeka, Kansas, Nashville, Tennessee and San Antonio, Texas. After graduating from the Phyllis Wheatley High School of San Antonio, Texas, he enrolled at Virginia Union University, Richmond Virginia. Upon graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology in 1950, he accepted a teaching position in the San Antonio Schools and at St. Phillips Jr. College. While in San Antonio, he was the first African-American to receive the Masters of Education Degree from Our Lady of the Lake College, in 1951.  An avid learner throughout his life, Rev. James earned a Masters of Divinity from Virginia Union University and his PH.D degree in Urban Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Rev. H. Rhett James greets Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson at unidentified event in 1962, photographer unknown.  Rev. H. Rhett James papers, gift of Gregory James.

He served as pastor of New Hope Baptist church in Dallas, Texas until his retirement in 1986.  While pastor of New Hope Baptist church, Reverend H. Rhett James also played a role in the Civil Rights movement in Dallas.  He headed scores of local organizations working for desegregation in his community, expanding democracy for African-Americans and human rights causes. He headed the local chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., founded and was a twelve year Board President of the Dallas Opportunities Industrialization center.

Reverend H. Rhett James died on March 14, 2004. Now, parts of his achievements and memory lie at the Anacostia Community Museum Archives amidst various other treasures. His papers date from 1962 to 2004, containing various materials – including photographs, an oral history interview, sermons featuring Jesse Jackson and correspondence with President Lyndon B. Johnson (1908 – 1973) and his administration.

I was blown away by the achievements of Rev. Rhett H. James!  By processing his papers, I feel I have taken part in helping increase public knowledge of a lesser known civil rights leader, minister and reverend.   

Sony Prosper

Summer 2013 Intern
Anacostia Community Museum Archives

Asia in Snow

The holiday season may be over, but for many countries around the world winter is just starting to settle in. In honor of this wintery season, below are some seasonal photographs from Iran, Japan, and China.

Persian Dignitaries Accompanying Prince Firuz Nosratdoleh in mountains of Khorasan, Iran.

Snow Scene in Japan.

Empress Dowager Cixi in snow accompanied by attendants in China.

Fuji in Snow, Japan.

Man in Winter Dress in Japan.

Lara Amrod, Archivist
Freer|Sackler Archives

Early Digital Meets New Digital

Not a day goes by at the Smithsonian that the topic of “digital” does not come up in conversation, news, emails, or staff meetings.  We use the term “digital” as some futuristic concept, ideal or level that that we hope to achieve, to make our collections more accessible to our visitors, researchers and ourselves.  Although we imagine digital as something we are moving towards, we have forgotten that digital is nothing new; it’s been with us much longer than we realize.  The digital age literally hit me in the face this week during one of my best attempts to digitally scan and preserve a punch tape from the Grace Murray Hopper Collection, 1944-1965.  The 42 feet of tape spiraled out of control like a Slinky across my desk.

The Grace Murray Hopper Collection includes not only the punch tape, but operating instructions, notes on projects from Harvard University, photographs, and newspaper clippings.  Hopper, a celebrated pioneer in the history of computing, participated in a variety of early computer development projects that resulted in the creation of some of the earliest computer systems, including the Navy’s Mark I, II and III mechanical calculators as well as the civilian equivalent models, the ENIAC and UNIVAC.  These early computer systems were the forerunners of computers we use today.  But unlike today's computers, these systems used a punch card/tape type of programming system.

The punch tape shown above is one of the earliest forms of digital information in computer processing and data input and storage during the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Punch tape contained commands to control automated machinery and/or data processing through the identification of the presence or absence of punched holes.  The punch tape was phased out in the 1970’s with the development of magnetic tape storage devices.

In my best efforts to scan and unite this legacy digital material with current digital preservation, I quickly realized why the use of punch cards faded into history.  I experienced some of the same handling problems that the original users of punch card faced.  I found that it is not easy to handle tightly coiled heavy paper material without it tearing or coiling up.  I think it would have been easier to scan our family's pet cat.

Through the scanning process, I developed a few methods to control this material in order to convert the original forty-two feet into thirty-three preserved digital image files totaling two gigabytes and three full days of work.  Controlling the constant uncoiling of the tape proved the most difficult challenge.  In order to control the loose tape, I laid the two coils on top of the scanner and unrolled and rolled the tape through the scanner by hand, image by image.  This allowed me to manually move the tape as if it were a reel-to-reel, keeping the tape from uncoiling.

 
The second challenge was “how do you merge all the images into one digital image in Photoshop?”  Several attempts at merging the thirty-three images repeatedly produced extremely distorted results.  Since I could not properly merge all the files into one continuous file, I left them as individual files.  Now that this material has been scanned, it will be available for generations of future researchers, while remaining easier to handle!

By Joe Hursey, Reference Archivist
Archives Center, NMAH     

Baby, it's Cold Outside!

All I can think about today is the near-record cold temperatures we are experiencing in the DC area, but I'm sure the people in points north and west where it has been even colder are even more preoccupied. So let's go on a journey of things that make you say "brrrr" in the Collections Search Center.

Rockwell and Frances Kent in native dress, ca. 1930 / unidentified photographer. Rockwell Kent papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

From the Archives of American Art, where I work, a photo of painter Rockwell Kent looking cozy in traditional Inuit dress. I could have used some animal skin pants for my commute this morning.

Cold snap [sound recording] : traditional and contemporary songs and ballads / sung by Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl, 1978. From the Folkways Records Collection 1948-1986, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections

 From the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, today's soundtrack.

[Miscellaneous Images in Maryland] [glass negative]: Wilson and dog playing hockey on James' pond [between 1890 and 1900].
From the Dr. G. Howard White, Jr. Collection, Miscellaneous Images in Maryland. Archives of American Gardens.

This photo from the Archives of American Gardens reminds us of one benefit of weather this cold - at least the ponds will freeze over hard enough so you and your dog can go out and play some ice hockey. 

Icebreaker Covered in Ice, 1947-1948. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Accession 02-223, Box 1, Folder Photographs. Neg. number SIA2010-0644

From the Smithsonian Institution Archives, an Antarctic icebreaker ship that gives just a little bit of perspective. At least we're not there!

Skating's all right ... [greeting card], circa 1910. From the Norcross Greeting Card Collection, 1800-1981 (mostly ca. 1880-1900, 1920-1981) at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History : Archives Center

This greeting card from the National Museum of American History: Archives Center is cold in two ways, both in its ice skating subject matter, and in the sense that it is a so-called "vinegar valentine." The recipient must have thought: dang, that's cold.

And last but not least, from Smithsonian Libraries you can check out a copy of: How to deep-freeze a mammoth, by Björn Kurtén. I have not read this, but I imagine the answer is: take it outside on a day like today.

Warmly,
Bettina Smith, Digital Projects Librarian
Archives of American Art

Celebrating the New Year with Babies' Books

Dorothy Warren as a baby in the arms of her nurse

Traditionally the start of a new year is symbolized by a cute baby in diapers, top hat and a sash. So, this seems to be an opportune time for a blog post about babies' books: the commercially produced scrapbooks in which happy parents can record the details of their child's birth and early months of development. These often artfully illustrated scrapbooks record information like babies' weight and length at birth, the dates of milestone events such as their first tooth, and often include mementos like locks of  hair, baby's first shoes, and of course lots of photographs.

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library in New York City recently added to its collection a couple of babies' books with a special connection to the Museum. The baby featured in both books was Miss Dorothy Warren, a fifth generation New Yorker born on 29 September 1905 to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Clarke Warren of South Lexington Avenue. The Warrens lived in the vicinity of Andrew Carnegie's East Side mansion (built in 1903) which would later became the building housing the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and Dorothy attended Spence School, located next door to the mansion. Little Dorothy's baby books include some darling photographs and details about the neighborhood, as well as sentimental items like valentines, greeting cards, and a pair of her dainty silk gloves.

Illustration by Maud Humphrey for Baby's Record

Miss Dorothy Warren grew up to become an artist, photographer and author who served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II, and worked for several philanthropic organizations in New York City. She lived to the grand old age of 103, passing away on 21 January 2008. In particular, her New York Times death notice states, "She was active ... in the preservation of the Decorative Arts Collections which form the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design."

One of these scrapbooks, Baby's Record, published in New York by Frederick A. Stokes Co. and copyrighted 1898, is illustrated by Maud Humphrey (1868-1940), a highly successful commercial artist whose portraits of adorable babies and little children were sometimes modeled on her son, later known as the movie actor Humphrey Bogart.

Although the Smithsonian Libraries does not routinely collect babies' books (Miss Warren's connection with the Cooper-Hewitt making this a special case), the University of California at Los Angeles Biomedical Library’s History and Special Collections has more than 600 specimens and is still actively collecting them, since these books contain information with lots of potential interest for medical and social historians.

Humphrey, Maud. Baby's Record, with twelve illustrations in colour and thirty illustrations in black & white. New York : Frederick A. Stokes Co., publishers, c1898. With handwritten annotations, mounted photographs, and ephemera for Miss Dorothy Warren. Call number: HQ779 .H86 1898 CHMRB

Taylor, Ida Scott. Baby's Book, by Ida Scott Taylor and selections from Tennyson, George MacDonald, etc., illustrated by Frances Brundage. London : Raphael Tuck & Sons, [1902?]. With handwritten annotations and mounted photographs for Miss Dorothy Warren. Call number: HQ779 .T39 1902 CHMRB

Diane Shaw, Special Collections Cataloger
Smithsonian Libraries