Farewell to American Archives Month 2018

As the American Archives Month blog-a-thon comes to end on this Halloween Day, we want to send a thank you to everyone who participated. We hope you enjoyed learning about the work we do as archivists, librarians, and museum professionals and about the Smithsonian’s vast collections and online resources. This year we explored stories highlighting voting rights, the Spanish Flu, pioneering women photographers, a princess and so much more! To read all the stories from this year’s blog-a-thon, click on the 2018 Archives Month tag.

Stay tuned to this blog as we celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November!

Representing and Misrepresenting Native Americans in Archival Collections

The bulk of historical materials contained in Native American archival collections were not created by Native peoples. Perhaps this is obvious. Historic photographs, anthropological field-notes, ethnological films – these materials were by and large created by non-Native Americans, and thus preserve a non-Native rather than a Native voice. While not necessarily nefarious or ill-intentioned on the part of the creator(s), such representations or misrepresentations prove themselves to be not only inaccurate but also ever-present in the historical record.

 

Indianer, German Advertising Trade Cards collection, NMAI.AC.288, 288_001_001_005

Indianer, German Advertising Trade Cards collection, NMAI.AC.288, 288_001_001_005

These representations include stereotypes of the “noble savage” or “vanishing Indian” variety, which romanticize a fictionalized portrayal of Native American cultures. What these images reveal are how non-Native peoples chose to represent or misrepresent the lives, cultures, and histories of the Native peoples of the Americas. In other words, these nineteenth- and twentieth-century portrayals reveal not only how non-Native communities viewed indigenous peoples, but also how non-Native peoples viewed themselves and their colonial past.

Straight Arrow “Injun-uity” Manual, Douglas E. Evelyn photograph and ephemera collection, NMAI.AC.226, 226_pht_001_001
 

This argument about how non-Indians have imagined, represented, and appropriated Indian identity is hardly new. Native and non-Native scholars have written about the subject for years, with a few of the better known works including Robert Berkhofer’s The White Man’s Indian, Philip Deloria’s Playing Indian, and Shari Huhndorf’s Going Native. In fact, the recent AMERICANS exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) delves into similar ground of American Indian identity and its pervasiveness within the context of broader American pop culture and history.

Straight Arrow “Injun-uity” Index,
Douglas E. Evelyn photograph and ephemera collection, NMAI.AC.226, 226_pht_001_002

Among the NMAI Archive Center collections, a few more recent acquisitions which portray these romanticized images are the Dale Jenkins postcard and photograph collection, the Douglas E. Evelyn photograph and ephemera collection, and the German Advertising Trade Cards collection. A shared theme in these collections is the use of romanticized portrayals of Native Americans in order to sell products as diverse as NABISCO Shredded Wheat throughout the United States, or to market condensed milk, chocolate, and pralines in Germany and across Europe.

Kriegführung Bei Wilden Völkern,
German Advertising Trade Cards collection, NMAI.AC.288, 288_001_002_001

Kriegführung Bei Wilden Völkern (verso),
German Advertising Trade Cards collection, NMAI.AC.288, 288_001_002_001v

Reshaping the image of Native Americans was not relegated solely to anthropologists or marketing firms, however. Along similar lines are also representations of Native American school children required to attend government boarding schools. Through coerced assimilation and forced abandonment of Native cultures and languages, the U.S. federal government attempted to reshape the appearance and mind-set of American Indian children. Such images and misrepresentations, while problematic to say the least, are also important in showing how non-Native peoples romanticized, mythologized, and attempted to reshape Native peoples.

Entrance to Indian Training School, Chemawa, near Salem, Oregon, Dale Jenkins postcard and photograph collection, NMAI.AC.069, 069_pht_001_002

Girl Basket-Ball Squad, U.S. Indian School, Chilocco, Oklahoma. Seven tribes represented, Dale Jenkins postcard and photograph collection, NMAI.AC.069, 069_pht_002_005

Indian School, Parade Grounds and Buildings, Carlisle, PA, Dale Jenkins postcard and photograph collection, NMAI.AC.069, 069_pht_001_003

Fortunately, since becoming part of the Smithsonian Institution in 1989, the NMAI Archive Center has actively sought to acquire, preserve, and make accessible archival materials created by Native peoples which represent contemporary Native voices. With the addition of records documenting the lives and works of Native American artists, writers, activists, and organizations, the NMAI is seeking to both complement and balance these earlier representations and misrepresentations of the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere.

Nathan Sowry, Reference Archivist
National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center

Voting Rights and Archives Center Collections

The fraught history of Southern states denying African Americans the right to vote, a right guaranteed by the 15th Amendment, was a practice that extended through the first half of the 20th century. Southern states, through the passage of Jim Crow laws, legalized various forms of voter discrimination. A poll tax, a literacy test, and, ironically, moral character tests served as examples. The Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 were the first laws that promoted the rights of African-Americans since the end of Reconstruction. While the former expanded the Justice Department by creating the Civil Rights Division and the Commission on Civil Rights, the latter protected African Americans from voter disenfranchisement in local municipalities and included a congressional provision that authorized the federal courts to appoint “referees” in areas where discrimination took place. However, voter turnout showed little to no variance during this time and demonstrated the power of local election officials to discriminate against minority voters.

The work that went into the fight against the forces of voter suppression is well documented in several Archives Center collections. The Afro Americana series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana includes extensive materials from the years 1961-1964. The work behind Freedom Summer, otherwise known as the Mississippi Summer Project (MSP), began in late spring of ‘64. The objectives of MSP involved galvanizing local support by lobbying the state government to ensure full voting rights for African Americans. The project put forth plans spearheaded by the Council of Federated Organizations and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC.) Such materials include “The Battle for Civil Rights Negro Representation Now,” a magazine distributed by the American Labor Party headquarters, along with copies of the “Student Voice,” which showcased the moment college students from elite universities bused themselves to Mississippi to staff educational programs at places that became known as Freedom Schools.

This is not the only collection that illuminates the struggles of African-Americans in the 20th Century. The portfolio Photographs of Stephen Somerstein / 1965 Selma to Montgomery March documented the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in the spring of 1965. The collection includes photographs that document everyone from Martin Luther King to John Lewis, the head of SNCC. Some photographs show the eclectic mix of marchers walking side by side while other snapshots depict families sitting on their porch watching the passersby. The collection features a rare photograph of Martin Luther King addressing twenty-five thousand marchers before the Alabama State Capitol building in Montgomery.

Stephen Somerstein, photographer. "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking behind a sea of microphones... March 25, 2965." Silver gelatin print." Gift of the artist.
NMAH Archives Center, AC1300-0000001.

Lastly, the work of photographer Bob Adelman, as it appears in the Bob Adelman Civil Rights Photographs, are works that span the entirety of the civil rights movement. Some of his most powerful pictures include a boy in school while a portrait of Lincoln hangs above. While the symbolism might speak for itself, it shows how Lincoln’s legacy looms large, casting a shadow over ongoing battles. Another shows a black man leaving a “Whites Only” restroom, suggesting that, for some, the best way to protest segregation is through personal integration, illuminating the strides made by individuals to combat state-sanctioned discrimination. Perhaps the most striking photograph of the group depicts a black man filling out a ballot card in the spring of 1966, just a year after Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. In it, his hand is vividly exposed as he draws an ‘x’ next to each of his chosen candidates.

Bob Adelman, photographer. Silver gelatin print, untitled, 1960s.
Gift of Jae Brown. NMAH Archives Center, AC1438-0000015-2.

Bob Adelman, photographer. Silver gelatin print, untitled, 1960s.
Gift of Jae Brown. NMAH Archives Center, AC1438-0000013.

     
All three of these collections teach us how the African-American right to vote was contested, not a given. The way this right was earned and how the struggles are remembered now have renewed relevance. Recent threats to the voting rights act challenge us to reacquaint ourselves with the past in order to better confront the present.

Isaac Simon, Intern
Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Flashback Friday: Behind the Scenes at the Cultural Resources Center

Smithsonian Institution Archives, image number 2003-37857. 

Family Day at the National Museum of the American Indian, Cultural Resources Center, October 25, 2003. Visitors tour the center and view the collection storage area for baskets and other artifacts. The Cultural Resources Center is designed to house the museum's collections in a manner that is sensitive to both tribal and museum requirements for access and preservation. It also serves as a vital resource center for new approaches to the study and presentation of the history and culture of Native peoples. 

Lisa Fthenakis, Program Assistant

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Adventures in Description and Discovery: Who was Miss Mix?

Smithsonian Libraries was digitizing a book to make available online. While reviewing the book’s description (the MARC encoded catalog record) to check for any errors, a question came up about the author. The mystery related to her authorship of the natural sciences text, when everything else by the same author seemed to relate to music. Was it the same Miss Mix?

Image of Jennie Irene Mix from page 343 of Broadcast Radio, volume 7. Source: Internet Archive. 

The book in question was Mighty animals; being short talks about some of the animals which lived on this earth before man appeared. It primarily discusses dinosaurs and uses colorful language, photographs and illustrations to appeal to young readers. The illustrations, as seen below, are dramatic. According to the author’s obituary in Radio Broadcast, the text was also used as a supplementary reader in public and private schools. The Director of the American Museum of Natural History, Dr. Frederic Lucas, wrote the introduction.  He commented:

…It is a very interesting history, “for there were giants in those days of old” and Miss Mix tells us how they swam through the seas, splashed through the marshes, and tramped over the hills of the ancient world. More than this, Miss Mix shows us how they looked, these strange beasts that lived in a time when there was no human being to look at them.

He ended the introduction with a warning to save the few animals we have now, for “there may be no Miss Mix to tell about them” in the future. But who was Miss Mix?

Her writing is easy to find, but her biographical details are not. It required more research that usual to discover Miss Mix’s basic information. I went down a rabbit hole, deciding that Miss Mix was giving me an opportunity. She did not have a name authority record in several of the emerging and existing systems we work with at the Smithsonian. I decided to complete my research and create records in some of the systems.

“How a dinosaur was buried in the rock” [page 31 and page 43] from Might Animals. Source: Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Researching Miss Mix
I began my research with a Google search, and learned that Miss Mix was involved in numerous areas of mass media, including radio in the 1920s. She was a trained classical pianist, worked as a music critic for the Toledo Times and Pittsburgh Post, was an editor of the Radio Broadcast (Magazine), and a radio critic. She also penned a novel, At Fame's Gateway; the Romance of a Pianiste. She has been quoted in some more recent publications, relating to women in journalism and early radio broadcasting. They are clues to a fascinating life. Beyond these professional details, her personal history is surprisingly hard to track down.

For someone so visible professionally, why was there so little personally? No Wikipedia page? It felt like there was a story to reveal. I next learned that she was likely born during the Civil War, worked at the dawn of radio until her death at age 63. In order to confirm basic details like birth and death information, I searched Ancestry Library Edition and found seemingly confusing results: a Jennie Irene Mix born circa 1862, 1872, and 1882. It appears at some point she decided not to age past 40; in the 1910 and 1920 census, she listed her occupations as journalist and music critic but listed “40 years old” as her age, decades apart. Through Find a Grave, an online database of cemetery records, I confirmed birth and death years for her, 1862 – 1925. Additional online searching uncovered she was born in Cleveland, Ohio. One year after becoming editor of the Radio Broadcast (Magazine), she passed away in 1925. It appears she never married.

Cover of Broadcast Radio, volume 7. Source: Internet Archive.

Creating records for Miss Mix
First, I created a Library of Congress Name Authority record for her; each piece of information in the record must be cited. This made it very easy to re-purpose the information to create records for her in other platforms like…

Smithsonian units have been involved in Wikipedia for several years now, hosting Wikipediathons to improve the quality of information in the online source. Miss Mix did not have a page, so I learned how create a stub biographical page.

Though Wikidata has only been around six years, it has been working quickly to develop relationships with institutions like the Smithsonian, to test out and strengthen its data and organization. Institutions are studying its structure as they look at ways to manage collection description as Linked Data. I created a Wikidata record for Miss Mix.

VIAF is a project managed by Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) which aggregates name authority records from institutions around the world, including Library of Congress. VIAF is particularly appealing because it creates a “name cluster” with multiple variations of a name, assigned to an Identifier. Records from institution contributors are ingested weekly, but the process of ingesting and quality control with existing records can take varying amounts of time. Through Miss Mix, I began to understand how long this process could take.

Smithsonian is one of several institutions that are involved in the formation of a new archival name authority called the Social Networks and Archival Context. I edited an existing record for her in SNAC.

According to Miss Mix’s obituary in Radio Broadcast:

A woman of striking personality, Miss Mix had a peculiar talent for transferring her personal charm to her work, which was one reason for her great popularity with the readers of RADIO BROADCAST. It is interesting. To note, also that, in the newspapers, her writings were almost as widely quoted as those of Professor Morecroft in 'the March of Radio.'

I look forward to seeing who else might be intrigued and document more about Miss Mix.

Interested in Learning More? 
Here are some resources:

• Exhibit on Miss Mix’s book (Rare Book School) 
• Women and Radio: Airing Differences, edited by Caroline Mitchell  (Google Books)
• The Music Magazine-musical Courier, Volume 81 (1920) (Google Books)
• Obituary, Radio Broadcast, page 343 (americanradiohistory.com)

Lesley Parilla, Cataloging and Bibliographic Access Librarian

Smithsonian Libraries 

The Spanish Flu

This year marks the 100 year anniversary of the World War I armistice. While many will remember this year as the end of the First World War, many may not realize that this is also the centennial anniversary of something much deadlier than the Great War itself. This killer did not come in the form of a bullet, bomb or chemical weapon, but appeared at first as a simple flu virus. A century later, we can find testimonies from the people who directly witnessed this virus’s destruction.

Leo Baekeland, inventor of the first commercialized plastic, known as Bakelite, personally saw the virus in action. He wrote almost daily about life in 1918 and the end of the war in his diaries, which are part of the Leo H. Baekeland Papers in the Archives Center, National Museum of American History. He also made many entries revealing that some of his close friends were becoming severely sick from what he thought was just only the every-day flu virus. In his diary entry dated October 24th, Baekeland wrote, “Albert sick with influenza.” Baekeland’s November 3rd entry stated, “Albert and children better and out of bed, but now (his) wife is sick with pneumonia,” and by November 10th, Baekeland recorded, “Albert’s wife is dead.” A week after Albert’s wife died, Baekeland wrote that his maid, “Katie is buried this morning.” The severity of this flu virus must have become jarringly evident to Leo when he wrote, “From five who had influenza, two deaths!” But this was no average flu season.

Leo Baekeland’s diary entry explaining that he had lost two friends to the flu. Volume 25, pages 158-159, Baekeland’s personal diaries, Leo Baekeland Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.  Image #AC0005-D25-083.

This epidemic, better known as the Spanish Flu, became a pandemic viral outbreak that struck almost every corner of the world.  While World War I appeared to have brought the world to its knees in human costs, the losses the war brought paled in comparison to the toll the Spanish flu took, especially on the healthiest of the populations.

Most victims of influenza are of the youngest, oldest or most physically vulnerable groups, but this was not the case with the Spanish flu. This type of influenza began as a bird virus and for reasons unknown, mutated into something very different, making the jump from infecting birds to infecting humans. What made this virus so devastating was how it attacked the body. Unlike other viruses, the symptoms of the Spanish flu included nosebleeds, explosive hemorrhaging, air hunger and cyanosis (skin turning blue or black from lack of oxygen). In many cases, people literally suffocated to death. The Spanish flu further differed from other flu viruses in that it turned the autoimmune system into a weapon against the body; the stronger your immune system, the stronger the virus’s attack.  This is why over fifty percent of the deaths were of the healthiest people, ranging from 20 to 40 years old.

Leo Baekeland’s diary entry detailing the need for oxygen tanks for his sick friend’s wife. Volume 25, page 148, Baekeland’s personal diaries, Leo Baekeland Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Image #AC0005-D25-078.

The world being at war also helped vault this flu from an epidemic into a pandemic. It is believed to have started in the United States in the spring of 1918 and it quickly spread throughout the world with U.S. troop movements and deployments. As American military soldiers deployed to the war zones, they brought the virus wherever they went. Six months later, with the end of the war in the fall of that year, American and foreign soldiers returned back to their homelands, taking the virus from the battlefield to the home front. This created a perfect recipe for a pandemic disaster.

The legacy of World War I left a devastating impact, but the Spanish Flu would soon dwarf the war’s casualty count. Approximately 20 million people died as result of World War I, but the Spanish flu claimed fifty to possibly as many as 100 million lives. The continual national and international movement of troops only fueled the impact of the virus’s impact on a pandemic scale like no other flu in modern times. So as we remember the centennial of the end of World War I, we should note this is also the anniversary of one of the worst viral outbreaks of the modern age.

Joe Hursey, Reference Archivist,
Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Pioneering Women Photographers in Africa, 1930s-1970s

We are excited to announce a major project the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, is starting: In support of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, we will be digitizing and describing 14 collections created by women photographers in Africa! All of the women photographers were trailblazers in their respective fields and professions – art, anthropology, architecture, art history, geography, photojournalism, travel – and used photography as a tool for documentation, ethnographic field research, or ‘salvage photography’ to produce fleeting glimpses of what were perceived as rapidly ‘vanishing’ cultures and ways of life. These women exercised different cultural and social sensitivities when it came to photographing indigenous peoples in local and domestic settings.

These photographic collections include field expeditions by Marie Louis Bastin (Angola); Constance Stuart Larrabee (South Africa); Barbara Blackmun (Benin, Nigeria); Jean Borgatti (Northern Nigeria); Christraud Geary (Cameroon, Senegal); Marilyn Heldman (Ethiopia, Nigeria); Marilyn Houlberg (Nigeria, Haiti); Aylette Jenness (Northern Nigeria); Natalie Knight and Suzanne Priebatsch (South Africa) Betty LaDuke (Ethiopia, Eritrea); Lynn McLaren (Kenya, Tanzania); Eva Meyerowitz (Republic of Benin; Ghana); Marvin Breckinridge Patterson (Cape Town to Cairo trip); and Marli Shamir (Djenne and Timbuktu, Mali). Through the cataloging of these collections, we hope to inform the narrative of women’s history, address historical gaps in African photography, and advance dialogues about gender, power relations, and other understudied but crucial topics.

Each month we will feature a different woman from the project. Stay tuned – in November we will explore the life and photographs of Constance Stuart Larrabee!

Constance Stuart Larrabee and friend photographing among Ndebele women, 

near Pretoria, South Africa, 1936

Eden Orelove, Photo Archivist
Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art

Favorite Photograph From Archives Center Collections

Arthur d'Arzien, Celanese Corporation, Bishop, Texas, ca. 1960s. Color transparency.
Arthur d'Arazien Industrial Photographs, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.  AC0314-0000049.

For today’s post, I’ve decided to highlight one of my favorite images among the Archives Center’s photographic collections. This spectacular picture is from the Arthur d’Arazien Industrial Photographs. It’s a dramatic night view of the Celanese Corporation in Bishop, Texas, created in the 1960s at the height of American industrial might. Arthur d’Arazien (1914-2004) documented industry for advertising purposes, annual reports, and magazine illustration, and was one of the foremost experts in this specialized field. He was a master of lighting and the coordination of large-scale, complex industrial setups inside and outside factories, steel mills and similar sites. I met him only once, when he donated his photographic archives to the Museum before moving from Connecticut to Florida, but had many telephone conversations with him, and he was a delightful raconteur. He asked me to contribute an introduction to his autobiography, The Big Picture (Kent State University Press, 2002), which was an honor, and I regret that I was never able to visit him during his Florida retirement.

I’m pleased to be able to honor him in return in this small way. Thanks for the memory, Arthur!


David Haberstich, Curator of Photography
Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Flashback Friday: Behind the Scenes at the National Anthropological Archives

Smithsonian Institution Archives, image number SIA2009-2221. 

Paula Fleming, sitting in the reading room and holding images of American Indians, is an archivist at the National Anthropological Archives in the National Museum of Natural History. On the table are other photos of American Indians, an old view finder for viewing photos, a cart with archival boxes, a dictionary open on a stand, with books on shelves behind her. She retired in 2003 after thirty three years of service.


Lisa Fthenakis, Program Assistant

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Chief George Nelson across the NMAI Archive

Rappahannock Chief George L. Nelson posed outdoors at the annual Nanticoke Festival in Millsboro Delaware, wearing NMAI catalog number 265403. Photograph by Frank Speck, circa 1920. Frank Gouldsmith Speck photographs, N12648. National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Sometime around the year 1920, Rappahannock Chief George Nelson posed for a portrait shot by anthropologist Frank Speck. Chief Nelson, dressed in an elaborately beaded outfit worn for special occasions, had been attending an annual Nanticoke Thanksgiving celebration held in Millsboro, Delaware. He, along with a group of Rappahannock councilmen and tribal members, had traveled up from Indian Neck, Virginia, home of the Rappahannock, to celebrate with the Nanticoke community, a tradition that continued for many years.

Three Rappahannock men in elaborate attire attending a Nanticoke annual festival in Millsboro, Delaware. From L: Rappahannock Councilor Robert H. Clarke, unidentified man, Rappahannock Chief George L. Nelson, wearing NMAI catalog number 265403.000. Photograph by Frank Speck, circa 1920. Frank Gouldsmith Speck photographs, N12654. National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Frank Speck, the photographer on this particular occasion, was an ethnographer and anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania who frequently worked on behalf of the Museum of the American Indian (MAI), Heye Foundation (NMAI’s predecessor institution). Speck became known for collecting ethnographic materials and documenting life among native communities across the Eastern United States and Canada. Over his years of conducting fieldwork for the MAI, Speck donated over 1400 negatives to the museum documenting his work with over 40 native communities, which now make up the Frank Gouldsmith Speck photographs collection. Speck spent time in Virginia between 1915 and 1924, eventually publishing "Chapters on the Ethnology of the Powhatan Tribes of Virginia" (1928) and “The Rappahannock of Virginia” (1925) in the MAI’s publication Indian Notes and Monographs. Speck also frequently visited the Nanticoke and other communities in Delaware due to their proximity to Philadelphia.

Drummers and singers in dance attire at Thanksgiving dance taking place in a clearing in the woods, with audience looking on. Possibly a group of Rappahannocks visiting from Virginia for an early Nanticoke powwow in Millsboro, Delaware. Photograph by Frederick Johnson, 1927. Frederick Johnson photograph collection, N14758. National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution. 

Frederick Johnson, a student of Speck’s at the University of Pennsylvania, accompanied Speck on several trips to Millsboro, Delaware and went on to shoot photographs in a similar portrait style to his teacher.  One such portrait by Johnson from 1927 features Rappahannock Councilman James Johnson in the very same outfit worn by Chief Nelson in the earlier photograph by Speck. For many years, Councilman James Johnson was mislabeled as “George Nelson”, most likely due to his wearing that particular outfit.

Outdoor portrait of Rappahannock Councilman James Johnson in an elaborately beaded or embroidered fringed cloth jacket, upright feather headdress, standing with other participants in front of a wooden clapboarded house. Possibly taken during an early Nanticoke powwow in Millsboro, Delaware. Chief Nelson's outfit is NMAI object 265403, and belonged to Chief George Nelson. Photoraph by Frederick Johnson, 1927. Frederick Johnson photograph collection, N14756. National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

 It was around the time that the Speck portrait of Chief Nelson was shot that Nelson had begun his work to incorporate his tribe under the state laws of Virginia, founding the Rappahannock Indian Association in 1921 and reorganizing the Powhatan Confederacy of Virginia. Chief Nelson also became involved in unsuccessfully opposing the Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924. The Act reclassified all Virginia Indians as “colored” making it nearly impossible for Virginia tribes to become federally recognized which requires documented historical continuity. The Rappahannock, along with the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Monacan and Nansemond were finally federally recognized in January, 2018, almost 100 years after Chief George Nelson began his work in Indian Neck.

Virginia Indians Powhatan Confederacy: First Convention Speech, circa 1922. George L. Nelson Papers, Box 1, Folder 10.  National Museum of the American Indian Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Chief Nelson’s daughter Waneta Swain Ackerman (born Waneta Pocahontas Nelson) bequeathed the very same outfit worn in the Chief Nelson portrait to the National Museum of the American Indian. Along with the outfit, Swain’s Estate also donated notes, correspondence and other documents related to Nelson’s work as the Chief of the Rappahannock in the 1920’s. These documents now make up the George L. Nelson papers and can be found digitized in their entirety on the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archive along with the Frederick Johnson photograph collection and the Frank Gouldsmith Speck photograph collection.

Rachel Menyuk, Processing Archivist
National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center

A Day in the Life of Secretary Joseph Henry

During our blog-a-thon for American Archives Month, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts that give readers a peek into the many archives at the Smithsonian and a few of the things you can find inside them. This post was originally posted on July 11, 2013. 

Have you ever wondered what life was like in 1853? By looking through the letters of the Smithsonian’s first Secretary, Joseph Henry, you will soon find out that politics, business, and the stifling heat are not just headlines that fill today’s news.

Letter from Henry to Bache, page one, July 11, 1853
Smithsonian Institution Archives, SIA2012-2670

This letter, like much of Henry’s correspondence, sheds light on life in the early days of the Smithsonian and the nation’s capital. Written by Henry on July 11, 1853, to his close friend Alexander Bache, a leading American scientist of the time, the letter describes the events of his life and seeks advice from Bache. Across Smithsonian collections, letters like this not only give us factual information, but also aid us in painting a more detailed picture of the people who wrote them. As researchers, this detail allows us to understand why people make certain decisions and highlights the complexities of people’s personalities.

Joseph Henry, c. 1865, Smithsonian Institution Archives, SIA2012-7654

For example, Henry could be viewed as both gruff and amiable in just a few pages. On the one hand, he writes that the then Assistant Secretary, Spencer Baird, needed “a few hard knocks . . . [to] keep him in the proper course.” Yet, throughout the letter Henry gives others compliments and asks about Bache’s family. Personal nuances such as these, found in the documents give us a window to see beyond these individuals as a mere series of facts, but as true people whose personal make-up we can begin to understand.

Though sometimes the handwriting is difficult to read, these letters are worth the eye strain. The stories and commonalities with our lives today that are pulled out of these documents really do make the past come alive. Whether you agree or disagree with everything written in the letters is part of the fun in trying to understand the past...however, I think we can all agree that DC is a hot place to live in the summer.

Courtney Bellizzi
Smithsonian Institution Archives

Flashback Friday: Behind the Scenes at Smithsonian Libraries

Smithsonian Institution Archives, image number MAH-3666. 

The library in the United States National Museum Building, now known as the Arts & Industries Building, was located in the Northwest Pavilion. This space was later know as the Jewett Room after Charles Coffin Jewett, the Smithsonian's first librarian. Later, this room housed the rare book collection. John Murdoch, Librarian of the Smithsonian Institution, sits at a desk. Murdoch was formerly the Assistant Librarian of the National Museum Library and succeeded Miss Jane A. Turner as Librarian on April 1, 1887.

Lisa Fthenakis, Program Assistant

Smithsonian Institution Archives

Archival Collections around the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Institution is made up of 19 museums, research centers, and the National Zoo. Within each of those museums are multiple departments and units, each overseeing research, collections management, visitor experience, and more. So, while most people see us as one large institution, the reality is that “The Smithsonian” is a rather complex system of different units, staff, and collections, all working together while also fulfilling their individual goals.

Smithsonian Castle, 1885-1910, 2010.0080.02, photographed by Walter J. Hussey, National Museum of American History

One example of this complex web of units, is the large system of archives that exist within the Smithsonian. Currently, our institution is home to 16 different archival repositories, with different missions, collecting policies, and holdings. Their collections document history, culture, science, music (and more!) from every continent on earth. In total, these impressively diverse and valuable collections measure over 156,000 cubic feet!

Capital Gallery Stacks, 2008, Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Archival collections are kept because they provide documentary evidence of past events, created by those who lived it. These can also be referred to as primary sources; different from secondary sources—such as mass publications—in that archival materials are considered “rare”. They provide first-hand information or data from participants and witnesses in history. Because of the rarity of archival collections, these materials are non-circulating, meaning you can’t take them home with you.

Researchers interested in seeing archival materials must go to a research room and work with staff to request the item they’d like to see. This isn’t meant to dissuade visits, but simply serves to protect these fragile collections. Alternatively, many libraries’ holdings can be borrowed by patrons, since they often contain secondary sources that are mass-produced. (Libraries can also hold special collections of rare books or other historic, unique materials—but we’ll cover that at another time.)

Community researchers from the Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana work to match archival records with collections objects in the NMAI Archives Center in October 2017. Left to right: Boyo Billiot, Nathan Sowry, Chantel Comardelle.
Photo: Judith Andrews

Why are there so many Smithsonian archives, what are they, and what do they all hold? The different archival repositories around the Smithsonian were founded at various times throughout the Institution’s history in order to gain physical and intellectual control over different aspects of our work. Because of this, each archive preserves and facilitates access to historical records related to their unit’s mission and history. Together we hold the comprehensive picture of the Smithsonian’s continuing research and mission. These archival materials may be photographs, negatives, correspondence, artwork, diaries, manuscripts, field books, professional and personal papers, and audio-visual materials, but all are permanently valuable records of people, activities, government, or organizations.

Breath of Life Community Research Visit, National Anthropological Archives, 2017.

Most archives at the Smithsonian are part of a larger museum or department, and hold materials that document that unit’s work. These various archival repositories—along with their missions and a summary of their collections—are:

Air and Space Museum Archives
The National Air and Space Museum Archives collects materials documenting the history of air and space flight. Their archival collection contains approximately 12,000 cubic feet of material, including an estimated 2 million photographs, 700,000 feet of motion picture film, and 2 million technical drawings.

Anacostia Community Museum Archives 
The Anacostia Community Museum Archives collects, preserves, and makes available materials supporting the object-based collection and the research and educational activities of the museum, as well as the museum's mission. Collections include personal papers, exhibition records, over 50,000 photograph collections, and more than 200 volumes of books dating from the nineteenth century to the present.

Archives Center, National Museum of American History
The Archives Center supports the National Museum of American History by collecting, preserving, and providing access to archival documents that complement the museum's exhibition, research, and collecting programs. The Archives Center holds more than 1,400 collections documenting the history of technology, invention and innovation, business and consumer culture, American music, and popular culture as well as many other topics.

Archives of American Gardens
The Archives of American Gardens, part of Smithsonian Gardens, collects, preserves, and provides access to photographic images and records documenting the evolution of gardens and landscapes throughout the United States. As of 2017, its holdings include over 100,000 images and supplemental files across over forty collections.

Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives 
The Archives, within the National Museum of African Art, are devoted to the collection, preservation and dissemination of visual materials that encourage and support the study of the arts, cultures and history of Africa. The collections contain approximately 450,000 items, including rare collections of glass plate negatives, lantern slides, stereographs, postcards, maps and engravings.

Freer Sackler Archives
The Freer Sackler Archives is a manuscript and photograph repository dedicated to furthering the study of Asian and Middle Eastern art and culture, as well as turn-of-the-century American art. It collects, preserves, and makes available documentary materials supporting the holdings and research activities of the Freer and Sackler galleries. The archives holds more than 160 collections—amounting to over one thousand linear feet of materials—dating from the early nineteenth century to the present.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection Archive and Special Collections
Maintained by the Curatorial Department of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, this archive includes research files on the entire permanent collection, emphasizing provenance, exhibition histories, published references, and comparative works. Records of more than 11,500 objects include photographs, official documents, research notes, correspondence, and copies of reference materials assembled by the staff.

Human Studies Film Archives
Within the Department of Anthropology, the National Museum of Natural History (and a sister unit of the National Anthropological Archives), the HSFA is devoted to preserving, documenting, and providing access to anthropological moving image materials. Collections comprise more than eight million feet of film (3,000 hours) and one thousand hours of video recordings. These visual research resources, along with related documentary materials, encompass a broad range of genres that span most of the 20th century.

Nam June Paik Archive
The Nam June Paik Archive, within the Smithsonian American Art Museum, includes written and object materials created by artist Nam June Paik. Among the most influential and prolific video artists, Paik had a profound impact on late twentieth century art through his transformation of the electronic moving image into an artist’s medium. The collection includes early writings from Paik, along with postcards, telegrams, faxes, programs for exhibitions, performances, and festivals, and various objects related to the early history of television and radio.

National Anthropological Archives
Within the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History (and a sister unit of the Human Studies Film Archive), the NAA collects and preserves historical and contemporary anthropological materials that document the world’s cultures and the history of anthropology. The collections include a wide variety of manuscript materials, photographs, maps, artwork, and sound recordings created by Smithsonian and non-Smithsonian anthropologists, Native peoples, scholars, and researchers. The NAA holds one of the world’s largest and richest archival collections related to North American archeology and ethnography, indigenous artwork, and historical photographs.

National Museum of African American History and Culture Library and Archives 
The National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC) Library and Archives are devoted to collecting and providing access to resources that support scholarship in African American history, culture, and the African Diaspora. As the newest addition to the family of Smithsonian museums, NMAAHC is still currently building its archival and library collections.

Archive Center, National Museum of American Indian 
The Archive Center at the National Museum of the American Indian actively acquires and serves as a repository for the records of contemporary Native American artists, writers, activists, and organizations. In addition, the Archive Center holds the records of the NMAI’s predecessor institution, the Museum of the American Indian (MAI), Heye Foundation. The Archive Center supports the mission of the museum by collecting, organizing, preserving, and making available papers, records, photographs, recordings, and ephemera that reflect the historical and contemporary lives of Native peoples throughout the Western Hemisphere. Collections include 1,500 linear feet of manuscripts and thousands of photographic objects.

Photograph Archives, American Art Museum
Maintained as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Photograph Archives contain nearly a half million negatives, photographs, and slides, that document American art from the colonial period to the present.

Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
Part of the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the Folklife Archives- named for the founding director of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival – includes collections covering world ethnic performance traditions, spoken word recordings, sounds of science and nature, occupational folklore, and family folklore. The collections are strong in American, and more specifically Euro-American, African-American, Caribbean, and Native American musical and performance traditions.

Two of the Smithsonian’s archival repositories—the Smithsonian Institution Archives and the Archives of American Art—are independent collecting units, meaning they are not a part of a Smithsonian museum, or department.

Smithsonian Institution Archives
The Smithsonian Institution Archives captures, preserves, and shares with the public the history of this extraordinary Institution through collection and documentation of the Smithsonian’s official records. Its collections include administrative and exhibition records, personal and professional papers of Smithsonian staff and collaborators, scientific expedition field books, correspondence, diaries, and much more. Because of SIA’s mission to collect institutional records, many of their holdings overlap with, or relate to, other archival repositories listed above.

Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the world’s preeminent and most widely used research center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America. Founded in Detroit in 1954 to serve as microfilm repository; this mission expanded quickly to collecting and preserving original material. In 1970, the AAA joined the Smithsonian. Their collections consist of more than 20 million letters, diaries, scrapbooks, manuscripts, financial records, photographs, films, and audiovisual recordings of artists, dealers, collectors, critics, scholars, museums, galleries, associations, and other art world figures.

Want to dive deeper and learn more about the collections within each archive at the Smithsonian? Click on any of the linked repository names above, or explore digitized and catalogued archival items online through the Smithsonian’s database for ALL of our collections -- Collections Search Center. You can browse by individual archival repository by choosing a unit name from the “catalog record source” tab.

You can also directly help us make many of these archival collections more accessible, by transcribing and reviewing digitized materials in the Smithsonian Transcription Center! There are currently ongoing projects from the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution Archives, National Air and Space Museum Archives, and more! Reach out anytime to transcribe@si.edu with questions.


Caitlin Haynes, Coordinator
Smithsonian Transcription Center

Princess Atalie Unkalunt, Cherokee Prima Donna

Atalie Unkalunt [Iva J. Rider], Princess Atalie Unkalunt Collection, NMAI.AC.117, P23888

The National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center holds various collections of notable Native American individuals. One such individual is Princess Atalie Unkalunt, nee Iva J. Rider, (1895 – 1954), a Cherokee opera singer, actress, artist, author, and community activist. Also known as Sunshine Rider, Atalie was born in Stilwell, Oklahoma, to Thomas L. Rider [Domgeske Unkalunt], a state senator and chairman of Indian affairs, and Josephine Pace Rider. As a child attending Indian schools, Atalie saw the need for a cultural missionary to educate the world about Native people and their place in history. She developed a gift for song at a young age and after finishing her high school studies moved to California with her sister where she gained experience in film. After a year on the west coast, she moved to Boston to begin vocal studies. She quickly progressed as a musician but after the U.S. entered World War I, Atalie wanted to do her part for the war effort.

 

Atalie Unkalunt [Iva J. Rider], postcard photo in Y.M.C.A uniform, circa 1918.
Princess Atalie Unkalunt Collection, NMAI.AC.117, P23895

She joined the Business Women’s Unit of the Y.M.C.A. secretly advancing her age several years in order to meet the age requirements. She served 18 months overseas working as an entertainer and secretary all while battling a long illness with pneumonia. Upon her return to the United States, she settled in New York City to continue her vocal studies and quickly became an acclaimed opera singer. She sang at concert venues around the country and performed at the White House. Her drive to share her culture with others led her to attempt to compose a Native American opera with the help of her friend and famous composer Victor Herbert. Unfortunately, Herbert died in 1924 before the libretto was completed.

 

Princess Atalie Unkalunt, soprano, shaking hands with Charles Curtis (Kaw),
Vice President for Herbert Hoover.
Princess Atalie Unkalunt Collection, NMAI.AC.117, P23868.

Atalie’s desire to be a cultural missionary never wavered and she became a lecturer for the New York Board of Education where she spoke to audiences about Native American customs and song. During a three-year program she visited over 350 public schools. She used radio to broadcast her message to a European audience. Her radio program consisted of singing both classical arias as well as Cherokee songs. She later founded the Society of the First Sons and Daughters of America Foundation whose mission was to recognize and promote the contributions of Native people and give them opportunities to promote their talents in the arts.
 

Princess Atalie Unkalunt, soprano, wearing beaded headband and Pendleton jacket,
holding drumstick over drum surrounded by children.
 Princess Atalie Unkalunt Collection, NMAI.AC.117, P23867

In addition to her vocal talents, she was a skilled painter and designer and in 1942, she wrote and illustrated the book “The Earth Speaks”, a collection of tales adapted from Cherokee legends.
 

Atalie Unkalunt [Iva J. Rider], 1928. Princess Atalie Unkalunt Collection, NMAI.AC.117, P23874

In the late 1940s, Atalie moved to Washington D.C. where she spent the remainder of her life digging through government archival records in order to research claims due the Cherokee Indians from the United States government.

The NMAI Archive Center has a collection of photographs and postcards from Atalie Unkalunt related to her life and singing career.

 

Maria Galban is a research specialist on the Collections Research and Documentation staff at the National Museum of the American Indian.